There was a period in the late Nineties and early aughts when every blockbuster movie was seemingly accompanied by an equally-popular soundtrack, with the songs and A-list artists almost as inescapable as the action on screen. From Titanic and Twilight to The Fast & The Furious, the songs released from the hit movies often ended up becoming hits themselves, propelling both the artists and the films to even bigger heights.
The same feeling runs through the star-studded soundtrack to the new F1 movie, which features 17 high-octane tracks that mirror the adrenaline of the fast-paced Brad Pitt racing drama. Released on Atlantic Records, the same label behind recent soundtracks for Barbie and Twisters, F1 The Album features full throttle turns from artists like Ed Sheeran, Tate McRae, Chris Stapleton and RAYE, who all deliver new tracks with refreshing urgency and relevance, resulting in an album that charges all the way to the finish line.
Album opener “Lose My Mind” pairs Don Toliver with Doja Cat for a slinky, synth-driven anthem that sets the stage for a thrilling ride to come. The 16 tracks that follow ran the gamut from rap to rock, Afrobeats to house, yet maintain surprising cohesion as a full album from start to finish.
Standouts include the scrappy “Underdog” from Roddy Ricch, which starts out with gentle guitar plucking and haunting howls before the rapper takes over with his trademark trap-style cadence. The song is at once a defiant show of strength and rallying cry: “They thought I was cancelled, I piped up and flipped the channel,” Ricch raps. “Ain’t got no time to be playin’ it safe.”
RAYE adds her soulful groove to the retro-tinged “Grandma Calls the Boys Bad News,” a cut that’s sunny as sweet tea on a summer’s day. And Tate McRae’s stellar year continues with the frisky and frenetic “Just Keep Watching,” already a hit on the charts and in clubs alike.
The F1 soundtrack also features dueling rock tracks from Chris Stapleton and Ed Sheeran, the latter of whom amps up the muscle after a string of mid-tempo hits, and suddenly sounds the most invested he’s been on a song in years. “Out of the city, now we’rе switchin’ four lanes/Got our eyes on a fresh start,” he roars on the rollicking blues-rocker “Drive.”
Formula 1 is truly a global sport, with races across five continents these days, and F1 The Album is similarly an international affair, with star turns from Burna Boy, whose “Don’t Let Me Down” is an instant earworm; British house producer PAWSA, who drops the adrenaline pumping “Double C;” and South Korean DJ Peggy Gou, whose aptly-titled “D.A.N.C.E.,” is destined to be blasting at the race track and from the speakers in Ibiza all summer long.
Three acclaimed Nigerian artists are given the closing slots on the soundtrack, with Mr Eazi leaning into a tropical vibe for the breezy “Attention,” and rapper Darkoo bringing Afrobeats to the party with “Give Me Love.” UK-based Obongjayar closes with the funky “Gasoline,” which finds the Nigerian singer doing his best Pharrell impression while boasting that “My diamond’s dancing like a ballerina / World spinning for me, I’m a winner.”
Of course, just like any F1 race, there are a few bumps along the road. Dom Dolla had the crowd whipped into a frenzy when he took over the “LIV on the Grid” stage at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last fall, but his team-up with Nathan Nicholson here feels phoned in and gets lapped by other artists on the album. Similarly, Tiesto and Sexxy Red’s “OMG!” fails to ignite much of a spark.
Rosé‘s “Messy,” meantime, is the only ballad on the album and continues the Blackpink star’s breakout solo year. Her pleading voice and confessional lyrics — “You and I are as tangled as these sheets,” she declares in the opening line — add emotional heft to the album, but the slow pop-rocker feels out of place on a tracklist of party-ready cuts (That being said, Rosé’s song does soundtrack a particularly poignant moment in the actual film).
And while Puerto Rican star Myke Towers leans into his rap roots with “Baja California” (which samples Nineties hip-hop duo Black Sheep), he’s the only Latin artist on the album, a surprising miss considering Formula 1 now features two Latino drivers and more than 150 million fans in Latin America alone. With the Mexican and Brazilian Grand Prix still to come in the fall, the soundtrack would’ve been an ideal opportunity to hype up the races with a few more Spanish-language tracks.
Still, there’s no denying F1’s appeal, and the new film is only going to propel the sport’s popularity forward. Similarly, F1 The Album is sure to please both movie fans and music fans alike, with its lineup of artists injecting the soundtrack with enough horsepower — and star power — to make it a thrilling listen from lights out to the checkered flag. Electrifying and uplifting, F1 The Album brings back the era of the blockbuster soundtrack, while making its case for the soundtrack of summer too.
