College Times

Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Music

Media Credit: Summit Entertainment

Various Artists
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(Chop Shop/Atlantic)
Grade: B+

Given the multiplatinum, across-the-board smash success of the first "Twilight" soundtrack, which boosted the careers of Paramore and Muse to new heights, many questioned whether the second installment could escape being overcome by the music industry's primal desire to sink its fangs into teenagers' wallets.

Spoiler alert: It does.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is a rare soundtrack that both avoids the usual need for already-familiar songs and the cost-cutting desire to pad out the album with no-name filler. From start to finish, "New Moon" is packed with interesting, left-of-center rock that will likely fit well with the upcoming movie.

In keeping with the movie's theme, no one really rocks out on New Moon, though Death Cab for Cutie's trembling, Radiohead-tinged "Meet Me on the Equinox" comes close. Muse's remix of "I Belong to You" is understated, and the Killers' pretty "White Demon Love Song" is remarkably subdued. Even the usually bombastic OK Go - yes, the treadmill-video guys - turn in a lovely jangling ballad, "Shooting the Moon," while the normally in-your-face Black Rebel Motorcycle Club lays off the throttle on the acoustic "Done All Wrong."

While indie rockers will flip over Grizzly Bear's haunting "Slow Life" and the spare Bon Iver and St. Vincent duet "Roslyn," the album's biggest surprises are Lykke Li's gorgeous, spare ballad "Possibility" and Thom Yorke's lower-register, electro-leaning "Hearing Damage."

Of course, those surprise successes really are trumped by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas' ability to keep the music industry vampires at bay.

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