Watchmen (2019)

[StockAvuryah]

In one of the interview Trent said temp tracks used before they got on board were from The Vietnam War, or something like that, and it really shows !

"NUN WITH A MOTHERFUCKING GUN" really sounds like one of the tracks after "Torn Polaroid". And the version is complete now ! It's really fucking great, those gritty NIN guitars are always a pleasure.

"HOW THE WEST WAS REALLY WON" is like an alternate take on a John Carpenter type main theme. It's "on the nose" but it works very well. And it's fucking amazing too so yeah.

Now to the listen to the rest of the album.. But it's interesting how this soundtrack is really frontal in the show and clearly follows the plot. Just listening to the music, you can feel the story advancing. Reminds me of The Social Network in the best way possible.

BUT THOSE TRACKS ARE NOT LONG ENOUGH

Edit :

"I'LL WAIT" is basically a shadowy techno track, where the fuck did that come from, that's cool. What is that reverbed string(?) instrument ?

"THE BRICK" is incredible. I feel it touches new heights for T&A. Familiar yet unsettling atmosphere. It reminds me a lot of the british show "Utopia" soundtrack, with that main synth.

"NEVER SURRENDER", hello to the HTDA / Dragon Tatoo filtered guitar. I missed you. It's time to make an extended version of NUN with that one. Oh god it has pieces of the first track too. It all segues together. Damn.

"MÜLLER TIME" makes me wonder if NIN could use a whole orchestra linked to pedals and synths and mangle and destroy and reconstruct the sounds of all instruments, like they did with the saxophone.

"OWL HUNTS RATS" is the track they put after the "end credits" video. It's really great, feels like Bad Witch is reborn in different clothes. And goddamn that distorted kick halfway through to the end. Definitely the most effective pulsation-driven track. Make it last longer goddamn.

"ABSENT FRIENDS AND OLD GHOSTS", "WATCH OVER THIS BOY" (and "ORPHANS OF KRYPTON"). The calmer track on this record. There are few, but are extremely well crafted and transmit a very peculiar feeling. If the two last tracks set the tone for what is to come, this is going to be greater even.

Doesn't "WATCH OVER THIS BOY" piano motif sound like the synth motif in "HOW THE WEST WAS REALLY WON" ?

Wait, it's actually an alternate take. Dang. It's incredible. You never disappoint T&A.

[PhoenixML]

This is great. I love their new "listening experience", where the music creates its own world, in a shorter format. You have the time to focus on what's given without being overwhelmed.

[ROFLRICK]

These compositions are utterly engaging—an awesome mix of the familiar, peppered with true surprises (MULLER TIME's orchestration, holy cow!)

TRAR sound reinvigorated, and totally invested.

[Toadflax]

I'm just really glad to have a new TR/AR score that feels fresh and exciting. I love all their score work, but the last few bleed together for me. After TSN and TGWTDT, my expectation was that each score would feel like a completely different thing, but once they started taking on more work, the music all started to feel a little same-y to me.

And with Trent's comment that Watchmen called for music that's more in your face than the average film, I'm guessing future scores will still be more like the last few than Watchmen or TSN. I don't mind that, but I definitely hope they take on at least one project every couple years which stretches their abilities and really stands out with a strong personality.

That said, I'd love to hear this kind of music in a Pixar film. I'm so here for TOY WITH A MOTHERF*&*ING STORY.

[Prettybrokenspiral]

I'm just really glad to have a new TR/AR score that feels fresh and exciting. I love all their score work, but the last few bleed together for me. After TSN and TGWTDT, my expectation was that each score would feel like a completely different thing, but once they started taking on more work, the music all started to feel a little same-y to me.

Say what? Bird Box, Vietnam War and Before The Flood sound like three completely distinct scores for three completely different projects..

[Toadflax]

Say what? Bird Box, Vietnam War and Before The Flood sound like three completely distinct scores for three completely different projects..

Totally agree with Before The Flood. It's Bird Box, Vietnam War, and Patriots Day that blend together for me. I'm not saying they're objectively similar, just that they don't have standout personalities like some of the others. Like, I've listened to them all probably close to 100 times, but if you asked me to describe what makes them different, I wouldn't be able to come up with anything beyond, "um, Bird Box is creepier?"

Again, I love them all, and some of them are less bold because that's what the film needed them to be, but I already feel more excited by this score than I have since Before The Flood (or The Defiant Ones if we count Atticus' scores).

[sonic_discord]

I'm just really glad to have a new TR/AR score that feels fresh and exciting. I love all their score work, but the last few bleed together for me. After TSN and TGWTDT, my expectation was that each score would feel like a completely different thing, but once they started taking on more work, the music all started to feel a little same-y to me.

And with Trent's comment that Watchmen called for music that's more in your face than the average film, I'm guessing future scores will still be more like the last few than Watchmen or TSN. I don't mind that, but I definitely hope they take on at least one project every couple years which stretches their abilities and really stands out with a strong personality.

I kinda have to agree here. I absolutely LOVE TSN and TGWTDT. Gone Girl, Juno, Before the Flood, and The Vietnam War were also great, but Patriot's Day, Mid90s, and Bird Box (and parts of Vietnam War) began to "feel a little same-y" to me, as well. That's not to say I don't like them (because I do), just that I don't actively listen to them as much as I do with TSN, TGWTDT, Gone Girl, or Before the Flood. Part of this (like you mentioned) is due to the fact that there's just so much score work coming out of them (again, not a bad thing). But Watchmen really breaks the mold and, in my opinion, it's up there with their absolute best score work. TOP-SHELF TR & AR! And yes, I'm really intrigued to see what they do for Pixar on Soul.

[snaapz]

Good soundtrack, nothing else to say. I code/program for a living and always have headphones on, I have listened to all TR/AR OTS's over and over and over since The Social Network was released, so like many of the other members here at ETS I am very familiar with the OSTs, they are great thinking music, descriptive and thought provoking. They produce some amazing soundtracks.


This recent release is fine with me. That is all.


PS: Anyone else think 'WTF!' sounds like 'Objects in the mirror'


There's a Fragile era image which was posted on NIN.COM which I cannot for the life of me find, I'm starting to second guess if it was even NIN. From what I remember TR packed a bunch of gear into a van and drove it into the desert and rolled the van. Maybe he thought it was time for a new sound.

[James Cobra]

PS: Anyone else think 'WTF!' sounds like 'Objects in the mirror'

Yeah that bassline is similar.

For me the soundtrack is kinda like a compilations of all the other scores they made, you can see bits and pieces from everything. The piano tracks are very much in line with stuff on Before the Flood and Mid90s

[frl]

PS: Anyone else think 'WTF!' sounds like 'Objects in the mirror'

I got big The Greater Good vibes from this track, probably the beat and haunting synth combo.

Really enjoying the soundtrack but it suffers from that common score thing where I love a track and just wish it was fleshed out into a longer than 2 minute piece of music.

[Tyson]

There's a Fragile era image which was posted on NIN.COM which I cannot for the life of me find, I'm starting to second guess if it was even NIN. From what I remember TR packed a bunch of gear into a van and drove it into the desert and rolled the van.

That was early With Teeth era. When he was moving all of his stuff from New Orleans to California.

Regarding the album, I could have done without the interlude tracks or anything with vocals. Those are ALWAYS gonna be skipped for me. I can easily remove them from a digital playlist, but I'm always gonna have to manually skip them on the vinyl.

[barkhammer]

There's a Fragile era image which was posted on NIN.COM which I cannot for the life of me find, I'm starting to second guess if it was even NIN. From what I remember TR packed a bunch of gear into a van and drove it into the desert and rolled the van. Maybe he thought it was time for a new sound.

https://www.nin.wiki/images/8/8c/9-09-04.jpg



There was also a hilarious Scooby Doo mashup of this image by Meathead but that appears to have disappeared from here sadly.

[PhoenixML]

So the vinyl has a fake tracklist? That's funny.

[paul_guyet]

So the vinyl has a fake tracklist? That's funny.

It's not just that it's a fake tracklist...everything, the artwork, liner notes, tracklist, art on the actual record is for a band/record from the Watchmen universe.

[henryeatscereal]

Holy fuckin shit, that was an awesome listen!

[gorast]

So, the runout groove for Watchmen has "NULL 10" etched into it. This leaves us with five official Null numbers:

1. The Social Network
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
4. Before the Flood
6. The Vietnam War
10. Watchmen Vol. 1

That leaves Gone Girl, Juno, Patriots' Day, Halloween, mid90s, and Bird Box without official Null numbers.

Based purely on release order, either Gone Girl or Juno would slot into Null 03, but that would leave the release that doesn't without a Null number entirely. Gone Girl got a physical release and no Null number anywhere, so maybe that's the odd one out and Juno goes there. Patriots' Day is pretty obviously Null 05, which we could've confirmed if the vinyl ever came out (RIP). Meanwhile, Null 07-09 correspond cleanly with Halloween, mid90s, and Bird Box. I previously assigned 07 and 08 to mid90s and Bird Box in my head, leaving out Halloween, but I guess TR/AR consider it an official release, even though neither version of the vinyl has the Null number (maybe because the John Carpenter theme is the B-side so it's not a Null-official release?).

I do wish we could get someone (Kraw?) to go on record about the Null numbers so that we have definitive information and not just speculation, but 1. I think Trent probably likes that the numbers aren't always explicitly listed, and 2. this only matters to an extremely narrow sect of people anyway.

Excited to see Vol. 2 and 3 throw all this out the window and use either random numbers or none at all.

[allegate]

So, the runout groove for Watchmen has "NULL 10" etched into it. This leaves us with five official Null numbers:

1. The Social Network
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
4. Before the Flood
6. The Vietnam War
10. Watchmen Vol. 1

That leaves Gone Girl, Juno, Patriots' Day, Halloween, mid90s, and Bird Box without official Null numbers.

Based purely on release order, either Gone Girl or Juno would slot into Null 03, but that would leave the release that doesn't without a Null number entirely. Gone Girl got a physical release and no Null number anywhere, so maybe that's the odd one out and Juno goes there. Patriots' Day is pretty obviously Null 05, which we could've confirmed if the vinyl ever came out (RIP). Meanwhile, Null 07-09 correspond cleanly with Halloween, mid90s, and Bird Box. I previously assigned 07 and 08 to mid90s and Bird Box in my head, leaving out Halloween, but I guess TR/AR consider it an official release, even though neither version of the vinyl has the Null number (maybe because the John Carpenter theme is the B-side so it's not a Null-official release?).

I do wish we could get someone (Kraw?) to go on record about the Null numbers so that we have definitive information and not just speculation, but 1. I think Trent probably likes that the numbers aren't always explicitly listed, and 2. this only matters to an extremely narrow sect of people anyway.

Excited to see Vol. 2 and 3 throw all this out the window and use either random numbers or none at all.

or 3 and 5.

[paul_guyet]

Connected NWAMG and NS for funsies.

https://soundcloud.com/purplerectang...enders/s-SAGtT

[imail724]

Has anyone posted this review yet? https://www.revolvermag.com/music/re...ach-still-mess

[sonic_discord]

Has anyone posted this review yet? https://www.revolvermag.com/music/re...ach-still-mess

So they've even got Revolver in on it! The reviewer, "Harris Greenwald" (I wonder if that's an anagram for something else...) only has this one single review credited to him and it reads like an actual legit review that even refers to real life events that clearly never happened (like Bowie dressing as Silk Spectre and Iron Maiden releasing an album called "Screaming Skull"). I love the dedication to this fictional world they're creating.

[richardp]

Has anyone posted this review yet? https://www.revolvermag.com/music/re...ach-still-mess

This is so great.

Has anyone figured out what band they're using the headshots from? I know Sigur Ros is the live band in the booklet, but I haven't been able to figure out who the headshots are of.

[imail724]

This is so great.

Has anyone figured out what band they're using the headshots from? I know Sigur Ros is the live band in the booklet, but I haven't been able to figure out who the headshots are of.

The one guy looks eerily similar to Alan Moore.

[eversonpoe]

This is so great.

Has anyone figured out what band they're using the headshots from? I know Sigur Ros is the live band in the booklet, but I haven't been able to figure out who the headshots are of.

The one guy looks eerily similar to Alan Moore.

almost entirely certain that top-left is @kraw (which would be awesome, since he clearly did a fantastic fucking job on this)

bottom-left almost looks like surachai (who is connected to trent through mutual friends/collaborators, including josh eustis & alessandro), but he'd be showing way more of his face than he ever​ does in photos.

[otnavuskire]

bottom-left almost looks like surachai (who is connected to trent through mutual friends/collaborators, including josh eustis & alessandro), but he'd be showing way more of his face than he ever​ does in photos.

I had the same thought. Looks a lot like him.

[Jordan]

I bought the vinyl. Love it! Little disappointed it didn't come with a digital download. Anyone know where I can buy flac digital downloads?

[snichols]

just got an email from target with a shipping notice and tracking number with the eta of saturday! yippie!!

[cdm]

just got an email from target with a shipping notice and tracking number with the eta of saturday! yippie!!

My account says Vol 1 is both backordered and has shipped. No tracking number listed nor a ship confirmation email. Weird.

[eversonpoe]

just got an email from target with a shipping notice and tracking number with the eta of saturday! yippie!!

i also noticed that i only got charged once it shipped! so target functions just like amazon in that you only pay when they actually fulfill the order, which is awesome!

[cdm]

i also noticed that i only got charged once it shipped! so target functions just like amazon in that you only pay when they actually fulfill the order, which is awesome!

Its funny you mentioned this because I was charged yesterday. As I said above, my account says it's both shipped and backordered. And this morning I got an email saying it was backordered until Nov 21. WTF?

[gorast]

nin.com linked to the Revolver article. I wonder if it's canon, in the sense that it was written to fit into the overarching universe and sanctioned by HBO, or if Revolver just wrote "fanfiction" of a sort.