With its first season coming to a shocking end, HBO series Westworld starring Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachael Wood, and more, has released its extremely recognizable and modern soundtrack, composed by Ramin Djawadi (who also scores Game of Thrones).
Throughout the season, Westworld featured versions of the Metallica‘s “Fade to Black,” Soundgarden‘s “Black Hole Sun,” and multiple Radiohead songs, such as “No Surprises,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” and “Exit Music (For a Film),” the latter of which was played in the final, culminating scene of the last episode, where….just kidding, we wouldn’t spoil it for you.
Some versions could be heard on the player piano featured in the western-style saloon, or through acoustic guitars and percussion during the frontier landscape scenes, or in other electronic stylings when the show took us to the lab where the androids were being worked on by technicians. Whatever the case, Djawadi provided viewers with beautiful, stripped down arrangements very well-known songs.
In an interview with Pitchfork, Djawadi explained the clear dichotomy between past and present in the show and musical arrangement, “You see the settings and the way people are dressed and even though you know it’s robots and it’s all made to be modern entertainment, you would think the people in control would make everything authentic, including whatever is played on that player piano. It would be from that time period. And when it’s not, it’s that subtle reminder that, ‘Wait, there is something not right. This is not real.’ It’s just such a powerful tool that only music can do.”
Take a listen to the soundtrack below, via Spotify:
[via Pitchfork]