If you’ve seen I Heart Huckabees, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or a few other great films, or if you’ve listened to Kanye West, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, you’ve probably enjoyed the work of Jon Brion. A producer, composer, singer, and general entertainer – he has his hands in many projects.
Eternal Sunshine is one of my favorite movies from recent years, in large part because of Brion’s soundtrack, which helps to elevate any number of scenes. Part of his talent is the ability to extract the essential element and magnify it, whether that be the surreal, gentle sadness, or unbearable pain. This short instrumental is my favorite, sounding distant, on the verge of being forgotten, but with a single current that burrows deep. It’s the sound of a dream that fades on waking, but which you can still feel echoing somewhere below your conscious mind.
Brion only sang on one track for Eternal Sunshine but lent his vocal chords to about half a dozen on the Huckabees soundtrack. On this one, he shows that he can do the sensitive but haunting indie pop song as well as anyone.