Thursday, September 29, 2011
Normally, a press release announcing the tracklisting for a movie soundtrack would be deleted without even being opened—unless it was about the next
Twilight soundtrack album; in that case you’d post a story about it. Like now.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, the “musical companion,” as
Summit Entertainment,
Chop Shop Records and
Atlantic Records put it, to the much anticipated
fourth installment in the teen-vampire film franchise, hits on Nov. 8, 10 days ahead of the opening of the film.
The reason we’re paying attention is because the music supervisor is a big-time rainmaker. That, of course, would be
Alex Patsavas, who built her
Chop Shop Music Supervision into a go-to player in the music biz through her soundtrack work while proving that dropping the right song into the right scene of a TV series could lead directly to a major hit. Patsavas drew up the blueprint a decade ago with
The O.C. and refined it with
Grey’s Anatomy, the latter show resulting in such hits as
Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" and
The Fray's "How to Save a Life."
Gossip Girl provided Patsavas with the opportunity to push the envelope a bit with more left-of-center artist choices, completing the picture while bringing a more grown-up dimension to the indie cred she’d gained from
The O.C. More than any other supe, Patsavas managed to connect the dots between young TV viewers and music fans, and the initial
Twilight gig provided her with the perfect opportunity to apply her rarefied feel for potential hits to another medium—but one that was conveniently aimed at the same audience. She formed the Chop Shop label, a partnership with Atlantic, in 2007.
What’s different about this installment is that there’s nothing remotely indie about the spotlighted artist—the first single is from the heavy-hitting
Bruno Mars. The track, “It Will Rain,” became available as an
iTunes exclusive this week, but only with soundtrack pre-orders. Representing Patsavas’ indie foundation is
Iron & Wine, who provided “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” for the first
Twilight soundtrack; here,
Sam Beam and co. contribute a newly recorded version of the same song.
Moving into the meat of the album content, Patsavas commissioned tracks from such up-and-comers as
Christina Perri,
The Joy Formidable,
The Belle Brigade and
Theophilus London. There’s also a contribution from
Mia Maestro, who co-stars in the new film as Carmen Denali of the Denali Coven.
Patsavas worked with director
Bill Condon in compiling the tracklisting.
Paul Katz of
Eye2Ear Music, who’s Summit’s point person on film-related music and soundtracks, gets the producer credit.
Released in November of 2008,
Twilight Original Motion Picture Soundtrack bowed at #1, making it the biggest debut of the
SoundScan era for Atlantic. The second entry,
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, also topped the charts in its first full week at retail in October 2009. Altogether, the three soundtracks have sold more than 7.5 million units, while providing crucial exposure to such acts as
Muse,
Paramore,
Death Cab for Cutie and
The Black Keys.
The next chapter of
The Twilight Saga will be released as two separate films, with the second coming to theatres on Nov. 16, 2012. Condon directed both films, with
Kristen Stewart,
Robert Pattinson and
Taylor Lautner all returning.
Here’s the tracklisting:
1. “Endtapes” The Joy Formidable
2. “Love Will Take You” Angus & Julia Stone
3. “It Will Rain” Bruno Mars
4. “Turning Page” Sleeping at Last
5. “From Now On” The Features
6. “A Thousand Years” Christina Perri
7. “Neighbors” Theophilus London
8. “I Didn’t Mean It” The Belle Brigade
9. “Sister Rosetta” (2011 Version) Noisettes
10. “Northern Lights” Cider Sky
11. “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” (Wedding Version) Iron & Wine
12. “Requiem On Water” Imperial Mammoth
13. “Cold” Aqualung & Lucy Schwartz
14. “Llovera” Mia Maestro
15. “Love Death Birth” Carter Burwell
Bonus tracks for the deluxe version:
16. “Like a Drug” Hard-Fi
17. “Turning Page” (Instrumental) Sleeping at Last
18. “Eclipse (All Yours)” Kevin Teasley
19. “It Will Rain” (Video) Bruno Mars