Scott Pilgrim vs the World brought a blend of graphic novel and videogame to the big screen backed by some great music, and here's every song on the soundtrack. Back in 2010, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim was adapted into a movie by Edgar Wright, and although it didn’t do well in the box office at the time, it has become a cult favorite throughout the years.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World follows 22 year-old Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), the bass player in a garage band called Sex Bob-Omb, who meets the girl of his dreams (literally), the mysterious Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). But in order to be with her, he has to battle her seven evil exes, and it’s not an easy task. Music has a very important role in the story, and not just because Scott is in a band, with the soundtrack including both old songs and new ones made specifically for certain parts of the film.
Beck, Metric, and Broken Social Scene contributed to the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack, and all actors playing the Sex Bob-Omb band members (Alison Pill, Mark Webber, and Johnny Simmons) learned to play their respective instruments. Metric was the inspiration for the band Clash at Demonhead, and wrote the song “Black Sheep” for the film, with Brie Larson providing the vocals as she played the lead singer of the band. Here’s the full list of songs that play in the movie, both on-screen and as background.
- “We Are Sex Bob-Omb” by Sex Bob-Omb
- “Scott Pilgrim” by Plumtree
- “I Hear Ramona Sing” by Frank Black
- “By Your Side” by Beachwood Sparks
- “O Katrina!” by The Black Lips
- “I’m So Sad, So Very, Very, Sad” by Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Science)
- “We Hate You Please Die” by Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Science)
- “Garbage Truck” by Sex Bob-Omb
- “Teenage Dream” by T.Rex
- “Sleazy Bed Track” by The Bluetones
- “It’s Getting Boring By The Sea” by Blood Red Shoes
- “Black Sheep” by Metric
- “Threshold” by Sex Bob-Omb
- “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” by Broken Social Science
- “Under My Thumb” by The Rolling Stones
- “Ramona” (Acoustic Version) by Beck
- “Ramona” by Beck
- “Summertime” by Sex Bob-Omb
- “Threshold (8 bit) by Brian LeBarton
Some of these songs are played on screen by Sex Bob-Omb, The Clash at Demonhead, and Crash and the Boys, who also have the shortest song in the soundtrack with “I’m Sad, So Very, Very, Sad”, which is only 13 seconds long. Scott Pilgrim was directed and co-written by Edgar Wright, who pays close attention to the songs that play in his films – like Baby Driver, which also has music as the core of the story. The songs are curated and written in a way that the soundtrack can tell part of the story by itself.
Edgar Wright and the rest of the creative team behind Scott Pilgrim vs the World made sure every detail from the graphic novel, including its essence and incomparable sense of humor, were translated correctly to the big screen, and the soundtrack is a good example of this. It’s never a bad time to revisit musical gems such as “Garbage Truck” or the song that gave its name to the protagonist of this story.