Milan Records announced Friday March 19, 2021 the digital release of the original score to Spike Jonze’s 2013 sci-fi romance Her. Composed by Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett, this marks the first time the Oscar-nominated score has been available digitally, nearly eight years after the film’s release.
Her follows Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer who falls in love with an A.I. voiced by Scarlett Johansson. It’s a beautiful, but often austere film, perfectly matched by the lush, hypnotic sound Arcade Fire is known for. Pallett has been a longtime collaborator with Arcade Fire, most notably on their Grammy-award-winning album The Suburbs.
While the film blends its sci-fi and romance elements seamlessly, finding that balance in the score proved a bit more elusive. “It seemed as if the soundtrack had originally planned to connect with the sci-fi aspects of the story,” said Pallett, “but Spike was urging a shift toward the score emphasizing the romantic element.”
“There is a mysterious alchemy in the way sound and picture work together, notes and moods shifting and reacting to one another like a kaleidoscope,” added Arcade Fire’s Win Butler. “And even in the absence of visuals, the emotional landscape still remains. We hope you have a moment of stillness to get lost in the music as we did writing and recording it.”
The score was released on vinyl in February, though supplies quickly sold out, leading to a second pressing, and launching it to the top spot on Amazon’s Best Sellers in CDs & Vinyl List. The album is also available as a limited edition cassette tape exclusively at Urban Outfitters.
The score for Her is available digitally here. Check out the cover art and complete tracklist below.
1. Sleepwalker
2. Milk & Honey #1
3. Loneliness #3 (Night Talking)
4. Divorce Papers
5. Morning Talk / Supersymmetry
6. Some Other Place
7. Song on the Beach
8. Loneliness #4 (Other People's Letters)
9. Owl
10. Photograph
11. Milk & Honey #2
12. We're All Leaving
13. Dimensions