VA - American Honey (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2016)

American Honey is a 2016 British-American drama road film written and directed by Andrea Arnold. It stars Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, and Riley Keough. The film focuses on a road trip undertaken by Star (Sasha Lane) and a group of fellow youngsters who are travelling across the country selling magazine subscriptions. As they move from town to town, across the vast expanses of America, they listen to a lot of music in the mini-van they are travelling in. They also use music for motivation for selling, including a daily ritual of listening to ‘Choices (Yup)’ by E-40. There’s a lot of hip hop, but there are also a few moments in the film in which different sorts of music creep in, including a somewhat surprising appearance of a song by Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

In choosing the hip hop and R&B tracks for American Honey, there appears to have been a desire to not pick the most obvious choices, but to kept things relatively mainstream. The characters can rap along with Kevin Gates, Juicy J, and Migos tracks, and like to grind in the van to Jeremih, but their tastes cover artists who are relatively well known. There aren’t really any ‘deep cuts’ to be found here.

A key scene uses Rhianna and Calvin Harris’ ‘We Found Love’ – this song returns again, playing as something of a signifier of the intoxication that Star feels throughout the film – but unfortunately this serves a little too much to remind one of the far greater use of a Rhianna song in Celine Sciamma’s Girlhood.

There’s also an early moment in which Jake (Shia LaBeouf) serenades Star with a rendition of ‘Dream Baby Dream’, a song by electronic punk band, Suicide. This isn’t the version that Jake, or a truck driver who plays it in his cab, is familiar with though. Instead we hear Bruce Springsteen’s haunting cover version, a cover that is perhaps one of Springsteen’s most beautiful recordings and is easily up there with anything from his sublime Nebraska.

Tracklist:

01. Quigley - Beginning of Anything
02. MadeinTYO, Malcolm Davis & Karl Hamnqvist - Uber Everywhere
03. Sam Hunt, Josh Osborne & Shane McAnally - Take Your Time
04. Kevin Gates, Kevin Gilyard, Andrew Harr, Jermaine Jackson & Maurice Simmonds - Out the Mud
05. Steve Earle - Copperhead Road
06. E-40, Earl Stevens, Clarence Hutchinson, Michelle Bell & David Tima Iosua - Choices (Yup)
07. Jeremih, Lil Wayne, Jeremy Felton, Matthew O'brien, Natasha Mosley, Tricon Markous Roberts & Dwayne Carter - All the Time (feat. Lil Wayne & Natasha Mosley)
08. Ciara Harris, Ciara, Ludacris, Terius Nash, Christopher Stewart & Christopher Bridges - Ride (feat. Ludacris)
09. The Raveonettes & Sune Rose Wagner - Recharge & Revolt
10. Rae Sremmurd, Mike Williams, A.Brown & K. Brown - No Type
11. Carnage, Migos, Diamante Blackmon, Quavious Marshall, Kirsnick Ball & Kiari Cephus - Bricks (feat. Migos)
12. Mazzy Star, Hope Sandoval & David Roback - Fade Into You
13. Holly Lapsley Fletcher - 8896
14. OG Maco, Ishesiaba Chiajulam & Thomas Ray - You Guessed It
15. Carnage, iLoveMakonnen, D. Blackmon & M. Sheran - I Like Tuh (feat. iLoveMakonnen)
16. Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Will Oldham - Careless Love
17. Lady Antebellum, Shane Stevens, Cary Barlowe & Hillary Lindsey - American Honey
18. Raury - God’s Whisper
19. Razzy Bailey - I Hate Hate