Tuesday, September 22, 2009

[Not Really] A Twitarded Critique of the New Moon Soundtrack

I think it goes without saying that both Snarkier Than You and I are pretty huge music fans. One of our very first posts was a critique of the Twilight Soundtrack, and Mini Edward has been a great partner in my music festival travels.


As the artist list for the NMS (I'm sick and lazy today so we're going to abbreviate) grew, so did our interest in it. At first it was like, 'oh yay, Thom Yorke - or Radiohead - is going to be on the Soundtrack' but now that the list is finally released, I'm pretty excited [note from STY: I was pretty interested from the get-go - I love Radiohead and Thom Yorke!]. Mainly because there is no Linkin' Park on it. Sorry, LP fans but I can't help myself. I hate them.

Originally, STY and I were going to do a breakdown of all the artists and throw in our two cents (something we just LOVE to do) but then STY discovered that Letters to Twilight had beaten us to the punch. And frankly, their breakdown of the New Moon soundtrack is way better than ours ever could be and those girls really, really know their music.

So please go check it out!!

Plus UC & Moon found this hysterical picture of ThomYorkward in full "SpiderMonkey" mode over at Rolling Stone. Whoever put this together deserves some sort of photoshop award, imho -


I do have a couple of things to say about this soundtrack, besides as a whole it sounds awesome. I mean, c'mon, it has Thom Yorke. Helloooooo, Thom Yorke does to music what RPattz does to your vagina. Or what we all wish he would, at least. Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Ok Go, Death Cab - it's just an awesome lineup.

Oh, and one more thing. If you haven't heard Bon Iver's album For Emma, Forever Ago, you need to do so immediately. It's beautiful [I think Moon and UC would agree with me on that one].

We know you're probably all over it by now and have pre-ordered from at least three places by now, but here' s the official listing anyway -

New Moon soundtrack track list:

1. Death Cab For Cutie – “Meet Me On The Equinox”
2. Band Of Skulls – “Friends”
3. Thom Yorke – “Hearing Damage”
4. Lykke Li – “Possibility”
5. The Killers – “A White Demon Love Song”
6. Anya Marina – “Satellite Heart”
7. Muse – “I Belong To You (New Moon)”
8. Bon Iver and St. Vincent – “Roslyn”
9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Done All Wrong”
10. Hurricane Bells – “Monsters”
11. Sea Wolf – “The Violet Hour”
12. OK Go – “Shooting The Moon”
13. Grizzly Bear – “Slow Life”
14. Editors – “No Sound But The Wind”
15. Alexandre Desplat – “New Moon (The Meadow)”

A few random thoughts from Snarkier Than You to wrap things up:

I am THRILLED with this soundtrack!!! I don't know all of the bands, but I adore the ones I know and am really looking forward to listening to it when it's released and getting familiar with the others. I tend to get into ruts with music, so once this comes out, I will listen to it non-stop for quite some time. I did the same thing with the soundtrack to Twilight, and I didn't even adore most of the bands on it all that much. Don't get me wrong - I listen to it a LOT. And enjoy it! But I listen to it a lot because it's part of Twilight. It's "love by association," if you will... I realized this a while ago when I was trying - and failing miserably - to explain to Mr. Snarky that I hadn't suddenly become Paramore's #1 fan and that I loved their song's association to the movie most of all. If that makes sense (er, I don't think it did to Mr. Sanrky, but you all might get it). So I probably would have liked/tolerated/listened to just about any soundtrack they'd created, but THIS one really ups the ante and includes some fantastic acts that are sure to deliver the goods. And we try to be reasonably diplomatic here at Twitarded (believe it or not! it's true!) but I am heaving a tremendous sigh of relief that nobody who was ever on American Idol is included. If Justin whatever-the-hell-his-name-is had weaseled his way onto this soundtrack, I would have had a full-on hold-my-breath-'til-I-turn-blue, toddler-worthy tantrum. And I'm not even that much of an indie rock snob.

Once again, I have to say thank you, Chris Weitz (and everyone else who picked the tracks)!!!

P.S. Jenny Jerkface asked me earlier when my birthday is, since she knows it's soon-ish and wants to know if I am having a party what to get me. Turns out the NM soundtrack is being released on my b-day! YAY ME!!! I have the feeling I know what music will be playing at my party. Over and over again and nobody can even give me shit for it - wheeee! Can't WAIT!


[P.P.S. from JJ: Actually, I already pre-ordered that Twilight porno for you... I thought that was what you would want???]

32 comments:

  1. STY- I agree with you about the Twilight soundtrack. I listen to it almost daily and love it because it is part of Twilight and I love all things Twilight. There are several songs I am not sure I would have liked if I just randomly heard them. But my obsession makes me automatically love it since it is Twilight related. Yes its sad, but also true.

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  2. omg you totally have to get her the twilight porno!

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  3. I had the same reaction about the American Idol guy, thank goodness his lame song didn't make it. I don't know a lot of the bands on the soundtrack but I'm sure I'll luv it.

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  4. I have a pandora radio station titled "twilight" and listen to it pretty much every day at work. I went to try to add these songs, but they must be "too new" - I'll give it a few weeks and attempt again.

    In other news, I can't remember - I think you ladies are trying not to indulge in spoilers... and I suppose these kind of are - but beautiful pictures from the set: http://photos.latimes.com/backlot/gallery/new-moon

    LOVE my validation word: Psing... oh Google...

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  5. [Thom Yorke does to music what RPattz does to your vagina.]
    Truer words were never written :)

    I'm looking forward to the soundtrack as well. When the Mr. Swatee saw it he was impressed with the lineup. I think I heard something like "Will make rewatching the DVD a thousand times more bearable" being muttered.

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  6. I completely agree with you on the love by association. I adore the Twilight soundtrack but because it brings memories of the movie. Example, The Black Ghosts makes me squee because it's the beginning of Twilight and I can picture Bella leave AZ. I can't wait to be able to hear these songs off New Moon.
    Actually I hate to say this because I've been watching The Vampire Diaries lately and whoever is doing their playlists gets a big thumbs up! Loving their music, even if someone is being murdered at the same time while they play it. My daughter has Metric on repeat because of Vampire Diaries. So music is a big deal. BTW, the other little one is obsessed with the soundtrack to Grease. So go figure. I have one into Vampires and one into Danny Zuko.

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  7. Yay Muse!!! I know they're a bit pretentious and stuff, but I still love em! Roll on, 6th November when I'll be shrieking at their Dublin concert. It'll be a nice stop-gap till New Moon. At least SM has decent taste in music, if not in children's names.

    On a completely unrelated topic, I no longer feel so bad about my Twi-obsession. Why, you ask? Because I'm house-and-dog-sitting for my uncle, and fucking everything is covered in his favourite soccer team, or their colours. Even his toothbrush. The dogs have matching AVFC collars. I shit you not. Clocks, mugs, magnets, shirts, hats, keyrings and bottle-openers. I might have believed that the claret and blue towels were a coincidence were it not for the Aston Villa thingy on the end of the cord for the bathroom light. I still love ya, Uncle J, you fifty-something who decorates his house like a football obsessed teenage boy. Not least because you make me feel a bit better about being a 24-year-old obsessed with books aimed at tweens. But mostly just for being my favourite uncle. (totally chaste) mwah!

    ps I like Linkin Park, but I can totally understand why some people (like my bff) hate their loud whiny asses. But hell, sometimes I'm just in a fucking loud whiny mood.

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  8. I jizzed in my pants when the new moon line up was announced. I've been following all the artist rumors closely. I was preparing myself for an epic fail when The Used announced they were making a track for the movie...In my head that was going to open the door for tons of shit music again like Paramore and Linkin Park (sorry lovers of those bands, but I'm a music snob) but low and behold The used is not on the sound track and this line up is 1000 times better than I thought it would be.

    So now I don't have to hide in the twi-closet because of embarrassment over a soundtrack with emo/mall punk/new metal shit (might still hide in there when BD gets released though)

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  9. I must admit the Twilight really broadened my horizons musically (well except for paramore and linkin' park -blech!) - and I'm looking forward to doing the same with the new moon soundtrack. I'm uber-excited for this one.

    And also -squee it's released the day after my birthday! Guess what I'm getting myself!!!

    VW-mortul? Ha - made me giggle.

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  10. Couldn't agree more. I love the Twilight soundtrack because each song mentally takes me to a place in the movie. I still have Supermassive Black Hole as the ringtone on my cell phone.

    But isn't anyone as sad as I am that we won't have any new music from Rob on the NM soundtrack? I know that you can only understand about 30% of what he is saying, but it's the way he says it! His music is what ultimately made me go Robsane. I'm so bummed!

    I promise to go and listen to Bon Iver's album in the meantime. Thanks!

    Lisa

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  11. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i gots an idea!!!

    STY~ What if i get you the soundtrack to the twilightporno for your bday? how about that for a present???? sound good hun?? lol

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  12. @IPW4F - NOOOOOOOO!!! please. no. : )

    @twiswearstoofuckingmuch - hey your bday is the day after mine - go libras!

    @Lauren - we're straddling various fences when it comes to spoilers... we go here, but not there, if you know what i'm sayin'... ok that makes no sense. ummm... but that's all i've got??

    this soundtrack will give us something to fixate on while we are anxiously awaiting 11/20, anyway! I know we will all be obsessing over what song goes where in the movie.

    And I'm not sure that RPatts wanted to be on this one... Poor boy certainly doesn't need any more fame! Methinks he's like to give back a tad of what he's already got, given the chance - lol...

    : )

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  13. I hated most of the Twilight soundtrack. I listened to three songs on it over and over but the rest didn't made my iPod playlist.

    I am really excited about the NMS. I am a music snob so I'm thrilled about this line up. I'm sure I will be listening to it over and over and over and over like I always do with anything new till I'm sick of it.

    It'll be interesting to see how my brain associates the songs with the story and then seeing where they actually fit in in the movie.

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  14. Well, I'm an anomaly, not only in the world of Twilight over 18 fans but also in he world of white over 25 moms- I don't listen to a single band listed on the Twilight or NM soundtrack. In fact, I barely know who most of them are. I only know Radiohead Is cuz they've been around a long ass time. And then some of the super pop bands like LP and Paramore. I listened to the Twilight soundtrack all the time for a while cuz it reminded me of the movie, but I'm pretty over it now.

    Don't revoke my memberhship over this. I'm a R&B/hip hop listener. I fit no mould, what can I say. In the end I'll probably listen to that soundtrack too, but I still won't have a fucking clue who Death Cab is....

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  15. Yes, I agree with JJ...the Twilight porno is the perfect gift. I think Bitches will really love when I wrap it up and give it to her for Christmas in front of her family. Just like 2 Christmases ago when her mom bought her this book that she had asked for but it wasn't exactly by the right author...yeah, it was a sexual positions book...night quite what Bitches would have wanted from her super-conservative Christian mom. Heh. Oh yeah, and I am stoked (did I just say that? for real?) about this soundtrack.

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  16. Ummm, I don't even own the Twilight soundtrack....I know, I know what kind of fan am I? Ijust couldn't bring myself to buy it when I didn't love it. While I don't know many of these bands it all looks good to me. I am curious now. Since having children I have become quite pathetic at finding new music and keeping up. I depend lots on our local alternative radio station to introduce me to new stuff but even then I am pathetic at buying music. Being that my brother is a professional musician and songwriter and music producer I should really be better at this.

    I am now going to go watch all those vids over at LTT...I loved their breakdown on all the bands. I had hope that this soundtrack would be better---Chris Weitz certainly seemed to be interested in making it freakin' good. Does he have a fan club? That man needs a fan club.

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  17. @STY~ cmon' you are honestly saying you dont want those Vampy-porno beats for you listening err pleasure? hehe

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  18. So I have the Twilight ST on vinyl. And well I only listen to side 2.
    But this ST line up is awesome!
    If they put this one out on vinyl, I would play both sides.

    Happy Birthday to us October babies! Thank you Chris Weitz. Your check is in the mail.

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  19. Phew, thank God I'm not the only one who hasn't heard of half the bands on the list. I'll be getting the soundtrack (of course, I have a collector personality sadly for my bank account) but won't be looking forward to it. I pretty much like all music that I know but I hate the getting to know it bit, for me it's grit your teeth time.

    Anyhoo, I think you should just play the Twiporn at your party, bollocks to music ;o) xx

    Oh and @ Lauren, love the Psing! My fave ever validation word was oven trog, that's what I feel like most mealtimes here.

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  20. I too loved the Twilight soundtrack so much I listened to it every day... I was a tad obsessed. Can't wait for the next one - looks like it's going to be great!!

    (Holy shit, sorry for the extremely lame comment - I just rolled out of bed and don't even have my glasses on so I'm not actually quite sure what I'm typing...)

    @Honolulu Girl - I totally agree! The Vamp Diaries has excellent music. The CW shows always do!

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  21. Oh and I totally forgot! I think that spider monkey photo is hilarious! It's like a reverse "face in hole"!! LOL!

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  22. @Latchkey Wife - me too, me too! LOVE the Twilight soundtrack and listened (listen) to it daily. It really makes the movie for me. It's not a seperate component...it's everything. The music, the movie, the actors, the blogs, the community, - it's the Twilight world. Whoa...just got a little "coombaiya" there...

    @Twiswearstoofuckingmuch - the soundtrack really broadened my horizons musically too - I love it.

    SO...with that said I CANNOT wait for the New Moon soundtrack. More music to daydream and run to. Even though the Muse's new song Uprising isn't on the soundtrack I still bought it and think of Robward and Twilight. I sort of have my own Twilight Saga playlist...which is really long b/c practically every song that's tied to a photo montage of Robward gets put on there. Oh the visual images...Mmmmmmmm... (That "faster kill pussycat" song with Brittany Murphy is a gooooooooooooooood one).

    I sound crazy...must get coffee now...

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  23. Like a few others here, I don't know most of the bands on the NMS. Will that stop me from buying it, hell no. I bought the Twilight ST and didn't know most of that either and now I love (most of) it. I really hate paramour. Linkin Park I can tolerate. Muse is one of my absolute favorite bands, I'm soooooo jealous of Banshee to go to their concert! From what I've seen on youtube, they're better live (and that doesn't happen a lot.) Anyhoo...yes, the Twilight soundtrack has also expanded my taste in music. So has Fan Fic and RobPorn. Sex on Fire....groan!

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  24. @Twiweasel, Sex on Fire has that effect on me too these days LOL!

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  25. @TwiWeasel and Stan - I cannot stop thinking about it! On chapter 21 of CW/IA...and I don't want to read 22 b/c then I'll have to wait till HH posts another chapter. I tell ya ladies, "it" must have been radiating off of me last night b/c my DH and I RARELY have sex on a weeknight at 12:30 am cuz we're both so tired from work...but last night was an awesome surprise!!

    Tell me that Sex on Fire is your code word for CW/IA...or is this yet another smokin' fanfic story?

    (P.S. - sorry to vear off the topic of the New Moon soundtrack with my comments. I just needed to connect with someone about this new obsession). :}}}}

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  26. Yeah, I always compare the original Twilight soundtrack to a good 80s soundtrack! LOL! I.E. it's not all great music or great artists, but it seems cohesive and fits the mood of the film. I absolutely hate bands like Linkin' Park as well, bit for some reason like their song on the soundtrack. I think it's because it reminds me of when an 80's band would release their power ballad ;):) ha ha!

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  27. My two teenage boys have made no secret of the fact that they are Twilight haters, and are completely mortified by my behavior. Imagine my surprise when I was snooping on the 17 year-old's iPod and found, you guessed it, the entire Twi Soundtrack! He sheepishly admitted that even though Twilight sucks (he hasn't seen it, or read the books), he does enjoy the music. It may have something to do with the fact that it was playing in my car non-stop for about 6 months. I have taken it a step further by purchasing cd's from Muse, Mutemath, and Radiohead. Bands that really grew on me after a while (not so for Paramour). I'm really looking forward to the New Moon cd, and what type of new music it will introduce me to. I'm sure the boys can't wait either, lol.
    Word verification: gynoxagi
    Is this a new STD you get from your ex?

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  28. My husband almost bought me a Paramore tshirt because he thought I loved them. I had to explain to him the whole " love by association" thing. He really didn't get it. And this was after he had a NM poster sent to my work (big no no) and had hurt feelings when I said I wouldn't hang it in my cube. I am strange enough as it is without outing my obsessions to the entire company- not to mention the fact that I sit directly across from the board room. Although I'll admit that I am seriously considering buying a Twitarded sticker for my car.

    And I agree. This new soundtrack is a total win. There isn't much modern music that I like (my fave track off of Twilight was the excerpt from La Traviata) but this has me squeeing in my chair. I may now be Team Weitz.

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  29. I thought I was kinda cool for my age until I read Stephenie's playlists and didn't recognize most of the artists. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I've only heard of 2 of the performers on the soundtrack (either one). However, I am going to resist the desire to go crawl into a bottle of wine while listening to the best of the Bee Gees. (Yes, I'm that old.)

    For my daughter's future musical sake, I vow to learn about these soon-to-be insanely fucking famous artists and their work. After all, if I hadn't read that a certain actor liked Kings of Leon I wouldn't have discovered that amazing song "Sex on Rob" or "Rob on Fire" or whatever it is. Yay, Twitardia and its educational properties!

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  30. @suzspetals I am *that old* too, but I think I would need to dive into a whole box of wine to listen to the Bee Gees, lol. There is so much great new music out there! Don't get stuck in a rut like Mr. Any Mouse who doesn't listen to anything but Blue Oyster Cult. Ugh!!

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  31. @Mouse - Oh, alright, I'll leave Barry and the boys alone for now. (Keepin' the wine though.) I actually listen to a pretty cool alternative station and I've picked up a lot of new favorites thanks to Pandora. That's why I felt so out of the loop when I STILL didn't recognize Hurrican Wolf or Grizzly Bells, etc. I promise to keep listening and learning, oh wise mouse.

    Ironically, I work at a newspaper and when the editors speak I hear no sound but the wind!

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  32. ok, so i might possibly be a bit of a music snob...maybe...at my worst...

    and as elated as i am that some great music is going to be on the NM soundtrack, i must admit that i'm also a bit upset that some of my favorite bands (grizzly bear, st. vincent) are going to be exposed to a bunch of insane 12 year olds.

    am i being a little selfish? yes.
    am i looking forward EVEN MORE to seeing NM now? also yes.

    it's a nice trade off.

    -jane

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