Under the Skin (soundtrack)

Raeburn suggested Levi to Glazer, who contacted them after hearing Chopped and Screwed, their collaboration with the London Sinfonietta. Glazer wanted the music to express the protagonist's feelings as she experienced things like food and sex for the first time, and directed Levi with prompts such as "What does it sound like to be on fire?" or "Imagine when you tell somebody a joke and it’s not very good and their reaction’s a bit stilted".[12] Later scenes use less music, to emphasise the sounds of the natural world that Johansson's character experiences, which she felt that writing the score was "quite improvised".[13] After, Glazer showed them a few pieces of footage from the film, Levi asked Glazer about what the music could be in "an abstract way" and Glazer suggested they follow their own trajectory.[5] Glazer further stated to Pitchfork in an interview saying "We had a lot of discussions about what sounds might work and what wouldn’t, and when we heard the ones that sounded right, they became the language for the film. All those bendy and stretched notes just felt correct. It came half from the heart, half from the head."[14]

Levi used mainly a viola to write and record over ten months, taking inspiration from Giacinto Scelsi, Iannis Xenakis, John Cage and music played in strip clubs. They looked for the natural and "identifiably human" sounds in the instrument, then altered the pitch or tempo of their recordings to make them feel "uncomfortable".[5] In an article for the Guardian, Levi wrote: "Some parts are intended to be quite difficult. If your life force is being distilled by an alien, it's not necessarily going to sound very nice. It's supposed to be physical, alarming, hot."[5]

According to Pitchfork, "the strings sometimes resemble nails going down a universe-sized chalkboard, screaming with a Ligeti-like sense of horror; elsewhere, they endlessly drone in a gaping vortex, like Vangelis' iconic Blade Runner score dipped in turpentine".[14] The Guardian wrote that Levi's "score brings together strings, percussion, distortions in speed and clashing microphones to create sounds that are seductive, perverted and compassionate."[12]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Consequence of Sound	B+[15]
Drowned in Sound	8/10[16]
The Line of Best Fit	9/10[17]
Pitchfork	7.3/10[18]

Under the Skin's score received high critical acclaim with praise directed on Levi's instrumentation and minimalist approach. For the website AllMusic, Heather Phares called the score a "fantastic study in tension and terror" and an "exciting beginning to what will hopefully be a lengthy career for Levi as a solo artist and film composer".[3] In the review for Consequence.net, Michael Roffman called it as a "terrifying soundtrack" that mirrors to the music of Stanley Kubrick's films: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Shining (1980) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), further writing that "The way Glazer wraps the score around every shot produces a tension that’s near suffocating."[15] Writing for the music website Drowned in Sound, Jon Clark called Levi's score "is as unique as the film itself, working as well in isolation as it accompaniment".[16]

For The Line of Best Fit, Kate Travers gave 9/10 to the soundtrack and said "The Under the Skin score matches Glazer’s understated, minimal aesthetic scene for scene. Never does the music outweigh the carefully constructed silences and – as all good film music must – it only ever adds to the potent illusion of a twisted, heart-rending reality."[17] Pitchfork gave 7.3 out of 10 to the score and stated "The music unfolds as deliberately and as unconsciously as the dreamlike film itself. Levi's commitment to the film's themes is all-consuming, and the score is so tightly woven into the film's DNA that it is difficult to detach and experience as an album."[18]

Several website listed it as one of the best scores of 2014, including Empire,[19] PopMatters,[20] IndieWire[21] and Collider.[22] Composer Mike Patton said the Under the Skin soundtrack was the only contemporary soundtrack that had left an impression on him, praising Levi's minimalist approach.[23] Musician Steven Wilson said Under the Skin was his favourite film of the last decade and praised its "absolutely brilliant" music.[24] In 2019, Pitchfork ranked the soundtrack the 154th best album of the 2010s,[25] the 18th greatest industrial album[26] and the second-best film score of all time.[27] IndieWire called it as "one of the best scores of the 21st century",[28] and Collider called it as "one of the five best film scores by alternative musicians" and wrote:[29]

"Levi’s score for Under the Skin serves as a reflection of the alien’s mindset; this means it’s cold, strange, and creepy as hell. “Creation” soundtracks the alien’s “birth” with a microtonal swarm of buzzing violas. The sinister “Lipstick to Void” lopes with the patience of an apex predator, its whining strings and steady heartbeat rhythm adding a note of uncomfortable sensuality. Most compelling of all is “Love”, a swooning, achingly tender synth reverie that represents the alien’s burgeoning humanity."[29]

Credits adapted from CD liner notes[4]

Under the Skin was not shortlisted for nominations at the 87th Academy Awards including Best Original Score for Mica Levi, as factors such as the box office failure, film festival release in 2013 before its final theatrical premiere in 2014, and non-contemporary narrative, being attributed, according to Entertainment Weekly.[10] The score, however, nominated for and won many awards in critics association and online pole votes.[8]