Any time a Paul Thomas Anderson movie is on the horizon, people get excited. He’s a filmmaker who only makes a movie every couple of years and they’re always high on the critics’ best-of lists, but lately his movies’ soundtracks and scores have also received high praise. Since his Oscar-winning 2007 film There Will Be Blood, Anderson has worked with composer Jonny Greenwood, most famous as the guitarist, keyboardist, and principle electronic-plug-plugger for rock band Radiohead. Greenwood’s scores for both Blood and The Master have been hailed, though neither were nominated for Oscars (a shame!).
Greenwood is working with Anderson again on the director’s newest film, Inherent Vice, a comedic detective story taken from the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name. The soundtrack will be released on December 15, but the tracklist has already been released and, no surprise, Greenwood is everywhere on it, including a reworking of an obscure Radiohead B-side called “Spooks” which the composer re-recorded with members of alt rock group Supergrass. Can, Neil Young, The Marketts, Minnie Riperton, Kyu Sakamoto, Lex Baxter, and Chuck Jackson also feature. Here’s the complete listing.
01 Jonny Greenwood â âShastaâ
02 Can â âVitamin Câ
03 Jonny Greenwood â âMeeting Crocker Fenwayâ
04 The Marketts â âHere Comes the Ho-Dadsâ
05 Jonny Greenwood â âSpooksâ
06 Jonny Greenwood â âShasta Fayâ
07 Minnie Riperton â âLes Fleurâ
08 Jonny Greenwood â âThe Chryskylodon Instituteâ
09 Kyu Sakamoto â âSukiyakiâ
10 Jonny Greenwood â âAdrian Prussiaâ
11 Neil Young â âJourney Through the Pastâ
12 Les Baxter â âSimbaâ
13 Jonny Greenwood â âUnder the Paving-Stones, the Beach!â
14 Jonny Greenwood â âThe Golden Fangâ
15 Jonny Greenwood â âAmethystâ
16 Jonny Greenwood â âShasta Fay Hepworthâ
17 Chuck Jackson â âAny Day Nowâ
If you’re interested in that Radiohead song (which Greenwood isn’t really calling a Radiohead song), below is them debuting it live in Copenhagen back in 2006.
Inherent Vice will be in theaters December 12th and the soundtrack will be available for your listening pleasure December 15th.
That album art, though…
Holy shit! I’m SO all over this movie! It’s got 4 things I hold very dear:
1-Jonny Greenwood’s music talent
2-Thomas Pynchon’s most fun novel (I’m somewhat of a literature geek. I like most of Thomas Pynchon’s work, even “Vineland”)
3-P.T. Anderson, one of my favorite directors. Has a talent for dementedly intense characters and stories.
4- Noir. This particular story reeks of Film-Noir-style detective drama with a splash of psychotic, drug induced ‘Dr. Gonzo’ paranoia and observations.
This is going to be good. 2014 was a good year for movies so far.