We never thought of Death Cab for Cutie as vampire music, but the
band’s maudlin “Meet Me on the Equinox” provides an appropri-ately
dreary intro on this soundtrack to New Moon, the sequel to last
year’s hit vampire love story Twilight. “Everything, everything
ends,” sings frontman Ben Gibbard, sounding particularly pensive. It
makes sense that there are plenty of goth- and electronica-inspired
songs here, but the best tunes are the gentler ones. Anya Marina’s
wispy “Satellite Heart” is a beautiful ballad; so are Bon Iver &
St. Vincent’s sparse “Rosyln” and Thom Yorke’s moody “Hearing Damage.”
While Muse ham it up a bit too much on the remix of “I Belong to You”
and Hurricane Bell’s “Monsters” is way too obvious, the album is
consistently solid. Even the Killers sound inspired on “A White Demon
Love Song,” a track they wrote exclusively for the soundtrack. —
Jeff Niesel
This article appears in Oct 21-27, 2009.
