The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond

Noteworthy

I rue the day I saw the first Twilight on DVD, thinking what is this schmaltzy, insipid mess. Glittering vampires? Baseball in the rain? Psuedo-interbreeding among "siblings"? Echh. Thankfully the werewolf didn't start the habit of losing his shirt until the next one.

The single thing that had me hooked, however, was the movie's incredible soundtrack, which featured Muse, Paramour, Iron & Wine as well as Radiohead (end credits only, but yeah, freaking Radiohead!).

But there seems to be a theme going on. First, there's new Danielle Steele-ish version of some nerd trope in book form. Then there's a movie that breaks records at the box office. For some reason, I think the Danielle Steele-ish version of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome seems more appealing than the one that's of Dracula: Dead an Loving It. Because of this overly simplified comparison, I expect The Hunger Games to have a similarly good soundtrack to go with it.

Enter T-Bone Burnett, the mastermind behind the Grammy award-winning soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou, and he's recruited some big names to contribute, including The Decemberists, Arcade Fire, Kid Cudi, Maroon 5, and Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars performing twice — first together and then on separate songs. Sounds like a can't miss.

What doesn't help this producer right off the bat is that the film is mostly using the original score of James Newton Howard. Only three selections from Songs from District 12 appear in the movie — at the end credits.

With that, you can already nullify the chances that this soundtrack will be one of the greats like Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction or even O Brother, Where Art Thou among the many other movies whose music tracks are synonymous with the films' best moments.

Regardless of this setback, Burnett envisioned how to create Appalachian music 300 years from now. Taking elements from the story, specifically Katniss Everdeen's tough-yet-simplistic setting in District 12's Appalachian woods and coal mines, he interlaces dissonant chimes and distortions behind mandolins, banjos and clean electric guitars. The album has nothing but good examples of this picturesque re-imagining. From Niko Case's alt-country ballad "Nothing to Remember" to Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars' folksy lullaby "Safe & Sound" to Punch Brothers' traditional "Dark Days," it is easy to envision Katniss stalking prey in the West Virginia woods.

However, where Burnett's vision falters when the exploration ceases to continue onward. While most of these songs create a vivid tableau, we're talking about perhaps the the first 75 pages of the book (YEAH, I READ IT!), and probably on the first twenty to thirty minutes of the movie.

The Decemberist's "One Engine" is a fantastic transition by way of train from the hardscrabble of District 12 to the hedonism of the Capitol and the Hunger Games to follow. The problem is there are few songs that express the oppression and inhumanity of the arena. You get a sense of the Capitol's Big Brother control in Kid Cudi's superbly domineering "The Ruler and The Killer," and Katniss's raw determinism in Arcade Fire's "Abraham's Daughter," but there are few others like this to cover the bulk of the movie.

In addition, there are no songs that project the grandiose urban sprawl that is the Capitol itself or any representation of its hedonistic inhabitants. What's the matter? Was Avicii busy that week?

Fortunately for Burnett, these selected artists all did very well as a whole in presenting this story of familial love, the maturity from loss and the sense of longing for days gone by. But in keeping this narrow scope, this collection suffers in demonstrating the vast world of The Hunger Games and the cautions it strives to present us. Burnett takes the listener to the boondocks of the post-apocalyptic future by making it coincidentally sound a lot like the past. But without giving a thought to the other side of the coin, the ever-changing and sometimes frightening march forward, why are we looking to the past anyway?

For Your Consideration: "Abraham's Daughter," "Nothing to Remember," "Safe & Sound," "The Ruler and the Killer," "Dark Days," "One Engine."

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