Johnny Greenwood — You Were Never Really Here(OST)

Much like the film its scoring Johnny Greenwood’s soundtrack for You Were Never Really Here nicely plays & messes with one's perceptions to create a score that effortless darts from beauty, queasy uneasy & sleek tension. With Greenwood shifting all over the instrumental & genre map, blending together elements of formal & lush string scoring, avant classical texturing, electrionica, pressing ‘n’ sour ambience, and twanging guitar elements.

You Where Never Really Here is the fourth film from Scottish writer/ director Lynne Ramsay( We Need To Talk About Kevin, Ratcatcher). It tells of troubled, traumatized & unkempt contract killer(Joaquin Phoenix), who is given the task of tracking down a girl who's been wrapped up in a child sex ring. The film shifts between reality and delusion, and brutality and compassion- to create an arty slow-burn psychological/revenge thriller, that often jars one's expectations in a most effective manner. I was lucky enough to see the film on the big screen recently and was both taken by its mix of emotional power & arty grimness, and this was very much enhanced by Greenwood's soundtrack.

The score takes in fourteen tracks and has a total running time of forty-one minutes. And I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that it held up well on its own, as a stand-alone album- with enough variation, surprise, and change in tone to make it enjoyable as both background music, or closer listening fare, due to the way Greenwood expertly utilizes different sonic textures & genres.

The album opens with the track "Tree Syntherziers"- it's a blend of constant cascading–to-circling electro ambience, and lush ‘n’ slowly swooning string melody- this creates a golden beautiful but slight unbalancing feel. Directly after this we have "Sandy Necklace"- to begin with it focuses in on a elector stretched & slight glitch bound guitar textures, before a tight mesh of picking ‘n’ snaking avant percussion are introduced with an unusual blend of throbbing gangsters film like bass line & searing-to-sour string work, which once again gets nicely pulled out of pitch shape by electro manipulation.

Later on, we have “Brothel (Bass Clarinet)” which is simmering & often darkly angular blend of pressing horn drone and swirl ’n’ whistling string pitches. “Dark Streets” brings together tight snapping electro cymbals beats, deep banks of synth simmer, and minimal cut-up film dialogue. And “Joes Drive” goes all slicing malevolent string work, with brutal & angular pick-noises.

You Where Never Really Here soundtrack really shows a flair for creative sound use, clever & daring genre-blending, and sleek arrangement- all the while maintaining the films air of queasy unbalance-ment between mental unwell-ness, love, and the human condition.