The soundtrack is nearly three hours long,[3] and includes covers of the Led Zeppelin track, "Immigrant Song", featuring Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Bryan Ferry song, "Is Your Love Strong Enough?", by Reznor and Ross' own band, How to Destroy Angels.[4] The former premiered on KROQ radio on December 2, 2011, and was made available as a download to anyone who purchased the iTunes pre-order of the album. In addition, the file was accompanied with an extended, 8 minute trailer for the film, scored specifically by Reznor and Ross. On December 2, a six-song sampler of the album was made available for free online along with the pre-release of various different formats of the soundtrack.
A teaser trailer for the film was released online on June 2, 2011, (previously being attached to certain domestic and international films), featuring a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", by Reznor, Ross and Karen O (from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs).[7]
On August 10, the film's official website was updated to feature background music "She Reminds Me of You", under the filename "Dotcom.mp3". As was the case with "Hand Covers Bruise" from The Social Network's official site, this backing music was the first piece from the score to be available for listening.
A full-length trailer for the film was released on September 22, featuring music from the score again, the first time the score had been specifically set to footage. Specifically the track "An Itch."
One track from the score ("What If We Could?") has been performed live by Reznor's band Nine Inch Nails on their Twenty Thirteen Tour in summer 2013.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was opened for pre-orders online on December 2, 2011, on Reznor's independent label website Null Corporation in a number of different formats at various price points. The digital copy was released on December 9, whilst retail copies of the album were distributed by Mute Records on December 27 in CD format followed by the "Deluxe" edition on February 6.[1] The smallest Dragon Tattoo package contains the entire album in 320 kbit/s MP3 format made available for download directly from the website for US$12. A lossless digital version includes a choice of Apple Lossless or FLAC for US$14. A standard physical version is available for US$14 and includes three audio CDs stored in an eight panel digipak with custom "ice" slipcase and a six panel insert, alongside a digital version delivered in 320 kbit/s MP3. A $300 "Deluxe Edition" includes a 6-LP 180 gram vinyl set in a deluxe book package with metal cover in a hard plastic "ice" slip cover, an exclusive custom 8 GB metal razor blade USB pendant (inspired by Lisbeth Salander's razor blade necklace) containing the full album in high-fidelity 96k audio, a fold-out poster designed by Neil Kellerhouse, and a HD digital copy in either Apple Lossless, FLAC, or 320 kbit/s MP3 formats.[1]
On the day of the six-track sampler's launch, Reznor posted about the release on the Nine Inch Nails website:
For the last fourteen months Atticus and I have been hard at work on David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. We laughed, we cried, we lost our minds and in the process made some of the most beautiful and disturbing music of our careers. The result is a sprawling three-hour opus that I am happy to announce is available for pre-order right now for as low as $11.99. The full release will be available in one week - December 9th. [...] Atticus and I are very proud of the film and our work, we hope you enjoy.[8]
Critical response to the score was generally favorable, with an average rating of 76% based on 11 professional reviews on Metacritic.[9] Christian Cottingham of Drowned in Sound noticed that, "like the film the soundtrack favours atmosphere over cheap thrill, taking its time to mount a sense of rising dread, layers of drone building overtop machinery echo and worn piano faded between scattered melodies and sparse percussion. In isolation it's an accompaniment to 3am melancholy or the onset of madness: in context it's Fincher's bleached out whites and blacks and murky greens turned to sound, bleaker than their previous work and more ambitious even than NIN's Ghosts." Cottingham asserted that Dragon Tattoo, "most(ly) recalls Reznor's soundtrack for Quake in the late 1990s, where space and silence played a role as great as any multitrack in conveying tension and unsettling the mood. At times tender but mostly pretty terrifying, this needs to be heard somewhere loud, and preferably with an exit in easy reach."[20]
Conversely professional film music critics like Christian Clemmensen, of Filmtracks, and Jonathan Broxton, of Movie Music UK, dismissed it entirely, the latter considering the score as: "little more than a series of ambient drones, overlaid with various industrial sound effects and staccato rhythms – de-tuned piano chords, plucked bass notes, and the like." He also stated: "When the score isn't jarringly distracting, it's virtually inaudible or indistinguishable from the film's sound effects, begging the question of why the music is there in the first place."[21]
An alternate album For Your Consideration (FYC) was sent by Sony Pictures to awarding bodies. It features the actual film cues, which have alternate titles, edits and mixes from the versions on the commercially available soundtrack, along with one composition not on the soundtrack release at all.
"Salander Returns to the House" (One Particular Moment)
1:53
10.
"Archives" (Pinned and Mounted)
2:45
11.
"Coffee Cup" (The Seconds Drag)
0:52
12.
"Martin's Story" (Under the Midnight Sun)
1:25
13.
"Martin Traps Blomkvist" (Aphelion)
2:24
14.
"Car Chase" (Great Bird of Prey)
2:04
15.
"Harriet Theme 4" (While Waiting)
0:57
16.
"Salander's Trip" (The Heretics)
3:48
17.
"North Pole" (A Pause for Reflection)
0:48
18.
"Media Event of the Year" (One Particular Moment)
0:43
19.
"Harriet's Story" (Under the Midnight Sun)
4:05
20.
"Bank Sequence" (The Heretics)
1:15
21.
"Harriet Theme 1" (Millennia)
2:33
22.
"Salander Tattoos Bjurman" (Of Secrets)
2:26
Total length:
48:44
Disc 2
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Millennia"
1:37
2.
"She's One of the Best, She's Different" (We Could Wait Forever)
2:44
3.
"Parade Photos" (You're Here)
1:54
4.
"Bible Verses" (Aphelion)
1:59
5.
"Plague, Trinity & Wasp" (Infiltrator)
1:59
6.
"Salander Arrives at Bjurman's" (Cut into Pieces)
1:40
7.
"Salander Reports to Blomkvist" (Aphelion)
1:43
8.
"Salander at Wennerström's Apartment" (People Lie All the Time)
1:02
9.
"Blomkvist Shot" (Great Bird of Prey)
1:06
10.
"Lovemaking" (What If We Could?)
1:41
11.
"Harriet's Flowers" (How Brittle the Bones)
1:34
12.
"Harriet / The Accident" (Hidden in Snow)
2:38
13.
"Salander at Söder Hospital" (Under the Midnight Sun)
0:48
14.
"Meeting Bjurman" (We Could Wait Forever)
1:07
15.
"Salander Raped" (With the Flies)
2:05
16.
"Salander Tasers Bjurman" (You're Here)
1:16
17.
"Martin Interviews Blomkvist" (Great Bird of Prey)
2:57
18.
"Blomkvist Meets Martin" (misprint on the packaging, "Martin" should be "Henrik")
1:16
19.
"Blomkvist Travels to Hedestad (misspelled Hedestadt)" (She Reminds Me of You)
1:53
20.
"Widow Brännlund's Photos" (Hidden in Snow)
1:18
21.
"Dead Cat" (Perihelion)
0:38
Total length:
34:32
The same album was made available on the Sony Pictures FYC site as of February 6, 2012.[29] Here, it was presented in chronological order from the film, and did not feature the Led Zeppelin cover performed by Trent Reznor and Karen O:
Rebel Waltz, Inc. – Trent Reznor and Null management
Ren Klyce, Ceán Chaffin, Claudia Sarne, Susan Bonds, Alex Lieu, 42 Entertainment, Daniel Miller, Tim Ahlering, Raul Perez, Shelly Bunge, Andrea McKee, Brett Bachemein, Angela Sidlow, Larry Kohorn, Tara-Beaudine-Moore, Valerie Caton, Neil Ross, Fred de Jong, Michelle Jubelirer, Don Kennedy, Arif Mahmud, Gary Stiffleman, David Byrnes, Irina Volodarsky, Doug Mark, Paul Friedman, Tony Ciulla and Laura Haber – special thanks
