“Challengers (Original Score)” – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

Album: Challengers (Original Score)

Artist: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

Year: 2024

Genre: Techno

Grade: B+

Through their urgent and unrelenting electronic film scores, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have more or less revolutionized movies in the 21^st century. Together, their singular soundtracks lend an ominous cyberpunk edge to the movie in question, whether it’s the prophetic Mark Zuckerberg origin story of The Social Network or the claustrophobic espionage thriller of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Theirs is a cool, icy aesthetic that fits perfectly with the sleek postmodernism of director David Fincher, but it’s versatile enough to fit almost anywhere. Case in point: the sexy tennis drama Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino.

For Challengers, Reznor and Ross employ a bold and brash techno soundtrack. It’s catchy, seductive and effortlessly kinetic — a score that never stops moving, even when it is hauntingly ambient (“L’oeuf”). Taken by itself, it’s an entertainingly retro and occasionally thought-provoking album of cohesive electronic music, one that can stand on its own outside of the film. As a soundtrack, it amplifies the actions of the film perfectly.

Despite a few Pink Floyd rip-offs — “Brutalizer” and “Brutalizer 2” seem like blatant imitations of “On the Run,” just played at a faster tempo — Challengers (Original Score) is another winner for Reznor and Ross (and Guadagnino).

NOTES & CHORDS

• I like the inclusion of Benjamin Britten’s choral work, “Friday Afternoons Op. 7: A New Year Carol.” His compositions are always hauntingly alluring.

• The greatness of Reznor and Ross — and Guadagnino by extension — is that the techno beats aren’t just used to soundtrack the tennis scenes. The music builds great tension throughout the dialogues between characters, volleying back and forth with insistent speed.

• Even though techno is still relatively new and innovative to the world of film, the music of Challengers is indebted to the European music of the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Reznor and Ross have done their homework: the soundtrack is heavily influenced by Kraftwerk, Manuel Göttsching and Daft Punk.

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