When you talk about comfort food, or feel-good movies, I’m sure everyone has their go-to picks, and the range of titles is probably as vast as any horizon. We’ve got a few for sure, but one that constantly offers something new upon repeat viewings is Garth Jennings‘ 2005 adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
One of the many reasons it works so well is the score from Joby Talbot. In a word, it’s tremendous. Talbot, who began playing music at a very young age, has tried all manner of instrument and musical outfits and made a name for himself as keyboardist and arranger with Neil Hannon’s pop group The Divine Comedy from ’93-’02.
A musician with seemingly prolific composer with infinite talents, his work in that film was, in the best way, all over the place, and it perfectly hit the tone needed for this road trip of lovable space knuckleheads. Now jump forward almost 20 years later. With 2023’s Wonka, Joby again crafts some exceptionally tailored music for Paul King‘s colorful prequel about Roald Dahl’s fictional candy man.
Now there’s no denying that Talbot knows his way around an orchestra, and can pen some simply beautiful themes, but this score was quite a challenge. Getting to work on a project with his old friend was a nice perk – coming in after Hannon had been working on the songs gave him lots to work with – yet there were plenty of challenges over an 18 month period. But we’ll let Joby tell you all about that and much more on this episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience.
Now come with us on a trip to a world of pure acoustic imagination!
Now for those who love the sound of the score, and are vinyl enthusiasts, have we got a treat for you! The music to the film is being released and could be in hour hands by this April.
Brought to you by Mutant (a new collectibles, poster and vinyl brand that includes many of the creative visionaries behind Mondo), the score is being offered on CD and two extremely delicious looking vinyl editions pictured below. No matter which one you get, it’ll be like a Scrumdiddlyumptious for your ears…and here’s the pre-order link. Tasty, right??
Vinyl Mutant Exclusive
2 x 140 G vinyl with Nagaoka-style inner dust sleeves housed inside a gloss gatefold sleeve.
Chocolate-scented insert, packed inside a gold foil wrap and oversized belly band chocolate wrapper.
Disc One: Brown and Cream.
Disc Two: Orange and Neon Yellow.
Vinyl 2×LP
2 x 140 G vinyl with Nagaoka-style inner dust sleeves housed inside a gloss gatefold sleeve. Insert and velum obi strip.
Disc One Brown Vinyl
Disc Two Cream vinyl
