Electronic is the future. In doubt? Listen to the “TRON: Legacy” soundtrack, composed by French duo Daft Punk. Like the movie of the same name, the album is an innovative piece of technical work in a growing field. As an odd blend of two completely different fields – electronic and classical music – the soundtrack had the potential to fall completely flat. However, where amateurs might fail, Daft Punk manages to create an impressive album yet again, disregarding a few minor setbacks.
Disney specifically recruited Daft Punk – real names Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter – for the soundtrack, which comes as no surprise. The veteran duo leapt into the spotlight in the late 20th century and never looked back, with massive hits like “Technologic” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” on the radio and sampled in their contemporaries’ works. As the pair got older, their music get better, and “TRON: Legacy” is hardly an exception to the rule.
“TRON: Legacy” is first and foremost a soundtrack to a movie, and to expect the same never-ending intensity as a typical Daft Punk piece would be naïve. The album is less explosive, moodier, building slowly to a crescendo as does the film; each particular song reflects the intensity behind a single line of dialogue and enhances it, instead of attempting to create that feeling from the ground up. Despite the confinement to a scripted story, however, “TRON: Legacy” is good enough to work as a stand-alone album, not just an accompaniment to another piece.
The soundtrack is noteworthy because of its individual tracks that mesmerize listeners – in short, the tracks that sound most typical of Daft Punk. The more action involved, the more exceptional the songs. Track 16, “Rectifier,” can be compared to a controlled storm; it is a rigid, military-like piece building to a buzz of noise that has listeners anxious about the next turn of both the movie and the song. Similarly, “C.L.U.,” the longest track of the album, represents the culmination of sound and action that the soundtrack builds to, with dramatic pauses and descending lines to bring the tension to its most acute stage.
The best song on the album by far is the eighth track, “The Game Has Changed,” as it goes furthest in epitomizing the strangeness and technicality of the universe of the film. It is simultaneously hectic, as agitated violins keep up a furious pace in the background, and the calm before the storm, as the synth soothes its classical counterparts. The juxtaposition of sound, combined with an oscillating crescendo, keeps listeners anticipating its slow-building resolution and is, in a word, perfect.
But for all the musical genius that went into a few tracks, the rest is surprisingly dull. Although the movie certainly contains many aesthetic scenes that are really only meant to be fawned over and are largely a repetition of the same idea, the soundtrack could have added a little more punch. Many of the songs on the album blend into one another, and a lack of dynamic change or unique sound hurt a few of the tracks, particularly “Nocturne,” a painfully slow, nondescript piece that could have come out of any dramatic movie to ever pass through a movie theater.
Despite a few sleepers, though, the “TRON: Legacy” soundtrack is an electronic work of art, a unique construction that helps set the movie apart from the onslaught of modern technical films. Daft Punk proves once again that even lacking their typical liveliness, they are masters of their field and are here to stay. Yes, men approaching middle age still have a place in the music industry.