Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack review

Those who’ve read my prior reviews on this subject know that I despised the “Twilight” movie with a fiery passion, but was a fan of the soundtrack. Now that they’ve changed directors as well as composers for “New Moon,” I checked the “New Moon” soundtrack album out with some degree of eagerness. I bought it the day it came out…and I was utterly blown away.

Listen to Twighlight New Moon soundtrack songs

There is not one single dislikeable song on this entire album. “New Moon” is a completely new and original work of music; you cannot find the songs on this compilation anywhere else, with each song completely original and written specifically for the movie soundtrack. The artists range from the well-known to the obscure, from the folk-rock to the alternative, and the impressive range and skill of each musician is apparent from the get-go.

The album kicks into a broodingly moody gear with Death Cab for Cutie’s amazingly emotive “Meet Me on the Equinox,” which bleeds into the slightly punky punch of “Friends” by Band of Skulls. Thom Yorke, the lead singer of alternative rock legends Radiohead, contributes his own dark electronic track “Hearing Damage,” to be followed by the soft and introspective strains of “Possibility” by Lykke Li.

The Killers of indie-rock fame contribute the original “A White Demon Love Song,” which perfectly captures the complicated relationships between Bella, Edward and Jacob throughout the story of “New Moon.” Anya Marina belts out the lovely ballad “Satellite Heart,” which is followed by a slinky new remix of Muse’s new single “I Belong to You.” Bon Iver and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club each come in with their own folk/aternative rock songs (“Roslyn” and “Done All Wrong”, respectively), each track unique and lively in their own way — indeed, the “New Moon” soundtrack could easily have fallen into the simple category of ‘teen angst music’ but the overall quality of the songs and the mixing are enough to completely sidestep that bullet.

Hurricane Bells lively rock anthem “Monsters” again ramps the album up from the slowness while still managing to capture the overall, ethereally brooding sense that holds this unique album together. Sea Wolf delivers a punchy folk tune in “The Violet Hour,” which leads in to OK Go’s new track “Shooting the Moon,” a fun pop-infused folk/rock song that has a beat and a style all it’s own. Grizzly Bear’s darkly romantic “Slow Life” comes up next, and the final song for the album is “No Sound But the Wind” by indie/folk rock leaders the Editors, a lush and gorgeous piano ballad that carries us into the true star of this collection:

The final track on this compilation, however, is the true creme de la creme of this collection — an original score work for the movie composed by the new French composer Alexandre Desplat. Titled simply “New Moon (The Meadow),” the complex piano melodies and heartrending orchestrations perfectly illustrate everything Desplat needed to accomplish, and this particular song outshines every other song on this album. (At this point, I’m almost more excited about the score album coming out than the movie itself!)

Bottom line — whether or not the movie itself will improve on its predecessor is hard to gauge at this point, but this soundtrack is that rare kind of originality, that special kind of gem, that is hard to stumble upon this day, and yet this album managed to do it with grace. Introducing new acts, providing dazzling new material from old favorites, and mixing an album to keep it fresh while never losing the brooding cohesiveness of the project the mix is based upon is a difficult task, but “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” has more than stepped up to the challenge — it hit a solid home run.

Five out of five stars.