Thanks to NPR, the vanguards of American culture, you can now hear Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for Gone Girl in its entirety. Take your ass here to check it out.
My initial impressions of the score are that it’s a bit more traditionally cinematic that Reznor and Ross’ previous scores. It sounds more reactive to onscreen events, and features less of that “highly edited improvisational session” sound that some of their work on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo had. This sounds more constructed, yet softer. You’ll hear lush eighties-style synths and beautiful piano compositions. There’s still that dissonance and that building, trance-like repetition you’ll be familiar with, so it’s not too outside the Reznor/Ross oeuvre.
According to an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Fincher’s inspiration for the soundscape is that kind of aimless, bland, ambient music you hear while getting a massage in a spa. That sounds dumb and horrible, but I think it works really well. Thoughts, chewers?