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Hear 'The Great Gatsby' soundtrack now

Jay-Z was the executive producer of "The Great

Jay-Z was the executive producer of "The Great Gatsby" soundtrack, which hits stores on May 7, 2013. (Credit: Howard Schnapp)

The soundtrack to "The Great Gatsby," helmed fittingly by Jay-Z, doesn't hit stores until Tuesday, but it's streaming now in its entirety at NPR.

Jay writes “$100 Bill” from a modern-day Gatsby’s perspective, declaring that it’s “1929 still,” the period of showy extravagance before The Great Depression. He introduces himself – “Write like Mark Twain, Jay Gatsby, I park things, yellow cars, yellow gold like Slick Rick.”

That’s the most direct link between now and then on “Music From Baz Luhrmann's Film ‘The Great Gatsby’” (Interscope), but, as the soundtrack’s executive producer, Jay-Z fills it with songs that also draw the comparison.


MORE "GATSBY": "The Great Gatsby" trailer | "Gatsby" films past & present | "Gatsby" premiere

For “Bang Bang,” will.i.am raps over a sample of “Charleston!” surprisingly well. “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)” starts off with a big band vibe before Fergie, Q-Tip and GoonRock transform it into a current club banger. And The Bryan Ferry Orchestra offers a jazzy reading of both Ferry’s “Love Is The Drug,” which Ferry sings, and Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love,” where newcomer Emile Sande handles the vocals.

Much of the soundtrack also features the sweeping, dramatic, icy electronic music that Luhrmann favored in his film “Romeo + Juliet.” Beyoncé and Andre 3000’s take on Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” is stripped down practically to an electronic pulse, while The xx provide the hauntingly simple “Together.” And Florence and The Machine turn the spare “Over the Love” into something gorgeous and moving.

Check out the tracks (or snippets of them) here:

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