The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Composer/keyboardist Mychael Danna released a handful of ambient neo-classical albums early in his career, including 1991's Sirens, while embarking on what would become a long, award-winning career in film and TV scoring. His varied, mostly orchestral work in the medium spans animated family films (Disney Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur), award-winning dramas (Moneyball), indie comedies (Little Miss Sunshine), and long-running partnerships with directors Ang Lee and Atom Egoyan. Also an Emmy and Golden Globe winner, Danna won an Academy Award in 2013 for his score to Ang Lee’s Life of Pi.

In 2002, Mark Lanegan was looking to make some changes in how he approached his music – the Screaming Trees had finally collapsed at the end of the '90s, he'd found a new fan base as a frequent guest vocalist with Queens of the Stone Age, and the spare, blues-leaning solo efforts Lanegan cut for Sub Pop were no longer side projects but the first chapters of a new career. As Lanegan was strategizing his next move, he went to Houston, Texas and in five days recorded a dozen songs with a handful of talented local musicians, including guitarist Ian Moore and longtime Willie Nelson sideman Mickey Raphael on harmonica, with Justice Records founder Randall Jamail as producer. While the sessions were meant to be demos for a stack of songs Lanegan had written for Jamail's publishing house, the finished product sounded good enough to be an album, and in 2015 Lanegan finally released the material under the title Houston: Publishing Demos 2002. The jolly irony is that while these are supposed to be demos, in many respects the performances sound more polished and "commercial" than most of Lanegan's early solo efforts, capturing a laid-back but buoyant mood that's informed by country and blues as much as rock, and Lanegan seems comfortable singing with the group, rather than simply laying his vocals over the top.