So, it's been a while since we've had a faceoff on That Girl With A Blog, but the time has come, my friends.This time, we'll be focusing on soundracks. While the similarities are there (the electronic inspiration, the prolific artists, the facet that they're both scores), the differences are abounding. Well, let's see where they stand. It seems like the winner always comes first. Let's start with the loser.
Now, I'm not trying to say that Trent Reznor is a loser, per se, I'm just saying that Daft Punk used their giant, stompy, space-aged boots to kick him in the face. Repeatedly. Also, I should probably mention that I am a little biased on this front. I am a huge fan of Reznor's...pre-1999 Reznor, that is. 1989 Trent Reznor was my favorite, though. I want Reznor at his finest. Young, dreaded, preferably covered in baby powder and screaming. This is the Reznor I have come to know and love. Now, man, where to begin. This whole "Henry Rollins Look-a-Like" contest thing has gotten out of hand and well, he got married? What's up with that? My inner 13-year-old just died a little bit. At least she's hot. Like, really hot. Good job, Trent. Anyway, onto the soundtrack.
While this is Reznor's first score, it's certainly not his first rodeo when it comes to working on soundtracks (See: Natural Born Killers or Lost Highway). That being said, The Social Network Soundtrack is soooooooo boring. So. Very. Boring. It's dark, it's brooding (who could have imagined!? Trent Reznor!? Dark and brooding? No effin' way!) and it's entirely predictable. It's everything that I imagined it would be, and that's not a good thing. Also, I don't even really understand why he would agree to do this (perhaps he should have kept his original answer?). While, yes, he's a pioneer of technology when it comes to releasing music, he's notoriously anti-social networking. This album does have a few stand out tracks including "In Motion" and "Carbon Prevails". Upon multiple listenings, these two are the only tracks to really demand my attention, even when I'm doing something else. But for every decent song, you end up with a song like "In the Hall of the Mountain King". Yup, it's the orchestral piece composed by Edvard Grieg for Peer Gynt, and it ends up sounding like a badly-recorded ring tone. In general, this album sounds just like everything that Reznor's released since 1999 and is almost a dead ringer for 2008's Ghosts. Do something else, already. As for it's relation to the movie, okay, I get it. It's darkly appropriate for the greed and betrayal, but as a stand alone album, it fails miserably.
As for Daft Punk, they take the Tron Legacy Soundtrack and make it their bitch. Seriously. And what's so amazing about this OST is the complete lack of a danceable beat. Who are you, you helmeted DJ duo, and what have you done with my Daft Punk!? Two of my favorite Frenchman were just absolutely perfect for this soundtrack. It's so understated for them and so incredibly beautiful. You get this layering of ambient, organic noise with the swelling of an 85 piece orchestra and it's enough to give me goosebumps EVERY listen through. Doing some general research for this review, I came across this on the G4 site:
"Anyone thinking that Daft Punk would record this as Discovery, Part 2 or Human After All: The Sequel will be greatly disappointed. If this causes you to make angry faces under your homemade Daft Punk mask..." First of all, thank you, Rick Damigella, for making me laugh harder that I have in a long time, and second of all, he is 100% correct. There is no sampling. There is no disco. There is nothing to make your heart want to explode while rolling. It's so not the Daft Punk we all know and love, but it's just SO GOOD. Grand does not even begin to describe this album. Epic? Maybe. Legendary? Almost. While the Tron Legacy Soundtrack has the capabilites that all soundtracks need (IE: the ability to blend into the background when necessary), as a stand alone album, it's still absolutely fucking phenomenal. This time around, this album is everything I thought it would be, only better. I don't think that there's anyone out there who fit the bill as well as the Daft Punk boys. I mean, they've been playing robot for almost my entire lifetime, why the hell not!? At this point, I don't even care if the movie's good or not because the soundtrack is more than enough to make up for it. It's just a bonus that the soundtrack matches the movie perfectly.
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