Director Garry Marshall continues with his pattern of holiday-related romantic comedies with the new movie Mother's Day, in theaters Apr 29. Following in the footsteps of Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, Mother's Day features an A-list cast and has a timely release just prior the the holiday it's all about. But unlike the previous two movies, which both had soundtracks with a variety of tracks from different artists, the Mother's Day soundtrack is nowhere to be found.
Surprisingly, the soundtrack hasn't been offered for pre-order on digital retailers like Amazon or iTunes, nor has it even been listed on the film's IMDB page. If you look online you may find "Mother's Day (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" offered for sale, but look closely: this soundtrack is actually the score to a 2010 horror film that was also called Mother's Day. So if you purchase this album looking for a poppy rom-com soundtrack from the 2016 Mother's Day movie, you will be sorely disappointed.
All this isn't to say that Mother's Day is a music-less film, though. It has a score composed by John Debney, who is the artist behind the music for more films than you can count (including Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve). Many of Debney's scores have been released as soundtracks, so perhaps the Mother's Day score will be made available for purchase in the future.
Aside from the score, the movie has another musical aspect in that it features multiple songs in the trailer, including Gin Wigmore's "Written in the Water" and Owl City's "Verge". These fun, upbeat songs are the perfect accompaniment for the zany yet heartfelt storyline in Mother's Day, so if there does turn out to be a soundtrack for the film, I would wager that they would be included.
It's interesting that Mother's Day is missing a soundtrack given that the preceding two movies in this New Line/Warner Bros collection both had soundtracks that were well-received. Valentine's Day featured two songs from Taylor Swift, including the hit "Today Was a Fairytale," as well as tracks from Jewel, Willie Nelson, and other famous pop and country artists. The soundtrack even charted on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Top Soundtracks. The New Year's Eve soundtrack didn't perform as well on the charts, but it did have some very popular songs, most notably "Raise Your Glass" by Pink and "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls. It also featured a rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" performed by Lea Michelle, as well as tracks by Bon Jovi, and Nicki Minaj.
Given how many hits were jam-packed into the Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve soundtracks, it's surprising that Mother's Day doesn't yet have any soundtrack at all, especially because an album from the movie could make a great gift for Mother's Day 2016. Maybe a soundtrack will be released after the holiday, but even if it isn't, hopefully the movie Mother's Day will be enough to satisfy.
Images: Open Road Films (2)
