• Composed by Elia Cmiral
• Lakeshore Records / 2012 / 44:12

It has long been apparent to me that a combination of killer fish and naked women is likely to result in a pretty much perfect film, and 2010’s gloriously trashy Piranha was such a film.  There was death.  There were boobies.  What more could you want?  A sequel’s turned up now.  Its tagline says “Double the drama.  Double the terror.  Double the Ds.”  I booked my ticket for it months ago to avoid disappointment.  Slight disappointment did come when I found out that Michael Wandmacher, whose score for the previous film was itself gloriously trashy, would not be returning.  His successor comes in the very unlikely shape of Elia Cmiral, whose career trajectory since he took the decision to score Battlefield Earth has not been what one might term universally upwards.  His score is also trashy, though slightly less gloriously so.

The opening cue, “Return of the Piranhas”, is the first of many somewhat forgettable action pieces.  Cmiral plays things straight, but the music sounds a bit cheap (something called the “KMC Orchestra” is credited but it’s either very badly recorded, or considerably “enhanced” with samples) – far from the frenetic style of the earlier score, it’s more of the “series of crashes and bangs” school of action music and I’d slate it if it were by the latest flavour of the month at Remote Control, so I can hardly stop myself slating it just because it’s in a film as magnificent as this one.  Far more successful are the other parts of the score – “Trident Aria” is a genuinely gorgeous Morriconean vocalise, “Sheriff’s Redemption” a beautiful piece later on – “Kiss of Life” has a brilliant Euro-pop flavour to it – there is some really good stuff here.  There’s enough to keep the album from being a dud – it’s a shame that the action music doesn’t have more bite (sorry) but there’s still a decent amount of fun to have.  ** 1/2

facebook.com/moviewave | amazon.com