we are sex bob-omb ... 1.2.3.4! soundtrack review
Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 5:11PM If you've hit this site over the last week, you have seen precious little other than Scott Pilgrim stuff. In fact, I don't know that I've posted anything other than that. Well, let's wrap it up, shall we. This week closes with one final hurah ... an epic combo review of the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World soundtrack & Score.


Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - Motion Picture Soundtrack & Score
Review by Chris Nolen
Even the best inspiration can fail to captivate if the execution falters. In a film adaptation, sound is a crucial component of setting the tone and grabbing attention. And when done right, the combination of score, licensed music, and sfx create a tapastry that is just as colorful as anything your eyes will view in a film. Director Edgar Wright wisely recognized that the audio choices for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World would be even more important than in your average movie. In this case, I'd say they were more important than the visuals.
The story of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World revolves around sound ... video game inspired chip tunes, music and sfx lifted directly from games, and the several bands that must battle over the course of the story all add play an important role in fleshing out the universe as Scott sees it. And some fantastic decisions were made along the way.
First, the bands in the film had to be cast just like an actor would be cast for a role. Who is the voice of Sex Bob-Omb, Scott Pilgrim's band? Would the actors sing the songs on screen, or would other vocalists be required. The resulting mix gifts us a highly-memorable set of original tunes by artists such as Beck, Metric, and Broken Social Scene.
The soundtrack, just like the film, kicks off with an energetic garage rock tune from Pilgrim's own Sex Bob-omb. Drummer Kim Pine counts us down with enthusiasm as the track "We Are Sex Bob-Omb" establishes the vibe with unpolished vocals and fuzzy guitars. In the novels, the band is supposed to suck, but on the soundtrack, it sounds remarkably good. The competence of the songwriting is because Sex Bob-Omb's music is written by Beck, who performs bonus track versions of Sex Bob-Omb's tracks to go along with the on-screen renditions provided by the actors playing the band. Other stand-out tracks by the band include "Threshold," "Summertime," and "Garbage Truck" which all have a distinctly Beck-ish fingerprint, as if he wrote an unreleased garage rock album before he ever recorded "Loser."
The other bands that perform in the film are The Clash At Demonhead, and Crash And The Boys, performed by Metric and Broken Social Scene, respectively. Metric's "Black Sheep" is fittingly polished for The Clash At Demonhead, as they are the synth-pop mega-successful rock stars of the film. Crash And The Boys, by contrast, are much more on the same level as Sex Bob-Omb, as Broken Social Scene performs the their two tracks "So Sad. So Very, Very Sad" and "We Hate You. Please Die." far more lose and fast. In fact, their songs are very much in character, as they are energetic rockers with a dark sense of humor. The former track lasts a mere five seconds, the latter, a brisk romp comes in at less than a minute. Somehow, they are almost perfect at those lengths, capturing the essence of the band's character in as efficient a performance as you will likely hear this year.
Rounding out the soundtrack, we get a variety of good licensed music choices. Frank Black's "I Heard Ramona Sing" is perhaps the highlight ... a late Pixies-esque mid-tempo tune alluding to Pilgrim's love interest, as well as fandom in general. "O Katrina!" by the Black Lips captures the bar scene vibe of the movie perfectly, while "It's Getting Boring By The Sea" feels like the brawls that will occur there. The film's romantic centerpiece, "Ramona" by Beck, is a beautifully haunting track that would have been right at home on Sea Change. "Under My Thumb," by The Rolling Stones, is the perfect song for Ramona and Gideon Graves, as it directly references abusive, manipulative control of women by the men they love. The titular track "Scott Pilgrim," from Plumbtree, is a somewhat annoyingly performed pop number that inspired the character's name is a catchy number that grows on you with every listen.
As the soundtrack captures the vocalizations and spirit of the bands of the movie, the score would carry the film's soul. And composer Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead fame) does just this with a mix of orchestration and game-inspired chip tune elements. The score starts with an 8-bit version of the Universal Pictures theme song, which sets the tone for an unexpected and experience. Building from that we get the film's fight theme, "Fight!", featuring a blood-pumping build up that is like a laser charging into an explosion of 8-bit inspired textures.
The rest of the score is a chronological series of fits and rests, punctuated by the high-intensity of "Rumble," "The Grind," and the other fight tracks. These energetic pieces build off the cues of "Fight!" but also features power chords and turn-table scratching alongside the chip tunes. "Slick" is a Bollywood number by the first evil ex, Matthew Patel, which describes his demon hipster chick entourage and fireball powers. "Bass Battle" is a back and forth between Pilgrim and his counterpart/nemesis from The Clash At Demonhead...who happens to be the much better musician.
Goodrich can bring it down to mesmerizing and magical ambient tracks to punctuate the film's quieter moments, such as "Love Me Some Walking" and "Hillcrest Park." The swirling reverb of keys and organs in the former give the impression that the viewer is drunk with the possibilities of new love. The slower tracks, particularly "Aftermath" seem to be in part inspired by Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu's work. Goodrich also gets a little sinister with tracks like "Mystery Attacker" and "So Alone," where the emptiness and heaviness are menacingly oppressive.
The score culminates with a series of epic tracks that accompany the final battles, including the Sex Bob-Omb punctuated "We Are Sex Bob-Omb (fast)" which is a fantastic bookend to the opening sequence. It reveals a band that has gone from garage to the big stage. This arc is really the thematic summation of the film's protagonist, and bring the album to a close with one last magical goodbye in the form of the appropriately titled "Bye and Stuff" which recalls some of Sigur Ros' best.
The end result of inspired musical choices, and a score that is a masterful blend of the film's core references is a sound scape that is as crucial to telling the story as Wright's visuals. You may find yourself remembering the moments of musical brilliance just as much as the best fight sequences, which is no small feat. The only thing that would have made this package better would have been the inclusion of some of the actual video game music and sfx that were licensed for the film. They add so much to the presentation when you are watching that their omission on these albums is shame. But overall, fans of the books, the film, and video games will find little to complain about. They are like some our fondest memories thrown in a blender with a shot of awesome...served with a slice of lime. A bittersweet coctail of our youth.



































