Even though there are only two songs officially nominated for awards this year at the Oscars, that’s no reason you can’t make a 2012 Oscars mixtape anyway. We compiled some tunes related to and/or inspired by (loosely speaking!) this year’s nominees. Maestro, play them off!

“Man or Muppet” – Jason Segel and Walter the Muppet (Oscar nominee)

Need a reedy-voiced inspirational ballad about maturing into adulthood for your Muppet movie? Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords and Jason Segel are here with a ’70s AM-flavored serenade to self-exploration. Segel can SANG, but we knew that already from “Lady L.” (He can also play basketball, but that’s another story.)

“Real in Rio” – Rio (Oscar nominee)

I now feel like I saw this movie. It was cute!

Non-Nominees:

“The Living Proof” – Mary J. Blige

Need a big-voiced, inspirational ballad for your prestige picture about domestic workers that has suffering etched into every groove? Mary J. Blige has arrived.

“The Show” – Kerris Dorsey (as Casey Beane in Moneyball)

The weirdest moment in Moneyball was this tacked-on ending where Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane takes his daughter to a guitar store and she covers Australian singer-songwriter Lenka’s twee little tune “The Show.” It was like they were just admitting they had no idea how to end the film. I was hoping for Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets to Paradise” cut with a montage of baseball fans at concession stands and in the bleachers.

“Hugo” – Čuki

“Here’s the Slovenian song of famous Danish TV game Hugo.” This has nothing to do with Martin Scorsese’s Hugo whatsoever, but it’s just as entertaining and weird.

“The Artist” – Allen & Lande

I wish the soundtrack to The Artist sounded like this progressive metal dragon-slaying jam. I also wish The Artist were a movie about dragon-slaying. Although “When I have conquered time and space I will live on and you will remember what I’ve done” seems pretty applicable to the plot.

“Tree of Life” – The Human Revolution

“Winner of 2007 Marijuana Music Awards Best Music Video!” (running time 4:21). This dude has the same laconic stoner vibe as Brad Pitt in … basically everything.

“You’ve Been Around” – David Bowie and Gary Oldman

David Bowie let Best Actor nominee Gary Oldman sing lead on the second verse of this song on the Reeves Gabrels version from 1995’s The Sacred Squall of Now. He has a beautiful vibrato, it’s true.

“Los Pesces” – La Sirenita

Best Actor nominee Demián Bichir voiced both Prince Eric and evil pescaphobe Chef Louis in the Spanish dub of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, a.k.a. La Sirenita. I never really noticed before that Prince Eric speaks even less than Ariel does. Maybe he used to be a manatee.

“Ni**as in Paris at Midnight” – Jay-Z & Kanye West

Nobody is as obsessed with wealthy white Europeans as Woody Allen … except for Kanye West. I would gladly watch an Annie Hall remake called Amber Rose.