Shabda : शब्द

The composer—whose score aims to reflect the sometimes dreamlike and drug-induced, other times romantic nature of the film—says of his music that it “wraps its arms around a broad array of human emotion, from despair to guarded optimism, and to give play to Mike Nichols’ spare irony and enduring humanism.”

The album was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award: “Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television” but lost both to The Lion King.

Ever-adventurous HBO managed to score a hit with an unconventional series about a family of morticians. The series’ soundtrack is accordingly unorthodox, resembling either an ADD schizophrenic’s mix tape or a particularly eclectic session by a late-night college DJ. Aside from the show’s own creepy theme and a couple of remixes thereof, there’s big-band swing (Peggy Lee), funk (Shuggie Otis), Cuban music (Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez) and more. On the rock side, there’s everything from PJ Harvey’s raw, wordless “One Too Many” to the post-Beck hip-pop of the Beta Band and the driving, Stonesy “Bohemian Like You” by the Dandy Warhols. If only commercial radio stations were as cool as this.