Mudbound (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the film score composed by Tamar-kali to the 2017 film Mudbound directed by Dee Rees. The album featured Tamar-kali's score along with three original songs performed by the Ek-Stompers and "Mighty River" by Mary J. Blige, which received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Song. The album was released on November 17, 2017, through Milan Records.
Background Singer-songwriter Tamar-kali was chosen to score music for Mudbound, having previously worked with Dee Rees on providing songs for Pariah (2011) and Bessie (2015). Dee Rees was instrumental in bringing Tamar-kali to score for Mudbound, after liking her work in Pariah, and previously wanted her to score music for Bessie, but executives at HBO wanted a seasoned composer which led to the involvement of Rachel Portman. In an interview, Tamar-kali said that the score was representative of the environment that the film was set in – the mud, the oppression – and had planned out the soundscapes after watching the only cue.
Tamar-kali was not only involved in composition, but also in production, orchestration, conducting, recording and mixing as well. She had worked on 40 minutes of the score for four weeks. In an interview, Tamar-kali said that the climax of the film, featured only rough cue, while most of the pieces which she wrote were improvisational, especially on one scene where they took Ronsel to the barn which Tamar-kali was afraid of it, as it was intense and sensitive. Tamar-kali had to watch that sensitive scenes over and over so that she has an emotional reaction to these sequences and then create a gut-wrenching piece for the sequences.
Reception David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "the expressive and distinctively varied score of Brooklyn-based multicultural composer Tamar-kali" aided the film. Peter Debruge of Variety wrote "Tamar-kali’s Dolby-mixed score swells all around". Chris Bumbray of JoBlo.com called Tamar-kali's score as "remarkable". David Ehrlich of IndieWire listed the score as one of the 40 best film scores of the 21st century. Ehrlich said "Moments of levity jump out of the higher registers like flickers escaping a fire, but the music always returns to that low rumble, those strings absorbing all manner of hardship and violence. That consistency only makes Tamar-kali’s final tracks more powerful, as the torture of 'Missing Letter' gives way to the divine transcendence of '…But for Love.'"
Track listing
Accolades AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient(s)ResultAcademy AwardsMarch 4, 2018Best Original Song"Mighty River" – Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson Black Reel AwardsFebruary 22, 2018Outstanding Original Song"Mighty River" – Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson Georgia Film Critics AssociationJanuary 12, 2018Best Original Song"Mighty River" – Raphael Saadiq, Mary J. Blige and Taura Stinson Golden Globe AwardsJanuary 7, 2018Best Original Song"Mighty River" – Raphael Saadiq, Mary J. Blige and Taura Stinson Guild of Music Supervisors AwardsFebruary 8, 2018Best Song Written and/or Recording Created for a Film"Mighty River" Hollywood Music in Media AwardsNovember 16, 2017Original Score – Feature FilmTamar-kali Original Song – Feature Film"Mighty River" – Raphael Saadiq, Mary J. Blige and Taura Stinson World Soundtrack AwardsOctober 17, 2018Discovery of the YearTamar-kali
References