Briefly Gushing Over the Her Original Score

I love Arcade Fire. At this point, I think they might be my favourite band. Their music has this incredible range, where it can be anthemic and euphoric, but also full of anguish and fear. The sounds then get filtered through these lyrics about suburbia, Greek myth or technological paranoia, which are all subjects whose exploration I adore. Over five albums, they've done outstanding work... Except that there's a sixth album, never before given an official release, an album that might be my favourite. That album was their score for the 2013 movie her and next month, at long last, it is getting a proper release, both in physical form and on streaming platforms. As someone who pre-ordered the vinyl as soon as this news came out, let me explain to you why it is so wonderful.

First actually, I should probably set up the film her, in case you are unfamiliar. It's a story set in a near future, about a man named Theodore who falls in love with his sentient operating system. On the surface it seems like a premise primed for either cheesy comedy or trashy horror, yet the film embraces this premise with a completely straight face and uses it to explore our modern loneliness. It seems like a story about a man falling in love with an operating system, but it's actually a film about a man who has fallen out of love with himself after a turbulent divorce. Through a relationship with someone who isn't there, he tries to find it. Is "it" love, his sense of self, maybe something bigger? That's for you to decide. There's something incredible about the power this film has, which is its eternal relevance. It came out eight years ago and felt pretty relevant then. Now, it's like watching a documentary. Especially with so many of us around the world still locked down in our homes and separated from any potential romance, finding love through a screen is all we can do right now. Theodore's story is emotionally very close to where many of us are right now. Or at least, it's certainly where I am.

The whole score creates feelings of being big, small, alone, here in the world.

So that's the basic outline, but all the filling in is great. The visuals are superb, the performances are all completely believable at every moment and the script gently guides us between humour and heartbreak. It's that music though, the music I just keep coming back to. Being someone not trained in music analysis, it's hard to describe it to you, but try listening to some bits from it on YouTube for a taste. The rock elements of Arcade Fire are abandoned and, to steal a phrase from Phoebe Bridgers, the music makes you feel as if its holding you like water in its hands. It's so gentle, relying on very sparse use of the piano on top of occasionally soaring strings to create feelings of being big, small, alone, here in the world. In the gothic sense, there's a sublime feeling to the music which makes Theodore and the audience feel as if they are being overwhelmed by something much bigger than them, in his case heartbreak. There could be no greater musical accompaniment to his journey.

This score has power beyond just the film though. Sure, I probably feel a lot of the weight because I connect the music to a film I love, but I think it has a startling power even divorced from the source. I've felt so much melancholy over the last year, which again doesn't feel like something exclusive to my experience with the way the world is. I've been sitting around and I've been reflecting on times before, when I was happier and felt more at a place in the world. That reflection has led to a lot of me staring out of the window at whatever quiet little slice of England I'm currently occupying, thinking about where I was and where I'm going. Whenever I hit that mood, the score for her immediately comes on. There is this whole school of thought about Greek tragedy that it's a place in which the audience can come, feel intensely negative emotions and then walk away purged of them. In a way, I think that's what I'm going for. The emotions I feel when I want to put on this score aren't so terrible that they shouldn't be felt, they're just confusing emotions to know what to do with. They're fear of the future, sadness at what I didn't do, anxiety over what it is I should be doing now. These emotions can all be nurtured and led to places of healthy growth, but it's difficult for me. Without the use of any lyrics though, this music takes me to those places. I get to play out a fake emotional arc in my own head, as if I am a movie character. I'm not, I'm quite real as far as I know, but I can imitate the kind of emotional closure that isn't real but is very comforting.

In a year that has started bleak, this is one of many rays of light finally starting to burst through the clouds.

At this point, it's hard to know what else to say to you, the music speaks for itself. If you listened to it and liked it, go watch the film! It's an incredible work of art and the score is just one reason it's amazing. A big reason, granted, but there's so much in it to love. That's why this release is exciting. Finally I can put away the bootleg YouTube copies of the tracks and get the real stuff, either through a streaming platform or a vinyl I bought because I want to support a band I love. In a year that has started bleak, this is one of many rays of light finally starting to burst through the clouds.