Music has this weird, almost annoying way of pinning a memory to a specific moment in time. You hear a certain chord progression or a dusty synth line, and suddenly you're back in 2011, or 1988, or whenever your heart first got broken. That’s the magic trick the one day film soundtrack pulls off. It’s not just a collection of songs. It’s a chronological map of a relationship that technically only exists on July 15th every year.
When Lone Scherfig’s adaptation of David Nicholls’ massive bestseller hit theaters, critics were... let's say "mixed." Some people hated Jim Sturgess’s hair. Others couldn't get past Anne Hathaway’s accent, which seemed to wander from Yorkshire to London and occasionally across the Atlantic. But almost everyone agreed on the music. It worked.
The soundtrack is a beast of a different color. It had to bridge the gap between the late eighties and the early 2010s without feeling like a cheesy "Now That’s What I Call Music" compilation. It’s a vibe. Honestly, it’s several vibes.
Rachel Portman and the Art of the Melancholy Theme
You can’t talk about this movie without talking about Rachel Portman. She’s a legend. She was the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Original Score (for Emma), and she brings that same delicate, slightly heartbreaking touch here. Her work on the one day film soundtrack is the glue. Without those strings, the jump-cuts between years would feel disjointed.
Portman’s main theme is simple. It’s piano-heavy. It feels like rain on a windowpane in Edinburgh. It’s the sound of "almost." If you listen to "We Had Today," you’re basically hearing the entire thesis of Dex and Em’s relationship in three minutes. It’s hopeful but carries this heavy weight of inevitable loss. It’s brilliant.
Most people don’t realize how much the score does the heavy lifting in scenes where the dialogue fails. When Dexter is spiraling in the 90s, Portman doesn't go for "drug-fueled rave" music in the score itself; she keeps the emotional core grounded. It’s a tether.
The Pop Songs That Defined the Eras
Then you’ve got the licensed tracks. This is where the one day film soundtrack gets really fun and, frankly, a bit nostalgic for anyone who lived through those transitions.
✨ Don't miss: Why the Cast of Hold Your Breath 2024 Makes This Dust Bowl Horror Actually Work
Think about the opening. We're in 1988. We get "Tear Down These Walls" by Billy Ocean. It’s upbeat. It’s post-grad energy. But then the movie shifts. We get the 90s, and suddenly we're hearing "Aftermath" by Tricky. That’s a specific choice. It’s moody, trip-hop, Bristol-sound stuff. It perfectly captures that mid-90s shift from neon optimism to something a bit darker and more experimental.
And we can't ignore "Rocks" by Primal Scream. 1994. It’s the peak of Dexter’s "I’m a famous TV presenter and I’m losing my mind" phase. The song is loud, arrogant, and messy. Just like him. Using that track wasn't just about setting the year; it was about characterization.
The Missing Pieces and the Elvis Costello Factor
One of the standout moments on the one day film soundtrack is "Sparkling Day" by Elvis Costello. It’s a gorgeous, soaring track that Costello wrote specifically for the film. It feels timeless. It could have been written in 1970 or 2024. That’s the strength of Costello—he exists outside of trends.
But here’s the thing: not every song you hear in the movie made it onto the official commercial soundtrack release. This happens all the time with licensing. If you’re looking for the Tears for Fears or the Corona track ("Rhythm of the Night"), you might have to hunt them down on a custom Spotify playlist rather than the official album.
It's kinda frustrating. You want that one specific song from the scene where they’re in France, and it’s just... not there on the CD.
Why the Soundtrack Outlasted the Movie’s Initial Reviews
The movie currently sits at a pretty mediocre 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch. But the music? It’s a staple.
🔗 Read more: Is Steven Weber Leaving Chicago Med? What Really Happened With Dean Archer
Why? Because the one day film soundtrack understands longing.
Longing is a universal language. Whether it’s the Joy Division vibes of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (which fits the 80s aesthetic perfectly) or the more contemporary indie sounds of the late 2000s, the curation team understood that Emma and Dexter are "music people."
Emma is the type of girl who would have a carefully curated mixtape. Dexter is the guy who would lose that mixtape and then spend ten years trying to remember the tracklist. The soundtrack reflects that. It’s literate. It’s thoughtful.
Comparing the Film Music to the Netflix Series
We have to address the elephant in the room. The 2024 Netflix series.
The series had much more room to breathe. With 14 episodes, they could fit in a massive amount of music—over 100 songs, actually. They used everything from Blur to Radiohead to Suede. It’s a Britpop lover’s dream.
But the one day film soundtrack from 2011 has a different vibe. It’s more condensed. It feels more like a curated "Best Of" rather than a deep dive into the crates. Portman’s score in the film is also, arguably, more iconic than the series score. It has a cinematic sweep that TV sometimes struggles to replicate.
💡 You might also like: Is Heroes and Villains Legit? What You Need to Know Before Buying
If you’re a fan of the story, you need both. The film soundtrack is the "Greatest Hits," while the series is the "Box Set."
The Technical Brilliance of "We Had Today"
Let’s nerd out for a second on the music theory.
Portman uses a lot of minor-to-major shifts. It’s a technique that creates a "bittersweet" sound. You think the melody is going somewhere happy, but it pivots. This mirrors the July 15th gimmick. Every year, you think this is the year they finally figure it out, but the "note" changes.
The use of the clarinet is also a Portman staple. It’s a very "human" sounding instrument. It breathes. It’s slightly imperfect. In a movie about two people who constantly mess up their lives, that organic sound is crucial.
How to Experience the Music Properly
If you're going back to listen to the one day film soundtrack, don't just shuffle it. That’s a mistake.
- Listen in order. The tracklist is designed to feel like the passage of time.
- Find the Rachel Portman tracks separately. Sometimes the transition from a 90s pop hit to a delicate piano score is jarring. Listen to the score as its own entity.
- Pay attention to the lyrics. Songs like "Soweto" by Malcolm McLaren aren't just background noise; they’re markers of where the characters are culturally.
The soundtrack is a reminder that even if a movie doesn’t hit all the right notes for everyone, the music can still tell a perfect story. It’s about the "what ifs." It’s about the time we lost and the songs we listened to while we were losing it.
Honestly, even if you weren't a fan of the 2011 movie, the soundtrack stands alone as a masterpiece of mood-setting. It’s the ultimate "staring out the window on a rainy day" album.
To get the most out of it today, hunt down the expanded tracklists online that include the "hidden" songs not featured on the official 12-track release. Check out the 2024 series playlist on Spotify for a modern comparison, but keep the Portman score on repeat for those moments when you just need to feel something. The real power of the music is its ability to make July 15th feel like every day of the year.