First things first; yes, it’s another post on “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.” If you’re not interested in the film, move along, there’s nothing for you here. We have been writing about the film and its soundtrack a lot recently, but The Playlist is a site that’s always had a special interest in the place where music and movies meet, and, as one commenter astutely pointed out earlier, few films in recent years have made finished movie, score and pop soundtrack as inseparable as Edgar Wright’s new one. Also, if we keep writing about it, Ken Watanabe said he could make our charges go away, and we could go back to America to see our kids’ faces. Or something.
We got a sneak peek of the excellent soundtrack compilation a few weeks back, which features original music written specially for the film by the likes of Broken Social Scene, Beck and Metric, and now we’ve also managed to wrap our ears around the upcoming release of the score for the film, written by Radiohead/Beck/Air producer extraordinaire Nigel Godrich. Below, we’ve gone through the track list to find the key cues, but if you’re short on time, know this: Godrich’s done a sterling job with his first score, a genre-hopping mix influenced by everything from Can to The Legend of Zelda. In some places it sounds like a traditional action movie score, in others it would be more at home on a SNES game, but somehow it feels of a piece. It’s certainly one of the most original scores we’ve heard in some time, and fingers crossed, it’ll complement the movie beautifully (some lucky so-and-sos will get to see it for the first time at Comic-Con tonight), but even out of context, it’s a great listen.
After the jump, a track-by-track look at the score, although we haven’t written about every single one, partly because there’s a certain degree of repetition, and partly because there are 38 of them, and we all have homes to go to. There may be some spoilers, for those who are trying to go in completely fresh.
1. Universal Theme – An 8bit version of the classic Universal theme music. Clearly, this is brilliant.
2. Hillcrest Park – You’ll have heard this in some form in the Osymyso remix ‘Love;’ and it’s as gorgeous here as it sounded there; a lovely, lilting guitar and what sounds like a stylophone, it has a shimmering shoegaze feel to it in places, and is probably the track most reminiscent of Godrich’s work with Air. Featuring Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene
3. Fight! – Like several tracks on the record, this has a Krautrock feel to it, influenced by the likes of Can and Neu! (for those who don’t have reference points before 2005, think early LCD Soundsystem), albeit with some video game FX (which are present throughout the score); it’s propulsive and kick-ass.
4. Slick (Patel’s Song) – Actually written by producer Daniel M. Nakamura, better known as Dan the Automator, who’s worked with the likes of Dr. Octagon and Gorillaz, and performed by actor Satya Bhabha who plays Evil Ex No. 1 Matthew Patel, this is likely to be the most divisive moment of the record, and indeed of the film. A full-on dance number/fight sequence, it’s like the SNES adaptation of a Bollywood number. The production’s pretty great, but it’s let down a little by the lyrics (which do come straight from the book, and are admittedly faithful to your typical Bollywood words), and Bhabha’s rather growly singing voice. It is a grower, though, and might well play like gangbusters in theaters.
5. Love Me Some Walking – Sounding like an underwater piano, this returns to the shoegaze-y feel of “Hillcrest Park,” and is again very dreamy and pretty; it’d fit right at home on the score of a Sofia Coppola movie.
7. Rumble – Our guess is this comes from the fight with Ex No. 2, movie star Lucas Lee, and his stunt doubles, so it makes sense that this sounds somewhere between the score to a DTV action video and a cut scene from Tekken, combining tribal drums, wah-wah guitar and fuzzy, pulsing synths. In a good way.
8. Feel The Wrath – This almost sounds like something from a Blaxploitation movie, with a creeping, minimalist bass — it wasn’t the sort of thing we were expecting from Godrich, but it sounds ace nonetheless.
10. Hello Envy – Properly sexy, and sort of reminiscent of David Holmes’ work, this too has a surprisingly retro feel to it with some lovely chiming chords and harmonies. It’s one of our favorite cues on the score.
12. Second Cup – Another one that might be familiar from an Osymyso remix, this marching drum beat combined with some sterling guitar work is the sole track that brought to mind what Godrich’s probably most famous for; his production for Radiohead.
13. The Vegan – If this is from the scene we think it is, it works brilliantly — another Krautrock-influenced cue, there’s a terrific sense of looming tension (helped by some synths in a heartbeat rhythm, building into breakbeat drums, and then, unexpectedly, the sort of chilled-out Oriental feel you might get at a save point in a video game. And then goes back to the menace again.
14. Bass Battle – (ft. Jason Falkner & Justin Meldal-Johnsen) – Using two of the best session guitarists in the game, this basically does what it says on the tin, but there’s some impressive musicianship going on, and it’s easy to tell which one is Scott, and which is Brandon Routh’s evil ex No. 3, psychic vegan Todd Ingram.
16. Roxy – An 8-bit cover version of one of the songs from “Chicago.” No, not really, it’s actually one of our favorite tracks from the album; a proper club banger, like a condensed DJ set, it kicks off with some sampled dialogue, some pounding bass and videogame bleeps and whistles, reminiscent of the likes of Vitalic or Switch, before taking a turn to the Balearic midway through, and then upping the tempo again. Could easily be a bona-fide club hit, to be honest.
18. Katayanagi Twins vs. Sex Bob-Omb – This one’s a collaboration between Japanese electronic superstar Cornelius and Beck, as Scott’s band get an unwanted live remix from Evil Exs 5 + 6, the Katayanagi Twins. It’s deliberately abrasive, but still sounds pretty great.
19. This Fight Is Over – Another of our favorites, it’s fairly atypical for the score; a very pretty, stripped-down, sad acoustic number, simply a piano and an acoustic guitar.
21. Level 7 – Sounding like a classic kung-fu movie, mixing stabbing strings and DJ scratches.
24. Fast Entrance Into Hell – Another surprise; this one sounds like John Williams’ work on the original “Star Wars” and is one of the more straightforward orchestral tracks on the record.
27. So Alone – Somewhere between Vangelis and the score for a “Final Fantasy” game, this is a desolate, epic piece of work.
29. Death To All Hipsters – “We are Sex Bob-Omb! And we are here to watch Scott Pilgrim kick your teeth in!” Kicked off by our favorite dialogue extract on the CD, this is an 8-bit remix of one of the Beck-contributed tracks, and clearly serves as the soundtrack to a lot of ass-kicking.
32. Blowing Up Right Now – For a second, we thought we’d accidentally switched over to the “Inception” score; this feels very Hans Zimmer, and is another of the more traditionally orchestral tracks.
33. Aftermath – Another one that feels like it could be from the closing credits to a Final Fantasy game (including some harps, of all things!), it’s very dreamy, until the mood darkens midway through.
34. Bye and Stuff – Sweet and almost poppy, we think this might be the “Legend of Zelda” cover that Edgar Wright promised would feature (with backing harmonies from two of Supergrass, no less…). It’s really very lovely indeed, and closes the score off on a highlight.
35./36./37. Osymyso – Love, Ramona, Prepare; three of the remixes that you’ll have seen over the last week or so, these are included as bonus tracks.
38. Dan The Automator – Ninja Ninja Revolution; presumably the score to a video game played by Scott and Knives (you can glimpse it briefly in one of the remixes), this is another bonus track, and good fun it is too.