What we're listening to

REVIEW
A score penned by the melancholic quill of Nick Cave and fellow Bad Seed Warren Ellis is never going to be a perky little number.

A good thing too as The Road, a film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy-s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name, could have been written with this powerful pairing in mind.

Set in an undisclosed time in the not-too-distant future, the film portrays a post apocalyptic America.

It is the story of a father and son's struggle for survival as they journey south through the newly created wasteland to escape the freezing winter.

Performed in the most part on piano and strings, Cave and Ellis's often pared down melodies and stripped back arrangements parallel the dominating themes of loss and absence in the film.

The effect is to conjure up images of desolate landscapes, muted colours and monochrome skies.

From the hauntingly fragile The Road to the tense and terrifying The Cellar, the compositions build an evocative montage of the film's sobering plot.

Standing alone, this is a chilling and beautiful album of equally uncomfortable, exquisite and heart stoppingly dramatic tracks.