Swiss Army Man is more than just a symphony of farts and boners — there’s quite a gorgeous score to go along with. To accompany the limited opening of the film, the full OST has now been released to stream. The directorial debut of duo Daniels, the film follows Hank, a stranded man down on his luck (Paul Dano) who finds solace and maybe even a way home in the form of a talking corpse named Manny (Daniel Radcliffe). Due to the inherent isolation and lunacy of the conceit, Daniels’ wanted the entire score to be taking place in Hank and Manny’s heads — songs they’d create themselves — with no real instruments utilized (with a few notably poignant exceptions).
To make this bold choice work, Daniels turned to Georgia indie rock sensation Manchester Orchestra, with whom they’d collaborated on their music video, “Simple Math.” Lead singer Andy Hull took to the idea like fish to water, or rather, like a man-ridden corpse to water. With the help of lead guitarist Robert McDowell, the duo grabbed the concept and ran: “It was the craziest story I had ever read and I knew that only these two insanely talented individuals could pull off something this ambitious,” Hull wrote on the band’s official Facebook page. “I immediately wrote and recorded a song with Robert and sent it to them. I guess we did something right because that was when this 13-month-process of scoring our first movie began.”
Some songs had to be recorded before the film was shot, as actors Dano and Radcliffe had to sing along, namely to “Montage,” which has been bouncing around as a single for the past few months. The entire process took about a year’s worth of work, and the result is a dreamlike, dynamic musical journey that is in turns melancholic and uplifting in equal measures. In the words of Hull himself, “It was and is surreal. The end result is at times really trippy and lonely.” Borrowing the main melody of Jurassic Park at once instance, the score meshes the familiar and uncanny to create something wholly unique.
It is an extremely ambitious undertaking, demonstrating the dynamic range of Hull’s vocals as well as his mind, and it’s some of Hull and co.’s best work. “There are also songs that have over 100 voices singing and sound outside of anything I thought we would be able to create,” Hull summarizes. “What we aimed for was something really beautiful that can evoke emotions without having to always use lyrics or any traditional instrumentation. It’s an up and down journey that parallels the travels and conversations of these two characters. It was easily one of the greatest experiences of our lives. It really pushed and stretched us to think outside of the box and outside of our comfort zone.”
Along with streaming the entire 24-track album below, read more on the band’s creative process , our review of the film, and watch all of Daniels’ previous work. We’ve also included a batch of featurettes, including one about the score.
Swiss Army Man is out now in NY & LA, with a nation-wide release July 1st.