Following in Jerry Goldsmith's footsteps (musically speaking) is never an easy thing. Ask James Horner, he's done it on a couple of occasions. In this case, you can ask Alan Silvestri. Following the success of the hugely popular original, director Stephen Sommers and the entire cast of The Mummy have returned for the sequel. This time however, the musical duties fell to Alan Silvestri. Now prior to this album, I will admit that I was somewhat wary of the fact that Silvestri would be writing the music for this film and not Goldsmith. The score to the first film is probably one of my favorites of the past few years and seeing as how I enjoyed the first film all the more because of the great music, I was hoping that this album didn't disappoint. Fortunately this effort by Silvestri takes my expectations and blows them away. Far far away.
While the soundtrack as a whole doesn't have the same sound that the original had, it is nonetheless nothing like some of Silvestri's previous efforts. If you think that this album will be another take on the Back to the Future themes or something of that sort, be ready to be shocked. At times while listening to this soundtrack, I forgot who had composed the music. Tracks such as the opening, The Legend of the Scorpion King or the awesome My First Bus Ride left me believing that I was either listening to Jerry Goldsmith or even John Williams. This score has many of the same adventurous elements that made listening to the original so much fun. While there isn't as much Egyptian flavoring as there was in the first film, there is a smattering here and there to keep people like me happy.
The final track on the soundtrack is a song performed by the alternative group, Live. Kind of ironic isn't it? Well, I mean a song for a mummy movie being sung by a band called Live? Okay, perhaps not but it is unusual to hear such a song in a movie taking place in the 1920's and 1930's. Usually this type of song is to be expected in a film like The Rock or Armageddon but in this case, it's not bad. Perhaps it's my bias creeping in (I do happen to like Live), but still, the song isn't a bad one. For those purists out there who don't like any vocal songs on a score, it is the final track so you can easily program it out or stop the CD before it even starts.
My brother often yells at me for buying soundtracks to movies to films I have yet to see and in this case, I got the CD several days before the film was released. Many is the time that his scoldings have hurt, primarily because it was a bad choice on my part, but in this case, I have had the last laugh. And Silvestri can too. This is probably one of the best adventure scores released in the past year or two and well worth looking into. If you loved the first one and were somewhat skeptical in when you heard it was Silvestri, take heart, this one has the same spirit as the first with a fresh sound.
Total time: 73:26