Well, it’s happened. The much awaited soundtrack to TRON: Legacy has hit the interwebs and I’m not ashamed to say that we just threw on some bomb-ass headphones and gave this scheisse a listen from start to finish. Unless you’ve been living under the internet’s equivalent of a rock (which I guess would be something like a hotmail email address?), you’ve no doubt been waiting for the moment when we got to hear something new from Daft Punk, even if it was in the form of a movie score. But after our first flavor of the TRON: Legacy soundtrack a while back when we first heard “Derezzed” (check the NTEIBINT edit here), we were pretty stoked to hear more. That being said, when you decide to give this a listen, just keep in mind that it’s the soundtrack/score for a movie, so you’re definitely not going to be dancing your ass off the whole time (or even most of the time), nor will most of it make any sense out of context of the movie. It’s pretty orchestral as most movie scores are, and pretty much nothing about it screams Daft Punk, but there’s no denying that it’s insanely beautiful. But for me that makes it all the more impressive. There’s nobody out there that doubts that Daft Punk can get anyone to shake it in just about any situation, but I don’t think there are many of us who thought/knew that they had this kind of musical composition in them, and while chances are I never would have listened to a movie score from start to finish if it didn’t involve the words “Daft Punk”, I just listened to a movie score from start to finish, and I liked it a lot.
All THAT being said, there are still some pretty nice moments where you remember who’s behind the lush string arrangements that conjure images of long, panning shots of the Tron world. But like most movies and stories in general, there is typically a huge buildup and climax, and this soundtrack is no exception. There are definitely some points in the middle when things sound distinctly Daft Punk (mainly the aforementioned “Derezzed” and “TRON Legacy (End Titles)”), but we found ourselves very OK with the fact that this sound wasn’t more abundant.
But for anyone who was let down, let this be an example of how expectation can drive our thoughts and emotions. It was clear since day 1 that this was essentially the score to a film, but I don’t think there’s one of us who didn’t expect banger after banger on this disc. Although, it was a bit unfair to promote the soundtrack with 1 of the 2 big tracks on the album. But point is, let’s all not get so excited about things. While the soundtrack was awesome in a way I definitely did not expect, I did not expect it to sound like that, and it clearly doesn’t make a ton of sense out of context. But the good news is, I learned that Daft Punk is a lot more than heavy beats, and I want to see this movie even more than I did before.
Final thoughts in a nutshell: This is not a killer Daft Punk album that will blow the roof off your next party, but it is an incredible movie score to a movie that has epic potential written all over it. If you came looking for the next big Daft Punk hit, you will most likely be sorely disappointed. But if you listened to the soundtrack for what it was – a soundtrack – you just might be surprised at Daft Punk was capable of putting together, most of the time with no beats anywhere to be found. And while it doesn’t happen too often, there are times when the orchestral sounds are married with the electronic, and that is when it’s pure bliss. Like this little ditty below.
