In an age of playlists and autogenerated ways of finding music, “For Fans Of” is here to suggest album pairings to go along with films beloved by Eagles across American University’s campus. Looking through some of the student body’s top films, these pairings intend to capture the sound, vibe, and emotions behind why we love certain movies. For any requests or suggestions, please follow us at @WVAUweb on Instagram!
For fans of Wes Anderson’s “Mr. Fantastic Fox”, I would suggest listening to Belle and Sebestain’s “Tigermilk.” The debut album from the Scottish twee outfit, “Tigermilk” is a record of isolated stories in an interconnected world. Frontman and songwriter Stuart Murdoch envisions a world with the same crude humor, brevity, and Romantic humanity seen throughout Anderson’s films. For fans of the humor, I would highly recommend the beautiful meditation on rebellion and youth, “The State I’m In.” “We Rule the School” reflects the calls to not wanna live in a hole anymore, and anyone moved by the ending will find themselves in the album’s closer, “Mary Jo.”
For fans of Michael Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” I would suggest listening to Nick Keeling’s “A Slow Dance With Someone Who Is Leaving You.” To anyone who has seen the film, the title gives away why I chose it but Keeling’s tape music seizes the listener in a way I cannot that really is not comparable. 35 minutes of bittersweet, lo-fi and hypnotic tape and piano clips push on for the whole record. Particularly for listeners of ambient music, the record is not super jarring. Frankly, by ambient standards, I always found it to be fairly active. But for anyone who wants to hold on to past memories as they fade or to not let go of what once was, Keeling captures it perfectly in sonic form.
For fans of Charlotte Well’s “Aftersun,” I would suggest listening to Hayden Pedigo’s “The Happiest Times I ever Ignored.” Pedigo, an American Primitivism guitarist based out of Amarillo, Texas completed his album set The Motor Trilogy last year with “I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away.” While I could have recommended any of them, “Happiest Times,” much like Aftersun, best expands further as one applies their own memories and revelations onto it. An instrumental record in the legacy of AU alum John Fahey, Pedigo weaves together an abstract yet emotional world where you cannot know all. The times you think back to were all lit from the same sun, cooled by the same air, and remembered in the same mind.
These are not a definitive list of records similar to the films above, but I hope these can point people in the direction to discover something new!
Featured Image: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Directed by Michael Gondry, Focus Features, 2004.