A good choices of nominations.
The pundits say Skyfall by Adele will be the winner although there was bad press that she had "sample" Monty Norman's James Bond Theme in her song. I believe this is only the 4th Bond film to get a song nomination!! (Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only & Nobody Does It Better) There were a lot better Bond theme songs that were never nominated.
There are three ballad type songs Before My Time, Suddenly & Pi's Lullabye. "Suddenly" is one of those stage to screen transfers where an original song is written just to get an Oscar nomination. Sometimes it work like in Evita and others are put over the credits (Chicago and The Phantom of the Opera) and others are written by other writers other than original composers to give the stars of the film new songs (Dreamgirls).
Suddenly in my opinion is my least favorite of the nominations this year. The lyrics are bland and a far from memorable tune.
Pi's Lullabye is very pretty. Good music, but I wish I understood the lyrics as they are sung in Tamil.
Before My Time sets out what it was meant to do. A commentary on what the documentary was all about much in the same way "I Need To Wake Up" from "An Inconvient Truth", but this is a little more depressing and needed to be a little for upbeat in my opinion to succeed.
Finally Everyone Needs A Best Friend. One of those also ran nomination, but better than the higher profile song from Les Miserables. The song is upbeat swinging theme song that was often heard in the 50's, 60's, 70's when song nominations started to move away from musicals. Nora Jones sings the song well, but they should have a male voice do it. Perhaps some like Harry Conick Jr. or even Seth McFarland do it.
So what would I have voted for if I was able to?
Pi's Lullabye
