Third place:
Hanna (original score by The Chemical Brothers) [102 points/17 votes]
Second place:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) [127/21]
And your winner...
Drive (original music by Cliff Martinez; music supervisors Eric Craig and Brian McNelis) [179/26]
"When Ryan Gosling was given the chance to pick a director for Drive he probably didn’t plan on an impromptu REO Speedwagon sing-along on an LA freeway to be the deciding factor. But, according to Nicolas Winding Refn, that’s exactly what happened. United in the idea that the film’s core lied in the heart of a lonely stunt driver who listens to bad pop music on his car radio, the two set out to make the year’s coolest movie. The compiled soundtrack chosen for Refn's hyper-stylized action romance sets the mood right from the opening credits with Kavinsky’s ghostly auto-tuned “Nightcall,” complete with lyrics like, “There’s something inside you, it’s hard to explain. They’re talking about you boy but you’re still the same,” that oddly fit Gosling’s nameless driver with the scorpion jacket. This is all part of the timeless, not-quite-real world Refn has created, one where Gosling drives Carey Mulligan and her son through Los Angeles storm drains while the film’s theme song proclaims him, “a real human being and a real hero.” The strangest part of this description might be just how well this combination of keyboard-heavy radio pop and Refn’s consistently stunning visuals works in setting up the film’s more action-packed second half.
Refn pulled these songs and others from the existing catalog of Italians Do It Better producer Johnny Jewel and paired them with the original work of composer Cliff Martinez, whose dark, ambient score for sex, lies and videotape he particularly admired. Martinez offset the pink bubble gum pop songs with a tightly wound atmosphere of hazy dead-of-night sounds that work to constantly raise the film’s tension. It’s a thoughtful, well-executed piece of music that fans of Aphex Twin would enjoy all by itself. Throw in a piece of opera Refn must have come across while watching the supremely strange 1971 film Addio Zio Tom (Goodbye Uncle Tom) (a film that perhaps only a rare Muriel voter has actually seen) and you’ve got some idea the kind of twisted vision Nicolas Winding Refn dreamed up for this intensely original film.
(Note: For Drive soundtrack superfans, Johnny Jewel later created his own excellent full-length score inspired by the film entitled "Symmetry: Themes for an Imaginary Film." Highly recommended listening for when you take the Lambo out for a late night creep around the block.)" - Bryan Whitefield
See the full results here.
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