by Chris Feil
Among the many stylistic things Wes Anderson is known for, his music choices are among his most distinct. Each of his films blend an inventive original score with folk-tinged rock and roll (not to mention occasionally too-hip-for-school posturing) to create a fairy tale all his own. Perhaps the most beloved of all of his musical assemblages is The Royal Tenenbaums, a dorm room staple ranging from The Clash to Van Morrison.
And the film begins with one of his most beloved sequences, musical or not: a prologue detailing the Tenenbaum family history set to an instrumental take on “Hey Jude.” Sequence and song are alike: undercut with pain yet too sweet for this world and ultimately quite moving....
This signature Beatles track has a great deal of spiritual kinship to Anderson aesthetic, half-way between iconoclastic artistry and pop sensibility. But the band’s legendary status also casts a glow over the Tenenbaum children, as if to borrow reputation in the audience’s minds as we learn what geniuses they are. It’s a conscious choice and a formative one - like how The Beatles have laid the musical groundwork for millions of us, here they establish the Tenenbaums’ brokenness.
And yet this version by the Mutato Muzika Orchestra has a tinny sound like a child’s music box, like some trinket or toy singing a lullaby to the children that their father never could. It’s an omnipresent voice of sadness over a fairly witty sequence, maintaining a steady tone between Royal’s careless infractions. In the treacly orchestration, we’re constantly reminded what kind of fairy tale this should be while being faced with what it actually is.
Much of this film’s musical (would-be) fairy tale is reserved for Margot and Richie’s not quite incestuous longings. As the two are reunited, time slows to Nico’s “These Days”, a gorgeously contemplative song choice that once felt far more original than it does now. Margot becomes the very enigmatic vision of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a perfect angel to a Richie who knows not and cares not her flaws. At the same time, the reuniting is inherently cinematic though the song’s sentiment pacifies their complicated coupling. The moment will later find its anthesis with “Judy is a Punk” by The Ramones plainly detailing Margot’s misadventures and “Needle in the Hay” by Elliott Smith matching the elegiac quality to darker, more sobering effect.
“These Days” is one of Anderson’s most memorable musical moments, since borrowed and copied ad nausem in commercials for healthy living and connectivity apps. But here it captures the mood of Anderson’s world, too precious to be real in artifice but achingly alive with emotion. This song is what sepia tone would sound like, and we all know that is Anderson’s favorite brand of rose-colored glasses.
Nico returns for “The Fairest of the Seasons” for a more mature, emotionally complex epilogue than the film’s opening. While her steady vocal lends a sense of growth past their previous Tenenbaum pitfalls, its also a fittingly dry and deep goodbye to their absentee father. But the levity and slow-motion reverence returns for Van Morrison’s “Everyone”, as if it was the doting ghost of rascal Royal himself attempting to once again redirect us of joy instead of suffering. This time however, it's for someone else's benefit instead of his own.
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