What’s a proper rom-com without yearning for someone you can’t have? Or, at least, think you can’t. In People We Meet on Vacation, the first screen adaptation of an Emily Henry novel, longtime best friends and travel companions Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) sure know how to pine — and the movie’s soundtrack mirrors their longing.
At the start of People We Meet on Vacation, Poppy and Alex are on the outs following a complicated few years. They reunite at Alex’s brother David’s (Miles Heizer) wedding in Spain, setting off a romantic chain reaction. After some light relationship mending, Alex extends an olive branch to Poppy by inviting her to attend David’s rehearsal dinner, since she’s “basically family.” When Poppy shows up to the party, you can tell she walks in a little uneasy, and yet, hopeful of what could be next. The anticipation on her face reflects Taylor Swift’s soft and wistful lyrics in the summery ode “august,” which begins to play as Poppy musters the courage to cross the threshold.
“There was a lot of debate early on as to which Taylor Swift song we should pursue for the soundtrack,” Henry, who executive produced the rom-com, tells Tudum. “I remember [director] Brett [Haley] telling me it needed to be ‘august,’ and it hadn’t actually occurred to me how perfect that was.”
When you hear Swift’s misty voice singing, “Salt air, and the rust on your door, I never needed anything more,” you can sense the prickles of excitement Poppy is feeling — and the deeply held truth finally rising to the surface of just how much she needs to take this step forward, towards someone who matters so much to her.
Poppy enters the venue in her bright yellow dress, and Alex is immediately drawn to her, almost like seeing a ghost from his past now dreamily in the present as the lyrics continue with, “Whispers of, ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Never have I ever before.’” Henry says the needle drop is “so fitting for the characters and for Poppy’s headspace. The melancholy and the longing of the song are so exactly what she’s feeling and thinking as she’s looking at this person who she loves more than anyone else in the world.”
As the pair gaze at each other with warmth and desire, it’s clear that they are both deeply “lost in the memory” of their many summer trips and confidences they’ve shared together, cautiously optimistic that the people they’ve been together on vacation aren’t lost forever. “Tom Blyth can look at a woman,” says Henry. “That is just so, so good.”
Discover the full soundtrack to Alex and Poppy’s jet-setting below, and “hang with” them (and Robyn) as you listen to the music underscoring their love story.
Polo & Pan “Nanã”
Dopamoon feat. Batuk “Who Says”
Paula Abdul “Forever Your Girl”
Tom T. Hall “That’s How I Got to Memphis”
Polo & Pan “Ani Kuni”
Robyn “Hang With Me”
Frankie Cosmos “On The Lips”
Washed Out “It All Feels Right”
Willie Wright “Nantucket Island”
Grimes “Genesis”
Bonobo feat. Innov Gnawa “Bambro Koyo Ganda”
Evinha “Esperar Pra Ver”
Kings Of Convenience “I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From”
Rebirth Brass Band “I Feel Like Funkin’ It Up (Extended Mix)”
Remi Wolf “Hello Hello Hello (Polo & Pan Remix)”
BADBADNOTGOOD feat. Reggie “Take What’s Given”
Taylor Swift “august”
boygenius “Cool About It”
Nat King Cole “L-O-V-E” (Italian Version)
Bruno Martino “Bella Roma”
Polo & Pan “Plage isolée (soleil levant)”
The New Basement Tapes “When I Get My Hands On You”
CYRIL “Stumblin’ In”
Cigarettes After Sex “X’s”
ODESZA (feat. Naomi Wild) “Higher Ground (Reprise)”
People We Meet on Vacation is now streaming, only on Netflix.
