The Our Idiot Brother soundtrack. Some might say that marketing/advertising is a profoundly dishonourable profession. That it’s all a three-ring circus operated by slick-talking snake oil salesman, peddling premium-priced versions of the emperor’s new underpants to gullible schmoes, with this in turn further fuelling the excrement-spewing media pipeline that pumps crap directly into the poor unsuspecting public’s collective cranium.

And when you find that a movie which was called MY Idiot Brother just six months ago, when it played to a largely positive reception at Sundance, has now been rechristened OUR Idiot Brother ahead of a US release at the end of next month, it’s hard not to wonder just how many marketing monkeys it took to change that particular re-branding light bulb, and how much green they scored for their (lack of) efforts.

But if the name-change smacks of tinkering for the sake of charging an oversized fee, then there is an altogether stronger whiff of integrity emanating from the accompanying soundtrack album, it eschewing chart favourites and radio hits in favour of fostering a more low-key, slightly ramshackle vibe, seemingly corresponding to the movie’s titular figure, sunny-sided stoner Ned (Paul Rudd). As such, the album features no fewer than three helpings of Willie Nelson, including the gold-plated genius of his Midnight Rider (originally recorded for another movie, 1979′s The Electric Horseman), the ’60s-style shuffle of the Generationals’ When They Fight, They Fight, and Taking You with Me, a collaboration between the Silver Seas’ Daniel Tashian and folkster Mindy Smith.

The relative hipness of the whole endeavour (certainly when compared to the recent comedy likes of Bridesmaids and The Dilemma) can surely be attributed to the demiurgical influence of score co-composers, Eric D. Johnson and Nathan Larson, and that duo snaffle roughly half of the 16 soundtrack spots. Johnson, guitarist in the Shins and main-man of the Fruit Bats (who also contribute one track here, Lightning Bug), scores two solo credits, Larson chips in with one, and the two together collaborate on a further four.

Of that latter quartet, perhaps the most notable is Cowboys and Hobos (which, incidentally, was what Jon Favreau’s new movie was called, before the ad-men got their paws on it), featuring Cardigans’ vocalist Nina Persson, who was presumably pestered into getting involved across the marital bed by hubby Larson.

Our Idiot Brother is released in the US on 26 August. The soundtrack is out three days earlier.

You can buy the Our Idiot Brother soundtrack here

Our Idiot Brother Soundtrack (Songs) – Track List
1. Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree – Eric D. Johnson
2. Wonderful Future – Willie Nelson
3. The Main Title – Nathan Larson & Eric D. Johnson
4. When They Fight, They Fight – Generationals
5. Lightning Bug – Fruit Bats
6. Mellotron Melody – Nathan Larson
7. Midnight Rider – Willie Nelson
8. Taking You With Me – Daniel Tashian & Mindy Smith
9. The Harvest Theme – Nathan Larson & Eric D. Johnson
10. Cool Yourself – Thao with the Get Down Stay Down
11. Ol’ Blue – Willie Nelson
12. The Taxi – Nathan Larson & Eric D. Johnson
13. Cowboys and Hobos – Nathan Larson & Eric D. Johnson, featuring Nina Persson
14. 2 Roadrunners – Eric D. Johnson
15. The Things You Lost – El May
16. Beautiful – Carole King

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