Various Artists
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Original Soundtrack
(Atlantic)
I never thought of Death Cab for Cutie as vampire music, but the band’s maudlin “Meet Me on the Equinox” provides an appropriately dreary intro to the soundtrack for New Moon, the sequel to last year's hit vampire love story Twilight. “Everything, everything ends,” sings frontman Ben Gibbard, sounding particularly pensive. While it makes sense that there’s plenty of goth- and electronica-inspired stuff here, the best tunes are the gentler ones. Anya Marina’s wispy “Satellite Heart” is a beautiful ballad; so is Bon Iver & St. Vincent’s sparse “Rosyln” and Thom Yorke’s moody “Hearing Damage.” While Muse ham it up a bit too much on a “I Belong to You” remix 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
