Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s melancholy Queer score is here for the yearners

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross pre-empted Brat Summer with their pulse-pounding Challengers score, and now they’re back to usher in a very different season with a whole new Luca Guadagnino collaboration. The preeminent duo just released their score for Queer, the director’s second release of the year. Just a warning: you may want to exercise caution before hitting play if you’re suffering from any symptoms of yearning, isolation, or crushing loneliness right now. 

Where the Challengers score was sexy and scintillating, Queer is somber and often discordant. The track names really say it all: the spring release had “Yeah x10” while this one has “The Saddest Man In The World” and twin tracks titled “No Final Solution”/”Just Conflict”.

Still, this may be the perfect album to soundtrack those long winter months when you really do feel like the saddest man in the world. The album also features an atmospheric leading track titled “Vaster Than Empires, featuring Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso, which pairs nicely with “Te Maldigo,” an original song Omar Apollo (who also appears in the film) released with Reznor and Ross last month. 

Queer follows Daniel Craig’s William Lee as he embarks on a tumultuous affair with a younger man named Eugene (Drew Starkey), whom he meets at a bar in Mexico. The film releases nationwide December 13.