Happy Ides of March, and welcome back to Record of the Week! This week, the Randomizer serves up an excellent soundtrack to one of my favourite films, The Royal Tenenbaums. This is the copy that'll be playing on my turntable, it's an RSD reissue from 2022. The first disc is sky blue and the second disc is olive green. Pretty cool.
In addition to being one of my fave films, The Royal Tenenbaums is probably my favourite Wes Anderson film. Everything clicks for me here. The story. The acting. The characters (I lose my shit every time when Chas says "I've had a hard year, pop" and Royal simply replies "I know."). The soundtrack.
Anderson always has great soundtracks. He always picks quirky deep cuts or the perfect track that emotionally resonates with the scene. Sometimes it's just a straight up banger (hello, Judy is a Punk). Dude is just great at marrying the music to the film. Look at this list of the heavy hitters on this album: Nico. The Mutato Muzika Orchestra. Bob Dylan. Emitt Rhodes. The Clash. Ramones. Elliott Smith. Nick Drake. Vince Guaraldi Trio. The Velvet Underground. And you get (the legendary) Mark Mothersbaugh's exquisite score interspersed throughout the album. Everybody wins.
I saw this in the theater during the original run (2001, damn!). I remember the first thing that got me was Richie's scene soundtracked by Elliott Smith's Needle in the Hay (we talked about Elliott Smith last week!). That scene, combined with that song, haunted the fuck outta me for some time. It kinda hits close to home in that the Tenenbaums are so dysfunctional. Maybe not to that extreme, but I could totally see my dad as a Royal Tenenbaum type of guy. Yeah, they're all kinda fucked up, but they're still a family.
If you like soundtracks, very recommended. And if you haven't seen this film, also very recommended. I think I'm gonna watch it again this week, it's been a while.