20 Watts

The Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack dropped from DCG/Interscope on September 9th.

When Spike Jonze set out to recreate Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, he enlisted the help of ex-girlfriend Karen O, vocalist for the Brooklyn-based garage punk group the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. To put the record together, she recruited the likes of bandmates Nick Zinner and Brian Chase, Tristan Bechet from Services, Dean Fertita from Queens of the Stone Age, Bradford Cox from Deerhunter, Jack Lawrence from The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs, and Imaad Wasif from New Folk Implosion. The supergroup was then born under the namesake Karen O and the Kids.

Along with her troupe of contributors, Karen O managed to translate Jonze’s vision of escape from adulthood exquisitely well into the film’s soundtrack. The product is an auditory masterpiece that features a depth that perfectly supports and complements Jonze’s creative vision.

When setting out to compose the soundtrack, Karen went for a decidedly childish approach, which can often spell disaster for most projects. Each track on the record takes on an often haunting feel, but is eventually triumphed over by an overwhelming feel of playfulness. To create that sense in the music, Karen drew on the more juvenile aspect of her writing style, explaining it to Rolling Stone by saying, “I guess there is a childlike innocence about my music or my persona that [Jonze] always just kind of dialed into.”  Many of the tracks feature an intentional dissonance that both overwhelms and envelopes the listener, making the listening experience just as entertaining as the film itself, just without the monsters.

When listening to the record in order, it is overly apparent how Karen positioned the songs in such a way as to have the mood of each track assume the polar opposite of the one before it. This varying mood brilliantly mirrors the constantly changing state of emotions of a child, bringing the record to an entirely more visceral level. It’s as though she herself was experiencing the same emotional turmoil as the protagonist Max throughout the production of the record.

In the end, the product from Karen O and the Kids is just as admirable a feat as the film itself. To call Karen O the “Spike Jonze of Soundtracks” may seem a bit exaggerated, but at the same time, it’s impossible to ignore the truly exquisite writing that defines the soundtrack. By paralleling the emotional movement of the film itself, Karen O and the Kidshave managed to create a soundtrack that stands perfectly beside an already stunning film.

– John Luposello