Remember when you found out they were making a film version of Where the Wild Things Are and it was a bit worrying until you realized that it was being handled by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers? Well, you can have that same feeling of relief about the movie's soundtrack, masterfully orchestrated by and attributed mostly to Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, along with an outfit including Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence of The Dead Weather/Raconteurs, Aaron Hiemphill of Liars, and a very lucky children's choir, all appropriately billed as Karen O and the Kids.
The album uses sound bites to immediately situate the listener; by the end of the short introductory track of what sounds like Karen O humming, "Igloo," you'll be eight or so years old in a blanket fort. This is the perfect segue into the album's single, "All Is Love," an epic—while not overcomplicated—anthem shouted by children alongside a childlike Karen O. "Rumpus" has a similar effect, with chants ending in cathartic howls and me wishing I weren't old enough to be listening with a critical ear.
The entire thing has an overarching narrative quality, and not necessarily due to any of the strategically placed excerpts from the movie. "Animal" turns us into exactly that, with its combination of peripatetic percussion and strange creature noises. Tracks like the aforementioned "Igloo" and "Cliffs" are slow and atmospheric and work to situate us in a certain place and mood, innocent and lost enough to be childhood, but with that level of complexity and unease that is left out of most childhood narratives. These moments can end up a bit slow, but are easily countered by the energetic reprises on the "All Is Love" theme, "Building All Is Love" and "Sailing Home."
The stark and bluesy "Worried Shoes" capitalizes on Karen O's vulnerability as she access that pretty, sing-song voice that is often underused in her Yeah Yeah Yeahs pursuits. Many tracks find her humming against harmonica or steel guitar, and it's hard to tell if she's the mother humming the lullaby or the child drifting off to sleep. At the same time, her usual visceral yelping is quite at home amongst the howls of her colleagues, as at the tempo-challenging end of "Heads Up."
"Hideaway" sounds like it could have been taken straight from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs much-lauded Show Your Bones. Without her crew of kids or much music to back her up, Karen O is a grown up on this song that is slightly out of place but no less necessary. It might make more sense once placed in proper context in the film, but even if it doesn't, it's a simple little ballad that, along with short breaks like "Lost Fur," keeps the album from being too much of a carpe diem sing-along.
There are two or three weeks until you get to see what Spike Jonze's imagination did to Where the Wild Things Are. Luckily for us, the soundtrack for one of our most beloved childhood memories is just as much of an adventure as the movie looks like it's going to be. Alternately spirited and melancholy, listening will give you that same lump in your throat that you got the first time you watched the trailer in your cubicle at work.
Artist:
myspace.com/wherethewildthingsare
Album:
Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are (OST) is out now. Buy it on Amazon.
