Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Postcards
2. Mr. Gateau
3. Meeting Daisy
4. A New Life
5. Love in Murmansk
6. Meeting Again
7. Mr. Button
8. "Little Man" Oti
9. Alone at Night
10. It Was Nice to Have Met You
11. Children's Games
12. Submarine Attack
13. The Hummingbird
14. Sunrise on Lake Pontchartrain
15. Daisy's Ballet Career
16. The Accident
17. Stay Out of My Life
18. Nothing Lasts
19. Some Things You Never Forget
20. Growing Younger
21. Dying Away
22. Love Returns
23. Benjamin and Daisy

Disc 2:

1. "My name is Benjamin" - Benjamin Button
2. We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City - Doc Paulin's Marching Band
3. "Some days I feel different" - Queenie & Benjamin Button
4. Ostrich Walk - Frank Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke
5. "How old are you?" - Benjamin Button & The Preacher
6. That's How Rhythm Was Born - The Boswell Sisters
7. "When was the last time you had a woman?" - Benjamin Button & Captain Mike
8. Freight Train Blues - Billie & DeDe Pierce
9. Basin Street Blues - Preservation Hall Jazz Band
10. "Thanksgiving, 1930" - Benjamin Button
11. If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight) - Louis Armstrong & His Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra
12. "What's your secret?" - Benjamin Button & Captain Mike
13. Chanson Sur Staline - Choeur de la Cathedrale de la Rue Daru, Paris XVII
14. "A date which will live in infamy..." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
15. Arabeske for Piano in C Major, Op. 18 - Various Artists
16. "Coming home" - Benjamin Button
17. Out Of Nowhere - Sidney Bechet
18. Dear Old Southland - Louis Armstrong
19. "Defined by opportunities" - Benjamin Button
20. Skokiaan - Perez Prado and his Orchestra
21. "Things were becoming different for me..." - Benjamin Button
22. My Prayer - Buck Ram, The Platters
23. Bethena (A Concert Waltz) - Randy Kerber

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22430 in Music
• Released on: 2009-01-19
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, Soundtrack
• Dimensions: .16 pounds
• Running time: 111 minutes

CD Description
Directed by David Fincher (‘Se7en’, ‘Fight Club’), The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is set to become one of the films of 2009 through its stellar cast, direction and, of course, music. The OST is composed, conducted and produced by Alexandre Desplat. Desplat has received Oscar and BAFTA nominations for The Queen alongside the International Film Music Critics Association’s 2007 Composer of the Year award and Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science-Fiction film for The Golden Compass.
This two disc set includes an entire CD devoted to Desplat’s score and a second to jazz, big band and ‘50s classics by Bix Beiderbecke, The Boswell Sisters, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Perez Prado, The Platters and others.
Desplat’s score creates a mesmerizing sonic mindscape that mirrors the unique emotional world of the movie’s lead character, Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt). Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, the movie explores the life of someone who is born an old man and ages backwards, his life progressing in retrograde motion from his birth at the close of World War I to his death at the start of the 21st century. During his backwards lifetime, he falls in love with an exquisite beauty named Daisy (Cate Blanchett). As deep and genuine as their love may be, Benjamin’s reverse biology makes a lasting union impossible.
Desplat’s haunting score creates a mystical, diaphanous haze through which we watch events in Button’s life transpire as if through a scrim of heart-tugging sadness.
The miracle of the movie is that Benjamin embraces life fully and continuously moves forward on his journey. In doing so, he transcends the limitations of his fate. As the empathic beauty of Desplat’s score draws us in deeper and deeper, it transforms the cinematic experience into a heartwarming affirmation of love.
The movie begins in New Orleans in the 21st century, just before Katrina hits. As it flashes back to the time of Benjamin’s birth, in New Orleans in 1918, and follows his retrograde journey through life, Desplat’s haunting music finds its counterpart in the forthright, authentic sounds of the jazz era in New Orleans, as performed by Bix Beiderbecke, The Boswell Sisters, Louis Armstron, and other greats. The contrast between the two sound worlds, as heard on the two separate CDs, speaks volumes.
The composer, who was born in Paris in 1961, has received worldwide recognition for creating an ideal musical language for cinema. Desplat received his first award nomination, the César Award of France (the French movie industry’s main equivalent to the Oscar), at the age of 36. Since then, he has been on a roll, receiving 13 other nominations and nine awards for nine different films.

Customer Reviews

Right on the Button...
Alexandre desplat seems to me to be one of the most underrated of contemporary movie composers working today.
Most people can name James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Michael Nyman etc., yet, Desplat has been producing some of the most consistently beautiful film scores of recent years - 'The Girl with a Pearl Earring' a case in point.
And here, with 'Benjamin Button' he has really excelled himself.
Simply put, this has to be some of the most beautiful music I have heard in a very long time.
'A New Life' is heart-tuggingly beautiful and 'It was nice to have met you' contains sprinkles of the kind of sparkly strings that wouldn't have seemed out of place on the Pinocchio soundtrack - just at the part where he realizes he has become a real boy! 'Sunrise on Lake Ponchartran' is even more gorgeous than its title.
Lush yet understated, quirky yet comforting - The soundtrack - like the F Scott Fitzgerald story it describes, is a proper little charmer. Destined to linger long in the ears, heart and memory.
If you feel in need of a little home-made romance this Valentine's day, Luxuriate in this, definitely the Aural equivalent of chocolate but without the calories... infact, it's the chocolate Button you can enjoy guilt-free over and over again!

Wonderful Score
This film score is all what film music is about, as an independant listen and also it works for what it was written for, the movie!
It is excellently written in a John Barry style and full marks should go to Alexandre Desplat for giving us this wonderful score.
If you apprieciate good film music or even just music you will love this!