Reznor ’n’ Ross mix moody instrumentals with futurist bangers

Since the early 2010s, Trent Reznor has been leading a double life: As he continued to lead industrial-rock agitators Nine Inch Nails through arenas around the world, he also reinvented himself as the award-winning soundtrack composer (alongside long-time collaborator Atticus Ross) for prestige big-screen fare like The Social Network and Challengers. But TRON: Ares—the long-awaited third entry in Disney’s future-shocked franchise—is the first Reznor ’n’ Ross score to be released under the NIN name. And really, the brand synergy is perfect: As an entity that’s always thrived on the violent tension between man and machine, Nine Inch Nails is an ideal avatar for TRON’s blinding-lights vision of AI run amok.

However, when heard outside its cinematic context, TRON: Ares feels like it could be another entry in NIN’s experimental album series Ghosts, presenting a sprawling 24-track collage of dreamy piano interstitials (“Echoes”), lo-tech techno (“This Changes Everything”), swelling ’70-sci-fi synthphonies (“100% Expendable”), dramatic, pulse-pounding set pieces (“Daemonize”) and brain-bending avant-electronic eruptions (“New Directive”).

At the same time, TRON: Ares is greatly distinguished from the duo’s previous film collaborations by the inclusion of some Reznor-led strobe-lit ragers (”As Alive as You Need Me to Be”, “Shadow Over Me”) that would be right at home in NIN’s classic ’90s canon. And then there are those uncanny moments where Reznor’s frontperson and soundscaper roles blur—like “Who Wants to Live Forever?”, a disarmingly delicate duet framed by a twinkling keyboard melody that sounds like it’s wafting out of a sleeping baby’s nursery.