La La Land [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Justin Hurwitz

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Composed by Golden Globe Award winner Justin Hurwitz, the Oscar-nominated film’s infectious soundtrack became an instant classic. The main characters, Mia and Sebastian (played by Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling), are chasing their dreams in Los Angeles while at the same time falling in and out of love. The music evokes a jazzy nostalgia, while the songs in the film enhance all of the emotions these characters are feeling — hope, discouragement, passion and desire.

A musical romance about a jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) and an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) set in the City of Angels, La La Land was written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the man behind the 2014 Oscar winner Whiplash. He enlisted his former Harvard roommate Justin Hurwitz to write the songs and score for the film. The pair also worked together on Whiplash, about drummers, and on a 2009 student project that went on to receive theatrical distribution, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, about a jazz trumpeter. Hurwitz is joined here by lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, two veterans of musical theater (the off-Broadway musical Dogfight, TV's Smash, Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen) at the relatively young age of 31 by the time of release. (The latter is also true of Chazelle and Hurwitz.) La La Land's original soundtrack includes both songs and instrumentals, with the songs performed by a cast that also includes John Legend, fresh off his Oscar win for Selma's "Glory," and Callie Hernandez, a musician-turned-actress. Hernandez performs alongside Stone, Jessica Rothe, and Sonoya Mizuno on "Someone in the Crowd," a soaring, uptempo number with swing-era rhythms. Preceding it, the film opens with a big production number set in L.A. traffic that Hurwitz said was inspired by Jacques Demy-Michel Legrand film musicals of the '60s ("Another Day of Sun"). While listeners and moviegoers alike will find that Gosling and Stone don't quite have the singing chops of an Astaire and Rogers, their voices are warm and approachable, and their duet "A Lovely Night," in particular, is a bright charmer. Later, Legend delivers the goods on "Start a Fire," a song written in the context of a jazz musician trying to cross over to the contemporary mainstream. Score tracks range from the tender-slash-anxious piano piece "Mia & Sebastian's Theme," to the legit jazz exercise "Herman's Habit," to the Romantic tone poem "Planetarium." The film and the soundtrack wrap up with a second reprise of Gosling's "City of Stars," this time hummed by Stone, which will likely provide a feel-good earworm after the music ends. ~ Marcy Donelson

Product Details

Release Date:	12/09/2016
Label:	Interscope
UPC:	0602557117776

Tracks

1. La La Land~Another Day of Sun
2. La La Land~Someone in the Crowd
3. La La Land~Mia & Sebastian's Theme
4. La La Land~A Lovely Night
5. La La Land~Herman's Habit
6. La La Land~City of Stars
7. La La Land~Planetarium
8. La La Land~Summer Montage / Madeline
9. La La Land~City of Stars
10. La La Land~Start a Fire
11. La La Land~Engagement Party
12. La La Land~Audition (The Fools Who Dream)
13. La La Land~Epilogue
14. La La Land~The End
15. La La Land~City of Stars (Humming)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Justin Hurwitz   Primary Artist,Vocals
Benj Pasek   Primary Artist
Justin Paul   Primary Artist
John Legend   Primary Artist,Vocals
La La Land   Primary Artist
Jessica Rothe   Primary Artist,Vocals
Sonoya Mizuno   Primary Artist,Vocals
Emma Stone   Primary Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
Ryan Gosling   Primary Artist,Vocals
Callie Hernandez   Primary Artist,Vocals
William Kenneth Goldman   Bass (Vocal)
Sam Stone   Vocals
Steven Gizicki   Vocals
Suzanne Waters   Vocals,Soprano (Vocal)
Jessica Freedman   Soprano (Vocal)
Tim Davies   Conductor
Sara Mann   Alto (Vocals)
Diane Freiman Reynolds   Soprano (Vocal)
Angela Parrish   Vocals,Alto (Vocals)
Jessica Rotter   Alto (Vocals)
Maiya Sykes   Vocals
Fletcher Sheridan   Tenor (Vocal)
Shawn Kirchner   Tenor (Vocal)
Eric Bradely   Bass (Vocal)
Laura Mace   Vocals
Baraka May Williams   Soprano (Vocal)
Scott Oatley   Tenor (Vocal)
Gaby Santinelli   Soprano (Vocal)
Holly Sedillos   Soprano (Vocal)
Christopher Gambol   Tenor (Vocal)
Dylan Gentile   Bass (Vocal)
Jennifer Haydn-Jones   Alto (Vocals)
Edward Levy   Bass (Vocal)
Elyse Willis   Soprano (Vocal)
Steve Amerson   Bass (Vocal)
Briana Lee   Alto (Vocals)
Charles McDonald   Vocals
Jon Robert Hall   Tenor (Vocal)
La La Land Orchestra   Orchestra
Melinda Lindner   Alto (Vocals)
Michael Lictenauer   Tenor (Vocal)
Jon Joyce   Bass (Vocal)
Daniel Fornero   Rhythm,Trumpet
Priscilla Ahn   Vocals
Dan Higgins   Rhythm,Saxophone
Monique Donnelly   Soprano (Vocal)
Gerald White   Tenor (Vocal)
Bob Joyce   Bass (Vocal)
Amick Byram   Tenor (Vocal)
Kevin Axt   Bass,Rhythm
Jim Campbell   Bass (Vocal)
Nicholai Baxter   Vocals
Charissa Nielsen   Alto (Vocals)
Teri Eiko Koide   Soprano (Vocal)
Randy Kerber   Piano
Daniel Chaney   Tenor (Vocal)
Bob Sheppard   Rhythm,Saxophone
Randy Crenshaw   Bass (Vocal)
Gary Novak   Drums,Rhythm
Wayne Bergeron   Rhythm,Trumpet
Greg Lastrapes   Vocals
Marius de Vries   Vocals
Peter Erskine   Rhythm,Percussion
Andrew Martin   Rhythm,Trombone
Dana Williams   Vocals
Raya Yarbrough   Alto (Vocals)
Fiora Cutler   Vocals
D.A. Wallach   Vocals
Jennifer Graham   Soprano (Vocal)
Jasper Randall   Tenor (Vocal)
Mark Edward Smith   Bass (Vocal)
Angie Jaree   Alto (Vocals)
Edie Lehmann Boddicker   Alto (Vocals)

Technical Credits

Edie Lehmann Boddicker   Vocal Contractor
Steven Gizicki   Producer
Mark Graham   Music Preparation
John Stephens   Composer,Lyricist,Additional Music
Greg Dennen   Stage Crew
Eric Boulanger   Mastering
Eldad Guetta   Producer
Carter Armstrong   Pre-Production,Music Consultant
Adam Michalak   Stage Crew
David Marquette   Stage Crew
Justin Hurwitz   Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Orchestration
Jay Narkovitz   Mixing Assistant
Matt Robertson   Producer
Nicholai Baxter   Mixing,Engineer
Celeste Chada   Scoring Consultant
Derek Snyder   Mixing Assistant
Angelique Cinelu   Composer,Lyricist,Additional Music
Benj Pasek   Composer,Lyricist
Justin Paul   Composer,Lyricist
Marius de Vries   Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Additional Music
Jason Ruder   Music Editor
Justin Moshkevich   Pro-Tools
Jasper Randall   Vocal Contractor
Greg Loskorn   Stage Crew
Peter Rotter   Music Contractor