Atomic Blonde (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2017 film Atomic Blonde directed by David Leitch. The film's original score is composed and produced by Tyler Bates and was released through Back Lot Music on July 28, 2017.
Background From the start, director David Leitch felt that using the right songs for Atomic Blonde (2017) was crucial. Part of this was attempting to answer the question "How do you reinvent this stuffy Cold War spy movie?" The soundtrack uses a combination of 1980s songs as well as covers of them. The latter were used to add "a contemporized feeling of the '80s". The movie's producers were initially worried that they would not be able to get the rights to all the songs that Leitch wanted to use, but Leitch himself estimated that around 75% of his picks made it into the final product. Though the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the concentration of iconic songs was from the first half of the 1980s, with the exception of George Michael's 1988 chart-topping "Father Figure", which itself was Leitch's second choice after the 1986 release "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin. Angela Watercutter of Wired noted that the use of streaming media made the makers easily access the music catalog and helped in the licensing.
Release The soundtrack was released through Back Lot Music on July 28, 2017. A vinyl edition of the album, published by Mondo was released on August 25, 2017.
Reception Matt Collar of AllMusic said that the soundtrack "features an evocative collection of '80s-era tracks that fit nicely into the 1989-set actioner".
Accolades Award Date of ceremony Category Result Golden Trailer Awards June 6, 2017 Best Music St. Louis Film Critics Association December 17, 2017 Best Soundtrack
Track listing
Additional music Other songs in the film, but not included in the soundtrack:
Chart performance Chart (2017)PeakpositionUK Compilation Albums (OCC)77UK Album Downloads (OCC)35UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC)10US Billboard 20079US Independent Albums (Billboard)3US Top Soundtracks (Billboard)11
References