Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Juno Soundtrack

From the moment the movie starts off with Barry Louis Polisar's All I Want Is while a line drawing animation of Juno swigging a gallon jug of Sunny D treks along the screen, you know this isn't your typical teen comedy. According to director Jason Reitman, the musical sound of the hit teen pregnancy movie came about while he was hanging out in his office with actress Ellen Page and casually asked her, "What kind of music do you think Juno listens to?" and without pause Page answered, "The Moldy Peaches."

When Reitman heard Anyone Else But You he immediately decided the song should be closing of the movie with Page and Cera performing the quirky duet. According to Reitman:

"This song, more than any other, defined the sound of the film: a patchwork of homemade sounds made by teenagers whose senses of humor and honesty rang through the crappy tape recorder they used to capture their chicken-scratch lyrics."
Co-creator of The Moldy Peaches, Kimya Dawson provides eight of the nineteen songs on the soundtrack--including Tire Swing, Loose Lips, So Nice So Smart and Tree Hugger--which all feature the raw, childlike vocals and lyrics and stripped down instrumentation of Anyone Else But You.

The soundtrack also features tracks by The Kinks (A Well Respected Man), Buddy Holly (Dearest), Sonic Youth (doing a moody and sensual cover of The Carpenter's Superstar), Mott the Hoople (All the Young Dudes) and The Velvet Underground (I'm Sticking with You). Also included on the soundtrack are songs by Belle & Sebastian, Antsy Pants and Cat Power doing a sultry cover of Sea of Love accompanied by a zither of all things!

The soundtrack is doing just as well as the movie, hitting number one on the Billboard Album Chart--making it the first number one album ever for distributor Rhino Records. A limited edition orange vinyl release is scheduled for February 18th along with a Juno ringtone--Ellen Page and Michael Cera's cover of The Moldy Peaches Anyone Else But You. I know for many people, the music was the best part of Juno and the soundtrack perfectly captures and enhances the quirky, offbeat sensibilities of the movie.

2 comments:

  1. Great review--Juno was a complete five star movie experience for me. Jason Reitman's celebrity playlist on iTunes is excellent as well.

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  2. Thanks!

    While I liked Juno, I think Knocked Up was funnier and Quinceanera (if you haven't seen it, add it to your Netflix queue!) more poignant. But Juno definitely had its moments. Loved Michael Cera's performance.

    I'll definitely check out Reitman's playlist. I have a balance from an iTunes gift card and I've been looking for some new music ideas...

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