NEW MOON (The Twilight Saga) - Motion Picture Soundtrack

Where the first Twilight soundtrack had a dozen cuts, here it's stepped up to 15. With the popularity of this franchise, I'm sure bands are clamouring to get onto these albums, and I wouldn't be surprised if a double disc is coming up for future installments. So, what makes this one different to the first soundtrack? Again it consists mainly of songs (the score you'll have to buy separately). The only recurring band here is Muse (with the song's main riff a bit of a pedestrian one). Death Cab For Cutie's very effective tune fits the theme of the movie very well. More gritty groove tracks come from Band Of Skulls and Hurricane Bells, but while one would've expected the same of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, they actually throw out a more chilled acoustic one.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke delivers a hypnotic track of simplicity with his distinct voice with trippy programming - and it's probably the most effective tune on the album. Lykke Li's pre-school voice is highly annoying, but it worked well in the movie's scene where Bella mourns Edward's departure across several seasons changing outside the window as the camera glides around her. Anya Marina's acoustic infused song almost hit the same spot on the annoying-girlie-voice-o-meter, but gets away with it.
Bon Iver & St. Vincent's mix of smooth, beat-less acoustics and distant high vocals is quite effective, especially in a soundtrack context.
The Killers offer up a slow and mild tune, as with Sea Wolf, while OK GO's inclusion is also mainly an acoustic one which luckily flares up towards the end, before putting you to sleep. Continuing the predominantly acoustic thread is Grizzly Bear with Victoria Legrand, as do the Editors with exclusively voice and piano.
The single orchestral music track from the soundtrack is Alexandre Desplat's New Moon theme, a dreamy solo piano piece.

4 / B
- Paul Blom


0 1 2 3 4 5 6
- A - B - C


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6 - Volcanic
5 - Blistering
4 - Hot
3 - Smolder
2 - Room Temp.
1 - Fizzled
0 - Extinguished

A: Multiple Listening Potential
B: Deserves Another Spin
C: Once Should Suffice

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