"Southland Tales" Soundtrack Lyrics

"Southland Tales — Music From the Motion Picture (2007)" – Album Guide to Tracks and Key Scenes

Overview

What if the end of the world sounded like a mixtape — surf-gloom, lounge hymns, Britpop benedictions — all stitched together by a veteran’s hangover? Southland Tales — Music From the Motion Picture turns Richard Kelly’s L.A. fever dream into a pop-operatic collage. Moby’s score hums under a carousel of catalog cuts: Pixies drift like undertow; Jane’s Addiction howl; Rebekah Del Rio salutes a nation on a blimp; The Killers erupt into the movie’s most audacious mid-film fantasia.

The listen follows the film’s cadence — arrival, adaptation, rebellion, collapse. Early cues float: surf-washed alt-rock and dusty oldies conjure a sunburnt, woozy L.A. Then the pulse hardens: industrialized electronica, bar-band thunder, a lip-synced war-ghost number that detonates irony. The back third goes devotional and elegiac: string-laced anthems and ambient drones holding hands with a Britpop closing prayer. Genres-as-meaning: ambient/IDM — paranoia as texture; surf/alt — fatalism with a summer grin; arena-anthem — false bravado; torch-hymn — apocalyptic lullaby.

How It Was Made

Moby composed original score cues and curated several of his library tracks while the licensed selections gathered cult/alt heavies into a single disc. Rights clearances shaped the retail album — not every famed scene needle made it onto the CD — while the theatrical cut preserved the film-first mixes and segues. According to a label rundown and discographies, the official album arrived via Milan Records in early November 2007, days before the U.S. release.

Tracks & Scenes

“All These Things That I’ve Done” — The Killers
Where it plays: Mid-film set piece (~middle hour). Iraq vet Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake) staggers through a star-spangled arcade bar, lip-syncing the mantra while dancers orbit and memories bleed in. The camera floats; the beer foams; the chorus becomes a dare.
Why it matters: The film’s center of gravity — trauma reframed as music video. Anthem as dissociation; spectacle as confession.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” — Rebekah Del Rio & The Section Quartet
Where it plays: On the Mega-Zeppelin near the climax. Del Rio appears as herself, delivering a soaring, mournful anthem to a crowd high above Los Angeles as plots converge below (diegetic performance).
Why it matters: A solemn showstopper: Americana as elegy, the calm before the metaphysical storm.

“Tender” — Blur
Where it plays: End credits. A Britpop gospel sway rolls over the film’s aftermath, trading chaos for communal release.
Why it matters: The exhale. After revelation and wreckage, the soundtrack chooses grace.

“Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf Version)” — Pixies
Where it plays: Late-film bridge into the endgame. The slowed, surfy take underscores drifting montage beats and a dawning sense of doom.
Why it matters: Sea-sick serenity — melancholy that reads like prophecy.

“3 Steps” — Moby
Where it plays: Neo-Marxist operation / inland “jungle” approach, before a botched encounter. Percussive electronics and stutter-drums ratchet nerves as allies become targets (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Cold adrenaline; the movie’s conspiracy engine rendered as drum-and-pulse.

“Forget Myself” — Elbow
Where it plays: Mid-to-late passages, intercut with surveillance and freeway drift. The lyric’s dazed self-recrimination mirrors the film’s identity fog.
Why it matters: Britpop hangover energy — tenderness threaded through paranoia.

“Howl (Extended Version)” — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Where it plays: Bar-and-backroom connective tissue as factions circle. Tambourine stomp and revival claps push scenes forward like a sermon in boots.
Why it matters: Revival-tent swagger for a city losing faith.

“Teen Horniness Is Not a Crime” — Sarah Michelle Gellar, Abbey McBride & ClarKent
Where it plays: A diegetic “brand asset” from Krysta Now’s media empire; snippets surface around TV segments and promo clips in-world.
Why it matters: Satire in four words — infotainment as morality play.

“Three Days (Live)” — Jane’s Addiction
Where it plays: Late-film escalation — an electric undertow against images of armed checkpoints and aerial theater.
Why it matters: Apocalyptic sensuality; the soundtrack’s fever spike.

“Oh My Angel” — Bertha Tillman
Where it plays: A wistful oldie drop over a quiet interpersonal beat; the film briefly pretends there’s a simpler world.
Why it matters: Nostalgia as misdirection — sweetness on the edge of catastrophe.

Notes & Trivia

• The official album (Milan Records) arrived November 6, 2007 — three days before U.S. theatrical rollout.
• Not every iconic cue made the disc: the Killers centerpiece and Muse’s “Blackout” are film-only needles.
• Moby’s cues weave with library selections, including “Memory Gospel,” to create a single ambient bloodstream.
• The Pixies’ version used is the slow “UK Surf” take — a B-side arrangement that plays like a riptide lullaby.
• Rebekah Del Rio’s zeppelin performance nods to her earlier Lynch cameo while being wholly its own reverent jolt.

Music–Story Links

When Pilot Abilene mouths “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier,” the lyric refracts the film’s veterans, doubles, and deserters — a prayer wrapped in guilt. The Mega-Zeppelin anthem reframes spectacle as requiem, letting the plot’s moving parts feel tiny against a human voice. Pixies’ surf dirge pulls the last act into fatal drift, while Blur’s credits hymn answers cynicism with community. Even the trash-pop novelty from Krysta Now doubles as thesis: media noise sells desire while drowning out alarms.

Reception & Quotes

The soundtrack’s reputation grew with the film’s cult: fans traded lists to map the “missing” needles against the official disc. According to a tracklist overview and label notes, the Milan release foregrounded Moby alongside era-defining alt picks, while essays have singled out the Killers set piece as a small, perfect movie inside the movie.

“A delirious pop-opera stitched from post-9/11 anxiety and California afterglow.” — retrospective essay

“The Killers sequence: bravura, bruised, unforgettable.” — scene study

Interesting Facts

• Label & catalog: Milan Records, commonly listed as M2-36320 on U.S. CD pressings.
• End-credits swap: “Tender” by Blur closes the film but is absent from the official album.
• Killers clearance: The famous lip-sync cue sits outside the CD due to label wrangling.
• Moby everywhere: Multiple library cuts (e.g., “Chord Sounds,” “Memory Gospel,” “3 Steps”) double as score.
• Chapter music: The movie’s parts even borrow song titles; “Wave of Mutilation” names the final movement.
• Diegetic show: Del Rio’s anthem is performed in-world on the blimp — the camera treats it like a concert.
• Arcade icon: The Killers number is staged as an oneiric beer-commercial from Hell — on purpose.

Technical Info

• Title: Southland Tales — Music From the Motion Picture
• Year / Type: 2007 — Film soundtrack (compilation + score selections)
• Composer / Score: Moby
• Key featured artists (album): Pixies; Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Jane’s Addiction; Elbow; Big Head Todd & the Monsters; Waylon Jennings; Rebekah Del Rio & The Section Quartet; multiple Moby cues
• Notable film-only needles: The Killers — “All These Things That I’ve Done”; Muse — “Blackout”; Blur — “Tender” (plays over end credits)
• Label: Milan Records (catalog commonly M2-36320)
• Album release: November 6, 2007 (CD/digital)
• Availability: Streaming (region dependent) and CD; later reissues/editions vary by territory

Questions & Answers

Why isn’t the Killers song on the official album?

Label clearances kept it off the retail disc even though the scene is central to the film.

What’s the end-credits song?

Blur’s “Tender” plays over the credits — it’s film-only, not on the Milan CD.

Who did the original score?

Moby. His ambient and rhythmic cues stitch the film’s chapters together.

Is that really Rebekah Del Rio on the blimp?

Yes — an in-story performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the finale machinery spins up.

Which Moby track scores the tense inland approach?

“3 Steps,” used in the film with a slightly different mix than the album’s.

Canonical Entities & Relations

Sources: Wikipedia; Discogs; SoundtrackCollector; The Playlist; Senses of Cinema; YouTube trailer and scene clips.

November, 27th 2025