By Al Kaufman
What a difference a sequel makes. Now that the first Twilight movie has made its millions, everyone has signed up to be on the sequel’s soundtrack, creating a nice time capsule piece for the state of indie rock in 2009. Yes, it’s all as dour and moody as you would expect the music for a teen vampire movie to be, but it’s not “wear black, slit your wrists, and contemplate if life is really worth living” dark.
Indie poster children Death Cab for Cutie open the CD with “Meet Me on the Equinox.” They add a lot of echo for mystery, and Ben Gibbard repeats the ominous refrain, “Everything ends.” One can almost see the teenage girls listening in their bedrooms, eyes closed in concentration, answering the refrain with a very sincere, “so true.”
Band of Skulls’ “Friends” brings some rock into the mix, then Thom Yorke, Radiohead frontman, does his best Joy-Division-meets-Peter-Murphy on “Hearing Damage.” Moody drumbeats and whispered lyrics capture that vampire movie feel, and certainly recall Yorke’s solo CD, The Eraser.
The Killers attempt at depression rock, the spacey “A White Demon Love Song,” moves them even further away from the New Order and Bruce Springsteen influences they used to wear on their sleeves so well, and continues to lead them into oblivion. However, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s “Done All Wrong,” is a great change of pace for the band. Brooding, country-tinged folk; it’s the kind of stuff that Johnny Cash did so well.
Muse (“I Belong”) and Hurricane Bells (“Monsters”) deliver the necessary pop songs for the teens who require a catchy melody, while Bon Iver and St. Vincent’s gorgeous “Roslyn” will cause these same people to stretch their musical boundaries. Hymn-like in its beauty, it sounds as if it were recorded in an abandon old church, complete with bats flying overhead.
This is stylish, brooding rock that one would expect for a stylish, brooding movie. Fortunately, the music has more substance than the film. While the movie is a bunch of pretty faces who never have sex, the music lives up to its promise.
