Stylistically, if you're allergic to cymbal rolls and crashes, then watch out for the obviousness of The Mummy Returns, because there are countless synchronization points that Silvestri accentuates with these metallic elements and others. The brass performances are so blatantly heroic that they may remind some listeners of the classic swashbuckling scores of the Golden Age or, more recently, John Williams scores of the 1980's, with brief, pulsating blasts from one brass group weaving in and out of triumphantly extended whole notes on others. This could be the single brassiest score in the early 2000's, and if you're a fan of explosive horn sequences, this is your dream come true. On top of the constant level of noise, the full ensemble also performs a variety of new themes that Silvestri created for the sequel. The Goldsmith themes are not explicitly performed at any time, and this choice was intentional. In many ways, this decision is a shame, because Goldsmith nailed his themes even if his underscore was scattershot. His Egyptian theme in particular, the one that opens The Mummy in "Imhotep," remains the most impressively powerful identity in the entire franchise. That said, if you listen closely to the subtle counterpoint in busy action sequences of the sequel effort, such as a few bars of music two to three minutes into "Scorpion Shoes," you can hear Goldsmith-influence phrasing that suggests some connections between the scores, though they may also be purely coincidental. Silvestri adds three new primary themes to the sequel score, each of them developed to satisfaction. First is the new theme for Rick O'Connell and his heroic deeds, brazenly blasting a trail in "Evy Kidnapped" and "My First Bus Ride." This brass theme, usually aided by wild flute or piccolo figures in their highest ranges, eventually dominates the late portions of the score with its swashbuckling optimism. It's related to the old "B-rated" sci-fi adventure themes of the early 1980's and is about as basic in structure as one can get. Still, as a general-purpose adventure theme, it gets the job done and will remind of the same spirit that made Silvestri's Back to the Future theme so adorable. The second theme is the heavy-duty, Egyptian-flavored representation for the love affair between the villains, with strings and woodwinds building to exotic statements that mirror some of the tones heard early in David Arnold's Stargate. Listen for a particularly muscular rendition of this idea at the end of "Train Chapter."

The final and most elusive theme of The Mummy Returns is a melodramatic, romantic identity for Rick and Evy that is introduced in "Just an Oasis" and, despite a few flourishes on strings later in the score, is somewhat short changed by the presence of the other themes until really exposing its potential in "Come Back Evy" and the suite, "The Mummy Returns." There are a few incidental subthemes along the journey as well, including one for viola that grows into a wondrous and magical variant on the idea for the villains and accompanies curses and other fantasy elements of the film. The chorus builds upon this mystique with enchanting presence at times, though its chants never occupy very lengthy sequences of the score. During some passages, they do remind of the primal presence in Silvestri's Predator 2. All the ideas that Silvestri conjures are packed into the frenetic and lengthy "The Mummy Returns," which serves as an exceptionally strong editorial suite of themes from the score. The sound quality of the Sinfonia of London Orchestra and Chorus, as recorded at the resounding CTS Colosseum in England, is crisp and dynamic, with enough reverb added back into the mix to maintain both the scope and dynamic tone of the genre. In some moments, the oud and other exotic accents get lost in the mix, but they can still be followed. The original 2001 Decca album offers a phenomenal presentation of the score, with almost seventy minutes of unadulterated Silvestri action providing for an exhilarating and enjoyable hour of noisy fun. There does exist an additional 45+ minutes of material missing from the album, including a few notable fanfares and almost all the music from the last act of the film (due to recording and mixing schedules lagging behind the album master). These omissions were rectified by Intrada Records in 2018, when the label released both this and Goldsmith's The Mummy as outstanding, expanded products. Like the preceding work, some of the previously unreleased Silvestri cues are atmospheric and tend to slow the flow of the listening experience significantly. The inclusion of the source-like "Gong" for 18 seconds is amusing but could have been moved to the end of the presentation. Still, the final twenty minutes of the score is an essential addition for any enthusiast of this music, especially with the love theme in "Wrong Girlfriend" and main heroic theme in "Happy Ending." An extension of the Egyptian theme in ambitious rhythmic mode occupies "The Mummy Returns - End Credits," offering more of the flavor heard in the first minute of the formal suite.

The 2018 Intrada album for The Mummy Returns is an all-around more impressive expansion than the label's sibling release for The Mummy. After the nearly 110-minute score presentation and the inclusion of the film's song (more on that later), Intrada offers several notable alternative arrangements, some of which featured on the Decca album but all of them testimony to the haphazard editing Silvestri had to make to this work. Generally, outside of substantial disappointment that Goldsmith's themes did not carry over to the sequel, The Mummy Returns is a resounding success. In its consolidated presentation, which can be smartly expanded using the Intrada product, the score hits all the right crescendos and pauses just long enough from the ruckus to allow you to come up for air. There are percussive, hand-to-hand battle cues that will clang. There are male and female choirs chanting along with marching armies of fighters. There are spontaneously swelling moments of strings for vistas and emotional interludes. And, most importantly, there are thematic statements on brass unlike many others. The most impressive aspect of Silvestri's score is how he weaves it all together into such an effective whole, balancing each element with equal bombast. Where Goldsmith's effort often degenerated into uninteresting noise, Silvestri's work never becomes boring, and it thus functions very well on even the longer album. The song included on both products, performed by the group "Live," is a horrendous example of nonsensical hard rock encroaching further into the realm of the orchestral domain. Other than the mandatory benefits of marketing, of course (something that could apply to this entire production), there's really no reason for this hideously intolerable addendum, or any other from its genre, to exist in this film. Nevertheless, the Decca album was the only one on which you could obtain the song until it was released by the group on its own product a few months later. It is perhaps fitting that John Debney entered the franchise to compose for The Scorpion King the following year; if The Mummy Returns were to be compared to any existing score at the time, then Debney's Cutthroat Island would have been that reference point. Silvestri's work here reaches the same scope of sustained tonal bombast and often touches upon a similar swashbuckling style in its main theme. This is clear evidence that Silvestri could have produced a capable, if not outstanding score for the first Pirates of the Caribbean film in 2003 had he not been thrown overboard. Do yourself a favor by listening to The Mummy Returns instead and imagine the possibilities.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download