Listening to the soundtrack, all this week, and seeing the movie again last night, I was blown away by the way Ang repeatedly uses the songs to create the emotional subtext of a scene. Four that come to mind:
I will never let you go (just the music, not the lyrics) is playing in the background at the bar, when Lureen comes over and comes on to Jack, asking him what he's waiting for, "a mating call?" (lol!)
No one's gonna love you like me is the song Lureen and Jack first danse to, and Jack is all smiles, except for the final frame of the scene, when we see his face (and the back of Lureen's head), and an indescribable sadness comes into his eyes as the singer wails the words "so sad and lonely"... We know in that instant that Jack is missing Ennis.
King of the Road is playing on the car radio and Jack sings along, mad with joy as he "redlines" toward Ennis, after the divorce. That song begins with "Trailers for sale or rent..." Jack is thinking they'll go away, even live in a trailer, it doesn't matter, as long as they are together, which makes the ending, with Ennis alone in his sad, run-down trailer, all the more tragic.
A love that will never grow old is playing on the car radio as Jack heads back toTexas, in tears and reeling from having been turned away by Ennis. He is in agony, but his love overwhelms him, unlike the older Jack, who has become so embittered that he can't even cry any longer.
I don't want to say goodbye is the song that is playing when Jack danses with Randall's wife, so once again we know his thoughts are far away, that he is brooding over Ennis ("I don't want to say goodbye, I just want to live with you...")