The Upward Spiral: Listening to ALL of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Trent Reznor; arguably one of the most enduring, imaginative and shapeshifting musicians and performers of the past  30 years, and that would only be if you were looking at his work with Nine Inch Nails (NIN). Up until 2016 Reznor was considered NIN's only official member and then longtime collaborator Atticus Ross  joined on a permanent basis. Those that are not familiar with Nine Inch Nails are likely to be considered geriatric and those that don't like them, I would argue, are lacking a pulse. The band's particular brand of explosive rock and roll genetically mutated with electronics, distortion and heavy drums make them very recognizable, so much so that they may as well have created their own genre. In the 90's they were constantly being bounced back and forth between Alternative and Metal categories, although I think neither of those captions did the band justice.

In 2010, when it was announced that Trent Reznor would be doing the score for David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin ‘s The Social Network Network, many people were at a bit of a loss when attempting to imagine what that was going to sound like. Flash forward and the original score to The Social Network is probably considered one of the most iconic original scores of the 2010s, if not the millennium. The only other piece of movie music that I could possibly stack up against The Social Network is Tron: Legacy by Daft Punk , but I'll get to that later. For now I'm going to take a look through the scores that Reznor and Ross have produced since The Social Network.

Ok I lied, first we're going to look at what I would consider the genesis of Reznor's work composing original material. In 1995 Reznor was approached by John Romero of the video game studio ID, creators of Escape from Castle Wolfenstein and DOOM. ID was on its way to releasing their next generation 3D variant of DOOM, Quake, and they wanted Reznor to make the music. Reznor, being a fan of DOOM happily agreed and produced 10 ambient tracks for the game, although I'd consider these tunes to be anything but passive ASMR.

So, following the release of the Social Network, not to mention garnering an Oscar for best original score for their efforts Reznor and Ross could basically do anything they wanted. But why mess with success? They once again paired with Fincher to create the 39 track behemoth for Fincher's adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This time around the duo's involvement in the film was used to market it as much as anything else and the entire teaser trailer features their propulsive collaboration with The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Karen O belting out Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. From adrenaline pumping propulsive beats, to eerie contemplation this thing is a thriller writer's best friend. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is nearly a 3 hour film, and Reznor and Ross produced a score to match that length. Here the duo encountered the challenges of working such a massive film, most notably that the edit wasn't locked, so the pair were forced to continue to modify the score.

In an excellent 2011 piece from Jack Giroux from The Film Stage Reznor stated "We weren't working on a finished thing, so everything keeps moving around, scenes are changing in length, and even the order of things are shuffled around, and that can get pretty frustrating when you get precious about your work. It was a lesson we learned pretty quickly of, 'Everything is in flux, and approach it as such. Hopefully it’ll work out in the end.'"

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo2011

Following this the team completed their trilogy with Fincher and delivered the stoic and sparse score for Gone Girl, that has much more in common with NIN's Ghost's ambient albums. It is another excellent film score that deploys everything the pair had learned from their past two collaborations.

In an interview with Consequence, written by Leah Pickett Reznor said this of the inspiration for music: “David [Fincher] was at the chiropractor and heard this music that was inauthentically trying to make him feel OK, and that became a perfect metaphor for this film ... The challenge was, simply, what is the musical equivalent of the same sort of façade of comfort and a feeling of insincerity that that music represented? [My primary aim was] to instill doubt [and] remind you that things aren't always what they seem to be”

Gone Girl2014

Gone Girl OST

3 for 3, the pair's next few outings are very interesting and, I think, speaks a lot to Reznor and Ross' work ethic, creativity and willingness to go to new places.

First off is Before the Flood , a 2016 documentary about the devastating effects of climate change, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. It is available in it's entirety on YouTube for free. In addition to Reznor and Ross this score also features legendary Scottish post-rock band Mogwai and Gustavo Santaolalla, known for his work on The Last of Us, Brokeback Mountain and Babel. This percussive score opens feeling like drops of water breaking the surface tension of consciousness and eventually dries and turns to sand running through the hourglass, perhaps commenting on the fact that we're running out of time to save the planet from our greed and destruction.

Before the Flood2016

Following this is perhaps the greatest departure from what you'd assume Reznor and Ross' tastes would be with the 2017 film Patriots Day, directed by Peter Berg and starring Mark Wahlberg. It which revolves around the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the ensuing manhunt. I never saw this film but much like Berg and Wahlberg's previous collaboration Deepwater Horizon it actually has a lot of good reviews. I'd just assumed it would be a jingoistic piece of propaganda, but perhaps its more nuanced than that? Given some of the track titles from the score are Them and Us as well as We forget Who We Are, I am more interested to give the movie a spin and see if it's more a thoughtful meditation on paranoia and fearing your neighbor? Either way the music is moody and plodding with twists and turns into the shadows of the soul that leads to a steadily increasing and optimistic heartbeat.

Patriot's Day OST

Patriots Day2016

Next up is the score to Ken Burn's: The Vietnam War. This seems perfectly in line with the sensibilities of Reznor at least and this gritty, caustic and often violent set of music perfectly accompanies Burn's most heart wrenching and gut turning documentary. Tracks like What Comes Back  captures the agony of the PTSD-ridden soldiers returning home, deeply broken and now also ostracized from society, labeled as baby killers. Torn Polaroid conjures haunting feelings of loss and broken memories of hope. While A World Away projects the calculated and corrupt doings of the US government; CIA black sites, coercive control, political lies and propaganda not to mention the planned use of things like Agent Orange. There is an ongoing tone of paranoia and fear running through the veins here, and even the most propulsive song Justified Response, with its heavy backbeat, is cursed by a ghostlike wailing throughout.  This thing makes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo score feel absolutely sunny by comparison. 

The Vietnam War2017

Following this Reznor and Ross collaborated on the score for the 2018 Netflix movie Bird Box, directed by Susanne Bier, starring Sandra Bullock. This  movie came out the same year as John Krasinski s A Quiet Place and was pretty much overshadowed by it, despite, or perhaps because of, the similar premises. In Bird Box you can't look at the monsters or it will drive you insane and force you to kill yourself, so everyone's wearing blindfolds. In A Quiet Place the monsters are attracted to sound, so that's where the tension is. Ultimately I think this score is a relative low point for Reznor and Ross. It features some interesting ambient stuff and terse moments, but given that the film was poorly reviewed and doesn't really sound that compelling there's little reason to go back and listen to this one. From the sounds of things Reznor didn't really enjoy the process.

In a 2019 Pitchfork article he stated: "When we got immersed in it, it felt like some people were phoning it in.... And you’re stuck with a film editor who had real bad taste. That’s kind of our barricade to getting stuff in the film. And the final icing on the shit cake was we were on tour when they mixed it. And they mixed the music so low, you couldn't hear it anyway. So it was like, that was a ...” He laughed. “That was a fucking waste of time.

Bird Box2018

The next score is for the HBO series Watchmen, a semi-sequel to the seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore. I loved this series and did not expect to. Watchmen is kinda a sacred artifact that many people have tried to have their way with, and pretty much all of them bringing in underwhelming returns. However I think that Damon Lindelof's show is a fantastic re-interpretation of the material and marks the first time that Reznor and Ross had done any composition for a tv show. As such Watchmen has 3 volumes that were released over the next calendar year and I consider it to be some of their strongest work. Songs like Nun with a Mother*&*ing Gun and Kattle Battle really bring out Reznor and Ross' proclivity for dancey, high tempo action music with a matt black polish of badassery, while tracks like How the West Was Really Won provide a eerie frightening quality that entices you with a dread you can't turn away from, and The Dark Knut Returns presents a percussive, mysterious vortex drawing you deeper into the enigmas of the world. The album also features a virtuosic reinterpretation of David Bowie's Life on Mars, transforming it into a sensory overload that wouldn't be out of place in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But hands down my favorite track from these albums is Lincoln Tunnel, which presents a sobering piano accompanied by the heartbreaking vocals of a gospel choir that all leads to a tragic crescendo lead by the masochistic grinding of electric guitar. Reznor and Ross were already fans of Damon Lindelöf's work and with that their sensibilities pair very well with his.

Watchmen2019

Up next is the 2019 film, Waves, which I had not heard of prior to embarking on writing this piece but it sounds like a fascinating journey of teenage trauma, addiction, tragedy, and reconciliation. The music is low tempo and littered with terse audio samples of people crying, choking back tears and flailing in audible desperation. The whole thing feels like a histrionic elegy of someone's life falling apart which Reznor is certainly no stranger to if you've listened to either NIN's The Fragile or The Downward Spiral. I found this one pretty interesting and it made me want to check out the movie. Unlike other jobs Reznor and Ross actually chose this one. They were a fan of the Director, Trey Edward Shults , previous films Krisha and It Comes at Night and they literally phoned him up and asked him to come to LA and pitch them on his next movie. 

Waves2019

In 2020 Reznor and Ross once more re-teamed with David Fincher to score Mank! Fincher's black and white period piece about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, portrayed by Gary Oldman. I haven't actually seen this movie but the score is pure golden age of Hollywood stuff, with big band boogies, romantic horns with crooning singers, as well as smokey noir inspired fanfare and even riffs pulled from the classical works of composer Aaron Copland. This album is a radical departure from the electronica and moody ambience of pretty much all their previous work and it makes for a seriously toe tappin' affair that conjures the vibe of the glitz and glam of tales of the Sunset Strip and studio backlots. There is an extended version of the soundtrack available that runs for over three hours. I did not listen to that one.

MGM, from the Mank soundtrack.

Mank2020

Soul, 2020, directed by Pete Doctor and starring Jamie Foxx follows the story of a part time music teacher Joe who passes away but doesn't transcend and is essentially stuck in limbo where he meets 22, a stuck soul who joins him in a return to Earth where Joe embodies his cat, and 22 embodies Joe as they attempt to fulfill requirements to bring Joe back to life. This one is interesting because although Reznor and Ross are the primary composers the majority of the actual playing of instruments and completed arrangements was done by John Batiste, who won the Oscar for best original score alongside Reznor and Ross. Apparently Reznor and Ross would get together and write suites of music before handing the themes and ideas over to Batiste for arrangement and experimentation. Soul is a beautiful album that invites listeners to entertain the idea that they might actually like Jazz if they gave it a shot, while also being punctuated with the deep sense of meaning and purpose. Even just listening to the song Epiphany with its gentle melody and slight harmonic feedback; I was stirred inside, it made me feel very emotional and reflect on my life in profound ways that I was not expecting.

Epiphany, from Soul.

Soul2020

The next film is a bit bizarre to me for a number of reasons. Bones and All, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell  and was released in 2022 and somehow I'd never even heard of it before beginning to write this piece. The story is set in the 1980's and follows Chalamet and Russel as two wayward souls who just so happen to be cannibals, as they meet, fall in love and go on a whirlwind journey together confronting their pasts, their capacity for love and themselves. I have not seen this movie and even just reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia I felt my guts turn and heart rate increase. It sounds fascinating, disturbing and terrifying which are all qualities embodied in the score. It's all at once plodding reverbs and synthetic heartbeats competing with a tender quality, like it's fighting to be human. It is a painfully beautiful arrangement of music that nearly brings me to tears without ever having seen the movie. Unlike pretty much all their film score work Bones and All features a song that has Reznor providing lyrics that are just as devastating as the nature of the film.

Bones and All2022

Empire of Light is a 2022 film, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Olivia Coleman and Michael Ward. Its about 2 people, one black and one white, who have a romance and it all revolves around the cinema where Olivia Coleman's character works and the societal and personal pressures that places upon them. I had also never heard of this film but I think it's more understandable that I hadn't than the others, it was widely panned and considered really dull. The music, although poignant, offers little more than a shallow wave lapping at the beach in your mind.

The Rotten Tomatoes synopsis review says “Empire of Light contains some fine performances and a few flashes of brilliance, but this tribute to the magic of cinema is disappointingly mundane” and I'm inclined to apply the same review to the music. Much like Bird Box I'm not even going to add a song from the album here.

Empire of Light2022

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, 2023, directed by Jeff Rowe, produced by Seth Rogen is a superbly animated reimagining of the the Turtle Brothers and its soundtrack just brings it. It's like NIN for kids. At first glance doing the TMNT might seem a little silly for the self serious Reznor but given the fact that they both debuted and ascended to their thrones in pop culture around the same time I think it makes total sense. The same kids that loved the turtles and all the ooze, mutation and skateboarding rebellion that they represent are the exact generation who grew up to be NIN fans. This soundtrack is just a blast to listen to, filled with cocky bring it on style beats and a trilling optimism. I can easily see myself popping it on next time I go skateboarding or just need a solid pump up. It's 30 songs but the whole album comes in under an hour making it really easy to just rip straight through.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem2023

I feel like if you're David Fincher and you can work with Reznor and Ross every time you make a movie, and if you're Reznor and Ross and you can work with David Fincher every time he makes a movie - then you probably should. The guys once more reunited for the score on Fincher's understated 2023 film The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender, as a hitman caught between a mistake, his code and his allegiances. The score is once more a return to Reznor and Ross' particular brand of hums, drones and buzzes coupled with squeals and random audio samples like wind chimes, heavy breathing and dogs faintly barking. Although it's good, it lacks the propulsive qualities of their other work, instead focusing on a textural detail. It's like having a bucket of sand thrown on your brain - in a good way.

The Killer OST

The Killer2023

Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor in a story about a love triangle between former tennis pro turned coach (Zendaya), her tennis champ husband (Faist) and her former lover and low ranking tennis player (O'Connor). This soundtrack is just banger city and was lauded with praise upon its release, with many media outlets praising it as one of the best albums of the year. That being said it was criminally not even nominated for an Oscar that year while somehow John Williams got back in there with Indiana Jones and the Retirement home of Mystery. This fast paced electronic joyride is the team firing on all cylinders to deliver songs so thrilling it had me actually dancing in the street. 

Challengers2024

Still with me?

We've got The Franchise next, which is a HBO comedy series satirizing the behind the scenes world of a film studio that's creating multiple superhero films under one franchise. There is little information out there on how Reznor and Ross ended up making the music for this show, and it feels like it could have just been a bunch of leftovers from the Challengers soundtrack that they sold off for a quick buck. 

The Franchise OST

The Franchise2024

In 2024 Reznor and Ross re-teamed once more with Luca Guadagino for Queer a filmic adaptation of William S. Burroughs 1985 novella, following an American ex-pat on his erotic journey in Mexico city and Ecuador. I really enjoyed this movie and the punk way Daniel Craig followed up his tenure as James bond by doing basically the polar opposite thing. The ethereal visuals of the film are perfectly matched by Reznor and Ross' dreamlike score that is once more filled with ASMR samples including crying babies, the hum of electricity, the sounds of making drinks, footsteps. The score dances a line between tension, sweeping romantic melodies and clockwork like percussion, combining them in a sense of psychedelic melancholy thar pairs so well with the story's ayahuasca fueled tone. Interestingly when the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival the original cut was nearly 200 minutes long before being cut down to it's theatrical runtime of 135 minutes, meaning that somewhere out there is an additional chunk of music that was abandoned. The final track of the score LOVE is punctuated jarringly with a gunshot that marks the emotional climax of the film. Perhaps not something one would listen to all the time, the score for Queer is a twisting thread drawn by a needle that gets under your skin and traces its line to the tender places of your mind and heart.

Queer2024

And the penultimate score; The Gorge, 2025, directed by  Scott Derrickson and starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy in a film where two elite snipers receive identical missions to guard opposite sides of a remote gorge with spooky stuff at the bottom. The score for this film comes in at a paltry 30 minutes and features some pretty standard piano tension and atmospherics, but nothing that I'd consider groundbreaking. It felt like Derrickson could get Reznor and Ross so he went with them, even though I feel like they don't bring anything particularly special to the score, but I can't really blame them as I don't think there's anything particularly special about the movie itself, and alongside Bird Box and Empire of Light I'd place this near the bottom of their discography. Shame, I really like Derrickson and his other films.

It would be kinda lame to end this extensive article here, however the duo have an upcoming film that is in perfect symbiosis with the musicians.

The Gorge2025

Tron: Ares, directed by Joachim Rønning and starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and of course Jeff Bridges. I couldn't actually care less as to what this movie is about and I feel like audiences generally feel the same way. I think that this may be a rare case where the soundtrack to a film is being anticipated more than the movie itself, and for some reason Tron is the franchise that's done this before. As mentioned before, way the hell up at the top of this article, that I think that the Tron: Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk is the only other contender for most iconic original film score of the 2010's if not the millennium. Daft Punk's unique brand of electronic music was not only a stylistically perfect match for something like Tron, it came to define Tron. Tron Legacy didn't exactly blow away critics or audiences, but the soundtrack lingers and remains on repeat for many. 

Now 15 years later, Reznor and Ross have done so much work, in so many genres and categories, having found successes and mediocrity, I think they are primed to deliver something uniquely special. With all of their other film collaborations they've billed themselves as “Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross”, however for Tron Ares it is official that Nine Inch Nails is doing the soundtrack, and that in itself signals a drastically different tone, style and approach for the project. One that is less mired in the ambience and haunting qualities that they've brought to so much of their other work, and instead a fully automatic, face melting, dance / rock album that I would wager is going blow the fuck up. As of right now NIN has released a single from the film entitled: “As Alive as you Need me to Be”.

From 1989 to 2020 NIN released 17 albums, 11 if you don't count the Ghosts ambient albums, which I kinda don't. Most of those albums are iconic and groundbreaking commercial music that transcended genre and tastes to become considered one of the de-facto best bands of the 90's and 2000's. From 2010 to 2025 Reznor and Ross will have released 17 film scores, a staggering feat that has shown them to be true masters of their craft and collaboration while being willing to take risks and move quickly from relative disappointments.

What is clear to me is that both collaborators never stop learning, changing, and collaborating. I think one of the single greatest statements to who they are as creators was Soul. In that they sat there, composed a absolute fuck ton of music and then handed it off to to John Batiste with the trust and recognition that he would do the right thing with their work. There's very few artists that have the confidence and ability to trust in other people to do something like that.

All that being said, I will never forget sitting in the theaters watching The Social Network for the first time and feeling the excoriating pain of Jesse Eisenberg's Zuck having just been broken up with in the most intense, Aaron Sorkin'y way, as he traverses the Harvard Quad to the tune of Hand Covers Bruise. It's simple melody, timing and a bwammmm that predated Inception, feeling somehow as sharp as a meter stick smashing across the back of your hand.