What A Good Score! – #41: The Social Network by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
What A Good Score is a new series here at Off The Tracks – looking at movie soundtracks, the good, the band and the astounding…
The Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross film-score duo company is everywhere and all the time, but back in 2010 they were names inside of Nine Inch Nails only, really. I mean Reznor (who ostensibly is NIN) was known for his contributions to various soundtracks and some executive producer-type roles, and his perfect curation. But Ross was really just one of the wunderkind helpers in the NIN vision. Not now. They mostly work together, but they’ve also created and curated a few scores on their own. But their partnership was clear from this score onward.
When I first saw the film I liked it, sure. But what I loved was the score. I rushed out to buy it on vinyl.
Recently, I’ve revisited the film. And it’s very good, it has aged well, it’s arguably better than when and where I left it. And though I’ve never really stopped listening to the score, at least not for any extended period, I was struck — again — by just how well the music works in the scenes it was written for; I feel like, since viewing it again recently, I’ve listened to the soundtrack album a lot more this year than over the last few.
Culminating in buying it on CD also.
There are too many Rezno/Ross scores for me to even get my head around these days, including a few multi-volume ones. And though they refined their vibe across the films that immediately followed this, it’s still all here really in terms of a business card for what this duo can do. Dark and moody piano pieces with strings and electronics. Perfect. Slow build, high intensity.
I feel like when they scored Challengers recently, it was the return to this sort of overall feel and vibe.
It’s always nice to hear the way Reznor subverts a techno pulse, the way he takes goth music and makes it almost metal, and industrial at the same time; the way he makes moods out of something so close to thin air.
