Frozen 2

The sequel we all wanted with a surprising twist in the music.

Image source: https://www.amazon.com/Frozen-2-Various-Artists/dp/B07Y9BGZ54

Frozen 2 Original Soundtrack by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, and Christophe Beck

Rating 9.5/10

Frozen 2 is arguably a better film than the original. I’m usually not one to prefer a sequel (I love a good exposition), however I absolutely loved the film. After viewing the original Frozen, I, along with every other person who saw it, left with the twinkling ear worms For the First Time in Forever and Let it Go floating around my brain. All of the songs from the original film were those that were great to sing-a-long to. All the vocal songs on the soundtrack had a similar energy to each other, and though they helped move the story, they all felt a bit thin.

Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez really stepped up their game with the new soundtrack. I have listened to a lot of their music before, so I can recognize their compositional style in Frozen 2, however they added a level of maturity to their lyrics and even to the orchestrations that was not heard in the first film at all. Though I definitely wasn’t alone in leaving the theater with Into the Unknown stuck in my head (and definitely not the only one who attempted to sing the incredibly high vocals despite being an alto), I can’t bring myself to qualify this song as a classic Disney sing-a-long type song. In my opinion, the soundtrack has a much more theatrical sound to it.

Looking at tracks like Show Yourself and The Next Right Thing, anyone can hear just how substantial these songs are. They aren’t the usual Disney songs. Show Yourself is the show-stopping number right before intermission. Everything is going too well, we’re diving deep into Elsa’s character, and something pivotal to the plot has just been revealed. There are call backs to the Into the Unknown melody and it’s an incredibly emotional scene. I was so moved during this scene, both by the animation itself (which is a whole other discussion, it was beautiful) and the soundtrack. The Next Right Thing is the song in the musical where everything finally collapses and our protagonist has to figure out how to start moving forward again. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the theater during this song. It was so raw, so emotional, so unexpected. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack, though I can’t always listen to it because it’s incredibly somber. Not only were the lyrics and acting fantastic, the orchestration of this song was also beautifully simple. The Lopezes knew that they didn’t need loud, Disney quality instrumentals. Though as our protagonist’s spirit begins to lift back up the instrumentals get louder, they stay very simple and quiet for the most part.

And of course, the instrumental tracks on the soundtrack are also beautiful. Christophe Beck also made a return from the first film to help with instrumentals on this film. He again does a great job capturing the film’s spirit in his instrumentals, brining back some themes from the first film as he does. Together, all three composers do a phenomenal job with this soundtrack, and despite many of the songs not being “sing-a-longs”, that certainly hasn’t stopped me from belting the soundtrack with my friends.