After thoroughly enjoying the movie "Requiem for a Dream," I bought this album mainly because of my interest in electronic music (and the movie, of course). The electronic remixes provide very "interesting" takes on the music of the movie.
Some of the songs are good, but most of them are just too bland to be catchy. Overall, the album has a boring feel to it, stemming from the collection of samples taken straight from the movie. Sure, they serve to create a haunting atmosphere and make you feel like you're watching the movie, but I'd rather watch the movie again instead. Personally, I consider them plain filler. In addition, the little audio clips aren't very ideal for MP3 players (such as my iPod), when I prefer to listen to my entire library shuffled. After all, who likes listening to 10-second tracks mixed in with his or her other songs? But maybe that's just me. People who listen to CDs from beginning to end will have a better listening experience than I did and will definitely be taken for a haunting ride. And to keep the whole ride going smoothly, each song is slightly mixed with the next, which is something that might annoy some listeners (that includes me). Otherwise, the brief interludes serve their purpose pretty well.
As you probably know already, I like only a few songs on this album, and they are:
"In the End It's All Nice" by Plant - It's a remix of the main theme, and it has a dark, bouncy groove. This song should have definitely been the "intro," as the cleverly used samples provide a nice overview of the movie's plot and atmosphere.
"Ghosts In the Machine" by Psilonaut - It's a very interesting take on the "Ghosts" theme. It starts off slow, but eventually the calming, powerful (maybe even a bit repetitive) vocals smoothly take you to the end of the song. The sampling in it is weird (a robot counting from one to ten... whoa), but it adds to the haunting atmosphere without being too distracting.
"Aeternal" by Paul Oakenfold - It's another remix of the main theme, but this time it's a hip-hop sort of beat. The song never really changes its style or beat, but perhaps it's good that way.
"Deluxed" by Delerium - This is the darkest remix of the main theme, done by a very talented duo. The song starts off very slow, builds up intensely, and slowly ends back where it started. It's probably the best song on the album.
"Overturned" by ILS - It's nothing really special, but I like this drum-and-bass remix of the main theme for its novelty value.
As for the other songs, I can't say much about them other than I don't like them. But I do recommend this album to anyone willing to experience something that's new and unusual. The songs retain most of the chilling feel of the movie's original score, while they introduce a cool electronic twist that listeners may really enjoy.