Let's face it: 2010 was a lousy year at the movies. Aside from a few gems, Hollywood seemingly left creative storytelling and original ideas at the door for lots of stupid in glorious 3-D. New film music didn't fare much better, which made it especially hard to do our annual year end best-of episode. So we cheated.

Jade is one of those James Horner releases that I suspect will be prized more for its collectibility than its musical content. I’ve often marveled at those who would spend hundreds of dollars on eBay for the out-of-print Vibes CD when one of his many in-print albums would be a lot more interesting. Those will probably be the same sort of completists that will seek out this album.

When it was announced that the French electronic duo Daft Punk would be scoring the hotly anticipated sequel to Tron, the elephant in the room was whether this was “stunt casting” on the part of the producers or a legitimate attempt to infuse something unique into the film’s soundtrack. One could argue that Disney made a similarly unusual choice in Wendy Carlos, the composer of the original film. While it’s true she was a Hollywood outsider, she did have a proven track record of fusing electronic music with a classical orchestra. Daft Punk on the other hand were primarily known for their infectious, sometimes maddeningly repetitious dance music and their eccentric stage shows.

Modern variations of the vampire myth, such as Twilight and True Blood, have reduced the creature from a figure of dread and horror to a near comic anti-superhero with fangs. Little of the best cinematic depictions by Max Schreck or Bela Lugosi remain.