The TRON franchise has given popular culture numerous presents, however maybe a very powerful one is its music. In 1982, groundbreaking digital music composer Wendy Carlos collaborated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra created an entire new sound to seize life inside a online game. In 2010, Daft Punk crafted its personal sonic world for TRON: Legacy, resulting in a number of the group’s greatest music ever. And succeeding them is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross as 9 Inch Nails, whose soundtrack for TRON: Ares has been launched three weeks earlier than the precise film comes out.
All that’s actually recognized about TRON: Ares at this stage, primarily based on the trailers, is that it’s about a pc program (Jared Leto) who desires to be alive. This implies we will deal with analyzing the soundtrack by how nicely it capabilities as an album, whereas additionally contemplating the distinction between a “9 Inch Nails” soundtrack and a “Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross” soundtrack — if such a distinction exists.
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When Reznor and Ross spoke to Consequence in 2024 about their scores for Luca Guadagnino’s Queer and Challengers, they had been in progress on the Ares rating. At the moment, Reznor was saying that “we’re gonna smear issues up slightly bit and possibly confuse some individuals and confuse ourselves within the course of.” On this case, utilizing the moniker of NIN for this album has given them the liberty to lean tougher into their rougher industrial edges, whereas nonetheless delivering moments of magnificence and charm.
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The album opens with “INIT,” which does precisely what you desire a TRON rating by 9 Inch Nails to do on the leap — invoke the digital world with exhausting synth beats, accompanied by an ever-present undercurrent of darkness. It’s a cool observe, one which doesn’t scream “motion!”, nevertheless it’s an efficient method to set the tone earlier than constructing as much as “As Alive As You Want Me to Be,” the primary of the three full songs included right here. “As Alive As You Want Me to Be” is the album’s first single, and the one actual knock in opposition to it’s that it doesn’t fairly have the momentum of Reznor/Ross’s standout “Compress/Repress” to propel it ahead. It’s stable NIN, however a bit too misplaced in its grittiness to construct to catharsis.
In the meantime, the tune “I Know You Can Really feel It” gives a extra down-tempo tone, with lyrics like “The second it begins/ Takes over every thing/ The second it begins/ I do know you may really feel it” suggesting that it’d accompany a scene through which a pc program turns into alive. Or maybe it’s utilized in a completely completely different context, although it’s the seventh observe on the album, indicating it’d seem earlier reasonably than later within the film. Both manner, it’s serviceable sufficient, although fails to face out as actually memorable.
The third tune on the album is “Who Needs to Reside Endlessly,” which can or is probably not an intentional Queen/Highlander reference — fingers crossed it’s, as a result of that’s simply enjoyable. Coming in halfway by way of the album, the observe represents an abrupt tone shift, in a manner that hints at this tune maybe being the movie’s love theme. Or maybe it’s simply meant to invoke a extra existential second, given lyrics like “Please maintain onto me/ all of us are right here to die/ keep right here inside me/ all we ever had was time.”
Okay, perhaps that’s additionally romantic, to some extent. Maybe, at this level within the film, Jared Leto’s pc program is having a love affair with being alive. Regardless of the case, it’s a sublime, virtually delicate tune, anchored by ethereal vocals from each Reznor in addition to Spanish singer Judeline, a relative newcomer who actually appears to be on the rise after opening for J Balvin on tour in 2024.
Instantly following “Who Needs to Reside Endlessly” comes the instrumental observe “Constructing Higher Worlds,” which leans exhausting sufficient on the synth sounds to invoke recollections of Wendy Carlos’ music. Not her rating for TRON, although, filled with its optimistic lightness — as an alternative, it’s the bombastic opening notes of her rating for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange that come to thoughts.
The opposite instrumental items symbolize the type of vary you anticipate from a movie rating, from massive and loud to candy and tender. Infusing emotion into their work is the one space the place Reznor and Ross have actually grown as composers during the last 15 years, although it’s necessary to keep in mind that NIN has by no means eschewed quieter moments of their standalone music — “The Frail” is a private favourite of mine from the 1999 album The Fragile, and you’ll hear its echoes right here in songs like “Nonetheless Stays.” General, it’s way more
One of many unhappy truths in regards to the TRON films is that the primary two weren’t actually that good: The primary was a clumsy affair greatest remembered for its pioneering use of CGI, whereas the second was a lackluster and finally fairly forgettable sequel. But the music for each movies has endured, a lot the best way that NIN’s craft can even endure even when TRON: Ares fails to impress critically or commercially. For whereas this is likely to be an electronically-driven rating, there are such a lot of human touches that the facility of the artist, not the medium, shines by way of. Which is the very best soundtrack for a film that goals to look at what it means to be alive.