Not to be outdone by Ariana Grande’s impending record news, filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón has announced the track list and release date for his new album, which, coincidentally, is also due Feb. 8. He’s the curator of “Music Inspired by the Film Roma,” which was already teased by a Billie Eilish track, and is now revealed to include songs from an eclectic lineup of rock, pop and EDM acts including Beck, Patti Smith, El-P, DJ Shadow, Laura Marling and T Bone Burnett.
This new album is not to be confused with “Roma (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack),” which came out in December and contains the songs — mostly but not entirely Spanish-language — heard in the movie. The “Inspired By” album consists of all new recordings, mostly but not entirely in English, and credits as co-producers Lynn Fainchtein, who served as music supervisor on the film, along with Randall Poster, another celebrated music supervisor.
Beyond the familiar names on the new album are a few newcomers — notably 16-year-old Bu Cuarón, the director’s daughter, who makes her debut with what a press release calls “a synth-heavy, electro-pop gem” titled “PSYCHO.”
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A few tracks are “inspired” remakes. Released today as an advance track is Beck’s “Tarantula,” his “radical reimagining” of an obscure 1982 track by the group Colourbox, which features a 24-piece orchestra led by Beck’s famous arranger father, David Campbell. Patti Smith, meanwhile, is modernizing her own 1996 song “Wing” for the new album.
One track appears on both “Roma” albums, albeit in different versions: “Those Were the Days,” the 1968 Mary Hopkins hit heard in an easy-listening Ray Conniff cover on the soundtrack, reappears here in a new rendition by the British folk singer Laura Marling.
International artists include Mexico’s Sonido Gallo Negro and Quique Rangel, Israel’s Asaf Avidan and France’s Ibeyi. Closer to the Oscars’ home, the album covers R&B with Jessie Reyz, hip-hop with El-P, and EDM with DJ Shadow and UNKLE.
Three of the tracks bear movie titles, although all of these are new songs written for the album. Bu Cuarón’s “PSYCHO” is an original composition, as is T Bone Burnett’s putative title song, “Roma.” El-P is joined by Wilder Zoby for a track called “Marooned,” which clearly takes its title from the real 1970s movie-within-a-movie in “Roma,” but it too is a newly penned track, and not based on the vintage film’s score. All of these originals are said to incorporate ambient sounds from the Alfonso Cuarón film.
A track list for the album:
- Tepeji 21 (The Sounds of ROMA) – Ciudad de México
- Wing – Patti Smith
- Tarantula – Beck
- When I Was Older – Billie Eilish
- PSYCHO – Bu Cuarón
- On My Knees – UNKLE featuring Michael Kiwanaku
- Con El Viento – Jessie Reyez
- Marooned – El-P & Wilder Zoby
- Cumbia del Borras – Sonido Gallo Negro
- La Hora Exacta – Quique Rangel
- Cleo Who Takes Care Of You – Ibeyi
- We Are Always Alone – DJ Shadow
- Between These Hands – Asaf Avidan
- Those Were The Days – Laura Marling
- ROMA – T Bone Burnett