This summer, there has been a steady stream of Hollywood movies that reject the glossiness of the Blockbuster experience and instead embrace the chaos of everyday life. And, fittingly, the soundtracks that accompany these awkward romances (like the Jenny Slate-starring Obvious Child) and empty friendships (the moody teens in Palo Alto) reflect a wide array of different tastes and genres. Still, even as streaming services seem to be pushing people away from listening to albums in favor of singles and playlists, I've found that the best soundtracks of this year are the ones that preserve the idea of the album as a singular experience or mood. Here are six of the best and most immersive.
Palo Alto
Devonté Hynes’ title track for Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto—a movie based on a series of short stories that James Franco published in 2010—captures the entire film in a song. The track's beckoning synth and luring keys create a roiling, seductive daze that ultimately registers as an appropriate backdrop to a film about adolescent angst and uncertainty. While it brims with hasty nostalgia (“Don’t you think that we were beautiful?/ Don’t you think that I’m your friend?”) the malaise is underscored by subsequent songs on the soundtrack, including Blood Orange’s “You’re Not Good Enough”, Mac DeMarco’s “Ode To Viceroy”, and Tonstartssbandht’s “5FT7”. Hynes scored the entire film with an amalgam of flowy moods and shifts in timbre that don’t so much register as individual songs, but audible atmosphere for a film about the unadorned depravity of youth.
Obvious Child
Gillian Robespierre’s debut film Obvious Child is sort of like Juno for cynics: It’s an unplanned pregnancy comedy minus the twee. Unlike Juno, Obvious Child isn’t so much going to "break" any new music, but it does succeed for its thematic approach: Paul Simon’s kinetic “Obvious Child” is the title track amidst slower burners from Small Black and Scout Niblett. Anthemic, percussive songs like Niblett's “Nevada” make stately cameos that could seem incongruous with a screenplay that is ultimately a comedic, but the sentimentality and resilience that the music brings to the table make for an endearing listen nonetheless.
Very Good Girls
Very Good Girls is the directorial debut of Jenny Lewis’ longtime friend Naomi Foner. Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Dakota Fanning, and Demi Moore, the film is about two New York City girls who give themselves a deadline for losing their virginity and end up falling for the same dude. Lewis was tapped to write original songs for Olsen's character, who's a 20-year-old songwriter; accordingly, Rilo Kiley's song "Go Ahead" is also featured prominently in the film, because Lewis herself wrote it when she was 20. The new songs were recorded with Lewis's former Rilo Kiley bandmate Pierre de Reeder in his studio, and the trailer (above) features one of them, in which Lewis passionately repeats the phrase "it still hurts" over triumphant, mid-tempo chord progressions. Very Good Girls is out July 25.
Divergent
Divergent soundtrack is notable for the unexpected collaborations it offers and star power it packs: Kendrick Lamar jumps on a remix of Tame Impala’s “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”, Gesaffelstein teams up with A$AP Rocky for a new Yeezus-indebted banger called“In Distress”, and there are suitably futuristic contributions from M83 (the excellent “I Need You”), Skrillex (“Stranger”) and Banks (“Waiting Game”). Oh, and there’s also the Chance the Rapper/Clams Casino/Pia Mia collaboration"Fight for You". Lots of good stuff here!
The Fault In Our Stars
Lykke Li’s “No One Ever Loved” is just the kind of impenitent heartbreak tune that you'd expect to find on a soundtrack for something like The Fault In Our Stars, a movie based on a smash hit book about teenagers with cancer. And while “No One Ever Loved” certainly adds to the soundtrack’s appeal, #TFIOS (as it is often hashtagged) also makes use of more optimistic sounds of now, like STRFKR’s “While I’m Alive” and Charli XCX’s “Boom Clap”. That contrast is part of the movie's appeal. Charli's song plays as a plane takes off, one of those classic cinematic motifs that signifies a departure or change. In that moment, it feels universal: This could easily be the soundtrack to any teenage romance, regardless of health or the social status of its participants. You feel at home with it despite its specificity, and ultimately, that’s what a good soundtrack does—wedges its way into the context of your own life.
Wish I Was Here
However derivative Zach Braff's Garden State soundtrack may seem now, its various artists came to define an era when lushness and melancholy were principal tenets of contemporary indie sound—think Zero 7, Frou Frou, the Shins, and Coldplay. Now, ten years later, Braff will release Wish I Was Here, the story of a thirtysomething father trying to find purpose in his life (against a backdrop of similarly emotive instrumentals). Both the Shins and Coldplay will return with original songs for the score, which also features new music from Bon Iver. (Interestingly, Paul Simon’s “Obvious Child” is also featured on this soundtrack.) Cat Power and Coldplay team up for the film's title track, and though it hasn't been released yet (the film is out July 25), you can hear a new Shins song in the above trailer.