'The Great Gatsby' Soundtrack: Jay-Z and The XX Make This An Epic Album

Culture

Typically, when one sees a soundtrack of a movie, they don't think much of it. When Jay-Z compiles said soundtrack, every music blog and news outlet rushes to cover it. So is the case with Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.

The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and more, is being scored by award winning composer Craig Armstrong. Armstrong has worked with Luhrmann on Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet and won Best Original Score at the Golden Globes for the former. But to add to the excitement of the film itself is not the score but rather, the soundtrack. I believe this soundtrack, despite all of the hoopla, will push this movie from extremely impressive and groundbreaking to ridiculously over the top.

Jay-Z has proved time and again that he is willing to do just about anything. Though he started his career as a rapper, Jay-Z in the past year has become a sports agent, started a music festival (Made in America), contributing to Justin Timberlake's "Suit and Tie" and getting listed as an executive producer on Gatsby. For this soundtrack, Jay-Z worked alongside a number of top artists including Beyoncé, André 3000, will.i.am, Lana Del Rey, Florence + the Machine and many, many more.

Some of the songs off the album are originals, including new numbers from Jay himself, Lana Del Rey, Nero, and many more. One of those originals is titled "Together" and you can listen to that below:

The soundtrack also includes some re-imagined covers including André 3000 and Beyoncé putting their spin on Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black."  You can check it out below:

Two other tracks off the soundtrack that have been released are Florence + the Machine's "Over the Love" and Lana Del Ray's "Young and Beautiful" both of which you can listen to below:

The full track-listing can be seen below as well:

1. 100$ Bill - Jay-Z

The movie comes out on May 10, and the soundtrack comes out earlier that week on May 7. Whether you think that this movie will be incredible or a train-wreck, it has all the makings of a must-see flick of the year.