For me, a big part of a film's entertainment factor comes from its score or soundtrack. Weave a half decent score through your movie, or throw in a few licensed tracks that compliment the action and you can bet your ass I'm heading straight to iTunes as soon as I get home from the theatre.
2014 has been no different, with a whole host of toe-tapping tracks pricking up my ears across the year - from Tegan and Sara's inescapable earworm 'Everything is Awesome' to Keira Knightley's wonderful vocals in John Carney's Begin Again soundtrack, there has been so much to jam along to over the last 12 months.
For me, the best soundtrack compilation of the year has got to be Guardians of the Galaxy - from August onwards, Awesome Mix Vol. 1 has pretty much been on an endless loop in my car. Another standout was Hans Zimmer's superb Interstellar soundtrack, as was Alexandre Desplat's compositions from The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
I also really liked the meta-humour in The Muppets track, 'We're Doing A Sequel' - not many films would open with a musical number decrying it to be not as good as the previous movie, but they went there. Beware - it's super catchy.
I've thrown in a couple of TV tunes too - it's kind of cheating, but you know what? That doesn't matter, that's how awesome those tracks are. Fans of True Detective and Fargo rejoice!
As I've done in the past, I've put together a quick Spotify playlist to encapsulate the year, cherrypicking my favourite tracks from the soundtracks from X-Men, Walter Mitty, Godzilla and more. Check out the full playlist in the Spotify player below:
