The Soul Soundtrack Has Real Soul…and Nine Inch Nails?!
The soundtrack is available and includes more music inspired by the film…
Back in the day, none other than Shel Silverstein (yes, “The Giving Tree” Shel Silverstein) once wrote a song entitled, “The Cover of Rolling Stone” (as performed by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show):
Rolling Stone…
Wanna see my picture on the cover.
Stone…
Wanna buy five copies for my Mother.
Stone…
Wanna see my smiling face
On the cover of the Rolling Stone.”
Where Am I Going With This?
Interestingly enough, it says here in THE ROLLING STONE that:
The digital Soul Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features 42 score and jazz tracks, along with the songs “Rappin Ced” performed by Daveed Diggs, and “Parting Ways” performed by Cody ChesnuTT.
The Soul Original Score vinyl album by Reznor and Ross features 23 tracks (Side A 12 tracks / Side B 11 tracks); and the Music From and Inspired By Soul vinyl album by Jon Batiste features 22 tracks (Side A 15 tracks / Side B 7 tracks), including his cover of “It’s All Right.”
Yes, I buried the lede, but you’re still here, so…
Soul: Talk About A Juxtaposition
And I am sitting here, reading about a Disney/Pixar film, in Rolling Stone. Moreover, I am reading about a Disney/Pixar film that involves Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
This guy:
The source of many, many rolled eyes by this one-time grungemeister.
But, again, there it is in black and white:
Since Soul is set in two distinct worlds — gritty New York City and what Disney/Pixar calls the “ethereal cosmic realms of The Great Before” — the music team had to compose two styles of music to help shape and define each world. Reznor says it was a long process to nail down the exact nuances for each scene.
“Our first step is always to listen and really try to understand where the filmmakers are coming from — what they’re seeing, what they’re imagining,” he explains, in a press released. “We spent a lot of time discussing how you’re supposed to feel when you’re first exposed to the ‘Soul’ world. Then we went back to our studio, which is filled with a variety of real, imagined and synthetic instruments, and spent the first chunk of time experimenting with different arrangements and different instruments and seeing what felt emotionally right to create the fabric of this world.”
Fair enough.
Listen To The Soul Soundtrack
And there is a whole lot of music to parse out from, and inspired by, the film. By the sound of the flick, all of it very, very good.
Now having seen Soul, shame on me for bringing my old college-days music biases into my current artistic enjoyment.
See the film. Listen to the music. Find your spark (and your groove)?