Like the novel the film was based on, Inherent Vice's songs share intriguing connections. The charming kitsch of the Marketts' "Here Comes the Ho-Dads," Les Baxter's "Simba," and Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" provides relief and contrast from the tense ambiguity of Greenwood's music, while the exquisite mix of rawness and finesse in Can's "Vitamin C" adds to the suspense. They're artfully chosen and blended with the score, offering new perspectives on each. However, reflecting Inherent Vice's setting, Greenwood's cues share the spotlight with more pop songs than ever before. Greenwood introduces Inherent Vice's major theme, "Shasta," with strings and woodwinds that cast an air of shadowy longing that grows into a sweeping mirage on "Shasta Fay" and condenses into a poignant, piercing melody that recalls the emotional intensity of a silent film score on "Shasta Fay Hepworth." Elsewhere, he expands on the story's mystery with the Bernard Herrmann-esque "The Chryskylodon Institute" and "The Golden Fang," which also nod to the density and complexity of his own score for The Master. Pynchon's tale, which follows a Los Angeles detective as he investigates the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend in 1970, is considerably more lighthearted than either There Will Be Blood or The Master, and Greenwood's music reflects mid-century L.A.'s seedy underbelly as well as the novel's intricate blend of intrigue, humor, and philosophy. Or, in the words of Pynchon: “Like a record on a turntable, all it takes is one groove’s difference and the universe can be on into a whole ‘nother song.” Far out, man.More melodic and accessible than his previous collaborations with director Paul Thomas Anderson, Jonny Greenwood's music for the film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel Inherent Vice reaffirms that he is a versatile composer as well as a visionary one.
Here, FLOOD has taken the liberty of compiling a sampler of those tunes to go along for the ride in preparation (and in celebration) of the film’s release today. Dozens of bands and songs are specifically referenced within the pages of the book, be they famous or obscure, real or fake (that is, unless you happen to know of any recordings by The Boards, Meatball Flag, or Beer). No slouch of a soundtrack to be sure, but within the sprawling world of Pynchon’s source text, music is such a central character that one needn’t have waited specifically for this release in order to have an Inherent Vice soundtrack of their own. That score, along with some choice cuts from Neil Young, Can, and Sam Cooke, is compiled in the official soundtrack to the film, available on December 15 via Nonesuch records. For Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest flick, an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, frequent PTA collaborator (and Radiohead member) Jonny Greenwood was called upon to craft a score to accompany the film, which follows the misadventures of private eye Doc Sportello in early ’70s Los Angeles.
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