I should preface this by saying that I have never read any of the books in the Twilight series, nor did I see last year’s Twilight film. More then that, I have no desire to ever read a word that Stephanie Meyer has written about the turbulent love affair of Edward Cullen and Isabella Swan, or see any film adaptation of the story. I’ve come to this decision on my own without ever having direct exposure to the work, because like it or not, Twilight has become ingrained in our poplar culture as a nation, spawning a vampire-centric craze unseen since the glory days of my beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This vampire frenzy that dominates our media, from HBO’s True Blood to the confusing new John C. Reilly vehicle The Vampire’s Assistant, has been made possible by the undeniable popularity of Twilight.

When the news of the official movie soundtrack first hit, it caught many people by surprise. Here is a hugely popular series that is employing “indie” artists such as Grizzly Bear, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Sea Wolf to soundtrack their latest installment. The filmmakers were smart in their choices, picking artists who were both commercially viable and critically lauded. Grizzly Bear’s newest album Veckatimest debuted at an impressive number eight on the US Billboard Charts, and should appear near the top on most lists of the year’s best albums. Likewise, Thom Yorke, who also appears on the soundtrack, has been an alternative icon for decades and recently saw his band Radiohead’s Kid A named the best album of the decade by tastemaker Pitchfork Media. The rest of the soundtrack is a veritable who’s who of groundbreaking music that would have had any hipster drooling in another context.

Unfortunately, New Moon’s soundtrack is not groundbreaking, but thankfully neither is the movie. In fact, the soundtrack is totally in keeping with my preconceived and, as shown above, completely non-factual notions of the film. Like Edward Cullen, it is shiny and pretty on the outside, but uncomfortably soulless once you dig in. While this may sound like I am bashing the music, I believe the exact opposite. Not only will this movie give a huge and broad audience to the musicians featured, but it will also artistically challenge them. While this may sound strange to “challenge” a bunch of borderline experimentalists by giving them widespread exposure, it’s true. Having bands that pride themselves on intricate vocal harmonies and guitar parts that don’t usually sound like they come from guitars record songs that are meant to highlight the doomed love of a beautiful vampire and his emotionally confused human lover while literally millions of eyes and ears tune in is no easy task. The musical outcome is above and beyond what I expected it to be, and I give massive kudos to the musicians for keeping it semi-interesting in the face of something as emotionally blank as Twilight.

This soundtrack may not be seen as fresh or influential as a movie like Garden State’s, but quite frankly, this film isn’t Garden State, or probably even any good. The important thing to remember is that it doesn’t need to be. The target audience for Twilight is big and broad and young, and most definitely not me. Just as I’m not going to see this movie purely based on my love for Kirsten Stewart, strong as it may be after seeing her sport a Hüsker Dü t-shirt in this year’s masterpiece Adventureland, the soundtrack for New Moon is not going to lure me into the theater. What it will do however, is balance out and support a film that is as catchy and disappointingly bland as the music within.