it's no doubt a function of the nature of the films...

the social network ost is a livelier, more engaging listen that actually holds up as one of his better records; the girl with the dragon tattoo ost is cold and disengaging, and more difficult to listen to actively, although i'm finding it functional as background music, right this moment.

i think you have to get your head around the idea that these are mostly jams, rather than compositions - you may be hearing some overdubs thrown in, but this is mostly being constructed on the fly, making it a type of twisted jazz, really. there's also a huge amount of sampling in both of these, which i'm not about to criticize from some position of purity, but do need to point out; as these are both mostly improvised works and soundtracks rather than standalone compositions, sampling exists in a different context. the reason you need to point it out, though, is that the tracks come in the form of templates.

reznor has a habit of repeating himself, and he's done the same thing with his soundtrack work - if you include ghosts, it really all bleeds into itself and starts to stagnate some time around 2012. you could argue, then, that it works best if you pull it all together into a ten or fifteen disc set and think of it as a single work.

i have no criticism beyond that point - everything he's done with ross in this style is enjoyable, as repetitive as some of it may be. but, standing in 2018, maybe it's time to move on.