The Girl with the Cool Music

Actually, it’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” OK, Cheesy titles aside, this is another film directed by David Fincher and scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The trio seem to be a recipe for success, because this is yet another award winning film with a really great soundtrack. As usual, you’ll hear no spoilers from me- I haven’t even seen the movie yet!

The soundtrack to this film is really unlike anything the other two films that the duo has worked on yet. While it is reminiscent of the soundtrack to “The Social Network,” it is much darker in tone and ends up being longer in duration.

While some of the songs aren’t as good as their past work, the sheer amount of music gives them plenty of chances to strike creative gold. This album comes out at being an impressive length of three whole hours, despite the movie only being about two and a half hours.

The reason for this may lay with how they approached creating the music. When it came to the soundtrack to “The Social Network,” what they thought would be temp music ended up being the final cut. But in an interview with Trent Reznor by The Film Stage, Reznor stated that since they were actively working with the creation of the film, everything kept moving around and scenes constantly changed in length. They ended up approaching it from a mindset of “everything is in flux, and approach it as such. Hopefully it’ll work out in the end.”

Photo: Musicians Atticus Ross on the left, Trent Reznor on the right. (thefilmstage.com)

Aesthetics

Similar to their approach with the “Gone Girl” soundtrack, Reznor said in an interview with NPR that they wanted to create uneasiness through their sound. They “take lots of acoustic instruments … and transplant them into a very inorganic setting, and dress the set around them with electronics.”

As a result, the music has an impressive amount of ranges. There are great droning songs with a passive approach to delivering a mood like “Aphelion”, and exhilarating and active songs like “A Thousand Details” or “An Itch.” There are even some covers of existing songs, like “Immigrant Song,” originally by Led Zeppelin. The sheer amount of tones and moods makes this great for listening while doing just about anything, in my experience.

Of course, there are some more bizarre songs that you might skip past, depending on your musical tastes. Some songs, like “Oraculum,” have unpleasant beginnings- intentionally, of course- so it doesn’t make for great listening all the time.

Photo: Trent Reznor left, Atticus Ross right.  (Los Angeles Times)

The Verdict

Though the album does have a lot of great songs, and the length of the album makes it well suited for putting on as background music while doing other things, a number of the songs usually get skips when they come up. That’s not entirely a bad thing, either- they probably play with very unpleasant scenes to great effect!

While more experimental and half-filled with drone songs, this is another album that I tend to put on while working or driving. It’s not one of my absolute favorites, but it’s definitely up there. I suggest you give the full thing a listen, here. Some of my favorite songs from the score are “Infiltrator,” “Great Bird of Prey,” and those listed in aesthetics.

OK, that’s the last you’ll be hearing from these two, assuming they don’t have some secret project that pops up and releases before next week. Here’s a little preview of what I’ll be talking about on Wednesday.

“The Social Network” Brings Great Musicians Together

If I told you that one of my all-time favorite soundtracks is from a movie about Facebook, would you laugh? Well, laugh it up, buddy: directed by David Fincher, “The Social Network” has a great soundtrack that I’ve listened to countless times, especially while doing homework or writing. This is another award-winning soundtrack done by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the first that the two collaborated on for a major motion picture.

Several months before the movie’s release in 2010, Trent Reznor had released a five track sampling of the soundtrack that left me excited. I was surprised to see that he was the one scoring the film, because its concept seemed pretty innocent and uninteresting: the founding of Facebook, and the conflicts involved in its growth.

I was pleasantly surprised when I actually went to go see the movie, because it’s one heck of an emotional journey. If you haven’t seen the film, you should definitely see it! Until then, rest assured that there will be no spoilers in this post.

 Image: Part of a poster for “The Social Network” (pitchfork.com)

Aesthetics

The score to “The Social Network” is similar to the score of “Gone Girl” in some ways. There’s an underlying sense of tension, but it’s much less of a focus this time around. The movie is a talkative drama filled with backstabbing between innovative programmers, and it’s easy to hear those aspects if you’re really listening for them. If technology had a soundtrack, it would surely sound something like this album.

If you’re a fan of Nine Inch Nails, you’ll probably be familiar with a lot of the sounds used throughout the soundtrack. As explained by Reznor in an interview by Pitchfork, the temporary working soundtrack that they sent the director actually used a couple parts from his “Ghosts” album.

Fincher had nothing negative to say, so much of it stuck around, even the parts re-used and remixed from Reznor’s previous album. This is most apparent in “Magnetic”, which uses a beat and string instrument similar to “14 Ghosts II.” Still, you won’t hear me complain, these are both great songs.

When you listen to “In Motion,” the song at the top of this post, doesn’t it make you feel inspired to do something? That song is one of my absolute favorites from any soundtrack ever, I couldn’t tell you how many programs and papers I’ve written while listening to it on loop. It’s low-key enough to make for good listening without distracting you from the tasks at hand.

That really goes for almost the whole soundtrack, too! Some other songs that are good for listening to while working on things are “Pieces Form The Whole” and “On We March.”

 Image: Musician Trent Reznor (theguardian.com)

The Verdict

Even though this score is the first that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross collaborated on, it’s far from sounding that way. From somber to motivated, they had their way of conveying moods nailed perfectly from the start of their soundtrack work together. It’s been my go-to for background noise while working on homework ever since it came out, and I don’t see that stopping any time soon. You can listen to the full soundtrack here.

And would you believe it, that’s still not the last you’ll hear from me about this duo! Here’s a little preview of what I’ll be covering this coming Friday.

“Gone Girl” Brings Calm Worry

“Gone Girl” is a fantastic 2014 psychological thriller directed by David Fincher. No, not David Lynch, but you’d probably think that after your first watch. This will be a spoiler free post, since I’m just addressing the soundtrack, not the movie’s content. Like I mentioned on Wednesday, the soundtrack was put together by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, two of my favorite musical artists.

When they’re not making soundtracks, these two fellas are major parts of a band that you’ve probably heard of: the Nine Inch Nails. Their penchant for creating unique music that’s capable of evoking strong emotion carries over to their soundtrack work wonderfully, which shows in the powerful soundtrack to this movie.

 Image: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (rollingstone.com)

Aesthetics

The duo’s goal with the soundtrack, according to an interview with Reznor by USA Today, was to perpetuate a “mood where everything seems OK, but if you look closely the wallpaper and paint is peeling.” The sort of feeling where you know something is wrong, but everything is trying to convince you that it’s fine. After listening to this soundtrack over and over ever since I saw the movie, I think they did an amazing job of conveying that feeling.

The tone of the music ranges from soothing and dreamy, to buzzing, bizarre and distorted. The video at the top of this post, “Sugar Storm,” is one of the most signature songs in the soundtrack for this reason, it embodies both ends of the spectrum. It starts out with relaxing and gentle bell-like noises following a simple tune, but as it goes on, the distorted electronic noises that fade in make it seem just a little off.

If you compare that to “The Way He Looks At Me,” the veil of normalcy that was created in previous songs is completely dropped. The raw synths and electronic glitch noises combine with and overpower the same gentle pianos that are used throughout the album’s gentler songs in a dramatic shift of tone.

“Technically, Missing” is another masterful song that takes these concepts further, starting out with cheery synths that scream realization. It starts out gentle and inspiring like some of the others, and as it goes on, distorted guitars pair with the upbeat synths to bring out the tension that the song had built up. When the song is over, the cheery synths fade out out over a tense atmosphere for an instant, reminding you that things still aren’t okay.

 Image: Subtle promotional poster for “Gone Girl” (www.fastcocreate.com)

The Verdict

I listened to the soundtrack before I saw the movie, which is blasphemy, I know, but even without the context of the movie I was impressed by how dynamic the whole album could be.

Even though the soundtrack to “Gone Girl” is a newer addition to my collection, it’s quickly become one of my favorites. You can listen to the full soundtrack here, I’ve found that it’s great to listen to while writing papers or programming. Some of my favorites include the ones I’ve already shared in this post, along with “Clue One,” “Clue Two” and “Just Like You.”

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have made three soundtracks together, all of which are fantastic and bear their own unique aesthetic. So, don’t go thinking you’ve seen the last of them! In fact, here’s a little preview for what I’ll be covering next week.