After weeks — nay, months — of speculation, the official lineup for The Twilight Saga: New Moon‘s soundtrack has finally arrived. As predicted, it’s an alt-rock bonanza (the Killers! Grizzly Bear! Muse!), with a few surprises included.
Among those surprises: Hurricane Bells who? (This seems to be a side project of Longwave frontman Steve Schiltz; as of this writing, the most-played song on their MySpace has been listened to 319 times. It’s not bad!) I’m not sure OK Go‘s name came up during the endless New Moon soundtrack anticipation cycle, either.
For this jaded music critic, however, the biggest news is that Radiohead’s Thom Yorke is indeed contributing a new song, as previously reported — and it’s neither of the two new solo songs that he released today. Instead it’s something called “Hearing Damage.” Huh! Can’t wait to hear that one, damage or no. Ditto for Grizzly Bear’s brand-new “Slow Life,” naturally, as well as the Bon Iver/St. Vincent collab. I’ve gotta say, with those last few artists in particular, this is sounding like a compilation that I might be tempted to pick up regardless of my feelings toward the Twilight franchise. (For the record: I thought the first movie was ridiculous but fun. The trailers for New Moon, however, have kinda lost me with the budget-CGI werewolves. I’ll probably see it anyway.)
See the full track listing after the jump, courtesy of Twilight series author Stephenie Meyer’s official website, and stream the official first single, Death Cab for Cutie’s “Meet Me on the Equinox,” below. Then let us know: What do you think of this lineup? Is it everything you’d hoped it would be and more? What’s missing?
New Moon Soundtrack:
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE — MEET ME ON THE EQUINOX
BAND OF SKULLS — FRIENDS
THOM YORKE — HEARING DAMAGE
LYKKE LI — POSSIBILITY
THE KILLERS — A WHITE DEMON LOVE SONG
ANYA MARINA — SATELLITE HEART
MUSE — I BELONG TO YOU (NEW MOON)
BON IVER & ST. VINCENT — ROSYLN
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB — DONE ALL WRONG
HURRICANE BELLS — MONSTERS
SEA WOLF — THE VIOLET HOUR
OK GO — SHOOTING THE MOON
GRIZZLY BEAR — SLOW LIFE
EDITORS — NO SOUND BUT THE WIND
ALEXANDRE DESPLAT — NEW MOON (THE MEADOW)
More from EW’s Music Mix:
Landon Pigg, ‘Blue Skies’: An Exclusive EW stream
Kris Allen’s new song ‘Live Like We’re Dying’: Hear it here
Julian Casablancas debuts solo tune ‘11th Dimension’
‘VH1 Divas’: Miley-Sheryl rocked, Paula schlocked
Madonna, ‘Revolver’: hear the new single feat. Lil Wayne here
My only criticism is KOL is not on there, but I love the lineup and am excited for this movie and the awesome music.
Yes! The line up is very good and the emotions from the songs are very great. Can’t wait for the movie also.
WOW!!! This looks as lame as the movie!!! Enjoy emo skinny jean wearers
Emo Skinny Jean Wearers? I don’t wear those but I like the soundtrack line-up. What does that make me? xD
All I can say is WOW.
Finally! Too bad there is no way to get at least previews of these songs yet! I wonder if there will be bonus tracks on ITunes like on Twilight soundtrack so people end up buying it twice!
New Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, and a Bon Iver/St. Vincent collab? Am I actually going to have to buy something that has to do with Twilight?
Uuuuuuuuugh.
I’m only going to buy this for the Thom Yorke song!
This is a great lineup, but no matter how many indie faves appear on the soundtrack, TWILIGHT is teen schlock thru and thru. Don’t be fooled. Gaining credibility by rolling out Thom Yorke, Death Cab, Grizzly Bear, etc won’t sell folks like myself. Tweens will buy anything though, and I fear thanks to this soundtrack some great underground acts will become “mainstream.” I’d gag if i heard some 13 yr old humming Bon Iver at the mall.
That is so ridiculous, you think they are purposefully getting these artists to “gain credibility”, you obviously have never read the books and I dont care if you never want to, but I personally never judge things based on the outside, I may despise all miley cyrus-ish music, or singers like that, but I dont go onto posts about her and write how much about how much i think she’s lame. And “tweens” probably dont even care about these bands, alot of them are into it because of the popularity, the author Stephenie Meyer had this type of music on her book playlists way before Twilight blew up. This is the only type of music that’s acceptable for twilight! I also would gag if I heard some 13 year old humming Bon Iver, but the thing is, they wont! At least the “annoying” Twilight fans won’t. Thirteen year olds probably don’t even fully understand Twilight the book, much less appreciate this music. And besides, bands like the Black Ghosts, and Iron and Wine, from the first soundtrack clearly didn’t become mainstream, so stop complaining and just appreciate the fact that all these great bands are coming together to make new songs. And I am a sixteen year old Twilight fan who listens to all this music and Ive never picked up any of those stupid tween mags, so obviously you can’t judge a book by it’s cover…sorry I just had to get that out of me
You have a point, there. Though I must say that some things did get too mainstream. I don’t have real proof on this, but I think some acts just got too poppy after the “generally positive” response of the Twilight mainstream audience. Muse, as an example, just released a new album, which is good, but definitely not reminiscent of their purer albums. I still like them, and I generally like the indie-style music in the movie, though I think that most of these bands, such as other indie stuff have a tendency to prefer less recognition or at least to keep out of the mainstream. Following on that, having your music in a feature, mainstream targeted film kind of defeats the purpose. Though on the other side I am sort of excited of the effect mainstream exposure will have on other indie bands. Hope they know what to do.
Yah, but like I said, the bands knew this was as huge as it is so they obviously are either in it for recognition(Which I highly doubt) or they really are just purely interested in the story. And actually muse’s new album reminds me more of their older “absolution” over their last release and twilight the movie wasn’t out yet for that cd. I HIGHLY doubt twilight had anything to do with a huge band like muse’s creative process on a new album. And the new death cab for cutie song, the band said it’s very “early deathcab” and he wrote based off his personal feelings, not twilight, so I don’t think any of these bands would change their personal sound off of twilight. Haha it’s interesting though because twilight the first movie was made very indie-ish and not expected to be this big at all
I really love how people that listen to indie or alt music get up in arms when that music happens to go mainstream. It’s like everyday people (who listen to mainstream music) aren’t worthy to listen to something that’s usually underground or off the radar. Yeesh people. Get a grip. I get excited when an artist I listen to that isn’t usually listened to by the masses gets recognition.
I totally agree with you Fridge. Well said!
I am so elated that all the music is original and exlusive to the soundtrack! So fantastic! Yay New Moon!!!
I don’t know much of the band names or the songs listed but I’ll see how the songs fit in with the movie before judging.
I think the soundtrack sounds very promising…I can’t wait to hear what the Killers, Anya Marina, Bon Iver, and Alexandre Desplat will contribute. Desplat especially is a genius. His work on the Curious Case of Benjamin Button got him nominated for an Oscar.
Also, I’m a huge Twilight fan who hated the first Twilight movie, but I loved the most recent trailer for New Moon. It’s actually made me optimistic about the movie.
In terms of the wolves…I think they’ve improved a lot and are quite a bit better than the CGI wolf in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban.
Fridge: once upon a time “alternative” music was just that. It would NEVER have figured onto the soundtrack to some sappy vampire flick aimed at mall rats and soccer moms (and a few gay gents like yourself). This is the makers of TWILIGHT’s attempt gain crediblity among the indie crowd. Ain’t gonna work. TWILIGHT belongs in the mall. Give me my Grizzly Bear; you Fridge can have your Lady Gaga.
LOL, I’m not even a Twilight fan, but I don’t believe in writing something off before giving it a chance. I have many adult friends who are Twilight fans, and while I haven’t read the books and didn’t like the first movie…I’m still willing to give the next film a chance since it has a bigger budget and a better director.
Also, people need to realize that these musicians found something in New Moon that they could identify with/write about. They weren’t “forced” into this. They chose to become involved.
“Also, people need to realize that these musicians found something in New Moon that they could identify with/write about. They weren’t “forced” into this. They chose to become involved.”
Um, the word you’re looking for is money. $$$. Or in some cases, £££.
Musicians who write music particularly for a movie have to find some inspiration in it. Unless they’re complete phonies which I don’t think Bon Iver is. This is coming from someone whose not a fan of Twilight. I may not be a fan, but I’ll admit that these kinds of artists, who write profound lyrics, have to identify with the material in some way.
I agree with you guys and Rose, by you talking bad about New Moon and them being on the soundtrack, you’re technically talking bad about the artists, they chose to be on the soundtrack! They are not the type of artists who make music for money, so they wanted to be on the soundtrack themselves, suck it up and you just have to accept the fact that they are going to be on New Moon, which is apparently so many people’s worst nightmare, (which I can’t understand),
so, you must be sooo manly to have a love of indy…get a grip, dude, mall rats and soccer moms…really? Perhaps you need to go put your head phones back on and try to believe that you are deep…
Personally, I wish EW wouldn’t publish so many Twilight articles. I’m a big fan of Twilight, but I feel like commenters on here always rain on our parade…I think it’s partly because of the number of articles written about Twilight…and I can’t blame non-Twilight fans for being annoyed about that.
Anyways, I think the soundtrack sounds great! I’m really excited to hear it
I’ll admit that this soundtrack, at face value, looks pretty good. At least there will be some artistic merit complementing the devoid-of-art New Moon story.
And teenage girls can finally be exposed to decent music. While it pains me that few, if any, of them would care about Thom Yorke or Muse or Bon Iver without the Twilight industrial complex telling them to, I guess music wins in the end.
I completely agree. I am really excited to see such great artists on a “teen” franchise. We need to expose younger girls/boys to great bands likes these. This is a fantastic move for all of the artists involved.
soundtrack is a nice collection of indy artists. people complaining about these artists selling out are out of touch. this isn’t the nineties anymore. artists need new ways to get there music out there. i would buy the paul blart 2 soundtrack if grizzly bear, and thom yorke were on it.