TRENT REZNOR / ATTICUS ROSS - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Atticus Ross, now full fledged NIN member and Trent Reznor have embarked on some interesting projects to date and this 3 disc album is no exception.  They've done some stuff like this before, and it's kinda hard to review the work because the songs generally bleed together in a tantric sorta way.  They become dark sinister chants that draw you along subconsciously.  Unless you're listening for it, you won't realize where one track ends and another begins.  That doesn't mean to imply they all sound the same.  They don't.  But they create the same effect.  The soundscape you're hearing builds up around you and you get trapped in it.

The important thing to remember when you're listening to this mostly instrumental album is that it's a film score.  The album clocks in around 3 hours, but the actual songs appear in the film with shorter, different edits.  There are versions of the album released by the record company that list the tracks according to their corresponding cues and in their edited versions.  This version, purchased through Reznor's NIN site, is the work in its imagined entirety.  The music is presented in the manner the two men wrote the tracks and fully unedited.  Hence the long track times and the trance-like quality many of the songs possess.

The album spans three discs, but the track listing counts the songs as one continuous disc.  So...  I will break them up by disc at the end of the review, but I will number them according to the way they appear in the liner notes.

There are a few numbers with vocals.  The first disc starts off with 'Immigrant Song', a Led Zeppelin cover.  Vocals are provided by Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  I think the track would've benefited from Reznor's vocals rather than a female lead.  I suspect they went with a female lead vocal because of the nature of the film.  The third disc also contains a cover track with a vocal.  'Is Your Love Strong Enough' is a Bryan Ferry cover and features the singer from another Reznor side project, How To Destroy Angels.

Musically, this is a very satisfying piece of work.  However, going track by track isn't an option.  First and foremost, I don't have the time to do it right now and second, the similarities between the songs are hard to verbalize without getting technical.  I don't want this blog to be one that alienates people in any way.  I try to relate the music to my life and hopefully inspire people to relate it to their own.

Suffice it to say, the music follows many of the patterns you've come to expect from Reznor.  There's a sense of unease hoovering around.  There's also that white noise distortion, the resonating piano, simple but menacing motifs repeating in sinister fashion and an overall feeling of haunting.

When you listen to the music, you start to wonder why video games like Resident Evil haven't hired Reznor to score their games.  You can also feel the power and majestic quality of the material projected through your speakers.  If you listened to this album while you were falling asleep, I can promise you'd have some strange and disturbing dreams.  If you were planning on putting on a haunted house, you'd create more fear if you played this music over the speakers while people were walking through.  It's spooky yet effectively conveys the idea of a mystery unfolding.  Like Scooby Doo...  The underlying message of this film and this soundtrack is rather simple...  The monster is actually just a man.  Because human beings are the true monsters in this world.  And it's that dark revelation, this soundtrack builds up to.  That this music ultimately helps reveal.  And hasn't that been part of what Reznor was always about?  Showing us the dark side of the human condition?  Showing us the decay, the rot, the filth, the sadness and tragedy of being human?  That even though man rages and defies the natural world, it is nature that will destroy us in the end?  Reznor holds our faces up the glass and shows us the things we pretend not to see.

In that very act, he also shows us the way out.  How to be better than what we really are.  Because the way out is through the damaged areas and broken bits.  It's putting the pieces back into place and constantly building what we've destroyed.  It's learning from your mistakes.  Too often, he's written off and not given credit for his message.  Probably more than any other artist alive today, Reznor's music mirrors humanity.  More people should listen to him and take him seriously.  

Overall, I think you know I find this album exciting and stimulating.  I think it's one you should own even if you're not a fan of NIN.  My final words:  AN UNCONVENTIONAL, UNUSUAL AND BEAUTIFUL SOUNDTRACK TO AN EQUALLY BRILLIANT FILM!!!

TRENT REZNOR / ATTICUS ROSS - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
DISC 1
01. Immigrant Song
02. She Reminds Me Of You
03. People Lie All The Time
04. Pinned And Mounted
05. Perihelion
06. What If We Could?
07. With The Flies
08. Hidden In Snow
09. A Thousand Details
10. One Particular Moment
11. I Can't Take It Anymore
12. How Brittle The Bones
13. Please Take Your Hand Away
DISC 2
14. Cut Into Pieces
15. The Splinter
16. An Itch
17. Hypomania
18. Uunder The Midnight Sun
19. Aphelion
20. You're Here
21. The Same As The Others
22. A Pause For Reflection
23. While Waiting
24. The Seconds Drag
25. Later Into The Night
26. Parallel Timeline With Alternate Outcome
DISC 3
27. Another Way Of Caring
28. A Viable Construct
29. Revealed In The Thaw
30. Millennia
31. We Could Wait Forever
32. Oraculum
33. Great Bird Of Prey
34. The Heretics
35. A Pair Of Doves
36. Infiltrator
37. The Sound Of Forgetting
38. Of Secrets
39. Is Your Love Strong Enough?