Review: The Avengers Motion Picture Soundtrack

In the past week or so, my Avengers fever has reached its peak, from seeing the movie(twice), to replaying the awesome action in my head over and over, culminating in my purchase of the soundtrack. If you’ve seen the movie, you know there’s not only a terrific score by Alan Silvestri, but the credits feature a brand new track from 90’s grunge patriarchs Soundgarden. As a collector of music from films as well as a long-time Soundgarden fan, it only seemed right that I should dive into these 2 discs worth of music and let you guys know whether you can skip it, or add another, more musical layer to your Avengers mania.

Well I wish it were that simple. It’s really a matter of taste, as there are a few differing styles of music represented between the two discs. Personally, I enjoy being able to go back and listen to the orchestral arrangements for my favorite films. So if you’re into the classical sauce, Alan Silvestri’s score is definitely an album worth having, There aren’t any iconic tracks like the old Superman theme, but the Avengers theme is  worthy of the massively successful superhero team.

90’s post-grunge band Bush makes an appearance on the rock-filled half of the album. This is actually one of the better songs on the album, despite it being a wonderfully bland track from Gavin Rossdale and Co. The Five Finger Death Punch cover of Faith No More’s “From out of Nowhere” is another track worth mentioning, as well as the song from Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland. Of course if you’re into watered down nu-metal acts like Evanescence and Papa Roach, you may find yourself enjoying this disc, as it’s about 3/4 crappy modern hard rock, like Shinedown for example.

The standout addition to this corporate drone-rock snoozefest is the first track from Soundgarden in 15 years, “Live to Rise”. It played well as the credits rolled in the film, and I have found myself jamming it a few times since. But I wouldn’t suggest you run out and grab this half of the soundtrack just for one track by a band I happen to respect highly. I would say that you should probably go ahead and download “Live to Rise” from iTunes.

So there you go. The rock album isn’t awful, it just isn’t very exciting. Below, you can watch the video for “Live to Rise” by Soundgarden, full of great shots from the film.

My arbitrary rating for the Silvestri score: 4/5

And for the rock album: 2/5