Paul Thomas Anderson’s doped-up, stoner mystery noir “Inherent Vice” premiered this weekend at the New York Film Festival (our review). It lead to elation, confusion and more, because it’s a sprawling film with a crazy narrative, but it’s also beautiful, moving and has lots on its mind. While reaction was mixed—critics seemed to love it, but some audiences were confused—perhaps one thing that everyone can agree on is the soundtrack: it’s pretty groovy, dude.
The film is, of course, scored by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and that means more than the eerie, unsettling soundscapes he’s composed for “The Master” and “There Will Be Blood” this time around. With “Inherent Vice” being set in 1970, the score features jazzy freakbeat, surfer rock, golden summery folk, paranoid electronic music and classical mystery orchestration that seems lifted right out of 1940s and ‘50s films. It’s easily Greenwood’s most accessible film work to date.
On top of that, as we noted in our review, the soundtrack features Neil Young quite prominently (the title track from his seminal 1971 album Harvest, one cut from the soundtrack to the Young-directed 1972 film "Journey Through The Past"), German jazz-motorik band Can and soul from folks like Sam Cooke and Minnie Ripperton. The movie also features a new, previously unreleased surf rock-esque instrumental from Radiohead called “Spooks,” that, according to fansite At Ease Web, has been part of the band’s live set since 2006 and sounds like the B52s and Dick Dale. There’s also a new Jonny Greenwood song (evidently different from the score), and easy listening, spacey and age of aquarius pop by The Tornados, The Cascades and more.
“Inherent Vice” opens on December 12th in limited release. No word on a soundtrack release date yet, but presumably it’ll come out on Nonesuch, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. that released the soundtracks for “There Will Be Blood” and “The Master.” In the meantime, listen to all the music in the film below (via Slate and The Film Stage). 11. 15. 14 Update: The official soundtrack details are here. The album, which includes lots of score cues from Johnny Greenwood comes out December 15th.
"Inherent Vice" Soundtrack
1. Dreamin’ On a Cloud – The Tornados
2. Rhythm of the Rain – The Cascades
3. Vitamin C – Can
4. Soup – Can
5. Simba – Les Baxter
6. Spooks – Radiohead
7. Burning Bridges – Jack Scott
8. The Throwaway Age – Bob Irwin
9. Gilligan’s Island Theme – Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle
10. Harvest – Neil Young
11. Here Comes the Ho-Dads – The Markettts
12. Electricity – Cliff Adams
13. Never My Love – The Association
14. Les Fleur – Minnie Riperton
15. Journey Through the Past – Neil Young
16. Sukiyaki – KYU Sakamoto
17. Adam-12 (Themes and Cues) – Frank Comstock
18. (What A) Wonderful World – Sam Cooke
19. Amethyst – Jonny Greenwood
20. Any Day Now – Chuck Jackson
1. Dreamin’ On a Cloud – The Tornados
2. Rhythm of the Rain – The Cascades
3. Vitamin C – Can
4. Soup – Can
5. Simba – Les Baxter
6. Spooks – Radiohead
7. Burning Bridges – Jack Scott
8. The Throwaway Age – Bob Irwin
9. Gilligan’s Island – Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle
10. Harvest – Neil Young
11. Here Comes the Ho-Dads – The Markettts
12. Electricity – Cliff Adams
13. Never My Love – The Association
14. Les Fleur – Minnie Riperton
15. Journey Through the Past – Neil Young
16. Sukiyaki – KYU Sakamoto
17. Adam-12 (Themes and Cues) – Frank Comstock
18. (What A) Wonderful World – Sam Cooke
19. Amethyst – Jonny Greenwood
We’ll post as soon as it’s available
20. Any Day Now – Chuck Jackson
