The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (soundtrack)

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2019 film of the same name, which is the sequel to the 2014 film The Lego Movie, the fourth instalment overall in the franchise and the last film in the franchise to be produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. and Warner Animation Group. The album featured 10 songs performed by various artists, including a few tracks performed by the cast members. The songs were written by Shawn Patterson, Christopher Miller and Jon Lajoie, along with prominent songwriters.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by
Various artists
ReleasedFebruary 7, 2019
Recorded2018–2019
GenreFilm soundtrack
Length23:51
LabelWaterTower Music
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film score by
ReleasedFebruary 7, 2019
Recorded2018–2019
StudioWarner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage
GenreFilm score
Length51:56
LabelWaterTower Music
Mark Mothersbaugh chronology
Holmes & Watson
(2018)
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
(2019)
The Willoughbys
(2020)

Two songs – "Catchy Song" performed by Dillon Francis, T-Pain and Alaya High a.k.a. That Girl Lay Lay,[1][2] and "Super Cool" by Beck, Robyn and The Lonely Island were released as singles,[3][4][5] and the album was released on February 7, 2019. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Original Motion Picture Score), featured original score composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, who scored for the predecessor and was released on the same day, along with its soundtrack. Both the albums were distributed by WaterTower Music.

Development

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After the success of "Everything Is Awesome" created for the first film, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller wanted a similar song for the sequel.[6] The duo asked songwriter Jon Lajoie (the primary artist) to write a track that would elicit mixed feelings. According to Lajoie, he described the track as "49 percent annoying and 51 percent fun to listen to” which eventually became "Catchy Song".[6] The track principally featured as its only lyric the repeated phrase "This song's gonna get stuck inside your head", after Lajoie initially sang the phrase in his bathroom while brainstorming about the song lyrics. He initially wrote an annoying version of the track, as he wanted it as "a song that is supposed to drive insane, something that sort of feels creepy and brainwashy" but after watching the film, he changed it to a more enjoyable version of the track.[7][6]

"Catchy Song" was recorded with several artists and Lajoie wrote 20 different verses of the song, but the producers were not satisfied with the demos. Later, music producer Dillon Francis, whom Lajoie closely associated with, had agreed to perform the track. In addition, T-Pain and Alaya High, under her stage name That Girl Lay Lay, had crooned the version's choral portions.[6] Because director Mike Mitchell and Lajoie initially intended the song would attain popularity among kids, and felt that the repeated verses might irritate parents, they comically apologized to parents after the song's release.[8] Lajoie found that "Everything is Awesome" was "annoyingly catchy", and the only way that they could outdo that was "Dial the 'annoying' up to 11!".[9][10]

Lajoie initially had planned to include a track called "All Is Amazing" which he had recorded earlier, but could not use it in the album. He found the track too similar to "Everything Is Awesome" except for minor tweaks to the lyrics and melody . While he initially found the song "funny" in parts, he felt it was "not as funny" being heard in full, which prompted him to omit the track from the album.[6] Another song he planned to write, but later omitted, was "It’s Hard to Follow Up a Hit Song".[6] The Tween Dream remixed version of "Everything Is Awesome" (from the first film) was featured in the soundtrack with Eban Schletter performing the track with Garfunkel and Oates. A parodic reprise of the track titled "Everything's Not Awesome" is performed by the film's cast and featured additional lyrics by Shawn Patterson and Lajoie.[11]

Track listing

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The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
1."Everything Is Awesome (Tween Dream Remix)"
1:53
2."5:15"
Stephanie Beatriz0:34
3."Welcome to the Systar System"Jon Lajoie
0:38
4."Not Evil"LajoieTiffany Haddish3:33
5."Catchy Song"
  • Lajoie
  • Alaya High
2:48
6."Gotham City Guys[a]"Lajoie2:16
7."Everything's Not Awesome"
  • Patterson
  • Lajoie
3:01
8."Super Cool"3:23
9."Come Together Now"
  • Johnson
  • Schiffino
2:13
10."Hello Me and You"SuperorganismSuperorganism3:32
Total length:23:51
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Original Motion Picture Score)
No.TitleLength
1."Your Sister"0:51
2."Main Title (The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part)"1:25
3."Apocalypseburg / Green Hornet"1:02
4."Apocalypseburg"0:58
5."House Tour"1:43
6."A Shooting Star"0:45
7."Run"2:39
8."Door Slowly Closing"1:21
9."General Mayhem"1:37
10."Triple Decker Couch"0:59
11."No Real Heroes Left"2:30
12."I'll Show Them"0:58
13."The Systar System"1:01
14."Introducing Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi"1:33
15."Did You Say Wedding?"1:06
16."Emmet Saved by Rex / Circular Stairway"1:15
17."Rexcelsior Tour / Crank the Warp Drive"3:45
18."Heading to Planet Sparkles"1:02
19."Emmet and Rex"1:01
20."Alien Jungle"1:57
21."Heck Town"1:53
22."Duplo Brickyard"1:04
23."The Man of Bats Welcome"0:40
24."Fresh Nightmare"1:49
25."Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi & Batman Falling in Love"1:10
26."Lucy Fights Mayhem"1:31
27."Introducing the Wedding Party"1:01
28."Emmet the Hero"0:48
29."The Fight Continues"3:08
30."What Did I Just Do?"2:43
31."There I Was"1:51
32."You're Weak / Brother Gives Heart"2:35
33."Rex Vanishes"2:15
Total length:51:56

Reception

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Critical response to the film's soundtrack was positive, with Brick Fanatics wrote "the film has an original soundtrack that is a pleasant surprise, definitely worthy of sitting alongside the best animated soundtracks that other, more established animation studios have to offer."[12] The score, however received mixed response. Zanobard reviews gave 3/10 to the score stating that "the score is all over the place. Due to its complete and utter lack of any thematic material, it has no real cohesive narrative and so ends up being just a loose and at points bizarre mess of different musical genres. The music constantly jumps from one area to another, usually spanning several massively different areas of music just in one track. Not only does this make the score very confusing to try and follow, but it also ends up being a particularly unenjoyable album experience as well. The music frequently starts and stops and speeds up and slows down and changes instruments and shifts styles – and after a while you just don’t want to listen to it anymore. It’s too much like hard work."[13]

Filmtracks.com criticised Mothersbaugh's score and stated "A few new ideas from Mothersbaugh for The Lego Movie 2 do begin to emerge in the final ten minutes, but the score by then has exhausted you with nonsensically unique personality in each of its haphazard orchestral and synthetic romps [...] The layers of post-production electronics aren't terrible, but they serve little purpose when paired with the aimless orchestral recordings. Ultimately, the loss of the themes from the first film's score and the lack of clear interpolation of this film's song melodies into the score are disqualifying alone. Add to that an indecisive and meandering new narrative in the score and you get a very disappointing score-only product on album."[14]

Chart performance

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Chart (2019) Peak

position

UK Compilation Albums (OCC)[15] 74
UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC)[16] 12
US Billboard 200[17] 25
US Top Soundtracks (Billboard)[18] 3

Notes

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  1. ^ Features Batman (1989) theme composed by Danny Elfman.

References

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  1. ^ "This "Catchy Song" from 'The Lego Movie 2' Is Gonna Get Stuck Inside Your Head—By Design". GQ. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  2. ^ "Jon Lajoie, creator of Lego Movie 2's 'Catchy Song,' on how to breed an earworm". The Toronto Star. 12 February 2019. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  3. ^ Kreps, Daniel (6 February 2019). "Beck Enlists Robyn, Lonely Island for 'Lego Movie 2' Song 'Super Cool'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  4. ^ "Listen to Beck, Robyn and The Lonely Island team up for new 'Lego Movie 2' song 'Super Cool'". NME. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  5. ^ Acevedo, Angelica (6 February 2019). "Beck, Robyn and The Lonely Island Drop Uber-Catchy 'Super Cool' From 'Lego Movie 2': Listen". Billboard. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Murphy, Mekado (12 February 2019). "'The Lego Movie 2': How 'Catchy Song' Got So Catchy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  7. ^ Jirak, Jamie (19 January 2019). "'The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part' Teases The Song That Will Get Stuck Inside Your Head". Comicbook.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  8. ^ Alexander, Bryan (18 January 2019). "'Lego Movie 2' director apologizes to parents for 'Catchy Song' and future of repeat plays". USA Today. Archived from the original on 20 January 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  9. ^ The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), 7 February 2019, retrieved 13 June 2022
  10. ^ Snetiker, Marc. "You won't be able to get this 'Catchy Song' from 'LEGO Movie 2' out of your head". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  11. ^ Everything's Not Awesome, 7 February 2019, retrieved 13 June 2022
  12. ^ Graham (10 February 2019). "The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part Original Soundtrack review". Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  13. ^ Zanobard (8 February 2019). "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part – Soundtrack Review". Zanobard Reviews. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  14. ^ "Filmtracks: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Mark Mothersbaugh)". www.filmtracks.com. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  15. ^ "Official Compilations Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  16. ^ "Official Soundtrack Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  17. ^ "Soundtrack Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  18. ^ "Soundtrack Chart History (Soundtrack Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 June 2022.