Walt Disney Music, out now

The score for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie….

And, yes, you read the title right; though the movie was released on this side of the Atlantic as Salazar’s Revenge, the soundtrack release retains the original US title.

For the first time since the original Curse Of The Black Pearl, Hans Zimmer isn’t credited with the score for a Pirates Of The Caribbean movie (and in Black Pearl‘s case, thereby hangs a tale, as that was a contractual issue rather than a who did what issue.) Geoff Zanelli, however is – like John Powell and Nick Glennie-Smith – one of Zimmer’s band, the composers who work with him at Remote Control Productions.

In fact, as well as being the main composer for the Disney/Johnny Depp Lone Ranger movie, Zanelli worked as an additional composer on a number of other Zimmer scores, including The Last Samurai, and, more pertinently, the last three Prates Of The Caribbean scores, which make him probably a natural candidate to take over from Zimmer on a franchise entry like this.

Thankfully, it’s a succession that succeeds, and not only keeps up the standard, but is in fact far better than Zimmer’s own score for On Stranger Tides.

Calling upon his previous experience with the scores of the earlier films in the series, Zanelli supplies us with a fine blend of familiar themes, some new-ish  ones, and some of the pounding generic Zimmer-ish action music that most listeners probably think of when his name comes up. And this is definitely a listening album – it’s very entertaining as a set of suites in its own right, which is always good for a soundtrack fan.

When it comes to the motifs from the previous films, Zanelli doesn’t just repeat and re-use them, but makes good use of them – there are some lovely subtle uses of Barbossa’s theme in “She Needs The Sea”, for example, that become clearer in hindsight and on re-listening. Likewise, Jack’s themes and the closing “One Day” theme from At World’s End flow throughout.

The new themes are a little less iconic, particularly where Salazar and the Devil’s Triangle are concerned, as, though new, these do come across as rather similar to the themes around the mermaids in On Stranger Tides. Overall, though, Zanelli has given us a lovely score with moody moments, driving moments, and an epic sweep that was notably absent from On Stranger Tides. It doesn’t reach the heights of epic that the score for At World’s End reached, despite the reuse of themes from that film, but it is pleasantly reminiscent of them.

Perhaps oddly, the biggest negative to this album is the one credited Hans Zimmer track: the closing attempt at a rave-styled remix of He’s A Pirate (Jack’s theme throughout the series). Each soundtrack album since Dead Man’s Chest has included one or more such remixes, which are generally irritating at best, and this is no exception, being another painful and time-wasting ruination of an iconic theme to no discernible purpose. Well, you can’t have everything…

But you can have some pleasurable fun before that, so the score is well worth seeking out. 7/10

David A McIntee