Brokeback Mountain

1	Brokeback Mountain, film score~Opening 1:31
2	He Was a Friend of Mine / Willie Nelson 4:39
3	Brokeback Mountain, film score~Brokeback Mountain 1 2:32
4	A Love That Will Never Grow Old (for the film Brokeback Mountain) / Emmylou Harris 3:20
5	King of the Road / Teddy Thompson 2:52
6	Brokeback Mountain, film score~Snow 1:18
7	The Devil's Right Hand / Steve Earle 2:34
8	No One's Gonna Love You Like Me (for the film Brokeback Mountain) / Mary McBride 3:06
9	Brokeback Mountain, film score~Brokeback Mountain 2 1:59
10	I Don't Want to Say Goodbye (for the film Brokeback Mountain) / Teddy Thompson 3:12
11	I Will Never Let You Go (for the film Brokeback Mountain) / Jackie Greene 1:55
12	Brokeback Mountain, film score~Riding Horses 1:24
13	An Angel Went Up in Flames (for the film Brokeback Mountain) / Gas Band 2:36
14	It's So Easy / Linda Ronstadt 2:27
15	Brokeback Mountain, film score~Brokeback Mountain 3 2:14
16	The Maker Makes / Rufus Wainwright 3:50
17	Brokeback Mountain, film score~The Wings 1:52

Barnes & Noble

At the heart of this contemporary western centered on a forbidden romance between two cowboys is the soundtrack music, produced and largely written by Gustavo Santaolalla. A former Latin rock producer (Café Tacuba, Molotov), Santaolalla takes a minimalist approach here, setting a twangy, atmospheric tone that suggests the work of producers Daniel Lanois and Malcolm Burn. The Argentinean composer's contributions include the Emmylou Harris–sung "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" (co-written with Bernie Taupin) and the honky-tonk weeper "No One's Gonna Love You Like Me," sung by Loretta Lynn ringer Mary McBride. Aided by Bob Bernstein's keening pedal steel guitar, Santaolalla plays guitar and pump organ on nuanced instrumentals such as the sparse "Riding Horses" and the trio of "Brokeback Mountain" themes that will haunt you long after the disc stops spinning. Elsewhere, the mood lightens considerably with the Gas Band's fiddle-driven instrumental "An Angel Went Up in Flames," Jackie Greene's breezy, honky-tonk number "I Will Never Let You Go," and Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright's smoky interpretation of Roger Miller's classic "King of the Road." Two previously released cuts, Steve Earle's stomper "The Devil's Right Hand" and Linda Ronstadt's 1978 cover of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy," add spunk and nicely complement the soundtrack's original fare. Wielding a velvet touch, Santaolalla makes the music behind Brokeback Mountain as compelling and seductive as the lauded film. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

What is most notable about the soundtrack to Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is the original score by Argentine music wizard Gustavo Santaolalla (producer of the grand Café Tacuba recordings and a songwriter in his own right, as evidenced by his two albums, Gas and Ronroco). His interludes and cues evoke the very landscape that Lee portrays in his film, but there are also some fine vocal performances by a star-studded cast of singers. Willie Nelson's read of "He Was A Friend of Mine," complete with squeezebox and layered acoustic guitars, is gorgeous. Emmylou Harris's performance of Santaolalla's and Bernie Taupin's ' "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" is simple, spare, and poignant. The shuffling honky tonk ballad that Santaolalla wrote for Mary McBride, with its crying pedal steel, hits close to the bone and evokes Patsy Cline. Likewise, the hard driving country of "I Will Never Let You Go," written for Jackie Greene, is tough and tender. Santaolalla's cues, like the best of Ry Cooder's film scores, touch the film's scenery, move its narrative, and pricelessly frame it in time. Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright team for a throwaway country-swing version of Roger Miller's "King Of The Road," but Thompson does a fine job on the Santaolalla and Taupin tune, "I Don't Want To Say Goodbye," that is as heartbroken a ballad as one is likely to hear. This is an utterly wonderful soundtrack that could have done without Linda Ronstadt's version of Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy," Steve Earle's "The Devil's Right Hand," or even Wainwright's "The Maker Makes," but this is a small complaint. Thom Jurek