Album review: Various: The Twilight Saga: New Moon - Original motion picture soundtrack

Published on Sunday 18 October 2009 20:01

VARIOUS: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON – ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK ATLANTIC, £12.72 * * *

YOU don't need to be down with the emo kids to know that chaste vampire saga Twilight is the teen cultural phenomenon of the moment. The soundtrack of the latest instalment has plenty of hipster cachet, featuring exclusive new tracks from college rock favourites Death Cab for Cutie, OK Go and Jay-Z's favourite indie band, Grizzly Bear, plus a relatively straightforward piece of broodiness from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke.

The overall mood is downbeat and reflective, best captured on a spectral collaboration between Bon Iver and St Vincent. Both Editors and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club up their game with tracks they might have wanted to keep for their own albums. Even the Killers dial down their usual blaring racket.

Only Muse – one of Twilight writer Stephenie Meyer's favourite bands – are incapable of subtlety, and for that we love them. A good listen in its own right.