'Inside Llewyn Davis' soundtrack, featuring Justin Timberlake and Marcus Mumford, out in September

Posted by · 9:42 am · June 28th, 2013

American audiences will have to wait until December 6 to see “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the Coen Brothers’ folk-scene study that wowed critics (and Steven Spielberg’s jury) at Cannes last month. But take heart: you can hear it — well, sort of — a few months earlier, as the film’s excellent (and highly integral) soundtrack is released on September 17. That’s in time for Grammy consideration, by the way — and while it won’t be eligible for any music Oscars, they may as well start engraving the Best Compilation Soundtrack Grammy statuette right now.

“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” already taught us that when the Coens and producer T Bone Burnett get together, magic can happen: the rich, rootsy bluegrass soundtrack to the brothers’ zany Depression-era take on Homer went eight times platinum, won the Grammy for Album of the Year (and four others) and remained a go-to background-music choice in upscale coffee shops for years afterwards. Has there even been such a vast gap between the number of people who watched the movie, and the number of people who bought the soundtrack? I don’t think so. (Burnett, who has an Oscar for co-writing the original song “The Weary Kind” for “Crazy Heart” in 2009, also worked with the Coens on “The Big Lebowski” and “The Ladykillers” — the vibrant gospel soundtrack for the latter being one of its few redeeming features.)

I don’t expect Burnett’s soundtrack for “Davis,” which is obviously steeped in the sounds of early 1960s folk music, to blow up in quite the same fashion — even with current chart-toppers like Justin Timberlake and Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons (the most recent winners of the Album of the Year Grammy) on the bill alongside leading man Oscar Isaac and Mrs. Mumford, Carey Mulligan. But I do expect to hear it at a lot of dinner parties in the year to come, particularly given how en vogue the folk style that defines the film currently is: Mumford himself has been aping it to mega-selling, Grammy-winning effect for a few years now. In particular, the film’s inspired, infectious interpretation of “Please Mr. President,” as performed by Timberlake, Oscar Isaac and (hilariously) “Girls” star Adam Driver is set to be a playlist staple.

12 of the 14 tracks are new recordings — though not new songs, so don’t go getting your hopes up for next year’s Best Original Song race. (Like “O Brother,” “Inside Llewyn Davis” is an example of a film that would benefit from the Academy having a category for Best Adapted Score or Song Score.) The other two are period nuggets: one from Greenwich folk stalwart Dave van Ronk, the other a previously unreleased recording of “Farewell” by Bob Dylan.

Early birds can pre-order from Nonesuch Records and get an exclusive print from the film into the bargain. The full track listing is as follows:

1. “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” (Traditional; Arranged by Oscar Isaac and T Bone Burnett)
performed by Oscar Isaac

2. “Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)” (Traditional; Arranged by Marcus Mumford, Oscar Isaac, and T Bone Burnett)
performed by Oscar Isaac and Marcus Mumford

3. “The Last Thing on My Mind” (Tom Paxton)
performed by Stark Sands with Punch Brothers

4. “Five Hundred Miles” (Hedy West)
performed by Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, and Stark Sands

5. “Please Mr. Kennedy” (Ed Rush, George Cromarty, T Bone Burnett, Justin Timberlake, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen)
performed by Justin Timberlake, Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver

6. “Green, Green Rocky Road” (Len Chandler and Robert Kaufman)
performed by Oscar Isaac

7. “The Death of Queen Jane” (Traditional; Arranged by Oscar Isaac and T Bone Burnett)
performed by Oscar Isaac

8. “The Roving Gambler” (Traditional)
performed by John Cohen with The Down Hill Strugglers

9. “The Shoals of Herring” (Ewan MacColl)
performed by Oscar Isaac with Punch Brothers

10. “The Auld Triangle” (Brendan Behan)
performed by Chris Thile, Chris Eldridge, Marcus Mumford, Justin Timberlake and Gabe Witcher

11. “The Storms Are on the Ocean” (A.P. Carter)
performed by Nancy Blake

12. “Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)” (Traditional; Arranged by Oscar Isaac)
performed by Oscar Isaac

13. “Farewell” (Bob Dylan)
performed by Bob Dylan

14. “Green, Green Rocky Road” (Len Chandler & Robert Kaufman)
performed by Dave Van Ronk




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