''Where the Wild Things Are: Motion Picture Soundtrack: Original Songs by Karen O and the Kids'' is the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

to the 2009 film ''

Where the Wild Things Are ''Where the Wild Things Are'' is a 1963 children's picture book written and illustrated by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, originally published in hardcover by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several tim ...

''. It is performed by Karen O and the Kids. It was released on September 29, 2009, in CD, LP, and digital download formats.

Background

Karen O, the vocalist of the

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, wrote the film's soundtrack. Her bandmates Brian Chase and

Nick Zinner Nicholas Joseph Zinner (born December 8, 1974) is an American guitarist for the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a record producer. Zinner is an accomplished photographer. Musical career Before forming the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs with Karen O and ...

and former touring guitarist Imaad Wasif,

Deerhunter Deerhunter is an American indie rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2001. The band currently consists of Bradford Cox (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Moses Archuleta (drums, electronics, sound treatments), Lotus Plaza, Lockett Pundt (guitar, ...

's Bradford Cox, Liars' Aaron Hemphill, The Dead Weather's

Dean Fertita Dean Anthony Fertita (born September 6, 1970) is an American rock multi-instrumentalist.Brian McColluMetro Detroit musician Dean Fertita moves to the front lines with the Dead Weatherfreep.com Retrieved: 2009-07-25 He is best known as a member of ...

, and

Jack Lawrence Jack Lawrence may refer to: *Jack Lawrence (songwriter) (1912–2009), American songwriter *Jack Lawrence (artist) (born 1975), British comic book artist and animator * Jack Lawrence (bluegrass) (born 1953), American bluegrass guitarist * Jack Lawre ...

from The Raconteurs all also contributed. When director

Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

approached Karen O to write the soundtrack to ''Where the Wild Things Are'', he cited

The Langley Schools Music Project ''The Langley Schools Music Project'' is a collection of recordings of children's choruses singing pop hits by the likes of the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, and David Bowie. Originally recorded in 1976–77, they were found and rereleased only 25 ye ...

's ''Innocence & Despair'' as an example of the desired "simple melodies that were emotionally complex—something that both kids and adults would appreciate". " All Is Love" was released as the soundtrack's lead single on August 25, 2009, and is featured in the credits of the film.

Reception

The soundtrack received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the soundtrack received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 77, based on 16 reviews.

Track listing

All tracks performed by Karen O and the Kids and produced by O and , except "Lost Fur", performed and produced by

Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has consistently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. Burwell has also scored three of Todd Haynes's films, three of Spike Jonz ...

Personnel

* Karen O – vocals (1–9 11–14), guitar (1, 2), production (1–9, 11–14) *

– keyboards (2, 12, 14), organ (3–5), marimba (4, 6), piano (11, 12), guitar, (3, 13), backing vocals (11) * Bradford Cox – guitar (2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14), backing vocals (2, 11), vocal effects (3, 9), glockenspiel (1), ambient sounds (3), bells (4, 7, 13), vibraphone (5) * Tom Biller – organ (1, 5–7, 9, 13), guitar (2, 11, 12, 14), percussion (2, 12, 14), bass (5, 12), drums (3), church bells (3), backing vocals (11), banjo (12), mixing (1–9, 11–14), production (1–9, 11–14), recording (1–9, 11–14) *

– bass (2–4, 6–8, 11, 13, 14) marimba (4), backing vocals (11) * Brian Chase – drums (2, 3, 5–7, 9, 11, 12, 14), percussion (8) backing vocals (11) * Imaad Wasif – guitar (1, 2, 6–9, 11, 12, 14) backing vocals (11) harmonica (13) * Greg Kurstin – piano (4, 6, 11 ) * Mark Chalecki – mastering (1–9, 11–14) *

– electric guitar (2), guitar (6, 12, 14) * Oscar Michel – bowed bass (8) *

Max Records Maxwell Records (born June 18, 1997) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Max in the film ''Where the Wild Things Are'', for which he won the 2009 Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film, and as Slater Pedu ...

– co-lead vocals (2) * Aaron Hemphill – drums (3) * Tristan Bechet – drum programming (5), guitar (12) *

– orchestrater (10), conductor (10) * Mark Stewart, Marc Ribot – guitar (10) * Barbara Allen, Victoria Drake – harp (10) * David Weiß – woodwind (10) * Sharon Yamada, Laura Seaton – violin (10) * Robert Reinhart – viola (10) * David Cossin, Gordon Gottlieb – percussion (10) * Rob Botti – oboe (10) * Michael Farrow – mixing (10) * Tony Finno – copyist (10) * Sandra Park – strings contractor (10) * Pavel Vinnitsky – clarinet (10) * Eileen Moon – cello (10) * Marc Goldberg – bassoon (10) * Greg Cohen – bass (10)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2009 soundtrack albums DGC Records albums Fantasy film soundtracks Interscope Records soundtracks Karen O albums