Usa Today: Listen Up: Non-Twihards will like 'Eclipse' soundtrack, too

The indie pop collected for the soundtrack to 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' should appeal to a broad range of music fans.
Various artists, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
* * * INDIE POP WITH BITE

With sales of the first two Twilight soundtracks at 3.6 million copies, it's no surprise some 400 songs were submitted for the third set by artists eager to hop on a hot franchise.


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Producer Alexandra Patsavas pruned the heap to 15 congruous originals that admirably maintain a dignified creative independence while conveying the gray, swoony tones of Stephenie Meyer's teen vampire romance. In other words, indie-rock snobs can buy the CD without fear of social stigma.

First single Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever) finds Muse, in its third Twilight appearance, waxing melodramatic on Queenesque prog-rock. Florence + The Machine's Heavy in Your Arms follows the tale's pounding heartbeat with similar theatrics. The Dead Weather goes spare on the bluesy, menacing Rolling in on a Burning Tire. Eastern Conference Champions' A Million Miles an Hour also revels in creepiness, as does the beat-driven Let's Get Lost, a spacey duet by Beck and Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan.

A hypnotic vibe cloaks UNKLE's With You in My Head, Sia's frail My Love and Howard Shore's lovely Jacob's Theme. Jolts from Fanfarlo's jaunty Atlas to The Bravery's propulsive Ours prevent Eclipse from lapsing into a dark lullaby. And while the folky Life on Earth sounds like a New Age celebration of dawn, Band of Horses seems at home in this stable of night crawlers. — Edna Gundersen

>Download: My Love, Ours, What Part of Forever, A Million Miles an Hour, Jonathan Low.

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