Credited to , who replaced 's largely orchestral score for the first film with a juiced-up, largely electronic one, the soundtrack for the echoes the sequel's frenetic, slick, and streamlined action, offering up 14 instrumental pieces and six non-score-related songs that dutifully reflect the measured and meticulous, corporate tie-in sensibilities of the traditional summer blockbuster while still managing to march to the beat of their own very loud drum. and his small army of hit makers, who include ( ), , , and , infuse 's second go-around as the web slinger with equal amounts of pomp and circumstance, introducing a new main theme that pairs a traditional, heroic, horn-driven melody with a serpentine (or spider-like) arpeggiated synth motif that goes a long way in marrying the faded glory of Spidey's comic book origins to the high-octane, over-stimulation of 21st century cinema. Upon first listen, the villain theme, introduced right off the bat with "I'm Electro," seems a little too on the nose, but the mesmerizing eight-minute "My Enemy" eradicates any off flavors by presenting a theme that matches the grace and muscular chrome sheen of Spider Man's cue, albeit via the bold strokes of dubstep. It shouldn't work, but and co. have constructed a beast of a piece that frames a whispered laundry list of internal transgressions with an electro-rock center and a sneaky, Baroque-kissed whip of a base melody that spins the whole thing off in a kind of Marvel-approved re-imagining of 's "Gangster's Paradise." The tacked-on songs, which include radio-ready offerings from feat. , are all well and good in that largely forgettable, ubiquitous movie-credits-sequence kind of way, but and company's remarkably forward-thinking score makes this sequel to a film (which arrived a mere five years after the first franchise ended) a surprise gem. ~ James Christopher Monger