Twilight rocks! Well, at least the soundtrack for the new movie does. Featuring awesome artists like the Black Keys and The Dead Weather, it has indie fans questioning the validity of their favorite bands. | Summit Entertainment
Twilight: Eclipse, the newest installment in the vampire novel-turned-movie gravy train, has put out one of the year’s best albums and possibly one of the best soundtracks ever. On said album, a bevy of artists — ranging from Muse, Vampire Weekend and The Bravery to lesser-known bands such as The Black Keys, Band of Horses and The Dead Weather — grace the ears of many, many screaming vampire-enthused teens.
For all the controversy and talk about Twilight’s supposed Mormon-based undertones, comparisons to a cheapened Harry Potter and all around lack of redeemable quality, the film adaptations have the saving grace of good music, and the fact that the film’s producers and directors decided to share such great music with such a large, young group of people is, in a word, awesome.
Now, a lot of people have been up in arms about the soundtrack — there exists, believe it or not, a type of music fan who doesn’t want his or her beloved band to become successful — well, to put that more specifically, they want their favorite bands to be successful, but only in an underground, non-mainstream, hipster groups.
Those people can cry all they want; this music is here and, in a weird way, we have the people behind the Twilight Saga to thank for it.
Landing a spot on a wildly popular series’ soundtrack is a big opportunity for independent artists and under-the-radar bands that could use a little boost in the supposedly dying music industry.
The album, which debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 charts, is definitely overdramatic — except for a short song by Vampire Weekend, which sticks out like a sore thumb (though that’s not to say the song isn’t good in its own right; it’s just out of place here) — but everyone familiar with Twilight, even in the loosest sense, should know that it’s fitting with the storyline. And similar to The Dead Weather’s gothic spaghetti western-style ‘Rolling in on a Burning Tire,’ which really stands out on the soundtrack, who says dark undertones can’t be fun? Listen to this music as you drive around the city at night. It will really set the mood for any trouble you’re about to get into.
Houston almost got some exposure from the people behind Twilight, too. PaLE, a Houston-based rock group that moved to Los Angeles and back about a year ago was in the running for a spot on the soundtrack, but the group didn’t make the final cut.
“Who picks the music for these albums?” Caitlin Tadlock said in a review of the album on AllVoices.com. “I know who doesn’t: the fans, and thank goodness they don’t!” Dissimilar to the first Twilight album, which was a little more tween-oriented than this one, this rock opera will fit nicely into your CD case (or iTunes library) right between any of Johnny Cash’s material from the past decade and that one Muse album that everyone owns.
The next time you’re in line for a grande, half-caff, no-foam, soy latte at Starbucks, buy yourself a copy. Go ahead; no one’s watching. And you won’t regret it, either. Just make sure to dispose of the case before anyone sees it lying in your car and asks you whether you’re Team Jacob or Team Edward.
