The Original Score Soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 from composer John Murphy (Suicide Squad, Kick-Ass, 28 Days Later) is now available through CD and digital download.
In addition, a 12-inch vinyl release is out Friday along with a cassette version on July 7th.
The details include the collection of 17 songs making up the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 has been released on CD and Digital Download on May 3. The soundtrack will also be available on 12-inch 2-LP vinyl on May 5 and will be followed by the cassette version on July 7. The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Original Score digital album, featuring music by composer John Murphy, was released on May 3.
Adding to the in-camera action is Gunn’s love for music — even planting music into his screenplays from the very first draft. Gunn has mastered the art of creating “needle drop moments” where a song pulls audiences right into the moment. Using playback with the selected songs allowed the actors to step into the world, on the other side of the edit, which also helps with their performances.
Music has been a huge part of the Guardians of the Galaxy
Writer/director James Gunn admits it was a difficult task to choose the music for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
“I was never confident in it until I did the first screenings and people reacted so well to it,” says the filmmaker. “I kept changing what the music was going to be in the script. I knew that we had the Zune, so I knew that it was going to be off that, and I could’ve stuck with all seventies music like in the first two movies. I could’ve moved on and just done eighties or I could’ve done just nineties, because there’s a lot of good spacey Brit pop from the nineties. In the end, I decided that I was going to do a mix of different types of music and hope that it didn’t fight each other.”
For Chris Pratt, Gunn’s choices just led to another awesome mixtape.
“Music has been a huge part of the Guardians of the Galaxy,” Pratt explains. “The first Awesome Mix was the one Peter Quill’s mother gave him and he took to space. This was the music that defined who he was. In the second movie, it was a tape that she had left him that he never opened for fear that it was the last thing he’d ever see of her. But finally he opens it and that gives us the soundtrack for the second film. Then the third film is all music that comes off of the Zune that was given to Peter Quill by Yondu. That music moves out of the seventies and into bands like Beastie Boys and Radiohead and Faith No More. The music has continued to help the franchise evolve, and there’s some great music to accompany you on this ride.”
Gunn’s style of writing the song titles in the script and then playing the songs over scenes on set resonates with the actors.
Karen Gillan says, “Everything has been decided already, and all of the songs are written into the script. We also received a playlist before starting to get us in the zone. Every time there’s a song in the movie, they play it on set whenever the music cue is set to kick in, so it feels like we’re in the movie already. We definitely get a feel for it. The music just really unites everybody in a scene, and it just sets the tone. It’s a kind of fun, cool thing, and everybody always gets excited when the music plays. It kind of injects us with a little extra energy.”
Sean Gunn concurs and adds, “You can’t overestimate how important it can be to understand what a scene feels like when the song is playing, and you know what it’s going to sound like. It’s one of the coolest things about working on a Guardians movie. The songs are built into the fabric of the scenes. It’s a vital, creative part of the process just like set design or costume design. The texture of the sound is built into everything we do.”
Gunn tapped British composer John Murphy to score the film. Murphy most recently worked with Gunn on The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and The Suicide Squad.
“James is the most musically savvy director I’ve ever worked with and I’m very proud of the score we created,” comments Murphy. “I was already a huge Guardians fan, so to be a part of this special film has been an honor and a joy.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now in theaters with Thursday previews and opens officially this weekend on Friday.
