Rating: 3/5
Verdict: Really great bands make a surprisingly average compilation
When 400 songs from some of the hottest acts of the moment are put forward for a movie soundtrack, you expect something really quite mind-blowing.
But perhaps because they are trying to channel parts of what is rather an average teenage love story through their songs, the final product is, unfortunately, not quite that.
Sure the eclectic mix of Florence Welch's bellow, Alison Mosshart's husky cry and and Ezra Koenig's almost comic sing-song vocals make for an interesting listen. But when you come out at the end, you just feel like you've been dragged through the ringer - like Twilight heroine Bella Swan's heart. Of course, this means the songs serve their purpose as the score to Eclipse's forbidden love storyline. But in terms of a stand-alone album? Well, it could really murder a party.
Florence and the Machine's contribution Heavy in Your Arms probably nails the love saga with the most poignancy. Her rollicking track featuring lyrics like "my love has concrete feet", set to a march tempo could make any average scene really soar - but then again, Welch is fortunate to have her voice on her side in terms of eliciting real drama.
Meanwhile, despite the promise in its title, Muse's contribution, Neutron Star Collision, doesn't really deliver any stadium-sized doses of emotion - it is more a weak bumping of atoms - though does feature some stirring piano at the end.
Elsewhere there's the clean teenage rock of The Bravery's Ours, chilling sadness in SIA's My Love, and a chirpy, skip-around the meadow ukelele-strummed track called Atlas by Fanfarlo. And Beck and Bat For Lashes' spiritual track that sounds as if it should play in the background of a t'ai chi class.
The Dead Weather's Rolling In On A Burning Tire seems a very plodding and almost bored addition to the record. Mosshart's dark vocals are set to haunting keyboards and tambourine - not the most gripping piece she has written. Perhaps they made it on the album for the double-take factor that comes with associating such a hip band with such a mainstream movie.
The most powerful contributions come from hot act of the year The Black Keys and also Unkle. The latter's With You In My Head, featuring the Black Angels, is a mix of sinister whispers and haunting rock'n'roll - it could be the soundtrack to a car race, but has a variation of key and tempo to apply to any mood in the film. Very clever.
Sure this might not be the best songs the featured artists have ever produced, but if the album expands the music libraries of a whole new wave of Twilight fans, then it more than serves its purpose.
