It’s time for another top five countdown! This week, we’re looking at five of our favourite feature films which feature a score and a soundtrack by a mainstream artist. It seems to be all the rage these days, and as we go through the list, I think you’ll start to figure out why… brilliant albums in their own right, it can often bring a film to a new level. Even bringing some artists an Academy Award…
First up, we thought we should mention a film which hasn’t been released in Australia yet – Hanna – though its Chemical Brothers soundtrack has indeed made the rounds. Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett (Australia represent!). The film will premiere in Australia as part of the Sydney Film Festival, before hitting national cinemas on September 1st. From what we’ve heard of the soundtrack, it’s going to be killer. But unfortunately, having not been released in Australian cinemas yet, it just misses the cut! Stay tuned on that front…
Honorable mentions go to Phoenix‘s soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, Broken Social Scene‘s contribution to Half Nelson, Massive Attack‘s effort for Danny The Dog aka Unleashed and just about everything that Jon Brion, Vangelis and Philip Glass have ever done.
Once might say – but this should be at Number One! It is the film, after all, that set the precedent for all films like it to come. Before there were music videos, The Beatles did something fairly unprecedented at the time: working with director Richard Lester and screenwriter Alun Owen, the band – at the height of ‘Beatlemania’ – created an on screen musical for their music. It continually ranks as one of the best films of all time, and is regarded (much like their music) to be a game changer for the industry at large.
So why isn’t this number one? Well, if A Hard Day’s Night was the first, then it’s only natural that the evolution of the ‘artist soundtrack’ will have been taken to another level entirely. So let’s continue this journey…
When looking at the ‘next generation’ of artists who made soundtracks for films in which they themselves starred, one would immediately turn their mind to The Wall by Pink Floyd. However, this was a film which adapted the original album – kind of like the American Idiot Broadway production. I apologise for Pink Floyd for such a comparison. As we move towards the present day, it was a unanimous decision that Prince and The Revolution‘s Purple Rain make the cut.
What makes this soundtrack so important isn’t the fact that the film was any good (let’s face it, it’s not the best…), but the fact that as an album, it remains one of the best and most iconic of all time – arguably the best of Prince’s career. There is no doubt that this was Prince having his Beatles moment: at the height of his success, starring in a motion picture and recording the soundtrack to it. A testament to its place on our list, in addition to some Grammy Awards, the soundtrack won “Best Original Song Score” – the last time this award was given out at the Academy Awards.
Another Academy Award winning soundtrack was the one for Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, and his soundtrack for the acclaimed The Social Network.
This soundtrack sees us jump quite rapidly into the modern age, where bands aren’t starring in films (Broadway, maybe), but rather creating beautiful soundtracks to the features which already boast some particularly impressive credentials. While films by The Beatles and Prince wouldn’t have been commercially viable without music from the same artists, a film by David Fincher (Fight Club), written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), needs little help from a mainstream musician.
However, as evidenced in his entire body of work (see the video game Quake and Lynch’s Lost Highway, for starters), Trent Reznor, in collaboration with composer Atticus Ross, is simply the perfect fit for scoring a feature film. It’s no surprise, therefore, that he’s already lined up to score the US adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Combine this with the fact that the album produced is damn fine in its own right, and you’ll see why this was a no brainer for our list.
It’s not just international artists who take the cake when it comes to delivering brilliant soundtracks to feature films. In recent memory, there was the AC/DC album for Iron Man 2 – which, let’s face it, doesn’t really count… So it’s Decoder Ring‘s beautiful soundtrack of a wonderfully produced film, Somersault, which is the Australian winner on our countdown.
A brilliant record in its own right, the Somersault soundtrack added to the sparsity of the production, while the voice of Lenka, who is increasing in her own popularity as we speak (well overdue!), added some beautifully ethereal vocals to the landscape. Working closely with a cut of the film, it’s impressive how the Sydney based group adapted their own style of storytelling (which at norm is cinematic and instrumental) into Cate Shortland’s highly acclaimed, minimalistic feature film.
Rounding out our top five is the recent Disney/Daft Punk collaboration in Tron: Legacy, which took the concept to a new level. In addition to being a great standalone album, the music took the visually enthralling film to another level. Without the French duo’s input (who cameo in the film), I daresay Tron: Legacy would have been just another glossy CGI 3D adventure, starring The Dude from The Big Lebowski.
To have, in this writer’s opinion, much of a film’s success rest on the laurels of its music, is a testament to how important music is in film, and how popular artists often have quite a lot to offer – in this case, the ability to take us on a high energy ride through a French electro infused ‘Grid’. Bring it on!
Additional contribution for this article by Alex Watts.
