Sofia confirmed to compose the music for the film in April 2023.[2] She started working on the score after finishing her compositions for the horror film Cobweb and had a chance to lean the music into the emotional weight and importance of the story, as well as a chance to write thematically, giving unique sounds and instrumentations to each characters.[3] Although she co-composed the music for the 2022 film Rosaline with her husband Ian, she felt that the film offered her a deep insight on the musical themes.[4]
The soundtrack further accompanied two songs from the film. "If I Loved You", the song from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel was covered by Vagabon for the film, who claimed it as an "exercise in discovery". Lopez who had been a playwright, liked her voice and sound that "married to that classical music theater" as she wanted to "preserve the melodic information that makes this song from the original musical so special while reimagining the instrumentation and arrangement".[3] The song was released as a promotional single from the album on July 27, 2023.[5]
Lopez further asked The xx band frontman Oliver Sim for an original composition, but after watching the early cut of the film, he decided to have one of his songs covered for the film.[6] His song "Fruit" which released through his 2022 album Hideous Bastard, was reworked as an orchestral version specifically for the film. As Sim claimed that he made the acoustic version, he further wanted to make the cinematic version of that track, which Lopez had claimed "He took something very delicate and blew it up to these epic proportions. It sounds so swoon-y and hopeful. That was a big win, for me, to get him to do that."[6] This song was released as the second single on August 4, 2023.[7][8]
The soundtrack was issued by Lakeshore Records and released alongside the film's premiere on August 11.[9] A track from the score "First Kiss" was exclusively made available through Screen Rant on August 7, 2023, four days before the film and album release.[4] In addition to the album's digital release, it was further set to be made available in 180-gram picture discvinyl LP with all of its 27 tracks in either sides of the record. The album art accompanied a still from the film with its lead actors, with the record itself covered with the flag of United States and United Kingdom. It is set to be released sometime in January 2024.[10]
Track listing
All music is composed by Drum & Lace, except where noted
Lopez recruited Kristen Higuera and Maggie Phillips as music supervisors for selecting the songs.[11][12] While some tracks such as Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" and Lil Jon's "Get Low" featured in the book as well as in the film, Lopez, at certain instances did not want to include all the songs that were mentioned in the book. The dance sequence between Alex and Henry at Victoria and Albert Museum in London, was soundtracked by the Elton John single "Your Song" in the book, but it does not feature in the film, as the scene he envisioned did not have the song played. Instead Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" which was covered by Perfume Genius was instead played in that sequence. The original song was supposed to be an onset placeholder for the film, until the newly recorded version released in 2016 was finalised.[6]
Lovia Gyarkaye of The Hollywood Reporter complimented the score as "great".[13] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised Drum & Lace's score as "one of the positive aspects of the film".[14] Jeff Conway of Forbes wrote "The movie’s soundtrack quickly becomes its own important character in effectively telling this story."[15]
Release history
Release dates and formats for Red, White & Royal Blue (Amazon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
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