Asteroid City Soundtrack Available On Vinyl For First Time On Record Store Day Black Friday 2023

SOUNDTRACK
Asteroid City Soundtrack Available On Vinyl For First Time On Record Store Day Black Friday 2023

Asteroid City (Original Soundtrack) will be released on vinyl for the first time ever for Record Store Day Black Friday 2023 (November 24). The double album contains original music by frequent Wes Anderson collaborator Jarvis Cocker, the original score by celebrated composer Alexandre Desplat, and many 1950s vintage country & western and skiffle tunes from the 1950s. Having only been released digitally this past June, this 2-LP edition on orange translucent vinyl will be the first version of the soundtrack for the critically acclaimed film offered in any physical format.

Asteroid City debuted theatrically on June 16 and was written and directed by Wes Anderson. It features an ensemble cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan and Jeff Goldblum.

IndieWire calls Asteroid City “Anderson’s dreamiest film,” “one of a kind” and “the most poignant thing he’s ever made,” while Vanity Fair says, “the small stories that make up the film . . . present a mural of everyday humanity, all its quiet passion and accidental humor.” Asteroid City (Original Soundtrack) incorporates an original score by decorated composer Alexandre Desplat, original tunes by Jarvis Cocker, and classic Country & Western, pop, folk and skiffle songs across its 25 tracks.

Asteroid City takes place in a fictional American desert town circa 1955. The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

Music supervisor Randall Poster, who has worked with Wes Anderson on every one of his films since 1998’s Rushmore (making Asteroid City their tenth collaboration), said, “Wes and I had so much fun putting the film’s music together. We’ve been doing these soundtracks for almost 30 years and have the benefit of that continuity of collaboration. We’re expanding our music horizons whenever he makes a new movie.” He continued, “Wes is so good with music and stands by his very strong instincts. For Asteroid City, we had been ‘hunting and gathering’ for a year before shooting began so were very familiar with the Country & Western genre which is not, per se, strictly country. C&W had more to do with the movies than anything else and we were kind of instinctively drawn to one song or another. Our mindset was to spread the wings of Western Swing and see what we discover.”

Asteroid City (Original Soundtrack) contains 16 songs recorded and originally released in the approximate era the film takes place. Poster commented, “We had a self-imposed rule and locked ourselves into the period.” Country & Western is the predominant genre, with tracks such as Tex Ritter’s “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)” and “(I Got Spurs That) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle,” and Tennessee Ernie Ford’s million-selling 1955 rendition of “Sixteen Tons,” which spent ten weeks at the top of Billboard’s country music chart. Bing Crosby and Burl Ives make appearances, having a go at Western music with “Cowboy’s Lament” and “The Streets of Laredo,” respectively. Pop music from the pre-rock and roll era is also represented with Les Paul & Mary Ford’s 1951 version of “How High The Moon,” which spent nine weeks at the top of all three Billboard charts that preceded the Hot 100. UK folk and skiffle music (a British genre inspired by American blues, country, bluegrass and jazz) is also included; “Island of Dreams” by The Springfields (featuring a young Dusty Springfield and her brother Tom) and “Freight Train” by The Charles McDevitt Skiffle Group featuring Nancy Whiskey blend seamlessly in the soundtrack with their US counterparts. Johnny Duncan and The Blue Grass Boys’ “Last Train to San Fernando,” which is also featured in the official trailer, serves as a centerpiece. Poster said of the song, “This one kicked it all off; I had sent it to Wes for something else so he was already aware of it; that was a door opener for much of it.” Johnny Duncan was an American expat living in England and he scored a UK #2 hit with the song, which is a cover of a calypso tune by Mighty Dictator. The San Fernando being sung about is actually a town on the west coast of Trinidad.

Multiple Academy Award® and Grammy Award® winning Parisian composer Alexandre Desplat began his career scoring French films, switching over to English language films in the early 2000s. He has scored Wes Anderson’s five previous films, Fantastic Mr. FoxMoonrise KingdomThe Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch. Desplat has since earned an impressive number of accolades, including two Oscars for Best Original Score (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water) and two Grammys for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (The King’s Speech, The Grand Budapest Hotel). Desplat has racked up nine additional Oscar® nominations over the years, two of which are for Wes Anderson films.

Musician/broadcaster/poet Jarvis Cocker, who is best known as the frontperson in English rock band Pulp, provided two original songs for Asteroid City (Original Soundtrack) and briefly appears in the film performing a musical number. Both “You Can’t Wake Up If You Don’t Fall Asleep” and “Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven)” were produced by ex-Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley. This is not the first time Cocker’s likeness and music have been intertwined in an Anderson film; his musical contributions to The French Dispatch, in which he sang in the voice of fictitious ‘60s French pop singer Tip-Top, inspired an entire album of material in said character, entitled Chansons d’Ennui Tip-Top (ABKCO, 2021).

ABKCO has had a unique working relationship with Wes Anderson, releasing the original soundtrack for every film Anderson has written and directed for more than a decade and a half – The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018) and The French Dispatch (2021). These soundtracks are all currently available from ABKCO Records.

Asteroid City Original Soundtrack 2-LP (orange translucent vinyl)

Record One
Side One

  1. WXYZ-TV Channel 8 – Alexandre Desplat
  2. Last Train to San Fernando – Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys
  3. Island of Dreams – The Springfields
  4. April in Portugal – Les Baxter
  5. Ida Red – Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
  6. Canon and Gigue in D Major – Henk Bouman, Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel

Side Two

  1. Opening Ceremony with Awards Presentation (Keynote Speaker: General Grif Gibson) – Alexandre Desplat
  2. (I Got Spurs That) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle – Tex Ritter
  3. Orange Blossom Special – Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
  4. High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me) – Tex Ritter
  5. Cowboy’s Lament – Burl Ives
  6. Viewing of the Astronomical Ellipses (Opening Comments: Dr. Hickenlooper) – Alexandre Desplat

Record Two
Side Three

  1. Rose Marie – Slim Whitman
  2. Indian Love Call – Slim Whitman
  3. Sixteen Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford
  4. The Cattle Call – Eddy Arnold with Hugo Winterhalter’s Chorus and Orchestra
  5. Special Seminar at the Playwright’s Request (Saltzburg Keitel’s Classroom) – Alexandre Desplat
  6. Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven) – Asteroid City Cast
  7. Kaw-Liga – Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys

Side Four

  1. Emergency Assembly – Alexandre Desplat
  2. A Bewildering and Bedazzling Celestial Mystery – Alexandre Desplat
  3. How High The Moon – Les Paul & Mary Ford
  4. The Streets of Laredo – Bing Crosby
  5. Freight Train – The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group featuring Nancy Whiskey
  6. You Can’t Wake Up If You Don’t Fall Asleep – Jarvis Cocker