Juno [Soundtrack]

Original Soundtrack (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2008)
• Original Release Date: December 25, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Rhino Records
• ASIN: B00104W8T6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (205 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,358 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #43 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > General

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Director Jason Reitman's warm, compassionate comedy about an unanticipated teen pregnancy was not only a dark horse Oscar® nominee for Best Picture, but saw this soundtrack CD top the charts just two weeks after its release. It's a collection wherein quirky, generation-spanning folk and rock choices are rooted in something more rewarding than mere eclecticism for its own sake--namely the sense of unlikely, hopeful humanity that Kimya Dawson's core songs bring to its slightly askew axis. Dawson's spotlight performances here range from a handful of decidedly twee solo cuts, to the album's key "Anyone Else But You," (her 2001 duet with Adam Green released under the Moldy Peaches moniker,) and a couple more upbeat oddballs by the singer's more recent Antsy Pants project. That effusively innocent musical core is augmented with a pair of eminently sympathetic tracks from Scottish twee-pop magnates Belle and Sebastian, then seasoned with a mix of catalog tracks that spans eras from Buddy Holly to Sonic Youth--utilizing styles as diverse as the Kinks, Mott the Hoople, and Velvet Underground--that nonetheless manage to bolster the film's tender emotions with a graceful, (if skewed,) charm that's hard to resist. --Jerry McCulley


Director Jason Reitman made a whole slew of great decisions with his justly lauded film Juno. One of them was the choice of music he used, which gave potent voice to this soundtrack companion. While all of the songs added energy and emotional atmosphere to the scenes, it was the inclusion of numerous numbers by Kimya Dawson that subtly enhanced the wonderfully drawn title character. Dawson's homemade immediacy and faux stream-of-consciousness lyrics felt like songs that the character Juno would listen to, or create. Dawson's seven (one recorded with Adam Green, her partner in the Moldy Peaches) are interspersed among a dozen other selections which straddle generations--Buddy Holly, The Velvet Underground, Mott the Hoople, Sonic Youth, and Cat Power--and moods, sequenced to flow like one delightful radio program. --David Greenberger

Product Description

Original soundtrack to the 2008 coming-of-age comedy directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking). The narrative centers on whip-smart Juno (Ellen Page, in a breakthrough role), a teenage girl faced with an unplanned pregnancy from an afternoon with the charmingly unassuming Bleeker. Juno finds her unborn baby the perfect set of parents in Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), an affluent suburban couple who are eager to adopt. Along with the total support of her parents, Juno conquers her problems head-on, displaying a youthful exuberance that is both smart and unexpected. Features tracks from Kimya Dawson, The Kinks, Buddy Holly, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Mott The Hoople, Cat Power and others. Rhino.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Film, Terrrific Soundtrack January 7, 2008

By Michael Z. Jody

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Juno is a gentle, sweet, smart and moving comedy. It's a teen flick that works for adults, and an adult flick that works for teens. The soundtrack is the perfect background (and sometimes foreground) to what goes on in the film, but it also stands alone quite nicely. Most of the songs on the album are quiet, indie, folkie, and acoustic, like the Kimya Dawson songs (three of 'em) which are idiosnycractic and wonderful. Kimya Dawson (formerly of the Moldy Peaches who are also represented here) reminds me ALOT of the Be Good Tanyas (which is intended as a compliment), especially on Tire Swing. There are, however, also some great classic oldie songs from the Kinks and Buddy Holly and Mott the Hoople which are not acoustic-y folkie, but more raucous and energetic. Go out and enjoy the movie and I'm betting you will come back for the music.

78 of 94 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Soundtrack is Perfect Fit January 8, 2008

By Jay Young

Format:Audio CD

The songs in the soundtrack to Juno fit perfectly with the movie. They are soft, folksy, slightly eccentric, and capture the emotional aura of the film's story, characters, and message. I will comment on each of the songs.

* All I Want is You: A delightfully zany song about love; uses analogies ("if you were the wood, I'd be the fire") to get the point across. It's folksy, using the harmonica and guitar.

*My Rollercoaster: A lyric-less song, with the artist just singing "doo-doo-doo." Still, with its whimsical feel, it definitely is in keeping with the spirit of the rest of the album.

* A Well-Respected Man: A nice "soft-rock" song about a well to-do man. It reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel's "Richard Corey," but without the tragic ending.

* Dearest: Buddy Holly. Need I say more?

* Up the Sprout: A short guitar piece that is soft, yet has some "edgy" measures.

* Tire Swing: Kimya Dawson is really a revelation. Her soft-spoken eloquence really shines through. This is another soft-rock song that discusses the writer's experiences with her boyfriend. It includes a canon, which adds spice to the song.

* Piazza, New Catcher: A song about a baseball catcher, who struggles with love and life. This one's fast-moving and has several minor chords.

* Loose Lips: An apt title for the song; Dawson speaks freely. This one's pretty fast-moving, so pay attention.

* Superstar: Definitely the edgiest song on this album, from Sonic Youth, no less. It has a bittersweet feel.

* Sleep: An instrumental song, with humming by Kimya Dawson. Another soft, folksy, sweet song.

* Expectations: A fast, fairly sad song. It's a nice contrast with the rest of the album....

* All the Young Dudes: A great classic rock song, with hints of soul and jazz. Mott the Hopple belts the lyrics out emotionally.

* So Nice So Smart: Kimya Dawson again. Don't let the sunny tune of this song fool you- it's actually quite dark! The chorus is:
"you're so nice and you're so smart
you're such a good friend i hafta break your heart
tell you that i love you then i'll tear your world apart
just pretend i didn't tear your world apart"

* Sea of Love: A slow, melancholy love song.

* Tree Hugger: Think of this as a folk poem song. To give you an idea:
"The flower said, `I wish I was a tree,'
The tree said, `I wish I could be
A different kind of tree,'
The cat wished that it was a bee,
The turtle wished that it could fly
Really high into the sky,
Over rooftops and then dive
Deep into the sea."

*I'm Sticking with You: A self-consciously corny song, but an enjoyable one. It has the "oom-pah" chords and starts out with piano, though it switches to a regular guitar sound eventually. The song begins with "I'm sticking with you, `cause I'm made out of glue." This is definitely not for all tastes- it depends on what your threshold for cheese is.

*Anyone Else But You: A guy and a girl singing to each other about how they couldn't be with "anyone else but you." The Moldy Peaches aren't the best singers, but they're good enough to keep the listener interested, and the music and lyrics are sweet and folksy. This is Kimya Dawson's old band.

*Vampire: A kind of strange song; the singer compares himself (the singer's a 12 year-old boy) to a vampire and sees herself as a social outcast.

*Anyone Else But You: Michael Cera and Ellen Page sing the Moldy Peaches song. This is sweet, and I think their performance is better than the original. Read more ›

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars SERIOUS AND REWARDING MUSICAL THEATRE . . . . . August 1, 2006

By J. T Waldmann

Format:Audio CD

DON'T BE MISLED BY THE "NO LONGER AVAILABLE" TAG. THIS VERY IMPORTANT ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING IS AVAILABLE ON-LINE FROM FYNSWORTH ALLEY. (JTW)

Growing up on a farm in the middle of Nebraska, four hours on two-lane highway from Omaha, I got my Musical Theatre fixes from the movies (this was during the Golden Age of the Hollywood Musical), "The Railroad Hour" on the radio, and the Columbia Record Club. Many were the treasures that came through the mail for [...] plus shipping & handling, and among them was a dark, tragic, yet beautiful musical called JUNO, based on Sean O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock." The music was unlike any other show I had heard up to this point, more in the "classical" vein than Broadway. The composer was Marc Blitzstein, of whom I knew little except that he had written the English lyrics for "Mack the Knife" and the other songs from "Threepenny Opera."

Perhaps because it was the first "serious" piece of American Musical Theatre that I had heard, it remained deeply rooted in my subconscious, and I looked forward to it's being issued as a Sony Broadway CD. Of course, that never happened. So when Fynsworth Alley announced their release in 2002, I immediately went on line and got my copy.

The conflicts of O'Casey's play appear to reflect Blitzstein's personal conflicts. "Born to wealth, he became deeply concerned about the corrupting effect of money. He sought love and fidelity in a world of violence and betrayal. He struggled to support himself until suddenly riches fell, as if from the sky, in his last decade. `Captain' Boyle's vision of a happy life upon the sea in a world with only men may have echoed the fact that Blitzstein lived as openly [...] a lifestyle as it was possible to do in his era.... He was a tireless champion of the working man who, in the end, was murdered by working men." -- (from Robert Viagas' superlative liner notes.)

There are few "happy" songs in JUNO. Jean Stapleton, Nancy Andrews, Sada Thompson & Beulah Garrick commiserate with "You Poor Thing;" "On a Day Like This" is a rare upbeat, inspirational moment; Shirley Booth & Melvyn Douglas spar at one another with "Old Sayin's." The ballads are melancholy: "I Wish It So," which Dawn Upshaw recorded in 1994; the lyrical Irish ballad "One Kind Word;" the folk song-like duet "Bird Upon the Tree." But most of the music is grim, befitting the play: "We're Alive;" "Song of a Ma;" Shirley Booth's wrenching "Where?"; and the ballet music for "Johnny."

JUNO ran for only 16 performances, which is not surprising considering American audiences' aversion to experimental theatre and/or musicals with serious themes. ANYONE CAN WHISTLE lasted just 9 performances; CANDIDE ran for 73; only 136 for CAROLINE, OR CHANGE; MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (16); the powerful anti-war JOHNNY JOHNSON (68); and the real Floyd Collins probably spent more time in that Kentucky sand cave than FLOYD COLLINS spent on the Playwrights Horizons stage in 1996.

I strongly suggest that you make JUNO a part of your musical theatre library. It's an important show by an important, if little known, composer. Hopefully, Fynsworth Alley or some other small, quality-conscious label will see fit to issue a CD version of REGINA , Blitzstein's Tony & Theatre World Award winning setting of Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes" (56 performances, 1959, Columbia LP release). Perhaps DECCA Broadway will do the same for the marvelous 1964 revival of THE CRADLE WILL ROCK with Jerry Orbach ( MGM double LP). Then Marc Blitzstein might become better known for his great theatre works and not just as the guy who wrote the lyrics for "Mack the Knife." Read more ›

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Goddard Lieberson save. June 25, 2006

By John Ellis

Format:Audio CD

"Juno", like Sondheim's "Anyone Can Whistle", was a Broadway flop (7 performances, or thereabouts) that Columbia president Goddard Lieberson recorded anyway because he recognized the quality of the score. This was an era when The Bottom Line didn't strangle every creative decision, Lieberson knew he'd lose money on it (it just came out of "My Fair Lady" profits). The aria - it's too difficult to label a show tune - "I Wish It So" has been recorded by a gamut of singers from Judy Kaye to Rosemary Clooney, and it's one of the handful of most beautiful and haunting American songs, worthy of Kern. As with all of Blitzstein's best songs, the sense of disappointed longing in it is tanglible. The climatic ballet scene where an IRA informer is murdered is still performed by the American Ballet Theater, where it was salvaged by choreographer Agnes DeMille after the show closed. There are amazing talents here: Shirley Booth (who admitted she was miscast later 'but what was I going to do, turn it down?'), Melvin Douglas, who had never sung on stage and never did again, Jack McGowen, the brilliant Irish interpretor of Beckett, Jean Stapleton and Sada Thompson in small roles before they were stars...it's a great but uneven score, quite operatic for the true singers in the cast ("One Kind Word", a glorious song for any Irish tenor). The patter songs for the stars are rather milling, like lesser Noel Coward, but the performers don't really enhance them. They may be better than they sound here, they've never been recorded by appropriate singers/actors. James Naughton, are you listening? The orchestrations are quite heavy, and later attempts to revive it lightened them. Geraldine Fitzgerald appeared in one of them, which cut most of the patter songs.... It shares with "Anyone" the problem that it's book may succeed too well, a commercial American audience may not want to see or hear it, or didn't at the time. The Broadway production was probably doomed when the original director, then just breaking through, Tony Richardson, withdrew a few days before rehearsals because he got a movie deal. If ever a musical needed a strong, imaginative hand, "Juno" is it. Maybe Jerome Robbins could have whipped it into shape, but unlike his protege Lenny Bernstein, Blitzstein would never have worked with Robbins again after his once close friend named names during the McCarthy era. So "Juno"'s failure may have been just one more thing to be laid at Nixon's doorstep.

If you are interested in Bernstein, Sondheim or American opera, Blitzstein is the unsung pioneer and mentor of them, however much the Bernstein estate and Sondheim disparage him now (when mentioning him at all). You will at least find it a very serious attempt by a major American composer to create an American hybrid of opera and musical. It sounds now in most aspects to be way ahead of it's time, a precusor in some ways to "Sweeney Todd"; while in others a contemperary of "Showboat". Not a bad pair to be dangling between. Read more ›