Record Label: Lakeshore Records
Genre: Soundtrack
Band Link:
Buy on Amazon.com link

I’m sad to report that I have yet to see Little Miss Sunshine and it seems like I waited too long to go see it now. It’s not playing in theaters by me anymore so I guess I’ll just have to wait for the DVD. For now, I can enjoy part of the movie with this lovely soundtrack! The music is composed by Mychael Danna with the eclectic indie-folk band DeVotchka. They collaborated on the score and re-worked some DeVotchka’s original material for the score. There are a few other songs on here that they don’t do but the majority is Danna and DeVotchka. I literally just found out about DeVotchka before this soundtrack came out. I guess MySpace is good for some things after all; it helps me discover some cool bands like DeVotchka.

There are a few DeVotchka songs (“How It Ends,” “You Love Me”) that were on their album “How It Ends,” which was released back in 2004. Danna adapts to the band’s style and the two worked well together. The album opens up with a score track from Mychael Danna and it’s an instrumental version of “How It Ends,” but mixed with some new elements as well. Up next is DeVotchka’s “Til the End Of Time,” written exclusively for the movie (I think). It has a very spaghetti western feel to it. It has the whistling, acoustic guitars, and the singer has that singing style you might hear in some Spaghetti Western film. These guys are really unique and definitely different than the music I usually listen to. They are a cross between Gogol Bordello and The Decemberists, but they certainly have a sound all their own. There’s a remixed version of “You Love Me” by DeVotchka, which is another song I can’t stop listening to. I wished their song “We’re Leaving” was on the soundtrack because that’s my favorite song by them. Sufjan Stevens has 2 songs on the soundtrack, first with the fun tune “No Man’s Land” and then the catchy “Chicago.” The track “First Push” is really a short version to DeVotchka’s “The Enemy Guns,” which was also on “How It Ends.” I really liked Sufjan Stevens’ songs as well, so I’ll have to look out for some albums by him. The instrumental score tracks are very tuba and accordion/squeeze box driven, but there is also some songs with a violin in there as well. Since I haven’t seen the movie yet, I’m not sure why Tony Tisdale’s “Catwalkin” or Rick James’ “Superfreak (Rocasound Revamp)” is in the movie. Maybe it’s when they are at the beauty pageant? The album closes out with two DeVotchka’s song, an instrumental track “La Llorona” and then Little Miss Sunshine conveniently ends with “How It Ends.” I really don’t like the intro to that song, because it sounds like the phone was left on. But once the accordion kicks in, and then the piano it becomes quite a nice song to listen to.

I’m not sure how much involvement Mychael Danna really had on the score since there aren’t many tracks by him on the CD. But I’m assuming there is a lot of score tracks that connect the dots so to speak. But I guess I’ll find out when I get to see the movie. But I really enjoyed this Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack, and it’s probably the best soundtrack since Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels (or Snatch).

Bottom Line: Since I got this soundtrack, it hasn’t left my CD player.
Notable Tracks: Til the End of Time, You Love Me, No Man’s Land, Chicago, How It Ends
Overall Rating: