The Twilight saga: eclipse

Bloody hell! Is that really Emily Haines, of perennial indie underlings Metric, vamping her way through the theme song to the new Twilight fangfest? In what is best described as a wild lurch for credibility, the custodians of the undead uber-franchise have roped in some of independent music's most potent brands for the Eclipse soundtrack. Thus Beck and Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan come together for witching hour ballad 'Let's Get Lost' (isn't it strange how Beck is starting to sound like Bono as he mooches towards old age?). Elsewhere, Jack White's Dead Weather and Akron's Black Keys both kick out the (gutbucket) jams, whilst Unkle deliver sweet indie-dance and Band of Horses evoke a post-rock CSN. Best of all is Vampire Weekend's daintily throwaway 'Jonathan Low', perhaps the catchiest thing they've yet written. And what Twilight soundtrack would be complete without Muse channelling the apocalypse, as they do here on 'Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Here),' the title of which rather undersells the song's skull-crushing bombast? Worth taking a bite of.