The Royal Tenenbaums

"I'm sorry for your loss. Your mother was a terribly attractive woman."

Today's Soundtrack of the Day is the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. This is a complete cop-out for music of the day, and I'm basically justifying this blog entry by considering the soundtrack to be something of a playlist rather than an accompaniment to the film. It probably warrants a track-by-track analysis, though there isn't going to be anything of the sort today.

The Tenenbaums soundtrack is an interesting mix of classical instrumentation and late 1960's pop music. This is classic Anderson, who generally has film scores that are interesting if a bit grounded in his particular taste. Some major Woodstock-era fixtures are featured here: the Velvet Underground, Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan (with a nice, vocal-light "Wigwam"). I will give him credit for branching out, ever so slightly, and including the Clash and the Ramones (!!!) here, and even sneaking in an Elliot Smith tune. (Side note: I don't dislike Elliot Smith, but the general fascination with him is something that I've never completely understood.)

There's a clear disparity of style and mood between the popular songs, and the score-exclusive instrumentals - some of which are written by Anderson's sometimes-collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh, of Devo fame - but the union of the two works well, in the same way that a sweet fruit and a buttery, crisp crust come together to make a delicious pie. (This is what happens when a post gets written too close to lunchtime.) This is best illustrated in the last track of the album, an orchestral version of the Beatles' "Hey Jude". (Ironically, I couldn't tolerate this track and deleted it from my music library. Nico works better as the closer.)

Also, the Rolling Stones are notably absent from this soundtrack, despite having their music used in the film (as they are in just about every Wes Anderson film), because apparently the use of their song on this disc wasn't going to provide them with enough money to get Charlie Watts addicted to heroin again. So sad!

While I like this film, I'd be somewhat ignorant not to compare the similarities between the pacing of the film and the soundtrack. While the film is a visual spectacle, and has some genuinely memorable characters, it sometimes feels like a series of interrelated shorts rather than a carefully plotted narrative, for better or worse. The soundtrack has a similar feel, in that the songs work well individually, but there really isn't a common thread, or any sense of scripting to the order of the songs. Still, in both cases, the quality is evident, even if the concept sometimes outweighs the execution.

Anyway, the songs are somewhat out of order here, so they don't exactly evoke the same emotions as the film, but the listening experience is still fairly rich. This album might have benefited from a couple more upbeat songs, like the Ramones' "Judy is a Punk", but it wouldn't really be faithful to do so.

Still, there are plenty of good tracks here - Nico's "These Days" remains a treasure, as does Nick Drake's wistful "Fly". "Wigwam" is an inspired choice from the Dylan catalogue, and "Pagoda's Theme" is a welcome change of pace, if only for a single track. This is classic rock with string interludes, and while it seems more like a playlist with transitional pieces, it stands alone very well.

"You wanna play some word games, or do some experiments on me or anything?"

In Other News:
I really didn't give credit to the actual The Royal Tenenbaums film here today, in spite of it being one of my favorites. If you haven't seen it, well, you're bad at life.

I need a nap. Maybe coffee will have to suffice. Either way, I'm looking forward to the weekend, mostly. There's just no way around hours of driving, that's all.