Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Serve on the Challengers Score
The second installment of Jonny’s musical musing comes with a jam-packed week of musical releases. In my eyes, the big story this week is the release of the movie Challengers. This was a perfect storm of my interests. Zendaya and two beautiful men (Josh O’Connor of The Crown fame and Mike Faist from Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story) battle it out as a messy throuple for the ages. Director Luca Guadagnino masterfully blurs the lines between what is sport and what is a conversation. I could not get enough of the camera movement between the characters, mimicking the back and forth of a tennis match. He also shoots tennis matches between the two boys from every possible angle. The shot from below the tennis court kind of blew me away with how much it resembled a Renaissance painting. Of course, Guadagnino also shoots the boys in the most homoerotic way possible. Slow motion, sweat dripping down their foreheads, panting, it’s everything you want in an erotic thriller—a true treat for both the boys and the girls!
Within this hair-raising tennis epic is another classic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Reznor and Ross are the two brains behind the classic alternative rock band Nine Inch Nails, and their foray into movie scores in the early 2010s set the standard for many modern “indie” movie scores. Their first score for David Fincher’s The Social Network is one of the greatest scores of all time and one of my favorite albums of all time. I could write an entire novel about how perfectly the music elevates the scenes from this movie but also provides enough muscle to stand on its own. It is good to give some context for the music in Challengers. The Social Network score is unique because it blends the alternative/industrial music that Reznor pioneered with early Nine In Nails with the production savvy of Ross. They somehow create this electronica that is not precisely Daft Punk (too loud) but not exactly Aphex Twin (too ambient). It sits in this beautiful middle ground. Bangers are all over that score, but they are not too overt. The early Reznor/Ross parings were darker and quieter. After The Social Network, the duo scored Fincher’s next two movies: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl. Both films had less need for the upbeat electronics from “In Motion” in The Social Network and focused more on songs similar to “Hand Covers Bruise.” Electronics came up later in their careers, along with light and airy tracks for the Pixar movie Soul.
The seeds for the quieter tracks in Challengers were sowed from these early works. “L’oeuf,” which plays while the throuple is conversing on the beach towards the beginning of the timeline (also plays later during “Final Set”), shares almost the exact piano melody as “Soft Trees Break the Fall” from the end of The Social Network. Where I think Challengers breaks away from this mold a little bit is with the more upbeat/house tracks. These are the natural highlights for me and show the insane depth of production from Reznor/Ross. Classic house music sampling on the song “Yeah x10” infects this more muggy guitar riff with a respectable groove. The use of horns in this song also really calls out to house in an exciting way. The track that blew me away in theaters was the intense “Brutalizer.” An extremely momentum-filled drum beat is combined with this IDM (Aphex Twin/Boards of Canada) inspired fire-cracker-like sound to create a beautiful crescendo of electronica. It somehow sounds out of this world but grounded at the same time. It almost gives me the sound of a tennis ball being hit sped up 30 times. The obligatory classical song to satiate the electronic madness is one last through-line between the two movies. In The Social Network, the duo remixes “In the Hall of the Mountain King” (still with a lot of electronic zhuzh), and in Challengers, there is a moment of levity with the children's choir singing British nursery rhymes. If you can’t tell, I love this movie, and I love this score. Please listen :)
Challengers took up a lot of the mental volume for music this week, but I did attempt to listen to some other albums. If you haven’t listened to Johnny Cash’s new posthumous song, “Well Alright,” you must. It's almost as h*rny as the Challengers movie, to be honest. I stumbled upon (saw a TikTok) this album of school children singing 60’s/70’s pop classics called The Langley Schools Music Project. This is a collection of songs recorded by a group of children with literally zero music knowledge. Its reviews (from some artists like Bowie and Richard Carpenter) hold it very high regard. It was recorded in the late 70s and rediscovered/uploaded to the internet in 2001. It was so influential that the idea for the School of Rock was inspired by it. It was an exciting listening experience. I love it when artists use a children’s choir to create either a state of naive euphoria or haunting terror. This album somehow has both. Some beauty in childlike wonder comes through in these recordings. The genuine nature of songs like “Help Me Ronda” and “Band on the Run” are good examples of this. The wall of sound from the gymnasium where they recorded is also haunting simultaneously. The version of “Space Oddity” they sing is genuinely chilling. Through these songs, you realize the depth of emotions that children can also experience (versus the standard and vanilla nursery rhyme). It is sad but also very human in a sense. Whatever child soloed “The Long and Winding Road” deserves a Grammy. I will say some songs do sound just like kids singing, so…
The last album I wanted to discuss is St. Vincent’s new release, All Born Screaming. More rock-focused than much of St. Vincent’s catalog, All Born Screaming is a heavy departure from the sleazy 70’s lounge pop of Daddy’s Home. I am happy for her because she is a rock star and has wanted to make something of this nature for a while. I’ve seen the hater’s comments. “Oh, she can finally put her guitar to good use.” Well… yes! The tracks on this album are loud and feature many special guests. Dave Grohl provides drums for the songs “Broken Man” and “Flea.” These were two of the lead singles, and while I liked the rock direction, it didn’t move me as much as her other work. I liked the muffled bassline (maybe?) in “Broken Man.” I think the heavy guitars/drums overpower the track a tad. This sound is at its best when it meshes with more classical St. Vincent sounds. “Big Time Nothing” provides the best example of this. Combining the funky beat of Daddy’s Home with the synthy riffs of her self-titled album, this track is very dynamic. It is not all loud rock music, though. “Hell Is Near” and “Reckless” provide a softer rock sound. Notably, the slow rise and synthy crash in “Reckless” is gorgeous. There has been a lot of discourse on Twitter about the Sophie tribute, “Sweetest Fruit.” The lyrics came out a day or so before the album, and they seemed a little strange. I don’t have an issue with people making music about Sophie; she was such a pillar of artistry. I think the proximity to her death does make this track and others like it a little misguided. Overall, I think I enjoyed this album a good bit. It might take a while to warm up to the overall instrumentation, but this gets the Jonny seal of approval :).
What a doozy! I’ll see y’all at the same time next week <3
