''The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) '' is the official soundtrack to '' The Twilight Saga: New Moon''. The score for ''The Twilight Saga: New Moon'' was composed by

Alexandre Desplat Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (; born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer and conductor. He has won many awards, including two Academy Awards, for his musical scores to the films ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' and ''The Shape of Water'', ...

while the rest of the soundtrack was chosen by music supervisor

Alexandra Patsavas Alexandra Patsavas (born 1968) is Grammy and Emmy nominated American music supervisor, producer, & executive who has worked on over 100 films and television series, most notably '' The Twilight Saga'', ''The O.C.'', ''Grey's Anatomy'', ''Gossip G ...

, who also produced the ''Twilight'' soundtrack. The ''New Moon – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' album was released on October 16, 2009 by Patsavas'

Chop Shop A chop shop is a business, often mimicking a body shop, that illicitly disassembles stolen motor vehicles and sells their parts. Chop shops are often linked to car-theft rings as part of a broader organized crime enterprise. In the United Sta ...

label, in conjunction with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

''New Moon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack''

''New Moon'''s soundtrack comprises songs that are all original and exclusive to the soundtrack and are performed by various

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

artists. ''New Moon'' director

Chris Weitz Christopher John Weitz (born November 30, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his work with his brother Paul on the comedy films '' American Pie'' and '' About a Boy''; the latter earned the Weitz ...

stated that the soundtrack would feature songs from

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

, and

Band of Skulls Band of Skulls are an English rock band from Southampton, consisting of Russell Marsden (guitar, vocals) and Emma Richardson ( bass, vocals); Matt Hayward (drums; 2002–2016) was previously a member. The group formed after meeting in college, ...

Death Cab for Cutie Death Cab for Cutie is an American rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. The band is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (keyboar ...

contributed the soundtrack's lead single, a song written specifically for the film called "

Meet Me on the Equinox "Meet Me on the Equinox" is a song by American indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie that was released as the first single from the soundtrack to the 2009 film '' The Twilight Saga: New Moon''. The song debuted on September 13 during the 2009 MTV Vi ...

", which debuted September 13 during the

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

. Bassist

Nick Harmer Nicholas Scott Harmer (born January 23, 1975) is an American musician, best known as the bass guitarist and occasional co-songwriter for the band Death Cab for Cutie. Equipment Basses *Lakland Skyline Bob Glaub Signature Black *Lakland Skyl ...

says, "We wrote 'Meet Me On the Equinox' to reflect the celestial themes and motifs that run throughout the ''Twilight'' series and we wanted to capture that desperate feeling of endings and beginnings that so strongly affect the main characters." The music video for "Meet Me on the Equinox" premiered on October 7, 2009, and includes clips from the movie. The English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

contributed a remix of their song " I Belong to You", which appears in its original form on their 2009 album '' The Resistance''.

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305) ...

collaborated with

Bon Iver Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, ''For Emma, Forever Ago,'' independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon ...

's Justin Vernon to create a song called "Rosyln". When describing the song, she said, " ustinsings in his beautiful falsetto and I'm actually singing very, very low... I think there's something vampirey and creepy about the two of us singing together. It's a simple, stripped-down kind of song." The soundtrack originally had a release date of October 20, 2009, but the date was moved up four days to October 16 due to "overwhelming and unprecedented demand".

Track listing

Bonus DVD

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

— Death Cab For Cutie * Interview — ''New Moon''

Music Supervisor A music supervisor is a person who combines music and visual media. According to The Guild of Music Supervisors, a music supervisor is “a qualified professional who oversees all music related aspects of film, television, advertising, video games ...

(Alexandra Patsava) *

Behind-the-scenes In film, cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the Filmmaking#Production, production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the E ...

Look at the Video Shoot for "Meet Me On The Equinox" — Death Cab For Cutie

Marketing

Hot Topic Hot Topic, Inc. (stylized as HOT TOPIC) is an American retail chain specializing in counterculture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music. The stores are aimed towards an audience interested in rock music and video gaming, ...

locations across the United States hosted ''New Moon'' soundtrack listening parties on the release date, October 16, where fans were able to listen to the entire soundtrack and hear special messages from the featured bands. The album's CD booklet folds out into a ''New Moon'' poster. International versions of the soundtrack are available in certain countries, featuring bonus tracks from "local" artists. For example,

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

and

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

nominee

Ximena Sariñana Ximena Sariñana Rivera (; born October 29, 1985) is a Mexican singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she received critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination for her debut album, '' Mediocre''. Early life Ximena Sariñana was born in Guadalajar ...

is featured on

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

versions of the soundtrack, with the song "Frente al Mar" ("''In front of the Sea''").

Reception

Initial critical response to the ''New Moon'' soundtrack was generally favorable. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 70, based on 11 reviews.

Chart performance

The soundtrack debuted at number two on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart, and climbed to number one a week later after selling 153,000 copies in its first full week of release. It made history as the first time ever a soundtrack and its sequel have both reached the #1 spot on the chart. The album was certified Platinum by

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

, and has sold 1,305,000 copies in the US as of August 2013. In New Zealand, it was certified Gold on October 18, 2009, selling over 7,500 copies in its first two days of release. The album debuted at number two and was certified Platinum after its first week of release, selling over 15,000 copies. In Australia, the soundtrack rose to number one on the iTunes Store and has largely stayed in the top five since its release. It debuted at number two on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

in the week beginning October 26, 2009, and was certified Platinum in its first week. In Mexico, the album is jumped to No. 1 on the international album charts and No. 4 on the main chart after five weeks inside the chart, caused by the success of the film.Todo un éxito el soundtrack de 'Luna Nueva'
In the UK, the album debuted at number one on the compilations chart.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

''The Twilight Saga: New Moon (The Score)''

''The Twilight Saga: New Moon (The Score)'' was composed by

and performed by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

. He replaced

Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has consistently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. Burwell has also scored three of Todd Haynes's films, three of Spike Jonz ...

, who wrote the score for the previous film, ''

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...

'' (2008). Weitz has a working relationship with Desplat, who scored one of his previous films, ''

The Golden Compass ''Northern Lights'' (titled ''The Golden Compass'' in North America and some other countries) is a young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, published in 1995 by Scholastic UK. Set in a parallel universe, it follows the journey of Lyra Be ...

'' (2007).

Track listing

Reception

The score has received critical acclaim from many film music critics.

Chart performance

References

External links

Official ''New Moon'' soundtrack website
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Twilight Saga 2009 soundtrack albums 2000s film soundtrack albums Atlantic Records soundtracks Film scores The Twilight Saga (film series) soundtracks Chop Shop Records soundtracks Romance film soundtracks Fantasy film soundtracks Alexandre Desplat soundtracks