John Powell – “How To Train Your Dragon 2”

Album Reviews | Jun 8th, 2014

How To Train Your Dragon 2

Record Label: Relativity Music Group
Genre: Film Score
Buy on Amazon.com

How To Train Your Dragon was a pleasant surprise at the box office and for the film score. John Powell created one of my favorite scores from him. The movie itself was cute and fun for both adults and kids. The sequel seems like it’s more of the same, which is a good thing.

The track that stands out from the first movie is “Forbidden Friendship” and while we don’t get a straight-up similar track in the sequel, a lot of the familiar motifs and themes continues over. As soon as the score starts with “Dragon Racing,” you’re already brought back into the world of How To Train Your Dragon. In a way, it feels like a Main Title because it contains a lot of those themes. The score from Powell is light, entertaining and not boring at all! It’s what you expect from a fun, family adventure movie really. There’s lots of choir singing, some bagpipes (of course), and fanfare horns. If you heard the first How To Train Your Dragon score, you know what I’m talking about. Besides the score tracks, there’s also a track featuring Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Mary Jane Wells singing. What is this, a Disney movie? Nah, don’t worry, it’s more of a Scottish drinking song than a lovey dovey type of song.

The last song is one done by Jonsi of Sigur Ros and John Powell. Jonsi has been busy lately, between singing a version of “The Rains of Castamere” in Game of Thrones and then this. He did a track with John Powell for the last soundtrack as well. “Where No One Goes” is an excellent upbeat track, mixing in Jonsi’s unique singing style and John Powell’s score. If Sigur Ros was this upbeat, I’d probably listen to them more. You can’t help but bop your head to this song.

I heard that John Powell is taking a break after this score which is kind of a bummer. But at least he left us with an awesome score! Come back to scoring soon, John Powell!

Bottom Line: Another terrific film score from John Powell.
Notable Tracks: “Dragon Racing,” “Battle of the Bewilderbeast,” “Alpha Comes to Berk,” “Two New Alphas,” “Where No One Goes,”
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