The soundtrack also includes an a capella version of the song, which is as haunting as the film. The difference between these two recordings, up and downtempo, gets to the heart of the movie itself and perception versus reality. The soundtrack’s uptempo version, which you can hear on the Spotify playlist below, captures the aura of the memories of the time. The advance single features Taylor-Joy ( The Witch) doing a soulful cover of Petula Clark’s classic “Downtown.” It evokes the uneasy wonderland of the ghosts of the past. The movie moves to the rhythm of the background songs, which become a character. The soundtrack seeks to evoke two eras, the sounds of 1965 Soho and present-day London, while keeping time for the film.
The soundtrack to the film is the aural equivalent of a middle-eight between the verses and the chorus of time. The singer, Sandie ( Anya Taylor-Joy), is the most lucid bridge to her subconscious trespass.
But in her dreams she is a mid-‘60s Mod, shaking to the sounds of Swinging London. Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) is a modern fashion design student in the film-modern in the sense that she is a 21st century woman living in contemporary England. Like a needle on a record, Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho drops a sharp stylus into a deep groove and lets her spin.