This year’s winner at Cannes Film Festival for best Director, Drive is one of those exceptional movies you want to see over and over again. Not just for the storyline, as brilliant as it is, nor for the actors play, but mostly for the soundtrack. Inspired by leading European electronic bands like Kraftwerk, this movie soundtrack combines beautifully their synth-pop style with the music form the ’80s – giving us a moody neo noir atmosphere overall.

The retro slick score is given by Cliff Martinez, former Red Hot Chili Pepper drummer. Aside from the minimal tunes perfect for those bloody, skull crushing moments from the film, Martinez includes some chill music for the romantic scenes between Gosling and Mulligan.

The soundtrack goes so well with the film bits that it’s almost unbelievable. Take, for instance, French pop artist Kavinsky’s “Nightcall”,  which kicks off the main titles. The lyrics, “I’m giving you a night call to tell you how I feel / I want to drive you through the night, down the hills / I’m gonna tell you something you don’t want to hear / I’m gonna show you where it’s dark, but have no fear” fit perfectly with the intro, so well one might say that the song was originally written for the film itself.

Other tracks listed for Drive’s soundtrack keep the retro edge and the the perfect merge between sound, lyrics and picture. Check out the full tracklist and audio samples from one of this year’s best soundtracks below:

Drive OST

01 “Night Call”– Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx
02 “Under Your Spell” – Desire
03 “A Real Hero” – College feat. Electric Youth
04 “Oh My Love” – Riz Ortolani feat. Katyna Ranieri
05 “Tick of the Clock” – The Chromatics
06 “Rubber Head”
07 “I Drive”
08 “He Had a Good Time”
09 “They Broke His Pelvis”
10 “Kick Your Teeth”
11 “Where’s The Deluxe Version?”
12 “See You in Four”
13 “After The Chase”
14 “Hammer”
15 “Wrong Floor”
16 “Skull Crushing”
17 “My Name on a Car”
18 “On The Beach”
19 “Bride of Deluxe”

Featured image by gdcgraphics on Flickr.