La Land [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] [Blue Vinyl] [Barnes & Noble Exclusive] in Bloomington, MN

A musical romance about a jazz pianist (
Ryan Gosling
) and an aspiring actress (
Emma Stone
) set in the City of Angels, La La Land was written and directed by
Damien Chazelle
, the man behind the 2014 Oscar winner Whiplash. He enlisted his former Harvard roommate
Justin Hurwitz
to write the songs and score for the film. The pair also worked together on Whiplash, about drummers, and on a 2009 student project that went on to receive theatrical distribution, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, about a jazz trumpeter.
Hurwitz
is joined here by lyricists
Benj Pasek
and
Justin Paul
, two veterans of musical theater (the off-Broadway musical Dogfight, TV's Smash, Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen) at the relatively young age of 31 by the time of release. (The latter is also true of
Chazelle
.)
La La Land
's original soundtrack includes both songs and instrumentals, with the songs performed by a cast that also includes
John Legend
, fresh off his Oscar win for Selma's "Glory," and
Callie Hernandez
, a musician-turned-actress.
Hernandez
performs alongside
Stone
,
Jessica Rothe
, and
Sonoya Mizuno
on "Someone in the Crowd," a soaring, uptempo number with swing-era rhythms. Preceding it, the film opens with a big production number set in L.A. traffic that
said was inspired by
Jacques Demy
-
Michel Legrand
film musicals of the '60s ("Another Day of Sun"). While listeners and moviegoers alike will find that
Gosling
don't quite have the singing chops of an
Astaire
Rogers
, their voices are warm and approachable, and their duet "A Lovely Night," in particular, is a bright charmer. Later,
Legend
delivers the goods on "Start a Fire," a song written in the context of a jazz musician trying to cross over to the contemporary mainstream. Score tracks range from the tender-slash-anxious piano piece "Mia & Sebastian's Theme," to the legit jazz exercise "Herman's Habit," to the Romantic tone poem "Planetarium." The film and the soundtrack wrap up with a second reprise of
's "City of Stars," this time hummed by
, which will likely provide a feel-good earworm after the music ends. ~ Marcy Donelson