It Took Me 127 Days to Post the 127 Hours Soundtrack, But It’s Stuck in the Queue No More

It took me slightly more than 127 days to post the 127 Hours soundtrack, but at last it’s here. I saw the movie quite some time ago and even wrote down all of the songs from the movie, but it took the performance of “If I Rise” by A.R. Rahman and Florence Welch at the Oscars to stir me from my slumber and post at last. Strange, because the original song isn’t performed by Florence or her machines; it’s actually Dido. They didn’t win the award either – Randy Newman took home his second Academy Award, after 20 nominations.

“If I Rise” is one of 11 songs in the 127 Hours. Like “Jai Ho,” the A.R. Rahman song from Slumdog Millionaire, it certainly sets the tone of the film. It is triumphant and heartbreaking at the same time. The rest of the soundtrack consists of an interesting mix of Scooby Doo, surf music, classical songs and 70s anthems, not to mention the incomparable (or is that incomprehensible) but amazing Sigur Ros.

I really like the movie too. James Franco did an amazing job of keeping you interested and engaged, even in in the confines of a canyon. I much preferred the canyon to the Cast Away. I also was very happy that I saw 127 Hours on a 7 inch back-of-the-airplane-seat movie screen. Thankfully, not everything is shot in 3D. The tendon scene had me ripping at my own arm, and not in a good way. Damn that was rough.

Hope the wait for the soundtrack from 127 Hours hasn’t been too rough on you. Here’s the complete list of songs from 127 Hours in the order they appeared in movie and with notes on the scenes they were in. The soundtrack album to 127 Hours has a good number of the songs, but you can find the whole kaboodle here.

• Opening scene and driving in his truck – Never Hear Surf Music Again – Free Blood
• Saturday, bike – Sleeping Monkey – Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall [link to live performance by Phish]
• Thinking about being at the party, singing Scooby Doo – Scooby Doo, Where Are You – Ben Raleigh and David Mook
• Monday, dreams of drinks – Lovely Day – Bill Withers
• Flashback to being in the back of the van – Ca Plane Pour Moi – Plastic Bertrand
• Flashback, parents on video camera – Nocturne No.2 In E-Flat – Frederic Chopin
• Wakes up, hears laughing – If I Rise – Dido and A.R. Rahman
• Flashback, in the rain, standing at door of girlfriend – If You Love Me (Really Love Me) – Esther Phillips
• Thinking of sister, playing piano – Heart And Soul – Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael
• Makes it out of the canyon – Festival – Sigur Ros
• End credits – If I Rise – A. R. Rahman
• Original music – Original music for 127 Hours – A. R. Rahman

Here’s If You Love Me, but I could only find the Donna Loren version to embed:

And Bill Withers at his best with Lovely Day:

 

But the song that is having the most fun must be this flashback to Plastic Bertrand:

~ by montelutz on February 28, 2011.