Exceptional soundtracks can make good movies great. They can also take on a life of their own, becoming a greater highlight than their respective films. In this series, I’m selecting some of my favorite soundtrack songs. While quite a few are well-known recordings, I’m also including a few that have flown under the radar over the years.
The Crow’s dark underworld found the right musical counterparts in its soundtrack from top to bottom. With contributions from dark, edgy bands, the songs spanned the musical spectrum — from The Cure to Henry Rollins to Rage Against the Machine. One of my favorites is the Nine Inch Nails’ cover of Joy Division’s “Dead Souls”.
The Crow comic books have been known to find inspiration from Joy Division, making the inclusion of “Dead Souls” that much more powerful. Just as the movie brought a new element to the original stories and images, Nine Inch Nails found a way to reinvent the Joy Division song with its own unique musical sensibilities. While Joy Division took to the upper registers with Hooky’s bass lines high up on the fretboards and Ian Curtis’ spastic vocal tremors, NIN found a home in the lower registers, with cyclical bass drum beats, grating electric guitar riffs and Trent Reznor’s tormented chants. It’s a thing of beauty.
“Someone take these dreams away that point me to another day.”