"Broken" Soundtrack Lyrics

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"Broken" Soundtrack Description

Questions and Answers

Is there an official soundtrack album for Broken (2007)?

Yes. An official soundtrack CD was issued in 2007, featuring multiple songs by The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the in-film performance “The Hanging Tree” sung by Heather Graham.

Who composed the original score?

Composer Jeehun Hwang wrote the original score, providing tense, nocturnal textures between the source songs.

Does Heather Graham really sing and play guitar in the film?

She does—Graham learned guitar for the production and performs “The Hanging Tree” live to camera in character.

Which artists dominate the source music?

The Brian Jonestown Massacre supply the bulk of the needle-drops, giving the film a woozy neo-psych undercurrent.

Is the movie itself from 2006 or 2007?

The film premiered in 2006 and saw wider U.S. release/video in 2007; the soundtrack album arrived in late 2007.

Can I stream the album today?

Digital availability is spotty; the 2007 Fuel 2000 CD shows up most reliably on collector and catalog sites, while select tracks circulate via artist releases.

Notes & Trivia

• Heather Graham’s character is an aspiring musician, and the film folds her diegetic performance of “The Hanging Tree” directly into the narrative (as noted by The New York Times).
• Several soundtrack cuts are by The Brian Jonestown Massacre, tying the picture to the West-Coast neo-psychedelic scene of the 1990s–2000s (according to IMDb’s soundtrack page).
• The original score is by Jeehun Hwang, whose cues act as grit between the source songs (per the film’s credits and reference listings).
• The official CD came out on Fuel 2000 in November 2007, with catalog details archived by specialist retailers.
• Marketing leaned on Graham’s live rendition—promo clips highlighted the barroom staging to sell the film’s moody L.A. after-hours vibe.

Overview

Why does a hazy psych-rock groove keep sneaking into a breakup thriller? Because Broken is as much about a mood—late-night L.A., bad decisions, neon-soaked memory—as it is about plot. The soundtrack leans on The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s narcotic swirl and Jeehun Hwang’s tense, humming score to mirror Hope’s fractured headspace as she tries to pry herself loose from an obsessive ex.

Across the film’s 2006–2007 release window, the album gathered those needle-drops alongside the standout in-story performance “The Hanging Tree,” sung by Heather Graham. That mixture—source songs with a lived-in barroom ballad and a minimalist score—gives the movie a tactile, after-midnight texture that critics called out even when they were divided on the film itself (as stated in Variety’s and Time Out’s reviews).

Genres & Themes

• Neo-psychedelia & garage haze — Brian Jonestown Massacre tracks float like secondhand smoke, underlining intoxication, self-deception, and the film’s elliptical chronology.
• Acoustic confessional (diegetic) — “The Hanging Tree” works as a character reveal: a fragile, self-accompanying performance that exposes hope and regret in equal measure.
• Minimalist score tension — Jeehun Hwang’s cues supply pulse and dread during confrontations, letting the source cuts carry memory while the score carries imminent threat.
• Downtown nocturne — Reverb-heavy guitars + diner hum = the story’s liminal space where choices curdle into consequences.

Tracks & Scenes

Scene placements below draw on the official 2007 album listing and widely cited soundtrack credits; where exact timestamps vary by cut, moments are described by story beat for easy spot-checking while viewing.

"Anemone" — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Scene: Used as a mood setter around early diner sequences, its narcotic drift framing Hope’s circular late-night routine (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Establishes the film’s woozy subjectivity, hinting that memory and present tense are bleeding together.

"Free and Easy" — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Scene: Plays over a city-at-night transition as Hope moves between the diner and after-hours encounters (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: The ironic title undercuts Hope’s not-so-free bind to Will’s gravitational pull.

"#1 Hit Jam" — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Scene: Brief needle-drop in a party/club adjacency, suggesting the reckless momentum of the couple’s past (source-adjacent, non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Nostalgic bravado with a frayed edge—perfect for seduction curdling into self-sabotage.

"Mansion in the Sky" — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Scene: Late-night driving montage; the song’s melancholic glide shadows Hope’s second thoughts (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Turns the freeway into a memory loop, echoing the film’s structure.

"You Look Great When I’m F****d Up" — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Scene: A flashback-colored sequence of the relationship’s intoxicated highs, likely surfacing in a bar/loft environment (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Title-as-thesis for the film’s critique of romanticizing dysfunction.

"Who" — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Scene: Transitional cue as Hope weighs whether to answer Will—identity and agency in the balance (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: The refrain “Who” dovetails with Hope’s attempt to reclaim a self apart from him.

"Open Heart Surgery" — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Scene: Post-confrontation comedown; a needle-drop that plays like an emotional autopsy (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Titles the film’s core operation: cutting out what’s killing you without killing yourself.

"Hostage I" — (score/album cue)
Scene: During the robbery/abduction stretch, Hwang’s score tightens the vise (non-diegetic score).
Why it matters: This is where the songs give way to pulse; the thriller engine takes over.

"The Hanging Tree" — Heather Graham
Scene: Performed live in a barroom setting—Hope sings and plays guitar on screen (diegetic).
Why it matters: The film’s emotional anchor; the performance collapses performer and character into one vulnerable voice.

Music–Story Links (characters & plot beats as connected to songs)

• Hope’s confessional vs. Will’s glamour: Diegetic “The Hanging Tree” strips away the neon sheen the BJM tracks once lent their romance; it’s the moment fantasy becomes testimony.
• Memory vs. present: Early BJM cues act like unreliable narrators—rose-tinted, narcotized. As the plot closes in, Hwang’s score replaces haze with heartbeat.
• Agency reclaimed: “Who” and “Open Heart Surgery” bracket scenes in which Hope stops reacting to Will and starts authoring her exits.
• Space as sound: Diner hum + reverb guitars = limbo; warehouse/hostage spaces narrow into pulsing drones and percussion.

How It Was Made (supervision, score, behind-the-scenes)

Jeehun Hwang’s score stitches together suspense passages that let the source tracks breathe between scenes. The production licensed a compact set of Brian Jonestown Massacre recordings to conjure a credible indie-L.A. palette, then anchored the story with a live, on-camera performance by lead actor Heather Graham—she learned guitar specifically to sing “The Hanging Tree” for the shoot. The official 2007 album (Fuel 2000) mirrors that hybrid approach: psych-rock cuts, select cues (“Hostage I”), and the diegetic ballad in one package.

Reception & Quotes

“Pretentious film tricks and clichés galore shatter ‘Broken,’ a druggie drama…” Variety

“A pretty blonde moves to L.A. to pursue stardom but gets lost in a haze of sex and violence.” Time Out

“Hope… moves to Los Angeles in order to become a singer… Will, however, is dangerously unstable.” Rotten Tomatoes synopsis

The album itself has long been a cult-collector item—its BJM core gives it legs beyond the film’s mixed notices. (according to NME magazine)

Availability: The Fuel 2000 CD circulated in late 2007; today it appears intermittently via catalog/collector outlets, while individual tracks by BJM remain broadly accessible on artist releases.

Technical Info

• Title: Broken (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
• Year: 2007 (film premiered 2006; U.S. release/vid 2007)
• Type: Movie (thriller/drama)
• Director: Alan White
• Score Composer: Jeehun Hwang
• Key Source Artist: The Brian Jonestown Massacre
• Notable Diegetic Performance: “The Hanging Tree” — performed on screen by Heather Graham; song written by Keram Malicki-Sánchez
• Label / Catalog (album): Fuel 2000, catalog ref. 61718; shipping Nov 6, 2007
• Album Status: Official CD release; limited digital footprint as of today
• Selected notable placements (album track names): “Anemone,” “Free and Easy,” “#1 Hit Jam,” “Mansion in the Sky,” “You Look Great When I’m F****d Up,” “Who,” “Open Heart Surgery,” “Hostage I,” “The Hanging Tree.”

Canonical Entities & Relations

Subject	Relation	Object
Alan White	directs	Broken (2006/2007 film)
Heather Graham	portrays	Hope
Jeremy Sisto	portrays	Will
Jeehun Hwang	composes score for	Broken
Keram Malicki-Sánchez	writes song	“The Hanging Tree”
Heather Graham	performs (diegetic)	“The Hanging Tree”
The Brian Jonestown Massacre	performs	multiple soundtrack songs
Fuel 2000	releases	Broken (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) CD (2007)
Truly Indie / First Look	distributes	Broken (U.S.)
Los Angeles, California	primary setting/filming	Broken

Sources: IMDb Soundtrack; MovieMusic.com catalog; Variety review; Rotten Tomatoes synopsis; Wikipedia (film entry); French Wikipedia (film entry); official trailer.

October, 26th 2025

Read about 'Broken', the British drama film on Wikipedia.org and Internet Movie Database

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