Kick-Ass

Featuring music by various artists, released 17th of May 2010.

I went to see Kick-Ass in the cinema back in April last year, and was blown away. I hadn't seen such a violent, loud film in the cinema before so the whole experience was amazing. A major aspect of that was because of how much I loved the music used. I went home and immediately listened to the soundtrack on Spotify, which features songs by The Prodigy, Mika, Primal Scream and many more. In fact, it's through that soundtrack that I got into The Prodigy, who have opened my mind to a different genre of music that, just over a year ago, I would have never expected to like!

A while later, I noticed that the score had been uploaded to Spotify. Before that, I didn't know it even existed, I thought the soundtrack was the only thing available. 

I remember when I saw the film, I heard what seemed to be the theme from 28 Days Later. This made me nudge my friend like "WHAT IS THIS?! THAT'S FROM 28 DAYS LATER?! HAVE THEY JUST COPIED THE MUSIC AND REMIXED IT SLIGHTLY?" but I soon found out that John Murphy, the composer, had in fact been involved with the soundtrack on this film, and Strobe (Adagio in D Minor) from Sunshine is also used. (I still haven't seen Sunshine though.) The 28 Days Later theme is known as 'Big Daddy Kills' on this score.

This score compiles a wide variety of composers, hence lots of different styles. The opening track on the score, The Armenian Superhero, has a very heroic feel, but ends with the sound effects of the "superhero" crashing into the car. I must admit I jumped when I heard it. 

Next is the funky 'Stand Up' by The Prodigy, which is a shorter version of the original. It sets the scene in the film really well, and listening to it makes me feel awesome, not even gonna lie. 

There are 39 tracks on this score overall, so I'm not going to talk about them all. The next significant track for me is 'Roof Jump', which starts off slow, building anticipation. The guitar riff is great. 

'Big Daddy Dies' is heartbreaking, I can see the scene in my head as I listen to it. It uses parts of 'Big Daddy Kills', but features more violins. 

When I listened to 'The Corridor' for the first time, I thought it sounded familiar. I did some googling and discovered that it uses a sample of the riff from November Rain by Guns N' Roses.  I think it fits really well and this is one of my favourite tracks. 

A track that makes me happy is 'Flying Home', it sounds like everything a happy ending should be. 

Generally, there are definitely some stand out tracks such as 'Roof Jump', 'Famous', 'Leaving Rasul's' and others, but there are also many that blend in and don't make an impact. I'm not saying they're bad, they just get a bit repetitive, but it all makes for good background music.

I would give this score a rating of 8/10.