We’ve featured plenty of soundtracks on this blog over the years, and a healthy amount of cover songs too. But I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve featured a track that’s both.
This momentous occasion comes courtesy of Thibault Cauvin, a French guitarist, who in 2021 put together an album of classical guitar cover versions of film soundtracks. The range is incredible – films from “Deliverance” to “Kill Bill” to “La La Land” to “Spirited Away” all get the Cauvin treatment – and they all work. Innocuous enough to serve as background music in a coffee shop but intricate enough to stand up to a close listening, this is a great album to help get movie nerds (or classical guitar nerds) through a cold winter.
They’re all pretty (it’s difficult for classical guitar to come off as anything else) but the opening song might be the most beautiful of the bunch: a cover of a Sufjan Stevens tune written for 2017’s “Call Me By Your Name”.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The melody. Sufjan Stevens really does write some gorgeous melodic lines. When I first heard this one, I didn’t know it was a Sufjan cover, but my first thought was, “hey, this is kind of Sufjan-ish.”
2. Thibault’s attention to detail. In the original, there are some subtle notes on piano that are barely audible. Beginning at 0:37, Thibault uses harmonics to mimic those notes.
3. In the song’s second half, Thibault adds some synth pads in the background. It’s a small thing, but it gives everything a more complete, more widescreen feeling.
Recommended listening activity:
Making popcorn.