Two soundtrack albums were released for the motion picture Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: an original soundtrack and an original score. Co-writer, co-producer, and director Edgar Wright, co-producer Marc Platt, and music producer/composer Nigel Godrich, who also composed the original score, served as executive producers of both albums. The soundtrack includes music by Beck, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Black Lips, T. Rex, the Rolling Stones, Frank Black and Plumtree. They were released on August 10, 2010; the original score only on digital download. A 2021 re-release saw additional music by Brie Larson added to the soundtrack, and a physical version of the score.
The film follows a battle of the bands plot, with the fictional bands each based on a different real music act; production of the soundtrack began several years before the film's release. Though several of the film's actors (those in the fictional bands Sex Bob-Omb and Crash and the Boys) perform on the soundtrack, the film did not look to cast musicians, but lead actor Michael Cera could play bass guitar like his character. The actors for the fictional band the Clash at Demonhead recorded for their music, but were not included on the soundtrack album except as a bonus music video. A song performed by actor Satya Bhabha is included on the score, rather than the soundtrack.
Other songs included are mostly from Canadian and British acts, influenced by British producer and director Wright, and the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel's Canadian author Bryan Lee O'Malley. The soundtrack was released on ABKCO Records, which also allowed the team to use a song by the Rolling Stones for the film and album.
The soundtrack peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard soundtrack chart, also charting in other countries. It received generally positive reviews; the original song "We Are Sex Bob-Omb" won a critics' award and was nominated for two others.
Background and production Music is an important element of the Scott Pilgrim story, with chord progressions for a song being performed by the characters first appearing on page 15 of the first graphic novel. Music producer Nigel Godrich oversaw the music for the film, which he was nervous about because of how bad bands in films usually look and sound, sentiments echoed by lead actor Michael Cera. While working on the film, Godrich said that he would have to ask himself "is this as good as Spinal Tap?" Godrich became involved with the soundtrack when Wright, who had been a friend for many years, called him asking for recommendations on a music producer who could handle both the soundtrack and score.
Interviewed by Den of Geek, Edgar Wright said that he and Godrich "worked on the soundtrack for about two years [with] this idea that each of the fictional bands within the film should have a different artist doing them. So, it was sort of like casting. [...] And we just, basically, cherry picked our ultimate fantasy list of bands to do it." Michael Cera, who plays Scott Pilgrim, said that he was excited to work with Godrich; actors Cera, Mark Webber, Alison Pill, and Johnny Simmons all recorded music for the soundtrack as their characters' band, Sex Bob-Omb. Cera could already play the bass guitar, Scott's instrument, but Webber, Pill, and Simmons had to learn their instruments and were coached by Sloan's Chris Murphy; Wright has said that the production's casting did not look for musicians in particular. Though Godrich had initially reached out to the Black Lips to become Sex Bob-Omb, and Times New Viking were also considered, the band's music was based on Beck, who wrote their original songs and contributed others to the soundtrack. Beck was also worried about his contributions, saying that "the problem you see in films about garage bands or fledgling bands is that you can tell how pro the music is, it doesn't feel genuine. All I had to go on was the comic book. When I was writing the songs, I was looking at frames from the comic book." In recording, Webber, who "had never played guitar or sung before in his life", had to record over Beck's vocals with his own. The fictional band Crash and the Boys, which has songs on the soundtrack, is based on Broken Social Scene, with Crash's actor Erik Knudsen also singing; another group in the film is the Clash at Demonhead, based on Metric and fronted by actress and singer Brie Larson as Envy Adams (herself based on Metric's front-woman Emily Haines), with only Metric on the soundtrack.
Godrich reflected on the soundtrack production and the involvement of these big acts, saying that "It's one of those things where it might be better to just not hear any music and to leave it to your imagination. Then it will be as good as it will ever be. But once a few inquiries were made, and it was clear that we could maybe get those people to contribute, it was an exciting prospect." Many of the cast recordings were made at the home studio of Metric's Jimmy Shaw; the band had become friends with Wright when he moved to Toronto for pre-production.
The second song on the soundtrack is "Scott Pilgrim" by Plumtree, the song that inspired the name of the title character. Bryan Lee O'Malley, the graphic novel author, was insistent on having the song included on the soundtrack; it is one of two Plumtree songs featured in the film, and though the band is obscure, they are a favorite of O'Malley's. Similarly, Wright chose to include a version of Frank Black's "I Heard Ramona Sing", one of his favorites, because of how much he used to listen to it when he was infatuated with a girl, long before production of the film, and the coincidence that it matched the main love interest's name. Another O'Malley selection is the Beachwood Sparks version of "By Your Side", which was on the list of songs he compiled to accompany the first Scott Pilgrim graphic novel; Wright also joked that he owed the original writers of the song, Sade, "some publishing money" after having had his characters in Shaun of the Dead use a Sade album to fend off zombies. In his graphic novel playlist, O'Malley describes "By Your Side" as "a swirly cosmic countrified cover of a Sade song. It's the ultimate Scott Pilgrim love song." Also on the playlist was "Sleazy Bed Track" by The Bluetones, which then inspired Wright to suggest including a song by Blood Red Shoes, a band with a similar sound. Both "Sleazy Bed Track" and Blood Red Shoes' "It's Getting Boring by the Sea" are used.
Beck and collaborator Brian LeBarton worked on all of the Sex Bob-Omb songs, of which six are included on the original soundtrack. They wrote and recorded all of the songs over a few days in 2008; in 2020, Wright said that "Beck wrote 32 Sex Bob-Omb songs in 32 hours". They were recorded just as quickly on 8-track tape, and left rough. Lyrics for the title track "We Are Sex Bob-Omb", sung by Webber, were only added later when the production decided to use it for the opening titles. "We Are Sex Bob-Omb", played at a band rehearsal in the film, parallels an original song that was written in the corresponding rehearsal scene in the first graphic novel, where O'Malley "not only lays out all the lyrics they're singing for the reader, but also provides chord progressions, charts for fingerings and even the time signature and feel" of the song.
The graphic novels noted that Crash and the Boys' songs are three seconds long, which Godrich took as defining precisely what kind of band and sound that makes them. Knudsen recorded the lyrics for their two songs (Broken Social Scene had written four, but two were not used); O'Malley recalled that Knudsen's favorite band is Broken Social Scene, and that the actor was thrilled to be working with Kevin Drew from the band for the film. Broken Social Scene were asked to create Crash and the Boys' songs "because they had become friends of [Wright and Godrich] in Toronto". The short and loud music style is different to Broken Social Scene, but Wright described the band as versatile and suggested that they had taken inspiration from Napalm Death and similar music they had listened to as teenagers.
The soundtrack features a version of the Metric song "Black Sheep" with Haines as lead singer, per the band's request, though it is sung by actress Larson, also a musician, as the Clash at Demonhead's singer Envy Adams in the film. Metric had performed the song in concert as early as 2007, but had not released it before this soundtrack. An instrumental was also done of the Clash at Demonhead's bass player Todd Ingram, portrayed by Brandon Routh, for the song, but this was not used in the film. Routh spent "three or four months" learning to play bass for the film.
For the Sex Bob-Omb song "Ramona", Wright gave Beck the prompt to "do an acoustic song that only uses the lyrics 'Ramona, oh my my Ramona: Beck wrote numerous versions, of simple songs, with the one played by Cera in the film being one of the most complex.
The Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb" was also used in the film and on the soundtrack; the rights to this song are owned by ABKCO Records, who learned about the film when the production were trying to use the song. Wright says that ABKCO then saw a cut of the film and wanted to let them use it, which was also influenced by Godrich using his friends' band The Hotrats to record a cover that they all agree was uncomfortably close to the original. ABKCO then joined the project to release the soundtracks. While it is used for narrative purposes in the film, it is also said to be Wright's favorite Rolling Stones song.
The original score contains some of the melodies written by O'Malley for the graphic novels, as well as songs by Dan the Automator and Cornelius. These include the Bollywood-inspired song performed by actor Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel and the electronic number given to the Katayanagi Twins band for their fights against Scott.
Music The soundtrack contains a mix of classic rock, alternative rock, indie, garage and post-punk.
Sex Bob-Omb's sound is that of a sloppy garage rock group, and Matt Burdick describes Webber's vocals as lead singer Stephen Stills to be "yelpy". The first song of the film and soundtrack is Sex Bob-Omb's title song, "We Are Sex Bob-Omb", which plays over the opening titles and is described as a "fuzzed-up, sloppy rocker" by Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times and "raw, down and dirty" by The Playlists Rodrigo Perez. The BBC's Mike Diver writes that the song "roars and swaggers". Wright said of that song that "you can hear [...] that the bass drops out. The drumming rhythms change constantly because they're just hammering away." Godrich explained that the song was given to them as a short instrumental, and that they chose to use and extend it because it is "riffy" – Beck was surprised that they wanted to use it.
The band's song "Garbage Truck" is described by Perez as a "simple, mid-tempo stompy punk-fuzz number" and by Martens as a "sludgy anthem [that] is a mix of self-deprecating humor and misfit pride". While considering it to have a critical role in the film, Martens notes that its distorted levels can strain home sound systems. Webber sings the lead vocals, with a version sung by Beck included as a bonus track on the deluxe soundtrack. Wright found that Webber and Beck contrasted sharply in their delivery of the lyrics, with Beck's blending into the mix, as he had intended. As with "We Are Sex Bob-Omb", Beck has said he was surprised that the song was chosen. "Summertime", however, has clear lyrics; Beck again expressed surprise, here because he felt the song most represented Sex Bob-Omb's sound, due to its looseness, but it was mainly used over the closing credits. Wright had explained that at different points in production, the song was going to be in different parts of the film, but those cuts did not work.