What’s that? 2007 ended three weeks ago? Yeah, go fuck yourself, we work on our own timetable. So anyhooo, there were like, a bunch of movies released this year and a few of them even had music in them. You may have noticed it’s our raison d’être (other than calling BS on things). We spent a lot of time this year discussing, debating and obsessing over certain soundtracks this year. It would be pretty easy to say we picked a good year to start a blog about music in movies.
The criteria here isn’t cut and dry. Great songs in a mediocre movie or used wantonly within a film don’t play (see 2006’s “Running With Scissors” for example). Some films have amazing music, but without the cinematic context, fall a little flat. But yeah, blah, blah, we digress. Without further ado, The Playlist’s picks for the Best Soundtracks of 2007 (in no particular order – or at least, not really). PS, most of these title links will reveal more music therein.
Margot At The Wedding – Various Artists
What can we say? We love soundtracks that tastefully curate, dusty and mostly-forgotten gems. Noah Baumbach is the new Wes Anderson in that regard and ‘Margot’s soundtrack was probably our overall favorite of the year if you had to put a gun to our head and make us choose. Baumbach has a proclivity for obscure post-Dylan-esque folkie tracks and ‘Margot’ finds some of those in Jorma Kaukonen (guitarist for Jefferson Airplane), Evie Sands, Lesley Duncan and recently excavated country folkie Karen Dalton. Further choice cuts by Donovan, Stephen Bishop, Fleetwood Mac (movie only) and Steve Forbert only help the soundtrack’s achingly tasteful and exquisitely cultivated case.
The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward John Ford – Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
This was probably our favorite score of 2007. Cave and Ellis’ mournful, minimalist funereal was unlike any this year. Utilizing simple repetitive motifs, they concocted the perfect elegiac and ghostly tenor to this slow-moving and gracefully eerie film. It’s like they made a beautiful, but sad, deliberate crawl to one’s deathbed.
There Will Be Blood – Jonny Greenwood
This is probably our favorite music used within any movie this year. Meaning, we’re probably not going to listen to it on it’s own on a regular basis, but judged by how well the music works within the movie? Nothing can touch Greenwood’s unnerving and disconcerting score. This is what music is meant to do within films. It ratchets up the tension, leaves you unsettled in moments where seemingly nothing is happening and adds to the haunting and foreboding conclusion you know this film is looming towards. Absolutely breathtaking. What an inspired choice Paul Thomas Anderson made here.
Strange Weirdos – Music From and Inspired by Knocked Up – Loudon Wainwright III
Judd Apatow loves Loudon Wainwright III. So much so that he’s cast the singer/songwriter in many of his film projects ranging as far back as “Freaks & Geeks” and “Undeclared.” But it wasn’t until this year and “Knocked Up” when he would finally tap the multi-talented musician for his songwriting talents. Mostly instrumental versions of Wainwright’s bittersweet pop songs fueled the pregnancy comedy’s sad/funny moods and the eventual vocal versions ended up on Strange Weirdos. Two key songs were included in full: the wistful “Grey In L.A.” and “Daughter,” – the latter of which – if there was a dry eye in the house when the closing credits came up showing the cast and crew’s kids to Wainwright’s love letter to his daughter, well fuck, we wouldn’t believe you if you told us.
I’m Not There – Various Artists
There was this little film that earlier in 2007 we were slightly preoccupied with; you might have heard about it. In truth, we’d take Bob Dylan originals over Zimmy covers any day of the week, but this soundtrack was an interesting experiment. After months of evaluation, Mark Lanegan’s “Man In The Dark Black Coat” might be the cover that stands up the best. Runner-up? Mason Jenning’s spot-on cover of the the injusticey “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” but Sonic Youth’s cover of the titular track is also a strong example of how wonderfully fragmented the film could be at times. Included as a bonus is one of our favorite Dylan songs in the film which is melancholy in its own wonderful ways.
Grindhouse: “Death Proof” – Various Artists
Say what you will about the jut-jawed, hyperactive motormouth that is Quentin Tarantino and his increasingly mediocre attempts at fetishizing old genres, dude still has mint taste in music and exhuming long-forgotten musical treasures. Sure, lots of them are pinched from old-school films that he covets. Whatever, you never saw them or heard them in the first place, so why bother trying to call him on it? Trust us, we’re the first people to cry foul on this jackass when it’s applicable, but gotta give the guy credit where credit is due. QT’s got an ace up his sleeve when it comes to dusting off hip tracks like this.
The Darjeeling Limited – Various Artists
Much like the film, Wes Anderson’s ‘Darjeeling’ soundtrack was a nice creative left turn and a bit of a disappointment. Not because of the Satyajit Ray score – that was a welcome change of pace (though I swear, the Ray tracks we picked were better), but because where it counted, Anderson stuck with the familiar and it felt…, well… familiar. But you can’t hate on the Kinks’ “Strangers.” As obvious as a band choice that might’ve been for him, the song and its use in the film delivered a devastating heaviness of heart blow. And hey, he did basically rediscover Peter Sarstedt for 90% of the population.
The Hottest State – Various Artists
The premise sounded like a Starbucks ad: Jesse Harris of Norah Jones fame, enlisting indie-rockers to sweeten up (and cred boost?) his already sanguine MOR tunes, right? But the songs perfectly captured the film’s lovelorn mood and by carefully picking adult-contemporary-friendly indie-rockers (Cat Power, Feist, Bright Eyes) the interpretations soared. It’s just a matter if you can hang, and admit to your self that indie AC doesn’t always have to be a scary and knee-jerk hateful thing. The real star however, might be Harris’ lovesick instrumentals which conveyed the all-too-real heartbreak of the story without any words.
About A Son – Various Artists
Yeah, we’re over Kurt Cobain too and never need to hear another Nirvana song for the rest of our lives either; that’s not what this soundtrack was about. The idea here was to make a playlist of the departed grunge singer’s favorites and the seminal pieces of music that influenced him. Perhaps most key is Scratch Acid: a post-punk band with lots of noisy, weird elements, but a strong undercurrent of pop coursing through them – exactly the kind of music that Cobain aspired to make in his early days. One could say he nailed it after just one album and perhaps tipped the scales much to closer to pop on Nevermind (but then reeled back in for the noisy swan-song that was In Utero). The disc also contains worthy cuts by Half Japanese, the Vaselines and a plaintive ambient score by Ben Gibbard and Steve Fisk. Now if only they could have licensed that Queen track (“It’s Late“) for the soundtrack disc.
Walk Hard – Dewey Cox
Enlisting Michael Andrews was an inspired move on the part of the producers. The multi-talented singer-songwriter/composer reigned in top-notch crew of crack songsmiths that chipped away at the task of perfectly mimicking songs for Dewey Cox born from various bygone eras. Of course we loved the schmaltzy take on Bowie’s “Starman,” and the mocking take on mush-mouth Dylan’s nonsense non-sequiturs in “Royal Jelly?” Stunningly rendered in the film’s best scene that had us in stitches. An affectionate diss if there ever was one. Well played, gentleman.
American Gangster – OST and Jay-Z
So it wasn’t exactly a comeback nor was it Hova’s best work. And yeah, the ’70s blaxploitation soul hip-hop had been done before. No matter, Jay still elevated the game – or at least, on a few tracks. The original ‘Gangster’ soundtrack was surprisingly fairly on the mark too with Anthony Hamilton delivering a startling good soul number.
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly – Various Artists
Director Julian Schnabel worked as his own soundtrack supervisor here and he made a lot of commendable decisions, but the one that seemed to strike a chord with everyone was “Don’t Kiss Me Goodbye” by ‘Butterfly’ actress Emmanuelle Seigner’s group Ultra Orange. Charles Trenet’s “La Mer,” was spot-on playfulness in this otherwise incredibly heavy film and Joe Strummer’s inspiring Mescaleros track in the credits was divine.
Juno – Various Artists
And then there was a movie whose soundtrack was so twee and so precious that it genuinely hurt the feelings of many music industry insiders over the age of 25 that were sincerely outraged that it had the gall to discuss heavy bands like the Melvins and the Stooges, only to then deliver fey and gleefully childish songs by the Moldy Peaches, Kimya Dawson and other pansy bands despite the character being a 16-year-old girl. We can’t discuss this one any further or we’ll snap. Suffice to say, it’s a decent collection of songs and they’re never used too overbearingly in this sweet film (that yes, is a little obnoxious at first).
Control – Various Artists
Yes, there isn’t much of an original soundtrack here or even much of a carefully curated list of classic songs. It’s mostly Joy Division material we’ve all heard and know and rightly so, but there are good left field picks like the Dutch prog-band Supersisters, three ok instrumentals from New Order (ruined by dialogue) and any film that can fit Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” in somewhere is fine by us. They’re a little obvious by most standards, but you can’t hate on the Iggy Pop or the excellently chosen Low-era David Bowie ambient track either.
Once – Glenn Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Ok, we didn’t really like this movie too much. It was a little sentimental and saccharine for our tastes. The songs? A little overly-sincere and perhaps too heartfelt (that scene where he’s busking and screaming unself-consciously made us sort of cringe), but there are some decent songs and decent performances in the film so we can’t totally slam it. Not neccesarily our cup of tea, but probably an important music film in the spectrum of 2007, so we’ll include it here.
Honorable Mentions:
The use of Cat Stevens’ “Don’t Be Shy” in the credits of “Sicko,” which becomes a great galvanizing call to arms.
La Vie En Rose
How can you not like lugubrious sonnets of the tragic Edith Piaf?
Zodiac
The choice ’70s cuts by Three Dog Night, The Four Tops, Sly Stone and Donovan were one of the main reasons we stayed awake during this tiresome film [ed. we should probably have some music here, oh well].
Honrorable (Obligatory) Mentions
Eddie Vedders’ Into the Wild
Not a big fan of this soundtrack, Vedder emotes way too hard, but this instrumental number is nice.Download: Eddie Vedder – “Tuolumne”
Southland Tales
Total joke of a film and the soundtrack is incredibly dated ’90s alt-rock, but the end credits when the world blows up (or whatever the fuck actually happens in that stupid film, trust us, it’s not really a spoiler) to Blur’s “Tender” is pretty grand (mostly cause the song is already great).Download: Blur – “Tender”
Brian Reitzell – 30 Days of Night
More fine work from Sofia Coppola’s go-to soundtracks guy branching out on his own with a creepy ambient score.Download: Brian Reitzell – “Daybreak”
Dissapointing:
No “Sunshine” soundtrack? John Murphy’s urgent score was sublime. We’re sad to see there was no soundtrack disc.
Shameful Shit:
Across the Universe
We have nothing other to say other then “painful.” If U2 are smart they won’t touch director Julie Taymor’s “Spiderman” musical with a 1,000 ft pole. Alas, they are not.Download: Rachel Evan Wood – “Blackbird” (from “Across The Universe”)
For the soccer mom contingent, the “August Rush” and “PS I Love You” soundtracks were tied for soundtrack albums of the year that annoyed the living shit out of us (but we appreciate your traffic! :D).