Biography
Most of its ethereal electronic-pop score was composed by Cliff Martinez, past drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose ambient work on the Sex, Lies, and Videotape soundtrack Refn was a particular fan of. The score contains tracks with vintage keyboards and bluntly descriptive titles. Refn wanted electronic music for the film and to have the music occasionally be abstract so viewers can see things from The Driver's perspective. He gave composer Martinez a sampling of songs he liked and asked Martinez to emulate the sound, resulting in "a kind of retro, 80ish, synthesizer europop". Editor Matt Newman suggested Drive's opening credits song – "Nightcall" by French electronic musician Kavinsky.
Two modified songs from The Social Network soundtrack, written and produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are used in the movie. They are not credited in the movie and not included on the released soundtrack. One is a piano-less version of "Hand Covers Bruise". The other is "3:14 Every Night". Brian Eno's "Ascent (An Ending)" is also used periodically during scenes between Ryan Gosling and Carey Muligan.
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As Winding Refn was going through mixer Johnny Jewel's catalog, he picked out "Under Your Spell" and "A Real Hero" because he thought of Drive being a fairytale. During Drive's climax, "A Real Hero"'s keynote melody, about becoming "a real human being, and a real hero", refrains because that is when The Driver changes into both those statuses'. At first, Jewel worried that the latter might be too literal but soon realized it is used in Drive "in the exact same way that I was feeling it when I wrote it. He definitely got the nuance of the song, and understood what it was supposed to mean, and he wanted to give that emotion to the viewer, that same feeling."[44]
Thinking of music in terms of basic elements, Jewel would tell the director that for certain scenes, it should not have bass since, as an earth tone, it usually is used for a more emotional or ominous part. Jewel thought the music should be upper register and relaxing for the "dreamlike" scene. To help himself with the writing process and conjure up melodies, the mixer would perform a procedure where he highlighted many phrases from the novel, then printed those words in large font and hung them on his walls or drew pictures during viewings of Drive.
Sold as Drive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), it was released in CD format to stores on September 27, 2011, by Lakeshore Records. Prior to that however, thanks to viral reviews, such as those found on social networking website Twitter, the soundtrack has sold well on iTunes climbing as high as number four on the sales charts. The album will also be released on vinyl in June, 2012, by Mondo. So far, the 19 track album has amassed positive reviews. James Verniere of the Boston Herald gave it an "A" grade, stating "The cool crowd isn’t just watching Drive; they’re listening to it, too... The Drive soundtrack is such an integral part of the experience of the film, once you see it, you can’t imagine the film without it." Allmusic reviewer James Christopher Monger selected opening track "Nightcall", "I Drive", "Hammer" and "Bride of Deluxe" as highlights on it. Digital Spy's Mayer Nissim gave it a four out of five star rating, finding it to be as important as the film itself. She stated the album beginning with non-Martinez songs instead of mixing it up for a more enjoyable listening experience cost it a star.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.