REVIEW: Twilight New Moon Soundtrack as Overrated as the Movie?

The success of the pre-release buzz, incessant marketing and unfounded hype surrounding this utterly mediocre collection might be an even bigger accomplishment than the crossbreeding of vampires, werewolves and indie-rockers…or whatever this movie is about.

The release of Twilight: New Moon and its accompanying soundtrack are still a few weeks away, but the tracklisting has finally been released (see it, below).

Today, we’re taking at look at the disc and trying to figure out what the fuss is all about.

At a glance, it seems about as lame as the movie (seriously, have you seen the trailer for this thing? Bad acting, horrible dialogue and cheap special effects. Unless people dig this because it’s cheesy/funny, there’s really no excuse for handing any more money over to Stephenie Meyer and Co.).

BELOW: Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack: Check out some of the new tracks and tell us what you think.

1. 1
   Death Cab for Cutie—Meet Me On the Equinox
   
   News that indie darlings DCFC were signing up with the vampires made waves and caused an uproar among music fans, which is something this band’s low key music rarely does.

   (Read: Weekend Wedding: New Moon Musician and Actress)

2. 2
   Band of Skulls—Friends
   
   photo credit: Scott Penner

   We’re not sure why, but this little-known British trio is getting a big boost with a spot on this soundtrack. The group’s yowling blues sludge is likely to appeal to the same people currently pretending to like The Dead Weather.

   (Read: Dead Weather Star Shoots “Mom,” She Shoots Back)

   MP3: Band of Skulls-”Blood”(mp3)

3. 3
   Thom Yorke—Hearing Damage
   
   photo credit: Sarah Buckley

   The Radiohead frontman caused a stir when news leaked that he was contributing a song to this blockbuster flick. Although, really, it’s not that shocking considering Radiohead’s done music for flicks in the past (Velvet Goldmine, S.F.W., There Will Be Blood, etc.)

4. 4
   Lykke Li—Possibility
   
   photo credit: Benoît Derrier

   For the life of us, we don’t understand why this electro-pop snore has a career. She’s basically the vapid indie-rock version of vapid pop tarts like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. Slap a Swedish accent on anything and suddenly it’s hip, apparently. (Peter, Bjorn and John, we’re looking, er, yawning, at you.)

5. 5
   The Killers—A White Demon Love Song
   
   photo credit: Pony Kid-

   We’re sure Brandon Flowers can’t wait to break out his Screamin’ Jay Hawkins vampire cape and golden fangs onstage and, well, we’d stick around for that–if he’ll promise to stop acting like Springsteen.

6. 6
   Anya Marina—Satellite Heart
   Another singer-songwriter poached from the Gossip Girl music dept. Also featured on Grey’s Anatomy and How I Met Your Mother, because TV is the new radio.
7. 7
   Muse—I Belong To You (New Moon Remix)
   A band that owes its sound to Radiohead, Muse should be thrilled to be on the same disc as Thom Yorke. Yorke should be sort of embarrassed though. Wow, a remix of a song from your new album? Thanks guys, it looks like you really put a lot of effort into this.(Read: Would you pay $99 for the new Muse CD?)
8. 8
   Bon Iver & St. Vincent—Rosyln
   Over-hyped sensitive boy singer, meet equally hyped girl singer. Have fun.
9. 9
   Black Rebel Motorcycle Club—Done All Wrong
   Velvet Underground/Jesus and Mary Chain disciples BRMC scored a hit with “Whatever Happened to my Rock’n’Roll” in 2001 and, well, they’re still around.
10. 10
    Hurricane Bells—Monsters
    Who? Exactly. MySpace verdict: Largely instrumental rainy day, Death Cab for Cutie-esque background numbers, Brooklyn style.
11. 11
    Sea Wolf—The Violet Hour
    
    photo credit: annabellaphoto

    We tried to be good.  We weren’t going to make a stupid wolf joke about this band, until we checked out Sea Wolf on Myspace and saw that the influence section says “We want to be JUST LIKE: Wolf Eyes, Wolf Parade, We Are Wolves, AIDS Wolf, Wolfie, Wolf Colonel, Patrick Wolf, WolfMother, Guitar Wolf, Steppenwolf, Hugo Wolf, Kate Wolf, Laurent Wolf, Wolf City, Duran Duran (though they don’t really count. they were just ‘hungry like a wolf’), Howlin’ Wolf, Superwolf,[and on and on and on...]. The big boring wolf is crying outside the door. Sea Wolf was previously featured on Gossip Girl and in  commercials for Radio Shack and Chevy Malibus, so Twilight kids are probably just another section of this band’s target demographic.

12. 12
    OK Go—Shooting the Moon
    How’d that Banana Republic ad work out for you boys, ok? Good.
13. 13
    Grizzly Bear—Slow Life
    Forget all of those Gossip Girl jokes we made before, this soundtrack is totally indie.
14. 14
    Editors—No Sound But the Wind
    A lot like faux Brit mopers Interpol, except these fellas are actually British. Neat-o.
15. 15
    Alexandre Desplat—New Moon (The Meadow)
    Soundtrack music by a guy known for writing soundtrack music. Honest enough.
    

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