The soundtrack for TRON: Ares arrives as something of contradiction in terms: it's a Nine Inch Nails record brought to you by the Walt Disney Corporation. For a brief moment, this wasn't going to be a Nine Inch Nails record at all. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross got offered the film while working on Pixar's Soul, but it was Walt Disney Music president Tom MacDougall who proposed they do it as Nine Inch Nails. That the duo accepted the proposal–and that it's releasing three full weeks before the film–suggests this album is meant to stand on its own. Even setting aside the baggage that comes with scoring a $150,000,000 studio blockbuster starring Jared Leto, the TRON: Ares soundtrack needs to work not just as an album, but as the new Nine Inch Nails album.
Like so many of their wide-ranging projects before, Reznor and Ross appear to have taken on the mandate of a Nine Inch Nails film score as its own unique challenge. In doing so, they elucidate what separates a Nine Inch Nails record from their other work. These 24 tracks, four with lyrics and twenty instrumentals, suggest the hallmarks of Nine Inch Nails are a forward-thinking approach and a particular emotional palette.
The opener "Init" sets that familiar dark-yet-danceable mood tied to one of the album's stronger musical motifs. Sadly, it won't return outright until the final track. Things take an immediate turn with the acidic, queasy "Forked Reality." Along with tracks like "In the Image Of" and "100% Expendable" it bears a strong Wendy Carlos influence. Ironically, it's not Carlos's TRON score but rather her work on Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange that comes to mind. The first single, "As Alive as You Need Me to Be" finds Reznor exploring familiar angsty themes of existential dread and a search for purpose. Though arguably the lesser of the four vocal tracks, it establishes another key motif--one that get revisited to great effect throughout. "Echoes," with its Berlin-era Bowie flourishes, and the brief, delicate "Still Remains" recall The Fragile's quieter moments. The first real standout, "This Changes Everything" updates and compresses the whole of The Social Network score into three minutes.
The dark, roiling "I Know You Can Feel It" is another highlight. Adding a caged animal intensity to the Hesitation Marks sound, the track is a marvel of production. The sheer amount of detail and sense of space–especially when that distorted bass finally hits–is downright overwhelming. Featuring numerous production and programming contributions from Boys Noize, BJ Burton, Hudson Mohawke, and Ian Kirkpatrick, this album demands to be played loud. The punchy "Infiltrator" is the first of several tracks that reprise the melody from "As Alive..." and each one is better than the last. The album gains momentum from there with a noticeable uptick in BPMs and inventive twists on melodies and sounds that came before.
Arriving at the halfway point is another key track, "Who Wants to Live Forever?" The song finds Reznor duetting with Spanish singer Judeline over a bed of piano and bubbling electronics straight off of Kid A or Vespertine. Slyly evoking Cobain in one verse ("Something in the way... it feels here"), then turning self-reflexive in the next, the track finds Reznor at his most emotionally direct. Referencing at least two songs ("Someplace I Can Never Have" and "Hurt") while quoting a melody from another ("We're in This Together"), it's impressive how many layers he packs into the lines "Someplace I could never go / All I wish I didn't know / If I could stay here / I could find a way somehow."
Still, there's the sneaking suspicion the album would have benefited from a more fleshed-out track list. Part of what makes The Social Network and Challengers scores so great is that each track feels like a complete statement. "Daemonize" and "New Directive" turn this bug into a feature, playing like manic mini suites. On the flipside, "What Have You Done?" feels almost cruel in the way it comes alive in the second half, only to evaporate after 30 seconds or so. Similarly, "A Question of Truth" is criminally short at just 1:31. Even the excellent closer, "Shadow Over Me" could use one more chorus to really drive the point home.
Confined by either the medium, studio executives, their own ideas of what Nine Inch Nails should be, or some combination thereof, the album stands as a fascinating document. Its best moments–and what it says about the band–make TRON: Ares an essential, worthy addition to the band's impressive catalog. Leave it to Nine Inch Nails to make a Disney film score teeming with ambivalence.
Tron: Ares hits theaters on October 10th. Check out the full soundtrack, available now via The Null Corporation and Walt Disney Records, below:
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