Brooding soundtrack sets tone for teen-angst film

Both lovers and loathers of the Twilight saga can agree on one thing: The films’ music supervisor is doing something right.

Last year’s Twilight soundtrack, with its finely pruned selection of indie bands like Muse, Mute Math and Iron & Wine, gave the mainstream, otherwise kitschy teen vampire flick art-house credentials.

Moody blues · The indie-studded New Moon soundtrack, which was released Friday, features a mix of hauntingly dark and sunnily lighthearted tracks from Death Cab for Cutie, Grizzly Bear, Lykke Li and Bon Iver. - Photo courtesy of Atlantic Records

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 list and swiftly became the best-selling soundtrack in the United States since Chicago, with more than 3.5 million copies sold worldwide.

In response to overwhelming demand, Chop Shop/Atlantic Records released the soundtrack to the series’ second installment, New Moon (which hits theaters Nov. 20) last Friday — four days ahead of schedule.

It’s easy to see why studio executives were so eager to share the record with the public. The tracklist boasts the names of today’s most venerated indie artists, from established acts like The Killers and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke to obscure folk bands like Grizzly Bear and Sea Wolf, as well as lesser-known songstresses like Lykke Li and Anya Marina.

All the musicians contributed original, previously unreleased songs to the compilation — reason to entice even the staunchest Twilight hater.

The soundtrack is every bit as grungy and brooding as you’d expect, with an eclectic but consistent range of sounds that matches the film’s rainy, brownish-gray color palette.

An ominous cloud settles on the album from the very beginning, with Death Cab for Cutie’s “Meet Me On The Equinox” opening the record on a moody minor-key note (in its refrain, front man Ben Gibbard repeatedly assures you that everything, everything ends).

Much like the film’s dreary setting of Forks, Wash., the clouds on the album never fully lift.

Thom Yorke’s chilling “Hearing Damage” and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s acoustic “Done All Wrong” play like aggrieved graveyard laments, while the vocals on Grizzly Bear’s “Slow Life” featuring Victoria Legrand and Editors’ somber piano ballad “No Sound But The Wind” echo despondently.

The clouds do, however, change shape, and the soundtrack’s shadows come in a gradient that ranges from raw angst to quiet melancholy and even cheeky playfulness.

The two female-driven numbers, Lykke Li’s “Possibility” and Anya Marina’s “Satellite Heart,” are slow, brooding and as quietly commanding as Robert Pattinson’s steely stares. On “Roslyn,” Bon Iver’s resonant falsetto melds with St. Vincent’s fragile feminine vocals to create an ethereal, sensuous moment.

Amid all this minor-key melancholy — though it has its place — the rare appearances of cheer on the album are as lovely and welcome as butterflies in a coal mine.

The soundtrack occasionally ventures into the sun with a few lighthearted numbers, notably Sea Wolf’s “The Violet Hour” and OK Go’s “Shooting the Moon.” Despite its pretense of aggressive electric guitar, Band of Skulls’ “Friends” unfolds into an upbeat song about love and friendship (I need love ‘cause only love is true/I need every waking hour with you /And my friends, ‘cause they’re so beautiful/ Yeah my friends they are so beautiful).

As a whole, the New Moon compilation is compellingly gritty and foreboding, fleshed out in aural brown and grays as a soundtrack to a vampire movie set in Forks should be.

Still, you can’t help but crave a bit more sunshine on the record: No one — well, unless you’re a vampire — wants to be where it’s always dark and rainy.