Babylon [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

by Justin Hurwitz

Overview

Composer Justin Hurwitz's fifth collaboration with director Damien Chazelle was an epic one, with the over-three-hour Babylon focused on the transition between silent and sound film in the late 1920s and early '30s -- a technological advancement with devastating consequences for many in Hollywood. Coinciding with the height of the jazz age, Babylon's 97-minute score finds Hurwitz creating a stylized sound rooted in big-band swing but not quite authentic to the period. In addition to the occasional use of a 100-piece orchestra, the score features elements of rock, carnival music, classical music, cabaret, and overseas adventure conspicuously worked into cues with such descriptive titles as "Kinescope Ragtime Piano," "Waikele Tango," and "Damascus Thump." With a trumpet player among the film's main cast of characters, soloists credited with score contributions include noted trumpeters Sean Jones and Dontae Winslow. The film's hedonist opening -- set at an estate party replete with crowd-surfing, overdoses, and an elephant -- is accompanied by the boisterous "Welcome," a four-minute big-band romp in the vicinity of "Sing, Sing, Sing." Hurwitz soon introduces the poignant "Manny and Nellie's Theme" on what sounds like an out-of-tune bar piano before diving headlong into a diverse set of cues, most of which maintain a distinctly playful, freewheeling tone. A small combo eventually introduces the more sophisticated, recurring "Gold Coast Rhythm" theme, and by the arrival of the track-48 "Finale," the score has done its job, assuming the task at hand was to reflect the film's myriad excesses. Already a two-time Oscar and Grammy winner coming into Babylon (all for La La Land), Hurwitz -- a scriptwriter and TV producer as well as composer -- still had yet to compose for any other filmmaker. ~ Marcy Donelson

Product Details

Release Date:	04/14/2023
Label:	Interscope / Mercury Classics
UPC:	0602455082688
Rank:	2149

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Welcome
2. Manny and Nellie's Theme
3. King of the Circus
4. Jub Jub
5. Coke Room
6. My Girl's Pussy
7. Miss Idaho
8. Voodoo Mama
9. Gold Coast Rhythm (Wallach Party)
10. Ain't Life Grand
11. Babylon
12. Morning
13. Kinescope Cacophony (Melody track)
14. Night on Bald Mountain
15. Herman's Hustle
16. Gold Coast Sunset
17. Champagne
18. Wild Child
19. New York
20. See You Back in LA

Disc 2

21. Red Devil
22. I Want A Man
23. Orientally Yours
24. Gimme
25. Singin' in the Rain
26. Pharoah John
27. Meet Miss LaRoy
28. Call Me Manny
29. Hearst Party
30. Damascus Thump
31. Toad
32. Blockhouse
33. Jack's Party Band
34. Gold Coast Rhythm (Jack's Party)
35. Lev¿¿ntete
36. Se¿¿or Avocado
37. Heyo
38. Gold Coast Rhythm (Juan Bonilla)
39. Te Amo Nellie
40. Gold Coast Rhythm (Sidney's Solo)
41. Manny and Nellie's Theme (Reprise)
42. Epilogue

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Justin Hurwitz   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Justin Hurwitz   Composer