TRENT REZNOR'S "GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO" SCORE

Trent Reznor has always been great at combining music with visuals, from his disturbing Nine Inch Nails videos, to the soundtracks of Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway (he produced both), to last year's Oscar/Golden Globe winning score to The Social Network to this year's score to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

I know that Dragon was nominated for a Golden Globe the other night and lost to The Artist (a movie I want to see, although there is some controversy about that film's score), and I'm sure it will be nominated for an Oscar.

I loved Trent's score for The Social Network last year (by the way, I should mention that he works on his scores with Atticus Ross, they are also bandmates in How To Destroy Angels).  But Dragon is on a whole other level.  I haven't read the book, but when I do, I will be playing the score -- it really adds to the film, and is almost its own character.

I also loved that Trent had Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's cover Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" for the opening sequence of the film.  I thought that Trent didn't even like Zeppelin, but I'm glad he choose that song, it really works well.  I wonder if Trent (and Dragon/Social Network director David Finch) will work together on the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire. The film worked on every level: the music, the cinematography, the acting and of course the great Steig Larsson story. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

And I'm also looking forward to the new How To Destroy Angels album, supposedly due out this year. Trent has even said that he's considering doing more Nine Inch Nails music as well.

TRENT REZNOR'S FILM MUSIC

I was really excited that Trent Reznor and collaborator Atticus Ross won the Oscar for Best Film Score for David Fincher's The Social Network. Having seen the film again over the weekend, I can definitely say that the score is like an extra character in the film, much like Neil Young's score for Dead Man.

But it's not the first time Trent has done music for films, it's just that he usually compiles soundtracks.  The first time he did this was in 1994 for Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers soundtrack.  It featured an original Nine Inch Nails song, "Burn," which is rocking. The film plays like an incredible mix tape; it includes Leonard Cohen, L7, Bob Dylan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Peter Gabriel, Dr. Dre, Lard and Patsy Cline.

In 1997, he followed this up with the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway. More focused and less gothy, it featured a NIN classic, "The Perfect Drug." It also has one of the best Smashing Pumpkins songs, "Eye," and even a good Marilyn Manson song, "Apple Of Sodom." There's also songs by David Bowie, Lou Reed and there's some solo Trent music.

There's also two great Nine Inch Nails performances on non-Reznor soundtracks: He covered Joy Division's "Dead Souls" for The Crow in 1994, and there's also the little heard "Deep" from 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider soundtrack.