In October 2010, Nine Inch Nails bandmates Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross broke into the film-score world, doing the music for David Fincher's The Social Network, one of this century's great movies. The soundtrack was perfect, and it won Reznor and Ross their first Oscar. Two months later, Daft Punk dropped their own score for Disney's franchise reboot attempt Tron: Legacy. That soundtrack wasn't up to the standards of the canonical Daft Punk albums, but it was definitely the best thing about that movie, which was otherwise wildly forgettable. Now, Disney is trying to bring back Tron again, and they got Reznor and Ross, now fully established as film-score giants, to do the soundtrack. But the Tron: Ares soundtrack isn't credited to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It's credited to Nine Inch Nails.
I do not intend to go see Tron: Ares. It stars Jared Leto, an enormously off-putting presence even before a bunch of women accused him of sexual misconduct, and it looks like ass. But if I did go see it, I'd at least know that it would sound great. Disney made a big hullabaloo about announcing NIN's involvement last year, and you can see why. A press release claims that Tron: Ares is "the first-ever film score by the pioneering group," as opposed to just Reznor and Ross -- which, hold on, let's not go crazy here. But it's true enough that the Tron: Ares soundtrack comes a lot closer to what Nine Inch Nails do than most of those guys' past scores.
We've already posted lead single "As Alive As You Need Me To Be," which genuinely kicks ass. That's a full song, with vocals and lyrics and structure and everything. There are a few more of those on the Tron: Ares soundtrack, including the six-minute "Who Wants To Live Forever?," which despite its title is not a Queen cover. Reznor and Ross co-produced that song with Hudson Mohawke, and it's got vocals from Reznor and the Spanish singer Judeline. The soundtrack also includes plenty of interstitial mood-music, and that stuff all sounds cool.
Nine Inch Nails' amazing ongoing arena tour has incredible stage-production visuals that lean into the Tron iconography -- lots of lit-up red bars set against extremely dark backgrounds. Musically, the current tour is surprisingly heavy on clubby synth-pulse dance music, especially the stretch in the middle of the show where they perform with opening act Boys Noize. Boys Noize co-produces some of the tracks on the Tron: Ares score with Reznor and Ross, including "As Alive As You Need Me To Be," and the whole soundtrack leans into that same '80s club music aesthetic. There are also some huge, blaring, operatic synth-drones that remind me of Wendy Carlos' A Clockwork Orange score. I'm on my first listen now, and I'm really enjoying it, partly because I'm thinking of it less as a Tron: Ares score and more as a preview for next year's Nine Inch Noize Coachella set. Stream the soundtrack below.
The Tron: Ares soundtrack is out now on the Null Corporation/Walt Disney Records/Interscope.
