Twilight (2008)

The big-screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's sexy-vampire saga could have gone the classic heart-of-darkness route (Bauhaus, where art thou?). Instead, they've tapped Alexandra Patsavas, the music supervisor behind The O.C., Grey's Anatomy, and Gossip Girl, and she aptly applies her zeitgeisty sensibility to the Twilight soundtrack, pulling exclusive cuts from acts like Paramore (singer Hayley Williams is a confessed superfan of the series) and MuteMath. The disc begins with epic Brit-rockers Muse's excellently grandiose "Supermassive Black Hole," from their 2006 release Black Holes and Revelations, followed by Paramore's "Decode," in which Williams forsakes the band's bouncier punk-pop sound for a more sprawling, Evanescence-like romanticism (see also: "I Caught Myself," a more rocking addition later on the album). Other standouts? U.K. electronic duo Black Ghosts, whose "Full Moon" is a woozy, feat of otherworldly melody, MuteMath's shuddering, hand-clappy rocker "Spotlight (Twilight Mix)," the always-lovely acoustic folkie Iron & Wine's "Flightless Bird, American Mouth," and pretty piano closer "Bella's Lullaby," from composer Carter Burwell.

Smartly (since the film is, for all its supernatural trappings, essentially a love story) Patsavas's soundtrack provides plenty of fist-pumping moments but far more that are just plain swoony. A-

Twilight soundtrack: Go behind the scenes with Paramore on their video shoot

More on the Twilight soundtrack:
'Twilight' Exclusive: Our Soundtrack Snap Judgments!