Tron Legacy is the biggest film of the year – whether it’s deserved or not – it is. But has this hype been purely driven by Daft Punk’s soundtrack? There’s no doubt that Disney needed Daft Punk more than Daft Punk needed Disney.
First thing you need take on board this is not Discovery Part 2 – even when you are listening to CD – you probably wouldn’t know that the two French Robots had a hand in it unless you knew already. This is not the typical Daft Punk we know and love.
As you trawl through the opening salvos, from “Overture” to “Outlands” the first thing that is apparent is the shortness of songs; the first 9 are no more than 2 minutes long. And therefore that CD comes across languid and slightly mundane. Although we have no doubt that it will work better when viewed alongside the film, something we can’t do until December 17th.
There’s no doubt that it sounds amazing; the emotion, textures and imagery completely work within the universe it’s meant to portray – but it sounds like it has drawn too many influences from other famous soundtracks. For instance you can hear elements of The Terminators haunting soundtrack, the epic orchestral scores of the Dark Knight and Inception. We were hoping for a more experimental approach to bringing electronic elements into a orchestral score. In places it does this really well “Fall” for instance certainly stirs you from inside and will be one of the more memorable moments.
It’s hard to review the soundtrack without having seen the film, but Daft Punk for once has made something completely original, unlike many of their previous productions – there is no sampling, nothing that we generally associate with Daft Punk.
It almost feels as if they have played safe, there’s nothing here to suggest that they have made something so original that they have changed what soundtrack should be. But from what we’ve heard they wanted to make a proper soundtrack and this certainly is.
Daft Punk have always been known as pioneers; creating their own sub-genre in years gone by, sadly the OST doesn’t quite live up to this hype, it lacks their magical experimental touch. Overall we just can’t help but think that it just won’t be that memorable. They’ve not taken the risks that we thought they would have.
It could quite easily could have been created by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard – from the Dark Knight and you probably wouldn’t have known.
In places you can tell that Daft Punk have made it, early favourites “Derezzed” and “End Titles” are part of a handful of tracks that combine more elements of dance music and they work very well. But in others its sounds a little generic and forgettable.
Over the 6 months of hype we’ve heard loads of snippets that have given us an idea of what it’s like, but there’s not much past that – it almost shaped our preconceptions before we could have heard the full thing.
We’re massive fans of the Daft Punk and Tron, but the soundtrack fails to capture the magic of Daft Punk. It’s beautifully arranged, captures the film’s setting perfectly, and will know doubt make the film the biggest of the year. But it’s just not dance music and therefore can only be compared to other soundtracks. It unlikely to be remembered in the same way as other more stirring soundtracks – from Inception and The Dark Knight to Indiana Jones and The Terminator.
We only came across two tracks that you would even attempt to play in a club environment. The rest is purely soundscape and typical score filler – there’s no doubt that the music wouldn’t be conducive to live show in any way. Especially in it’s current state. A great soundtrack, but just not as good as some those have come before it. But overall we’re really impressed that the Robots have managed to turn their hand to original piece of music, but we think they could have take a risk or two.
HBF Rating 8/10
