The 6 Best Jonny Greenwood Film Scores
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When he’s not touring the world and writing music with Radiohead as the band’s keyboardist and guitarist, Jonny Greenwood has a pretty successful side-hustle as a composer and song curator for films. Thanks to his signature style of toying with strange instruments like the ondes Martenot, Greenwood imbues his scores with a range of sounds—from the experimental and atonal to the straight ahead rock ‘n’ rollin’—in order to fit a film’s aesthetic.
Radiohead only has a smattering of international tour dates this summer, but most of the films that Greenwood scored are currently streaming on Netflix. So as the heat of the summer builds, take a cool retreat back to your couch and watch these six movies with Greenwood’s best, mellifluous, orchestral and entrancing scores.
6. Bodysong
Bodysong, an offbeat documentary inspired by art house films, is Greenwood’s first credit as a composer. In response to the film’s experimentalism, Greenwood’s score seems to create tapestries of orchestral sounds. Plus, he somehow manages to squeeze in his signature style guitar sound in a few tracks.
5. We Need To Talk About Kevin
Greenwood curated 18 songs for this 2011 moody psychological thriller. Working in songs by Brian Wilson and Buddy Holly alongside the Happy Days theme song and traditional music of Liu Fang, this soundtrack comprises an intense musical foreshadowing that builds up the narrative’s murderous climax.