Challengers Original Soundtrack – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Released April 26th, Milan/Sony
Challengers is the latest soundtrack album by Academy Award-winning duo, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. The album is notable for its predominantly high-energy techno-influenced music which serves as the beating pulse of the movie.
The movie itself is a tennis-themed movie starring Zendaya and eeh… two other guys.
Actually that’s pretty much the movie’s plot right there, it’s Zendaya and two other guys, with lots and lots of tennis.
Soooo much fucking tennis.
Or people pong, as I prefer to call it, tedious back and forth, over and over, grunt! Bop! Grunt, bop! On and on and on it fucking goes…
From what I’ve seen, reviews of the movie were somewhat more favourable than mine with most people actually criticising the soundtrack more, saying how it doesn’t fit movie.
Whereas I think it would be more accurate to say the movie itself doesn’t fit the movie.
Zendaya’s performance is strong, probably the best thing about it and she certainly looks a lot foxier than when I last saw her, now that’s scrubbed that Arakkis sand off her, but that’s still not enough to hold my attention.
The movie is competently executed for the most part, albeit with some odd directorial and editing choices. But then I guess you have to do something to spice it up since tennis is so fucking boring, even when viewed from the tennis ball’s perspective, in one of the movie’s more clever visual flourishes.
Because without those camera gimmicks all you’re left with is a toxic threeway between three intensely unlikeable characters obsessed with a sport I couldn’t care even less about.
There’s Zendaya, who’s manipulative and highly driven, and two slightly less but still notably manipulative male protagonists who opposite in temperament yet equally spineless.
And everything else is tennis, looking at tennis, talking about tennis, talking about looking at tennis… did I mention I hate tennis?
So enough of the tennis, because I’ve just realised I’ve not written a review for anything new since January. And so far all I’ve spent this whole time talking about the movie where I spent the entire time trying to figure out which one of the characters was the biggest dickhead.
It’s fair to say if it wasn’t for the soundtrack I’d never have watched this movie.
But I felt I needed to for context.
I’m far more interested in the kinda rackets Trent and Atticus were packing. I’d heard it was some pumpin’ stuff which is just as well or I’d have fallen asleep completely.
First impressions? I think that, much like the movie, it’s a case of “I see what you tried to do there.”
I also imagine Americans will enjoy this music way more than us Europeans, since for a lot of them this is considered cutting edge.
Whereas for me it sounds like it’s three decades out of date and I can’t shake the suspicion that a good chunk of this album was done on a Pentium II with a cracked copy of Rebirth.
The main theme below is a case in point.
More interesting are the moments where the duo decide to retreat that little bit more inside their comfort zone. Yeah x10 is a perfect example, it’s a hypnotic hodgepodge of influences ranging from 80s synth pop to early 90s tribal acid but with a solid core of recognisable Reznorian grunge throughout.
L’oeuf is probably the piece that stood out for me the most and is the most low-key yet haunting pieces of music on the album.
Once again, with the focus on sombre pianos and dreamlike ambient textures, they’re playing to their strengths here, especially Reznor.
Listening back to this one I get strong echoes of some of the more poignant moments on The Fragile, not to mention Reznor’s first ever piano ballad, Something I Can Never Have.
Once this piece finally unfolds the effect is breath-taking, just as good as any piece of cinema score I’ve heard this year.
So yeah. I think yee picked the wrong Zendaya movie lads, get yer ass to Arakkis and let Hans Zimmer do the tennis movie next time eh?
There’s some bits of this soundtrack that put me in mind of Leftfield, whereas The Signal gives me very strong Underworld vibes.
It’s not the only one, either, since Brutalizer 1 & 2 have pretty strong Underworld vibes too.
A lot of the tracks on the soundtrack album repeat. But then that’s an essential component of any movie score, having pieces which are variations on a core set of themes. So, rather than going through them all, I’m going to revisit to the one I like best, L’oeuf, which is reprised with a beat this time on the track Final Set.
Trent also appears on vocals on the track Compress/Repress (the song on the end credits) though I’m not a fan. Still, it’s certainly interesting to hear him singing over a house beat while the trademark NIN piano sounds eventually morph into full-on hands-in-the-air bit, complete with female vocal accompaniment.
Now there’s something I never thought I’d hear.
Ok maybe I’ve made that sound far more dramatic than it actually is but have a listen and you’ll realise my description’s accurate.
NIN-Pong
Ever since my Downward Spiral review I wanted to do an article about the strange disparity between electronic music on both sides of the Atlantic.
About how, despite house and techno being American inventions, it often seems as though they’re still decades behind the rest of us.
Trent Reznor gets a pass because, A, he’s a fucking legend, B, he’s still an innovator despite being an obvious product of that retro-industrial 80s aesthetic.
Still, Atticus Ross should know better since he’s British, he’s worked with Bomb The Bass ffs, c’mon, yerself and Trent need to raving with me mate, get you some fresh sounds.
I mean don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that Trent Reznor is finally delving deeper into techno territory. I’ve been following his career closely for over 30 years now and remain fascinated by this post-rock renaissance of his.
There’s a fearlessness about his work now, a desire to reach further and deeper than anyone thought possible. And long may it continue.
Similarly, I concede that the music here represents a clear aesthetic choice. The duo were tasked with scoring a hot mess of a movie aimed at a mainstream American audience. The kind who consider a tennis movie coasting on teen hormones, sweaty adrenalin, quick edits and an awkward threesome scene raunchy. The whole movie’s a swing and a miss anyway, so at least they tried something different.
Also, I finally got to hear what Trent Reznor with a 303 sounds like so I’ll take it and chalk it up as a victory.
Still there’s a delicious irony here too, given that I spend an unhealthy amount of time writing about 90s dance music. And here we are, one of my all-time heroes is involved in a movie soundtrack modelled on 90s dance music but I much prefer the pieces of slow moody ambience.