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James Gunn assembles another mixtape to soundtrack the adventures of his loveable band of rogues in space.

Much like its accompanying movie, this soundtrack had some big shoes to fill. Awesome Mix Volume 1 reached the top of the Billboard 200 chart, went gold eight weeks after release and has received more different editions (vinyl and cassette tape among them) than you could shake a Groot-like limb at. It was a motley collection of the familiar and the obscure, rock tracks rubbing shoulders with soul, funk and even some disco, but somehow it just worked. So does this follow up live up to its predecessor?

Yes and no.

It’s difficult to imagine any song ever being more associated with the Guardians than Blue Swede’s now infamous Hooked on a Feeling – indeed the early teaser trailers for Vol. 2 played that tune in the background, and anyone who hears it will instantly connect it to the film. The opening track here – ELO’s masterpiece Mr Blue Sky – is undoubtedly a great song, but it is perhaps that greatness, that ubiquity, that prevents it being subsumed into the Guardians brand in the same way its more obscure predecessor was.

Some tunes tie in deeply to the movie because of their subject matter and how they are used in the movie. Looking Glass’ Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl) has immense resonance because of the scene it accompanies in the movie, as does the ever impressive The Chain by Fleetwood Mac and the juxtaposition of Jay and the Americans’ Come a Little bit Closer and the scene it soundtracks make sure that it hooks into your brain even more than its catchy nature would normally suggest.

Others are more just catchy pop tunes – Sweet’s Fox on the Run and Cheap Trick’s Surrender fulfilling standard duty as candy crush pop tunes to backfill a trailer or the credits. And then there’s the more slow, indulgent stuff which feels like it’s been picked by the director just because he likes it. Lake Shore Drive and Bring it on Home to Me fill this bracket, nice enough tunes on their own but lacking the impact of their arguable counterparts from Volume 1 (Go all the Way and Fooled Around and Fell in Love respectively)

And then rounding off the oldies and the obscure there’s the frankly bizarre Guardians Inferno featuring none other than David Hasselhoff himself, an original song that takes the main Guardians riff from the score and turns it into a disco style exercise in total indulgence. It’s weird, off the wall and very pleased with itself – I liked it but I suspect that mileage will greatly vary.

But though Volume 2 doesn’t quite scrape the heady heights of its predecessor, it does emulate it in being a disparate collection of tracks from varying genres that fuse together quite well. It also goes further than Volume 1 by offering tracks which actually emotionally resonate with certain character beats and plot points where the first one just went – in the main – for stuff that sounded cool. I defy any fan of the first movie to hear Come and get your love and not break out in a big smile, and I similarly defy any fan of the second to hear Father and Son and not wipe away a tear.

Verdict: Much like the movie itself, we have something here that mimics the original but also takes it in a different, and more complex direction. It probably won’t win the awards and universal praise of its forbear, but it’s still a damned good listen, doubly so for anyone who loves the movie. 8/10

Greg D. Smith