WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE SOUNDTRACK

Anything Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs does is something you should be behind. The same goes for anything that director (and her ex-boyfriend) Spike Jonze does. So if you put two and two together (the Where the Wild Things Are movie and the music created for it) then you’re going to come out with something insanely good for your senses. 

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I ran into a Starbucks the day before leaving and was fortunate enough to be faced with a copy of the soundtrack for Where the Wild Things Are at the cash register. Since I was leaving before the movie came out, instinct had me grab it; and I haven’t put it down since. This only makes it even harder for me to wait for the film.

 Karen O and the Kids is a massive collaboration involving other Indie rockers such as Tom Biller of the Afternoons (co-producer on the soundtrack), Yeah Yeah Yeahs band mates Brian Chase and Nick Zinner, with Tristan Bechet (Services), Bradford Cox (Deerhunter), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs), Aaron Hemphill (Liars), Greg Kurstin (The Bird and the Bee), Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes), Oscar Michel (Gris Gris), Imaad Wasif (New Folk Implosion, Alaska), and a couple of kids that they wrangled together to form a delightfully candid make-shift choir.

“I’m in Spike’s big-kid club. Most of the creative people that Spike works with are children trapped in grownup’s bodies. Spike came to me with the idea of the music having a similar mood to The Langley Schools Music Project, Innocence and Despair, which is a children’s choir singing melancholy pop songs by David Bowie and the Beach Boys, etc”, O told Paste magazine. “I don’t know how close we got to that idea in the end, but the intention was to write simple melodies that were emotionally complex—something that both kids and adults would appreciate,” 

Karen O has such a broad range of personalities when it comes to music and anything she creates never fails to translate. Perfectly matching the emotions of the film’s main character Max, as he faces fear, freedom, anger, elation and doubt. There is a song in here for everything you, and he, have ever felt in life. Tracks like ‘Heads Up’ and ‘All Is Love’ make you want to pump a grizzly monster fist and howl at the moon, whilst ‘Worried Shoes’ and ‘Hideaway’, with Karen’s lullaby voice, give you a feeling that even though you’re far away from home, everything’s going to be alright. So, without hesitation, I dub this the Feel Good soundtrack of the year. 

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