by Michael Giacchino

Disney Music, out now

Giacchino returns to the Spider-verse, having scored the previous movie, Homecoming, for the webslinger’s latest adventure.

After an opening with the sort of distant tones he used for the Abrams’ Star Trek movies, we’re immediately into an overture suite that is quirky and exciting, that the recent MIB International score probably wishes it could have had in terms of evoking a comic-book feel and drawing the listener into that mood.

The rest of the album follows a similar vein, with some themes surprisingly derivative of Giacchino’s earlier scores – you can hear the refrain of his four-note Trek theme in several places, just drifting in and bubbling under the surface – while the threat music, first coming to the fore in ‘World’s Worst Water Feature’ is a good pounding riff on Holst’s ‘Mars, the Bringer Of War.’ Yes, the theme from the 60s animated series is heard in the movie, as it was in Homecoming, but is sadly not on the album release.

Throughout, Giacchino gives us the sort of thrilling and occasionally flighty ride that we’d expect from his scores, making for a nice listening experience. It doesn’t have any of the more unusual types of arrangement that cropped up in his score for Doctor Strange a couple of years ago, and so comes across as a slightly generic “Giacchino score” – referencing tones from the previous movie, the Star Trek movies, and so on – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, since it’s a known and liked quality.

Verdict: Good fun, sprightly, occasionally quirky, and filled with moments of “that sounds familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…” 8/10

David A. McIntee