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I had the opportunity to review The Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack today, and I've got good news for Twilight fans looking forward to the album: it's awesome.
As a bit of background, I want to say that I favored the Twilight soundtrack over the soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: New Moon for the simple fact that the Twilight soundtrack was more uni-directional.
Granted, the New Moon soundtrack certainly provided some instant favorites ("Hearing Damage" being the foremost), but there was still something so honest about the Twilight soundtrack. I thought the New Moon soundtrack was a bit scattered at times.
However, it is the same penchant tendency that is attractive about the Eclipse soundtrack. In the album, there are a variety of sounds, but almost every title has its own redeeming feature.
For starters, the album is book-ended with two of the best songs on it. As the adage says "start strong, finish strong, and don't forget the middle."
The first song on the record is METRIC's "Eclipse (All Yours)." This is, by far, the most memorable song of the several. Why? Because it's a single, complete and purposefully so. The vocals are beautiful, as METRIC fans have come to know about the lead singer, and it has the quality of being a pop song that is also quite mellow and quaint.
You've already heard Muse's scale-heavy ballad "Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)", so you'll know what to expect there. Same for Vampire Weekend's "Jonathan Low." Fanfarlo's "Atlas," though, which has been heard via live performance by some fans, is quite different in the recording. It's still a fun song, no doubt, but the studio recording purveys the instrumental strength of the song much better than could be heard in the live recording.
There are a couple of songs on the album that seemingly fit together. Cee Lo Green's "What Part of Forever" is more organic and folksy (at least initially) than you might've expected, but it fits cleanly with songs like Band of Horse's "Life on Earth" (extremely consumable) and The Bravery's "Ours" (which sounds a bit like something you'd have heard from The Killers a few years ago).
Others stand out, couriers of their own messages.
For instance, Florence and the Machine's "Heavy in Your Arms" is, well, heavy. If you know Florence Welch's music, you'll get exactly what you expect with this one. Still, contrasted with the rest of the album, it holds its own torch.
The Dead Weather's "Rolling in on a Burning Fire" was the one I was looking out for the most. The song is very consistent with their sound in the album "Horehound," drawing in that same methodically languid flow. A very befitting contribution from this band but still quite distinct from some of the other music presented here.
One of the most surprising moments on the album came when it was Eastern Conference Champions (relatively unknown) who delivered the spooky sound you might be looking for in the Eclipse soundtrack. Their song "A Million Miles an Hour" is very rich in temperament.
The final song on the Eclipse soundtrack is Howard Shore's "Jacob's Theme." This song gave me goosebumps. It is a gorgeous, lush piano number, and it serves as a wonderful introduction into what Twilight fans will likely hear with the Eclipse Score.
I think the difference between the Eclipse soundtrack and the New Moon soundtrack is that, with Eclipse, there is more room for a schism of tempos. To go from the very movement-oriented "Chop and Change" (by The Black Keys) to the minimalistic and sweet "My Love" (by Sia) is more palatable here because, frankly, the story warrants it more.
Over all, a very smart soundtrack with an enjoyable amount of layers.
Source => Examiner
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