3.5 out of 5 stars
If you aren’t wildly excited about the Spike Jonze’s upcoming film adaptation of the famous children’s book Where the Wild Things Are , then you must have never seen the movie trailer. Every trailer carries a strong sense of magic that is endlessly exciting millions of people. Most people would then suspect the same magic from the film’s soundtrack, which was released two and a half weeks before the film and is made up of music from Karen O, lead singer of indie band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
One of the things that made the film trailers so magical was its music, a re-recorded version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up,” so it’s a little disappointing that this song doesn’t appear on the album. What does appear are fourteen tracks that meld acoustic indie pop with frenzies of instrumental score. Some of the more exciting tracks, like “Rumpus” and “Animal,” present intriguing journeys of an array of instruments, soundbites from the movie, and Karen’s oddball vocals. These songs have enjoyable musical merit, especially for Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans, even without any attachment to the film. The beautiful and slow instrumental tracks, like “Cliffs” and “Lost Fur,” are absolutely wonderful, particularly for the people who find Karen’s vocals and melodies a bit too annoying, with her bad harmonies, yelps and loose performances.
The album definitely has a feel and sound that doesn’t change much from song to song, which is good for consistency, but the moments that break the pattern truly shine. “Building All is Love,” a reprise of the album’s first single “All is Love,” ends with a simple electric guitar solo playing over one acoustic guitar, and the result is one of the simplest yet ear-catching points of the record. Another curve ball is “Hideaway,” possibly the album’s best song because it manages to be a perfect indie pop song mixed in between scores that manages to fit perfectly and also be quite likeable.
The album definitely has moments that are less than spectacular and enough strangeness to scare off the kids and kids-at-heart who adore the book, but Karen O’s soundtrack still has music capable of creating a movie experience as magical as I can hope for.
