Wednesday 27 March 2013

M83: Oblivion



M83's title track to the new Tom Cruise film Oblivion has appeared online.

The track Oblivion features vocals by Norwegian singer-songwriter Susanne Sundfør.

Given Anthony Gonzalez's apparent like for the more cosmic things (the band is names after a galaxy after all) involvement in the soundtrack of a science fiction film seems an obvious move.

Gonzales composed the score with Joseph Trapanese, who arranged five tracks on M83's Hurry Up I'm Dreaming album, and worked with Daft Punk on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.

The track StarWaves - a slow instrumental - from the film soundtrack emerged earlier.

The film is based on a graphic novel by the same name, which was written by Joseph Kosinski, who made his film directorial debut with Tron: Legacy, a film that also memorably featured a French band's soundtrack.

2011's Hurry Up We're Dreaming gave M83 their biggest commercial hit, and a film soundtrack seems a good move in that it allows them to build on the success of that release without the weight of expectations of a new album. Although a soundtrack for a $100m movie is hardly a low key release.

That being said, the song - complete with its 80s influences - could easily be imagined as a massive hit single along the lines of songs like Show Me Heaven by Maria McKee from Days of Thunder or Take My Breath Away by Berlin on Top Gun.

Of course, those with longer memories recall Tangerine Dream, a European electronic act with a cosmic attitude, doing the soundt
rack for Risky Business, an early hit for Tom Cruise.

Whether or not Tom Cruise remains the big draw at the box office that he was in the 80s remains to be seen, but there's no denying the soundtrack certainly deserves top billing.

The film Oblivion is released on April the tenth.


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