What is most notable about the soundtrack to Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is the original score by Argentine music wizard
Gustavo Santaolalla (producer of the grand
Café Tacuba recordings and a composer in his own right, as evidenced by his two albums, Gas and
Ronroco). His interludes and cues evoke the very landscape that Lee portrays in his film, but there are also some fine vocal performances by a star-studded cast of singers.
Willie Nelson's read of "He Was a Friend of Mine," complete with squeezebox and layered acoustic guitars, is gorgeous.
Emmylou Harris' performance of
Santaolalla and
Bernie Taupin's "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" is simple, spare, and poignant. "No ONe's Gonna Love You Like Me," a shuffling honky tonk ballad that
Santaolalla wrote for
Mary McBride, employs a crying pedal steel that hits close to the bone and evokes
Patsy Cline in spirit. Likewise, the hard-driving country of "I Will Never Let You Go," written for
Jackie Greene, is tough and tender.
Santaolalla's cues, like the best of
Ry Cooder's film scores, touch the film's scenery, move its narrative, and pricelessly frame it in time.
Teddy Thompson and
Rufus Wainwright team for a throwaway country-swing version of
Roger Miller's "King of the Road," but
Thompson does a fine job on the
Santaolalla and
Taupin tune "I Don't Want to Say Goodbye," which is as heartbroken a ballad as one is likely to hear. This is an utterly wonderful soundtrack that could have done without
Linda Ronstadt's version of
Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy,"
Steve Earle's "The Devil's Right Hand," or even
Wainwright's "The Maker Makes," but those are a small complaints. ~ Thom Jurek