The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Soundtrack Review

• 2nd May 2014

Hans Zimmer seems destined to now conquer the world of superheroes. He did sterling work for Chris Nolan on the Dark Knight trilogy (The first two instalments he also invited acclaimed composer James Newton Howard aboard as co-conspirator). Last year he then took on Man of Steel. This year he’s after Spider-man!

But he is not alone. Once again he has decided to amass other talent to create the new opus. Here the “band!” are referred to as the Magnificent Six (a not so subtle play on the sinister six perhaps) the artists of name are Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr, Michael Einziger, Junkie XL, Andrew Kawczynski, and Steve Mazzaroritten.

And for once Zimmer is playing more to character themes than he normally does.  And how grand they are too. Electro gets a heavy EMB electric riff that makes no bones about just who he is or the threat he poses.  The hero himself gets a bold and proud brass anthem that holds his heroic stature out among the crowd.

The romance of Gwen Stacey and Peter Parker is also a heavy component of the film so naturally is dealt with throughout the cues on the soundtrack. It’s all a very diverse selection, but of the most importance it is all very memorable.

So memorable in fact that the remaining tracks at the end of the album are a bit of a come down as they consist of songs from various artists that appear in the film. None of these are particularly bad, but some are fairly generic in their written intentions. But this is bonus material that perhaps Sony could have cynically put on a separate disc under the banner of “Music From And Inspired By” – but instead they have managed to cram them on here, so we shouldn’t complain about the variety of quality in them. This is one of the strongest scores for as big film this year so far.

We can only hope that Zimmer continues the good work and returns in similar, but equally diverse and compelling action for the next film. Or maybe he’ll decide to really conquer the world by taking on a Marvel project. The sky is still the limit.

 

 

 

Steven Hurst