Wendy Carlos showed it, Vangelis showed it and, in plenty of other places on Tron, Daft Punk show it. Soundtracks do not always have to be atmospherically subservient. As to whether it is a criticism that ought to be levied in light of the task at hand, to put it simply, this is not a review of the film. This makes for exciting viewing, but at times humdrum listening. In this strictly auxiliary capacity, melodic extravagance is unhelpful so they tread only one or two chords, relying on steep crescendos and sudden fortes for development. Pieces such as 'Arena,' 'The Game Has Changed' or 'Fall' are all, as promised, grand orchestral works suffused with the duo's more familiar sound, but they are also destined to play a secondary role to the onscreen action. Although their charge to soundtrack moving images is an undoubted success (the dramatic dynamics throughout crave visual representation), it's the conscious affectation of a style known for its melodic limitation and optic dependence that, in places, brings an air of the ordinary, of the undaft, to their music.

Well, if it weren't for the two things this work is supposed to sound like-a film score, a Daft Punk record-then yes, almost certainly.

Though will it make their canon of the adored? But then, weren't they the same people moshing to 'Robot Rock' at the foot of the Pyramid? It's the prescience of their volte-masques that cements their legend, and in this transition from studio to symphony, from dancehall to cinema hall, surely disappointing the track junkies along the way, Tron's place in the Daft Punk canon of the unexpected is assured. Then the up-yours leather jackets were clad and people seeking digital love instead got a steam machine and promptly turned their noses. If you fell in love with the gritty house mastery of Homework, the chances are you weren't really going to be endeared to the blue aliens and intergalactic disco balls of Discovery. After all, that's what Daft Punk do best. Hopes and expectations were always going to be confounded. Though, perhaps more realistically, all of the above will be taken into account in an assessment that's heartfelt and considered, but inevitably flawed-not unlike Tron: Legacy OST itself. Perhaps the only fair evaluation would be via the near impossible task of regressing to a state of total naivete-turning out the lights on the hype, the robot masks, the dayglo bike race, the hope for atonement for Human After All-and just listening for once.

So, what's it to be? A review of Daft Punk's fourth album proper, with all the derivative comparisons that would entail? A review of a film score, considering the pitfalls a lack of visual references could bring? A review of orchestral music for an electronic music magazine? Or a personal account of what all this means for a hopelessly daft Daft Punk fan? Certainly, there's no shortage of angles, but each one appears more fraught with subjective, misplaced, contextual and irrelevant tripwires than the next.

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