Jonny Greenwood
You Were Never Really Here OST

THE REVIEW

This album is, in my opinion, a good opportunity to take stock of Jonny Greenwood’s prolific career as a film score composer. Starting in 2003 with "Bodysong," this has become his main occupation over time, culminating (at least in terms of formal recognition) with an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score for "Phantom Thread." Paul Thomas Anderson can be considered a sort of "discoverer" of Greenwood: the director took a significant chance on him starting in 2007 with "There Will Be Blood," and the collaboration continued over the years with "The Master" (2012), "Inherent Vice" (2014), and of course "Phantom Thread." Films that have different settings and have highlighted Greenwood's versatile nature, who has always had a certain inclination towards both more experimental sounds and avant-garde symphonic music.

"You Were Never Really Here" (Invada Records / Lakeshore Records) is the soundtrack for the new film by Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, the film promises to be a psychological thriller full of emotional tension, centered around a mysterious conspiracy. Given the settings and dynamics of the story, but especially the characterization of the protagonist (a former veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder), Greenwood (who previously worked with Ramsay in 2011 for "We Need to Talk About Kevin") has developed more compulsive and drone-like sounds, alternating between moments of understated minimalism ("Sandy's Necklace," "Nausea," "Hammer and Tape"...) with tension-laden orchestral themes ("Hunt") and references to a certain avant-garde cinema from the first half of the last century ("Votto," "Joe's Drive"), but ultimately the two ambient sessions, "Tree Synthesizers" and "Tree Strings," and the insistent synthetic component stand out.

Some loops from "Sandy's Necklace" and "Nausea," the dubstep of "Hammer and Tape," and even some nuances in "Tree Synthesizers" actually reflect some of the sound nuances of Radiohead, but this certainly does not detract from the artistic growth of a musician universally regarded as one of the major innovators in the field of pop music since the nineties. Having already greatly appreciated "Phantom Thread," this new soundtrack also has a quality content that stands out on its own regardless of the film, a characteristic that I believe constitutes a great merit of Greenwood, and I cannot help but acknowledge it. Well done.