The compact disc includes the original score, composed, produced, orchestrated and conducted by Carter Burwell, and additional music performed by The Clovers, Billie Holiday, Georgia Gibbs, Les Paul and Mary Ford, and Jo Stafford.

The music heard in the opening city scene depicts the "active engagement and passion" of Carol and Therese (played by Rooney Mara), conveying something about the characters before they are seen.

[8] Stefan Ellison wrote in The Scene Magazine: "Carter Burwell's score is a beautiful piece, representing Carol and Therese's romance so well and never becoming overbearing, but rather a natural part of the environment.

"[9] Michael Joyce of Ham&High stated: "The discrete way he underscores emotions is ideal for a tale of a love that dare not speak its name, set in a time when a lid was kept on that kind of thing.

"[10] In his review for San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle wrote: "while underscoring [interior] scenes comes the sound of piped-in organ music ... that is just a little bit weird.

[12] In his review for The Arts Desk, Demetrios Matheou felt that Burwell's score, "reminiscent of Philip Glass's spare but highly emotive piano pieces", sets the mood.

[13] Ryan Gilbey of New Statesman magazine noted: "The score by Carter Burwell, laced with a snake charmer's seductiveness, swells and swoops.

"[14] Andrew O'Hehir at Salon commented: "Carter Burwell's haunting score sets the mood by bridging the seemingly unbridgeable gap between Schubert, Duke Ellington and Philip Glass.

[32] The vinyl version of the soundtrack is divided into two, double-sided, 10-inch discs: Album One – The Score and Album Two – The Songs, and features three additional song tracks not released on the compact disc: "A Garden in the Rain" performed by The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts, "Slow Poke" performed by Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys, and "Why Don't You Believe Me?"