The Game's Second Gambit

Season 2 of HBO's Game of Thrones has concluded, but for those who haven't come to grips with the long wait now in store before it releases on DVD (and Season 3 begins), there's a way to fill the void. A second soundtrack album featuring score selections from season 2 is now available.

Composer Ramin Djawadi has created wonderful music for the series, a vast collection of which his very memorable opening theme is only one highlight. The first season soundtrack included others, but also had a too-heavy dose of soft background music that didn't always make for the most compelling listening experience outside the context of the show. This new album is a much better sample for direct listening.

In the second season of the show, Djawadi relied less on bare string passages, dramatically stepping up the use of percussion in his score. Several of his action cues on this album have an aggressive tribal feel to them, including "The Throne Is Mine," "Valar Morghulis," and "Wildfire." Some tracks also make use of low, full brass in a way (a good way) very evocative of the composer's earlier work on the series Prison Break.

But the real highlights of the album are the tracks where Djawadi takes his main theme and subverts it. The rising, rhythmic string melody of the theme is twisted into several dissonant variants, including the anthemic "Don't Die With a Clean Sword" and my favorite music of the series, from the final scene of the final episode, the profoundly creepy "Three Blasts."

There are still a few skippable tracks on the album -- none "bad," but in the quiet and transparent mold of music deliberately trying not to call attention to itself (as television scores often do). But overall, there's enough great content here that a fan of soundtrack music should check it out, and a fan of the show may want to give it a shot too. I grade the album a B+.