Soul Background Music

[Landers Piechotka]

Reznorand Ross composed a new-age score for the metaphysical segments of the film, while Batiste composed a number of original jazz songs for the New York City-based segments of the film. The soundtrack received critical acclaim as an integral part of the film and won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Original Score.

During the 2019 D23 Expo, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were revealed to be composing the film's score, while Jon Batiste was set to be writing jazz songs for the film.[1] Reznor and Ross had been brought in on the recommendation of sound designer Ren Klyce, who had worked extensively with the duo in David Fincher films.[2] Batiste composed jazz music for the film's New York City sequences while Reznor and Ross wrote an instrumental score for the scenes taking place in the Great Before.[3] Batiste said that he wanted to create jazz music that felt "authentic", but also "accessible to all ages".[1] He also wanted the themes to tie into the "ethereal nature" of the Great Before while still being on Earth.[1] Batiste also sometimes worked with Reznor and Ross to "blend the two worlds, musically".[1] Cody Chesnutt also wrote, produced, and performed an original folk-soul ballad for the film, titled "Parting Ways".[4][5] It also features a hip hop interlude performed by Daveed Diggs titled "Rappin Ced".[4] Other musicians who were consulted during the creative process include Herbie Hancock, Terri Lyne Carrington and Questlove, the latter of whom also does voice work in the film.[6] Batiste drew inspiration from and wanted to pay homage to jazz legends such as Roy Haynes, Harvey Mason, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Charlie Parker and The Headhunters.[2] Batiste also arranged a new version of the song "It's All Right", originally performed by The Impressions, for the film.[7] This solo version debuted during a performance by Nelly on the 29th season of American competition TV series Dancing with the Stars[7] and is featured in the end credits of the film while a duet version with British soul singer Celeste is not included in the soundtrack.[8] In January 2021, Trent Reznor revealed to Consequence of Sound that he and Atticus Ross had composed six films' worth of music for Soul and also further explained his creative process, stating:[9]

Soul: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released digitally on December 18, 2020, a week before that of the film. The two vinyl albums, namely Soul: Original Motion Picture Score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and Music from and Inspired by Soul by Jon Batiste, were also made available for purchase on December 18, 2020.[10][11][12][13][14] Despite not featuring on any of the three albums, the duet version of "It's All Right" with Celeste that features during the end credits was also released digitally as a standalone single on December 18.[15][16]

The soundtrack received a positive response from both music critics and film critics alike.[6][17][18][19] Many film reviews praised the score as a major highlight of the film.[20] Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Featuring possibly the best soundtrack in a Pixar film since the first Toy Story, Soul sports a jazz score that is not just an adornment to the story or an emotional enhancement, but an utterly integral part of the narrative."[19] Reznor and Ross's compositions during the metaphysical segments of the film was described musically as new-age and space age, while Batiste's work was described musically as jazz.[21][4][22] In a film review for The A.V. Club, A.A. Dowd described the score as "uncharacteristically soothing",[23] while Matt Goldberg of Collider described it as "spellbinding",[24] and A .O. Scott of The New York Times described it as "cerebral".[25]

A week before the release of the film, the soundtrack album debuted on the UK Soundtrack Albums chart at number 35.[50] After the film was released on December 25, the soundtrack rose to number 12 on this chart and also was credited as two separated entries, one for score and one for soundtrack, on both Billboard's Soundtrack Albums chart and Current Album Sales chart.

The summer of 2000. I share my extensive music collection with my friends. In this collection: a three-year-old soundtrack to a film I never saw in the theaters but caught on video in the dorm on a night that turned into a communal viewing. I and my summer buddies listen to this soundtrack so much that we even know the background noise to a spoken word poetry performance taken directly from the film, so when we watch the film on a bus trip to an amusement park, we not only recite the poem, but also the audience reactions. We have a great time and I have a personal memory associated with one of the best film soundtracks of the late 90s.

For me, the Love Jones soundtrack represents a trip back to my college days in New Orleans as much as it does a time when Black-cast films showed me images of my aspirations as well as an escape. It was my coming of age into adulthood and that awkward territory called relationships. It was the time when The Brand New Heavies began to speak to me more than Boyz II Men and other acts with hit machines behind them. The soundtrack represented the moment I entered the grown folks club.

Inda Lauryn has been previously published in Interfictions, Afropunk and Blackberry, A Magazine. She is currently working on a few fiction projects and blogs about women in music at cornerstorepress.wordpress.com.

Only five years had passed since that hit had conquered the world, but as Ruffin himself may have gleaned, Black music had grown exponentially in that short time. And both the Summer of Soul movie and its accompanying album (which revives the tradition of live festival albums of that era, from Woodstock to Wattstax) are reminders of the ways in which soul and R&B had expanded and run wild in the period leading up to the Harlem Cultural Festival in the summer of 1969.

The Irish seem born with a love of music. At social gatherings, everyone's always ready to sing his or her "party piece." Performances are judged less by skill than by uninhibited sincerity or showmanship. Nearly every Irish household has some kind of musical instrument.

Pub music ranges from instrumental reels and jigs to ballads of tragic love lost or heroic deeds done, to contemporary sing-along strummers. It's worth staying until the wee hours for the magical moment when a lament is sung to a hushed and attentive pub crowd.

"Sessions" (musical evenings) may be advertised events or impromptu (and quality can be hit or miss). Often musicians just congregate and play for the love of it. Things usually get going around 9:00 p.m., though Irish punctuality is unpredictable. If the bar has a good reputation, get there well before 9 p.m. if you want a pub-grub dinner or a place to sit, or pop in later and plan on standing. Last call for drinks is just before midnight.

Sessions generally be a fiddle, a flute or tin whistle, a guitar, a bodhrn (BO-run; goatskin drum), and maybe an accordion or mandolin. Musical instruments from other regions have also become staples, including bouzoukis (from Greece) and banjos (from the southern United States); in the hands of a skilled Irish musician, the sounds and particularly the rhythms made by these instruments become distinctively Irish.

The music often comes in sets of three songs. The wind and string instruments embellish melody lines with lots of tight ornamentation. Whoever happens to be leading determines the next song only as the current tune is about to be finished. If they want to pass on the decision, it's done with eye contact and a nod.

Percussion generally stays in the background. The bodhrn is played with a small, two-headed club. The performer's hand stretches the skin to change the tone and pitch. More rarely, you'll hear the crisp sound of a set of bones: two cow ribs (boiled and dried) that are rattled in one hand like spoons or castanets, substituting for the sound of dancing shoes in olden days.

But the Irish survived Elizabethan brutality and more than four centuries of oppression. Today, the Irish people have a worldwide reputation as talkative, athletic, moody romantics with a quick laugh and a ready smile. Listen well: You can hear their national soul in their music.

Tamasha holds an exceptional place in my heart. I first saw the movie on my very first international trip from India to Canada in 2016. I immediately fell in love with the film; however, it took me a couple of years to completely appreciate its sheer beauty. It is a piece of art; and what complements the great script and seamless acting performances is the soundtrack. The music for Tamasha's soundtrack is composed by the exceptional A.R. Rahman, and the lyrics are written by the extraordinary Irshad Kamil. My relationship with Tamasha's album does not belong to the era of dating apps. It is not fast or in need of instant gratification. My involvement with the record is slow and profound. It took its time to grow but eventually stayed and became a part of my system. It would be very unfair for me to rank different compositions from Tamasha's soundtrack; however, I will discuss every song in the order of me falling in love with it.

Matargashti: 'Matargashti' was the first track released from the album. Performed by the outstanding Mohit Chauhan, 'Matargashti', in its very essence, captures the idea of a free spirit and a place of liberation. The song has an exotic vibe to it. Its beauty lies in the fact that the piece, both lyrically and structurally, breaks away from the conventional style of music production. The song simulates Ved's character on a high level: he has multiple shades of different characters in his personality and manages to break away from his stereotypical lifestyle towards the end of the film. The music is arranged so that the melody changes every few lines and adds surprise and spontaneity to the composition. Lyrically also the song breaks away from the monotony of narrating a complete tale in one piece. The mukhda discusses how the narrator feels tricked by life, and his playful storytelling adds entertainment to the composition. The antara of 'Matargashti' amalgamates many fictional characters from separate tales stressing that although characters, time, and places change with different stories, the story fundamentally remains the same, which is also one of the themes of Tamasha. Towards the end, there is a portion in the song where Ved's character breaks into a performance style similar to Dev Anand's and pays homage to the great actor while being his most authentic self. 'Matargashti', therefore, has much more to it than just being a funky Bollywood track. It adds to the story in an unconventionally offbeat style. To the listener, it makes one want to dance on the streets of a foreign land wearing casually glamorous clothes (credit to stylists Anaita Shroff Adajania's and Aki Narula). The song can take its audience to a place where their life doesn't feel compelled to fit into the traditional structures of society and caters to them a sense of enjoyment and liberation.

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