Various Artists
Twilight Eclipse
The soundtrack to abstinence parable Twilight received a more than credible shot in the arm with New Moon. Thom Yorke, Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear all contributed to what was - naturally - a moody affair. Eclipse continues that 'inidie-rock' thread, with a few more high-profile and melodramtic tweaks.
It's a shaky start. You can tell there's a good band inside Metric but under all that slick, sickly plastic sheen you'd barely know. (Case in point: the original piano version of 'Help I'm Alive' versus the eventual album version - yikes). Emily Haines has a great voice - a shame then that the band surround it with lifeless gurning. It's hard not to smile along with Muse. At some point they had to decide between reigning in their technical wizardry and brow-furrowing in favour of artistic introspection akin to Radiohead, and turning everything up to 10, blowing up to 4000 font size, clicking yes on every Photoshop filter and going mega. The latter has paid off spectacularly, and so 'Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)' is a natural fit for the similarly cartoonish melodrama of the franchise, if a little Muse-by-numbers. And Matt Bellamy actually sings: "The world is broken / and halos fail to glisten". The Bravery turn in an unintentionally hilarious - though expected - affected performance and come across sounding exactly like old foes (they wish) The Killers. Except singing some shit about "this time is ours" and stopping the world from turning and other pointless, lyrical abominations.
From there we get to a swathe of tunes that wouldn't sound Florence and the Machine's 'Heavy In Your Arms' could've been a cut lifted straight from Lungs, while Welch sounds like she actually feels the maladies afflicted by her love. Sia pauses the pop wackiness of recent album We Are Born with gorgeous piano number 'My Love', showing off her arrangment skills with a slowly building chord cycle that allows for string swells and soaring harmonies that never sound overcooked, the percussive waltz that enters towards the end a real touch of class. Fanfarlo sound a lot like Okkervil River. Who, if you think about it, would be perfect for this album with their literary, folksy tales of redemption. Maybe they weren't available.
The Black Keys slinky 'Chop and Change' has clearly been influenced by their Blackroc hip-hop collaboration and is effortlessly great, (though perhaps more suited to the swampy, steamy setting around the vampires of True Blood that the icy gloom of Twilight. Too sexy.) The Dead Weather's 'Rolling In On A Burning Tire' arrives suitably stamped though Bat For Lashes' 'Let's Get Lost' sounds phoned in. Despite their name, the sunny bounce of Vampire Weekend should be out of place here but 'Jonathan Low' has enough melodramatic keyboard washes and turns that it scrapes through. Even if it does sound like it was recorded in an afternoon.
UNKLE and Eastern Conference Champion's contributions don't add anything to proceedings; Band of Horses shore up the "reflective", redemptive end of the bargain with the hazy wash of 'Life On Earth' and Cee Lo Green (Gnarls Barkly) contributes a galloping indie rock song. Which is fascinating 'cause it's Cee Lo Green. If not memorable.
The musical directors involved here should be commended for largely choosing artists whose aesthetic adheres to the film's. Likewise those involved - Florence, Sia, Black Keys, The Dead Weather and a few others - who rose to the occasion with tracks that would err on the highlight side of their own albums. A worthy addition to their catalogue.