Tron, NIN, and nostalgia for a simpler time.

I have no feelings either way about Tron. I wasn’t blown away as a kid when I saw the movie(I didn’t actually see it till I was well into teen-dom). And when the 2011 sequel reared it’s retro-futuristic head my reaction was, “Mmm. Cool.” And so when the third film in this series of sci-fi flicks dropped like it was hot with a ever deadpan Jared Leto I kind of had the same reaction as previous Tron cinematic features, and that was “Mmm. Cool.”

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the music for these three films was far superior to the films themselves. Wendy Carlos, Daft Punk, and NIN dropping mad tunes over these otherwise innocuous cyberpunk-lite flicks. All three of these artists were so damn capable that the elevated these movies to another platform they otherwise wouldn’t have had the stretch to do so. For the time, the first movie had its charms, especially given it was the early 80s and Disney was trying to branch out beyond just “kiddie” cartoons and Witch Mountain sequels(for my money, Something Wicked This Way Comes still holds up to this day.)

Other than the music for these movies, the only other real connection I had with Tron was the Bally Midway arcade game. I never had a gaming system to play at home until I was a sophomore in high school when my older brother bought us an NES system. My mom used the old “It’ll burn into the screen” urban legend to keep us from having a system of our own. My brother did get one in the early 80 from my grandparents, but I can’t remember what it was. Not one of the big ones, and we were only allowed to play it on the 12″ black and white TV we had on top of the fridge in the kitchen.

But I digress.

So there was a small grocery store about a mile from my house that my best friend and I used to ride our bikes to. It was in a small burb called Oswego. One of those “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of places. Basically a spot you go thru on your way to somewhere else. It had a museum, a laundromat, and the grocery. It was the kind of store you went to when maybe you’d had too much to drink and you needed ketchup for the bbq, so you could make a quick trip over there and pay 4 times as much as you would at a bigger store. But for us kids, it was perfect as they sold sodas, candy, and had three arcade games set up in there.

In 1983 they had Tron, which was wild given how new it was. It was the perfect summer/fall bike ride over there, back roads just a hop, skip, and jump away. With a pocketful of change we could grab a Mountain Dew, some Nestle confection(Alpine White chocolate, natch), and then still have enough left over to play some videogames.

I was not a gamer, but my best friend was. He had Atari and a Commodore 64 at home, so he was on a first name basis with Pitfall Harry, Pac-Man, and Qbert. I was on a first name basis with Pong, and Galaxian II as that’s what my brother had at home. I’d stand there sipping on my sugar water, munching on a Nestle bar, and watch my pal as he battled in his light cycle. I’m sure I played a game as well, but for the life of me I can’t recall the other arcade games they had. Probably Pac-Man, which was one of the few games I didn’t feel completely moronic playing.

We’d leave our pocketful of riches in the cash register and arcade machine’s belly and head on our way back to my house where we probably looked for something else to eat.

So earlier this year I picked up the NIN “extended” soundtrack to Tron: Ares and while I didn’t have nostalgic pangs about the 80s, 2000s, or 2020s Tron flicks, it made me think about those easy living days of BMX bikes, country roads, and that feeling of independence. Being out on your own making decisions, feeling as if you were another galaxy away from the safety of home, when in reality home was literally just across a corn field. But on those summer days and bike rides we felt like Wyatt and Billy from Easy Rider. Or Clu and Sark from Tron.

Besides the nostalgia of childhood, Tron Ares : Divergence from NIN is just a brilliant, stunning aural experience. I’ve not heard a Reznor/Ross score that didn’t make me love them even more. While this is labeled as NIN and not Reznor/Ross, we all know that NIN is pretty much just Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Live, that’s a different story, but in the studio it’s those two mad scientists cooking up electrical goodness with heavy doses of melody, intensity, and dark ambient vibes.

The extended version of the score has so much more to offer, with amazing remixes of tracks, as well as the most NIN music we’ve heard in about 13 years(not discounting those late 2010s EPs, for sure.) But “Alive As You Need Me To Be” just “feels” like NIN. Besides the amazing Nine Inch Noize, I’d say this is some of the best work Trent Reznor has done as Nine Inch Nails since Year Zero.

It’s not as jagged and self-hating as those first three classic LPs. And honestly I had to really get into With Teeth in 2005 before I went back and re-evaluated those 90s releases to truly appreciate them. I didn’t have angst in my teens and 20s, just a lot of self esteem issues and awkwardness. It took me till I was well into adulthood, marriage, becoming a dad with responsibilities and debt to find that well of angst and self defeatism. At that point I could truly appreciate the nihilism and fury of albums like Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral.

After finding sobriety, great health, and then love and fatherhood Reznor has finally found that balance where he can use that angst in an outwardly way, as opposed to pointing that metaphorical barrel at himself. It takes having something in your life to fight for in order to move on from constantly picking on yourself. Despite the retro-futuristic, dystopian vibe of Tron Ares : Divergence there’s still at the core a hopefulness in there. Plus there’s some serious bangers, remixes, heady soundscapes, and an ease into an optimistic escapism.

And I got all of that without even watching the damn movie.

That’s what makes a soundtrack/film score great, timeless even. That it stands on its own as a piece of art. Without having to watch the film you can get into that world seamlessly and experience it without the visual aspect. Having a score that works solely in partnership with a film is fine, and sometimes essential. But for me I buy film scores that can take me out of my headspace and land me into their world. Those are the all-timers for me, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have done that nearly every time they’ve worked with a director. There are some I listen to less, but the ones I listen to a lot(The Social Network, Gone Girl, Bird Box, Mank, Challengers, Tron Ares) are exceptional. Masterful, even. While The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was great, it felt almost too dense for repeated listens.

I know, all of this was A LOT for a soundtrack from a movie that I’ve never seen, which was the third in a series of movies that had other great soundtracks that I didn’t even really think much of in the first place….and the 80s arcade game that was based off the first in the series.

Yeah, that’s a lot.

But what can I say, nostalgia and memories and childhood do that to me. And also when music is so powerful it moves me to write about it I can’t deny it. And Tron Ares : Divergence is definitely one of those kind of albums for me. So much so that it took me months to finish this one. But the wait was worth it, as different paths opened up in the interim and showed themselves to me as to how to approach it. The most important path? Was that mile long ride on a county road that led to a little grocery store, and an arcade game that I enjoyed watching my best pal play. And that led me clear to Tron Ares : Divergence, a whole lifetime away.