Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Official Soundtrack (Mute) *** (From York Press)

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Official Soundtrack (Mute) ***

11:15am Friday 3rd February 2012 in CD reviews By Dan Bean, dan.bean@thepress.co.uk

IF one word could describe Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch’s soundtrack to David Fincher’s film, it’s ‘bleak’.

At three hours over three discs, it’s longer than the movie, but as a listen alone experience it never recaptures the incendiary opening of Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song – the lyrics fall from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer’s vocal chords amid scratchy guitar and electronics putting a brilliant new spin on a classic.

The epic soundtrack screams ‘ominous’, focusing on sound design and story cues over memorable tunes, with near continuous electronic beats, stomps, and grungy industrial soundscapes. When it settles down, the soundtrack becomes atmospheric, unnerving and tense, beautifully capturing the imagery from Stieg Larsson’s books, and supporting the claim that Fincher’s movie was “The Feel Bad Movie Of Christmas” – while it’s not an easy listen, it’s certainly an effective one.