Karen O lets her inner child shine throughout the soundtrack to the film adaptation of classic children’s book Where The Wild Things Are

The start of Karen O’s career led us all to believe that this badass rock chick probably didn’t even know about the existence of an acoustic guitar, but this soundtrack finds her diving head first into the world of laid-back folk textures. The lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, O’s voice can be as raspy and whiskey damaged as Lemmy; yet for the ballads she has the ability to summon a silky smooth, beautiful voice, the latter of which is highlighted on this album. Featuring members from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Deerhunter, and the Dead Weather, “The Kids” paired impeccably with O to create a soundtrack, which like the movie, can be enjoyable for all ages.

When you first hit play, you are greeted with a quote from the movie (it is a soundtrack after all) “I could use a story,” and O begins crooning. It becomes immediately obvious that you are not about to listen to the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs record, however, the exquisite acoustic guitars and xylophone instantly guarantee an enjoyable listen. With no break in between that laid-back introduction song and the up-tempo, hard-hitting “All is Love,” listeners are sure to realize that you will never get tired of happy and hopeful songs about L-O-V-E. At this point O’s roots in indie-rock prove too strong to be ignored in the face-smack of a song “Capsize.”

It wouldn’t be appropriate to rock that hard for the rest of this soundtrack, so O picks her acoustic guitar up again and continues with the mission of atmospheric folk for a few more songs. She slows the tempo down greatly for songs like “Hidaway” and “Cliffs,” delivering beautiful vocal deliveries on all of them. But then you get the song “Animal,” where we can finally hear that crazy Karen O-scream (which made us all buy Fever To Tell in the first place.) Closing it all out with “Sailing Home,” she sums up everything we’ve just heard: the acoustic guitars, the xylophones, the textures, the crooning, and the notion that nobody’s inner child should be ignored.

While “Where The Wild Things Are” gives us the perfect opportunity to go around telling everyone that the book is better, the soundtrack itself is enough of a reason to enjoy. This may be what Karen O has wanted to do since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs released “Maps.” This is the perfect context for her to unplug the guitars, change the weird clothes, wash off all the makeup and have some fun. So if you are looking for the next Yeah Yeah Yeahs record, you will have to wait a little longer, but if you feel like sitting down and remembering everything you loved about being a kid, this movie and its soundtrack are perfect for you.

Kenny Pirog, Contributing Writer