Yes, the soundtrack to Spike Jonze’s”Where The Wild Things Are” featured Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with all her indie-rock pals, but you know what was just as good — arguably better and did the heavy lifting for all the emotionally affecting scenes in the movie — Carter Burwell’s imaginative and magical score.
Until now we haven’t been able to hear any of it outside the movie (ok, the soundtrack disc has one song). But over at Warner Bros. For Your Consideration site you can hear the entire film’s score (which WB incorrectly credits to Karen O & The Kids, but this is clearly Burwell’s material and we’ve confirmed that with a source close to Jonze). There are some wonderful compositions no one’s really heard outside the context of the picture and they super gorgeous, deeply melancholy, playful, evocative and still hold up.
“Follow The Fires,” when Max first lands on the island and finds the ‘Wild Things’ is particularly beautiful — and features the excellent guitar work of Marc Ribot, who played on the score — there’s also very uptempo songs (“Max Joins“) that sound very in step with Karen O and the Kids youthful, energetic and celebratory uptempo vibe. “There Is Your World” is very pretty and lugubrious as well (and note things like “Dirt Clod Fight” do include Karen O’s voice and she is credited on Burwell’s disc). And of course there’s “We Love You So” which is basically make us cry as we speak, the final song in the film played as Max leaves the island and Carroll sadly chases after him to no avail. The words, “Don’t go, I’ll eat you up, I love you so,” still make us choke up every time we hear them.
Thanks to our pal @thewildthings who tweeted this this weekend. WB are basically asking Oscar voters to take most of the film’s categories into Academy consideration which is not an outrageous thing to ask. All categories in the picture are worthy, but we really hope the score does get some shine. Note the script will soon be posted on that site as well.
Also we’re apparently retarded. This score has been available on ITunes since October 13. Who knew! Obviously us., but it is the first time you’ve been able to hear and stream the full album online. Ah well, guess what we’re buying on the credit card right now.