When I first caught wind of the track list for the Twilight Soundtrack I was not about to sprint on out to purchase the CD on Tuesday when it was released. However, I have had the opportunity to listen to the soundtrack along with the three iTunes bonus tracks in their entirety a number of times and thought I’d take the opportunity to give a rather extensive review of the soundtrack to this much anticipated film. The CD starts out with the upbeat track Supermassive Black Hole from Brit rockers Muse. Die hard Twilighters will know that Muse is not new to the Twilight soundtrack circuit since the book’s author Stephenie Meyer featured at least one track from the band on every play list she created for each of the books in the Twilight series. It’s my humble yet ever-so-professional opinion that their inclusion on the movie soundtrack stems mainly from this concept, as the track really offers no lyrical backing to the plot-line and its falsetto ridden vocals leave me wondering where this track fits in to the movie.

The second track and the first of two songs written by Paramore specifically for the film is Decode. The song which has been quick to get radio airplay, and has had 6,509,331 plays on the band's Myspace page at the time of this writing takes a more moody tone and captures more of the essence of the books. The band's lead singer Hayley Williams is a huge fan of the books and even explained last month on StephenieMeyer.com the following, “I chose the title “Decode” because the song is about the building tension, awkwardness, anger and confusion between Bella and Edward. Bella’s is the only mind Edward can’t read and I feel like that’s a big part of the first book and one of the obstacles for them to overcome. It’s one added tension that makes the story even better.” The third track which is composed of an electronic drum track, an acoustic guitar, and a number of various synthesized instruments has always seemed out of place to me when paired with any of the other tracks. I had originally heard The Black Ghosts, Full Moon paired with Decode on twilightthesoundtrack.com weeks before the soundtrack was released. I wasn’t very fond of the song at first, but over time it has grown on me. Again as a stand alone song I think it works fine, but to me it sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the album.

Picking up precisely where Muse’s Supermassive Black Hole had left off, Mutemath’s “Twilight Remix” of their song Spotlight continues with the upbeat tempo that is felt through much of this album. My initial impression was that I was not very fond of the song, but as I’ve listened to the album as a whole a few times I see where it fits into the scheme of things. The fast paced drum beats and repetitive guitar licks remind me of a modernized rendition of the songs you would hear in a chase scene in the old Hanna Barbara cartoons. Another hip band that is certainly no stranger to the Twilight musical circuit is Linkin Park. A band that was again used quite frequently in the play lists developed by the books author, they provide the angst ridden track Leave Out All The Rest. Again other than setting a mood the song doesn’t capture any of the plotline lyrically leading me again to believe that the band only made it onto the soundtrack because of their close ties to Stephenie Meyers’ play lists and their mention as a band Bella listens to frequently.

Again we are transitioned from an angst ridden rock track to a much more upbeat song. Former Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrel provides us with the wistful track Go All The Way (Into the Twilight). This song which slowly builds upon a distant dance beat... and the chorus reminds me of my days of sneaking into underground dance clubs in New York City. Once again this song illustrates the range of music that was used on this soundtrack and it almost makes me wonder where exactly an upbeat track like this fits into the scheme of an angst ridden gothic teen vampire romance. Lyrically Farrell hits a little closer to home with the perfect opening line, ‘’The first time I saw you, I had the fever.” Clearly an understated representation of Edwards thirst for Bella, but probably closer to fitting the storyline than much of this soundtrack is capable of. The only track from the original play list developed by Stephenie Meyer to make it onto the soundtrack is Collective Soul’s, Tremble For My Beloved. The modern rock veterans who have a number of big screen soundtracks under their belt including Scream 2 and Varsity Blues offer yet another upbeat track to the album. A solid contribution to the mood of the film with crunchy guitar riffs and the repeated verse, “To a world where madness craves, to a world where hopes enslaved, Oh, I’ll tremble for my love always.” What’s most interesting to me about this track is that the song is nearly 9 years old and it still made its way onto the album. Originally released on the bands third album Dosage, it seems to me to be a bold move for the studio to include a band that hasn’t seen much mainstream radio play since their 1995 hit “The World I Know”.

The second contribution to the Twilight soundtrack from Paramore is I Caught Myself. The song which falls more along the lines of the pop rock style the band is known for offers a crisp guitar progression while singer Hayley Williams paints a picture of the internal struggle felt by the main characters with lines like, “Don’t know what I want, but I know its not you. Keep pushing and pulling me down when I know in my heart its not you.” The first track to really capture the darkness of the Twilight story in my opinion is Blue Foundation’s, Eyes on Fire. With crunchy guitar drowned in reverb, angelic vocals, and an eerie organ melody the song brings a better sense of the true dark essence of the Twilight story. Lyrically the song aids in the story of James and his hunt for Bella with the lyrics, “I’m taking it slow, feeding my flame, shuffling the cards of your game. And just in time, in the right place, suddenly I will play my ace.” The album wraps up on a more solemn note with two acoustic tracks and a piano piece from the films score composer Carter Burwell. The first of the two acoustic tracks is performed by Edward himself, Rob Pattinson. Pattinson, whose musical interest in the film started when he composed his own version of Bella’s Lullaby during filming offers a very folksy track titled Never Think that I can easily picture playing near the end of the film.

The second acoustic track is performed by Iron & Wine and I can imagine that it is the song that plays at the end of the film when Edward and Bella dance. It’s got the perfect tempo for such a scene and I can picture the song playing in the background as the characters seemingly float on the dance floor... The final track by Carter Burwell titled Bella’s Lullaby is the composer’s adaptation of the song in which Edward wrote for Bella in both the book and the film. Whenever I heard Bella’s Lullaby in my head while reading all of the Twilight books I always pictured something that could stand alone on the piano, much like Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. This piece relies a bit more heavily on the orchestral elements but it works rather well and actually enhances the story with a haunting tone. The 3 bonus tracks which are currently available on iTunes offer one really impressive addition to the entire soundtrack. The first two, La Triviata and Clair de Lune are simply classical pieces that play in the background that are mentioned in the book. The piece of interest here is another track by Rob Pattinson. Let Me Sign is again a very folksy acoustic piece. The piece is very slow to start and it builds off of almost complete silence with the addition of some very distant distorted guitars and strings. While the mood of this one doesn’t seem to hold as true to the previous piece by Pattinson it’s definitely something that will excite die hard Twilight and Pattinson fans alike. Overall, this is an extraordinary CD, very befitting to the film... one that any/all Twilight fans should add to their growing collections of memorabilia. UB

John Mundazio works for one of the numerous publishing companies in the New York metropolitan area which is currently planning a bold takeover of the parallel universe in which he occasionally resides with several of his imaginary friends and at least two of the strange voices in his head. But he is confident it is not the one you're thinking of at this very moment. Convinced that Susie-Q's are indeed a food group and that no REAL list of fun toys is ever really complete without mentioning "Log"— that quintessential Ren and Stimpy Show toy that boldly dared to go where no toy ever could... "The Dazed-Meister" refuses to partake in anything which requires him to dress up like Wonder Woman or sing the theme song from The Partridge Family in its entirety. He also opposes floatation devices of any sort.

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