Two new film soundtracks are getting set to add themselves to the exclusive club of movie soundtracks that are potentially better than the films they’re scoring.
The details of the Jay Z-compiled compilation for Baz Luhrmann’s latest epic, The Great Gatsby, have now been unveiled, while the equally widescreen film score from M83, for Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi flick Oblivion has turned up online.
Firstly, the much delayed but much anticipated music compilation for The Great Gatsby has finally been released ahead of the film hitting cinemas this May, and considering the all-star list of names involved, its set to be as memorable as Luhrmann’s previous musical collections for Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet.
The Australian director enlisted Jay-Z to gather and co-ordinate the impressive list of musicians to perform a series of re-energised covers and originals for the big budget adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel.
“The question for me in approaching Gatsby was how to elicit from our audience the same level of excitement and pop cultural immediacy toward the world that Fitzgerald did for his audience?” Luhrmann said in a statement. “And in our age, the energy of jazz is caught in the energy of hip-hop.”
They might not be strictly hip-hop, but among the list of big name international acts are two Aussie artists, Gotye aka Wally De Backer, and his much-loved single ‘Hearts A Mess’, and ‘Kill And Run’ from Sia. “In our age, the energy of jazz is caught in the energy of hip-hop.” – Baz Luhrmann
The soundtrack also features Ms. Jay-Z: Beyoncé, covering Amy Winehouse classic ‘Back To Black’ with Outkast’s André 3000, in turn Bryan Ferry is covering Queen B herself, with the Roxy Music musician teaming up with British singer Emeli Sandé and an orchestra to tackle ‘Crazy In Love.’
The soundtrack also includes brand new original songs from the Hova himself, Jay Z leading the album with “100$ Bill” (sic), as well as indie darlings The xx with “Together”, Florence and The Machine’s newest lung-bursting track “Over The Love”, and “Young And Beautiful” a brand new track from Lana Del Rey, the neo-chanteuse reportedly working closely with director Baz Luhrmann on the song.
As featured on a previous trailer, there is also Jack White’s dramatic cover of U2’s ‘Love Is Blindness’, originally recorded for Q Magazine‘s tribute compilation to the Irish superstar’s 1991 album Achtung Baby, called AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered.
You can view a new cinematic trailer for The Great Gatsby with a taste of Beyoncé/André 3000’s Amy Winehouse cover, Florence and The Machine’s track, and Lana Del Rey’s latest croon, as well as the tracklisting below.
Meanwhile, as previously reported, Oblivion is a new sci-fi action blockbuster starring Tom Cruise, directed by Joseph Kosinski, featuring an original score from Anthony Gonzales aka M83, who was hand-picked by the director to score the film. “I’m not afraid to do my first soundtrack on a big Hollywood movie, with a big budget and a lot of pressure.” – M83
Kosinksi, who has a track record with French electro artists after managing to get Daft Punk to score Tron: Legacy, says he chose Gonzales for the job because he was obsessively listening to M83 while developing the script. “He (Gonzales) was part of this from the very beginning in my mind, kind of creatively,” the director previously stated.
“About two years ago, when I started putting together a shortlist of people I’d love to talk to for this project, I sat down with [M83] and we talked about it,” he says. “It was very clear he had a passion for film and I knew just from his electronic music that he had the potential to create something epic.”
Now you can see just how epic, as the fine folks at Mashable are streaming the entire sci-fi themed soundtrack online (which you can listen to below).
Just as Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy was essentially a hybrid fo the robot DJs own dance-centric music and an epic film score, the M83-penned Oblivion soundtrack is a mix of Gonzales’ own ambitious electro rock with an atmospheric, orchestral dimension.
“I’m not afraid to do my first soundtrack on a big Hollywood movie, with a big budget and a lot of pressure,” Gonzales said of composing the score. “I like challenges and it excites me more than frightens me.”
Listen to M83’s Oblivion score below:
The Great Gatsby tracklisting:
01 Jay-Z: “100$ Bill”
02 Beyoncé and André 3000: Back to Black”
03 will.i.am: “Bang Bang”
04 Fergie, Q-Tip and GoonRock: “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)”
05 Lana Del Rey: “Young and Beautiful”
06 Bryan Ferry Woth the Bryan Ferry Orchestra: “Love Is the Drug”
07 Florence and the Machine: “Over the Love”
08 Coco O of Quadron: “Where The Wind Blows”
09 Emeli Sandé and the Bryan Ferry Orchestra: “Crazy in Love”
10 The xx: “Together”
11 Gotye: “Hearts a Mess”
12 Jack White: “Love Is Blindness”
13 Nero: “Into the Past”
14 Sia: “Kill and Run”
