Welcome back to Thematic Thursdays, where I share a soundtrack or two out of my collection that’s good for either mood writing or as background while you work!

In honour of Curve of the Corridor (aka Space Crazies), which I should be editing, I’m going to talk about one of my workhorse soundtracks, the score to Tron: Legacy. Terrible movie. Excellent soundtrack. It’s got a little bit of something for everyone, even if you don’t like Daft Punk (I don’t particularly, so I often skip the heavily DP club scene songs “End of Line” and “De-rezzed”). There’s a constant undercurrent of tension that makes it great for writing anything creepy or political; the occasional heavy bassy pieces are perfect for action scenes. It flows together well as an album, and the lack of lyrics and consistent beat make it great background music.

I wrote CotC almost exclusively to Tron: Legacy. Thanks to looping “The Game Has Changed” and “End Titles” almost constantly for hours at a time while furiously typing scenes of claustrophobic sci-fi hallway fights, it’s become indelibly linked with that story. I’ve used it for parts of Embers and Ignition as well–anything where I needed to maintain a certain level of tension. But my heavy use of it does mean that when trying to rewatch the movie–already hard since it is really bad–I keep getting distracted by things I’ve written instead. But that often happens to me with my workhorse soundtracks.

At least I know who to request for the score if Space Crazies ever makes it to the screen.

Tron Legacy: Extended Edition, via YouTube or where-ever you prefer to purchase music. (Seriously, it’s Disney. It’s for sale anywhere you care to look.)