The Real True Detective Soundtrack is Hiding on the Vinyl

The saga of T. Bone Burnett’s original score for True Detective continues.

For some reason, it’s been very difficult for fans to get their hands on the original music used in True Detective. We were finally thrown a bone with the release of the soundtrack on CD and digital download a few months back, but in the end that didn’t contain any of T. Bone Burnett’s original score.

There is, however, another way to get at least some of the music that Burnett composed for True Detective. We’re a little late on this one, but for anyone who picked up the vinyl edition on Black Friday, or even at a later date, they surely will have already noticed that two sides of the two vinyl set are filled with the original score. As of right now, that’s the only way to get it.

More from Show Snob

Something about vinyl and True Detective work very well together. It’s perhaps for that reason that the background music that fans have been clamoring for finally made its appearance as an addendum to the insert songs that fill the regular version of the soundtrack.

True Detective’s relative unwillingness to share the original music with fans is out of sync with what other dramas have recently done.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – OCTOBER 02: Guitarist/producer T-Bone Burnett performs onstage at Golden Gate Park on October 2, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)

The full soundtrack to both Fargo and Hannibal can be had easily enough. It’s unclear why the music to True Detective isn’t more widely available, but it’s like a decision that comes from Nic Pizzolatto and T. Bone Burnett. It’s certainly not a decision that we support.

Next: David Morse talks about the secrets and paranoia of True Detective.

For now, and for the foreseeable future, the only way to get a piece of the original score will be to pick up the soundtrack on vinyl.

Thanks to Märcõ Brûn for the tip.

Home/HBO