Fun fact. In the song "Going up", the title never features in the lyrics of the song. "Going down" and "Going on" are sung, but "Coming up" is sung in lieu of "Going up".
Development
The development of the film's album came through composer Lyle Workman who wanted the songs to be an independent material whose approach, structure and the recording process being "very much like doing a large-budget record of serious work".[1] Russel Brand was also instrumental in the curation of the soundtrack which demanded songs that were "quality and quirky-like a rock version of Flight of the Conchords".[2]
Kim Garner, the senior vice president of marketing and artist development at Universal Republic Records, said that Brand and Universal Pictures "felt very strongly about doing something like this as opposed to a traditional soundtrack," and that they "wanted to release it like we would an actual rock band's album."[2] Universal Republic curated a piece with the film company that will run through the Best Buy retail stores during the film's release and further produced special content for Record Store Day along with Union Jack Fender guitar (similar to the one that Snow uses in the film) being commissioned as a prize for a label-run contest in weekly magazines across United States. The film was further screened for retailers to expand the distribution of the soundtrack. Furthermore, a music video which Brand had directed premiered on Vevo prior to the film's release while Brand and Jonah Hill curated celebrity playlists for iTunes.[2]
Reception
Stuart Berman of Pitchfork rated the album 5.5 out of 10, summarizing that it "is built upon a more generic, vaguely defined base, so there's less fun to be had in picking out its targets".[4] James Christopher Monger of AllMusic assigned three out of five saying "Infant Sorrow's 15-track 'debut' sounds like something fellow fictional rock star Billy Mack (played by Bill Nighy in the 2003 film Love Actually) would have put out in his Dionysian heydays."[5] A critic from Sputnikmusic wrote "Get Him to the Greek might not have years of lasting humour, but for fans of both Russell and the film itself, it’s all but icing on the comedic cake."[6]
Commercial performance
According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album had sold 3,500 copies within the first week of its release.[7][2]
Track listing
Get Him to the Greek – standard edition track listing