Wanting to give it a couple listens, see it in context with the documentary to really form my opinions, but so far I've found myself really hoping Gustavo contributes something to the next NIN record. I was a huge Last of Us fan and found the idea of him working with Trent exciting on paper, but in practice it's even better than I could have guessed. Their styles seemed to blend very well into one another.

I think the big reason why the Mogwai stuff seems so lesser is that it feels like it was made in a separate bubble -- overall this lacks as much of the cohesion as other soundtracks TR&AR have done but I suppose that's to be expected with something featuring three different teams. That said, when it gets more electronic, it tends to shine a bit brighter than when it's more totally ambient and loop-centric.

I don't know how much I'll find myself listening to stuff from this on its own in the future -- I really dabble at best with the score work and most of the time that I consider listening to all of it I think "Why shouldn't I just watch the movie then?" since I like all the Fincher films they've worked on. Social network is still the most everyday listenable of them, Dragon Tattoo is the most stuffed and in turn has some of the best individual selections and Gone Girl is the creepiest and generally most "cinematic" feeling to me, it seems to tap much deeper into narrative through sound than the others. Before the Flood is ... well, exactly what I expected: incredibly sad in a way that's too pretty to turn off. It's not the kind of stuff I can see myself wanting to put on in the background to score my life, I'm sad enough most of the time already, haha.

That said there is some stuff here that I really think shows how much TR&AR have grown together and the work with Gustavo seems to offer a freshness to the formula that I've been wanting for a long time. Gustavo's love of strings really brings out a layer of emotion that I've found lacking in some of their stuff and I've always wanted more of Trent with strings, so, it's pretty perfect to me. I could see myself shelling out for the vinyl just for those songs alone (At Dusk is absolutely beautiful and feels like The Last of Us fell into bed with Dragon Tattoo).