Underworld: Awakening (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

iTunes Review

Evanescence opens with Renholdër’s remixed version of “Made of Stone,” where '90s industrial accoutrements rub against lush string arrangements. Renholdër reworks four other tunes here—and if his Midas touch brings Nine Inch Nails to mind, that’s probably because under his real name, Danny Lohner, he’s worked with Trent Reznor in both NIN and the now-defunct Tapeworm project. He takes the less-is-more approach to The Cure’s “Apart”: he strips everything down to the essentials, with Robert Smith singing over spare guitar notes, minimal beats, and a haunting background ambience. The unsettling ramshackle cacophony of Combichrist’s “Bottle of Pain” plays like what Tom Waits might have sounded like had he chosen black fingernail polish and eyeliner over his poetic outsider style. Civil Twilight’s “How’m I Supposed To Die” recalls early Radiohead, with androgynous falsettos and a contrast of disturbing noises that clang and bang over a backdrop of soothing sonic atmospheres.