Reznor and Ross may have seemed a weird choice to score The Social Network, essentially a movie about courtrooms and codings; almost as weird a choice as Fincher was to direct it. But that worked out OK, didn’t it? So it’s no surprise that when reunited with Fincher, but this time on a movie about sex, violence and serial killing, the result is one of the best soundtracks of recent years.
From this point on, however, it’s a very different beast. And it’s an enormous beast, too – 3CDs containing 39 tracks. It’s a fair bit longer than the film itself – these are the full versions of what we only hear parts of in the film. This is most definitely not something the guys just bunged out and went “will that do?” It’s also not something that only works in the context of the movie. Aside from the aforementioned Social Network soundtrack, probably the closest reference point was Nine Inch Nails‘ instrumental epic Ghosts I-IV. Ominous drones and beautifully fragile circular piano melodies rub up against Eno-esque percussion-driven clockwork madness, and the whole thing is just spooky as hell. Static fizzes through ominously organic bass pulses. And at other times it’s like Current 93‘s Soft Black Stars spliced with Coil‘s Themes From Hellraiser, and crazy as that may sound, it really works. And at yet others it’s all mantric tribal percussion stuff.
This is very definitely mood music, for a very dark mood. And there’s a phenomenal amount of it; entire voids of darkness to be traversed before the end titles, where Mariqueen shows up to complete How To Destroy Angels with some relatively lightweight yet rather lovely industrial Euro-balladry to lighten the tone and provide an escape from an exhiliratingly claustrophobic trip into the darkness.Basically, what I’m getting at is that if I was making a movie, I’d TOTALLY get Trent and Atticus to do the soundtrack. Who the fuck else IS there, really?
-Deudragononemu 9tattoo10-
