Album Review: American Honey Movie Soundtrack Embodies Wasted Youth

American Honey is currently sweeping international awards and minds for its portrayal of a batch of Midwestern youths coursing through America with no sense of self or destiny.  The movie follows Star, played wonderfully by Sasha Lane, as she is enraptured by a world of drugs, sex, and scamming. Believing she has nothing to lose, she joins in with these young “con-artsts”, and falls in love with the charmingly anarchic Jake (Shia Labouf). Such a tale of young love and self-destruction would need a “sick” soundtrack. Luckily, American Honey OST is exactly that. 

//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.jsThe American Honey Soundtrack is, literally, hit after hit. It is filled with some of the premier acts currently rising in mainstream music like, Lapsley, Kevin Gates, and Rae Sremmurd, making it feel like a giant celebration of what is to come. It is this artful selection of “current artists” making their mark on the music industry, which makes the soundtrack feel like a “must” for those that want to hear the “hit-makers” of tomorrow. In essence. it is a perfect match for the film’s exuberant portrayal of youth for all its flaws and joys.

This brush of current talent are masterful in how they represent the emotional roller coaster that is American Honey. Raury’s “God’s Whisper” is just one track that makes this entire album feel like gold. The tribal drums, choral arrangements, and Raury’s lyrics on alienation match the general sentiment of the film; these youths have nothing to lose, which means they will do all to gain. This mentality can lead to danger, which is captured through other songs like “Brick”  and “I Like Tuh” both by Carnage. These tracks are so blatantly exalting of materialism, from sex to money, which is what the film is about as well. The characters are waning in their spirit to which they use drugs and violence as a method to numb the fact that feel like “nothings” Yet, there are classic tracks that give both the film and the soundtrack a quieter sense of heart.

Being a sentient being can constantly be a struggle between exhilarating and exhausting. It is in the more pensive moments of “feeling” that the soundtrack uses classic like Bonnie Prince Billy’s Careless Love and Razzy’s “I Hate Hate” to enlighten the film with some Americana and soul. It is these songs that help to bring down the party feel that can often rush through the album, and gives listeners, like the characters, a time to think. With all the partying that American Honey, in record and film induces, these songs come off like specks of wonderment. It elevates the soundtrack to mystical because one minute you are jumping to Jeremih and the next you are lying down to some Lady Antebellum. Its power over your mind will be nothing less than magic. Moreover, its wide variety is reflective of the personas and overall characterizations of being young.

American Honey is a film for the angst of every rising generation, and proof that being young can be a mental chaos of clashing emotions. When you are a “kid” or “young adult” you are trying to learn how to not press self-destruct on your life. while having no idea what it means to live. The film touches on themes of young love, drugs, violence, criminality, and the overarching sense of inner lostness that can spark such a period in one’s life. Hence, this acclaimed film needed a soundtrack that could measure to both its darkness and lightness. After all, life is about consistently discovering your growing inner value, and American Honey’s soundtrack musically shows the ups and downs of that journey.