Filmtracks: Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Henry Jackman/Matthew Margeson)

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Written 12/31/21

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Buy it... if you seek one of the more entertaining incarnations of comedic spy thriller music of this generation, this sequel offering rousing action and robust melodic extensions.

Avoid it... if you cannot accept the parody elements of American bluegrass instrumentation in the British espionage genre or a well-known John Denver tune performed by uilleann pipes as a humorous sideshow.

Jackman

Kingsman: The Golden Circle: (Henry Jackman/Matthew Margeson) Checking your brain at the door is a required prerequisite for enjoying the Kingsman film franchise, a concept derived from a 2012 comic series and bringing comedic silliness to an idea otherwise defined by the James Bond franchise. The secret "Kingsman" spy network was established with box office and critical success in 2014's Kingsman: The Secret Service, the principal characters returning for a 2017 sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, that sees its ranks obliterated by another Bond-worthy villain, this one determined to kill all the drug users in the world with the help of complicit or complacent elements of the American government, including a faux President Trump. To thwart this new villain (Julianne Moore, no less), the surviving Kingsman members must join with their American counterparts, the "Statesman," to seek out and destroy the "Golden Circle" criminal organization. Don't expect much intellectual prowess to emerge from the story, especially by the time a kidnapped Elton John kicks the shit out of a number of bad-guys while expressing the foulest of language. It's goofy fun in the espionage genre, and audiences treated the sequel to equal financial success. The Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson score for the 2014 movie is a well-executed spoof of the spy genre, taking a relatively serious parody approach to the Bond concept's music of the later John Barry and David Arnold eras. The two return, along with the majority of their ghostwriting team, to put an American spin on the same general formula. Because the Statesman group uses Kentucky liquor production as its front, Jackman and Margeson apply a bluegrass influence to the individual American agents that factor most into the story, and the brazenly heroic material for their organization has a pseudo-Western flair to the same sound used for their Kingsman counterparts. The fun factor is cranked up even higher in the music for Kingsman: The Golden Circle, not only in the score, but in the adaptation of both Elton John tunes and a John Denver staple in highly obvious ways. The film utilizes song placements for major action scenes, but the score manages to work well around those moments.

The Jackman and Margeson score for Kingsman: The Golden Circle is, in part, a rousing extension of the prior work, but its new material is where it really excels. The composers adapt the Denver song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" directly into the score and provide a pair of impressive new themes to join the two Kingsman identities. The instrumental balance meets orchestral spy genre expectations even better than the predecessor, the ensemble as vivacious and stylish as ever. Electronic embellishments are occasional and still provide the franchise's most obnoxious dissonance at a few points. Electric guitar and vibraphone extend the spy genre conventions with coolness at times, though these passages are brief. Bass flute represents allure as well as always. Acoustic guitar provides emotional depth in a few cues. The application of fiddles and guitars for the American bluegrass portions presents a welcome but rather predictable deviation. Like its sibling scores, Kingsman: The Golden Circle offers choral tones at a few choice moments, but the mix never features the voices with prominence. When this score cooks, the ensemble really shines, the brass orchestrated particularly well. Its best attributes relate to its rock-solid themes, however, their narrative far better enunciated here than in Kingsman: The Secret Service. The composers bring back the main Kingsman theme and expand its romantic interlude-like sequence for significant duty. Joining them are new ideas for the Statesman group and the villain (Poppy) and her Golden Circle antics, as well as a motif for her devious drug-related weapon. And, of course, there's the John Denver tune for a particular character. The score manages to express these ideas without resorting to bonehead ostinatos and droning, the statements of each idea always conveyed with well-balanced rhythmic devices and an absence of cheap tricks, aside from two or so electronic crescendos. The main Kingsman theme is built upon three-note phrases with a fluid interlude sequence that solidifies around the Harry character in this score. The main melody is often referenced in its second phrase only, a descending trio of notes that can be inserted just about anywhere in the score as counterpoint to other action. Interestingly, the third phrase of the franchise theme shares direct progressions with Alan Silvestri's popular Avengers identity, which may be intentional given the comics' peripheral relationship to Marvel.

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The main Kingsman theme receives fantastic renditions throughout "Eggsy is Back" starting at the 0:40 mark, racing through several great action performances. It opens "Incoming Missiles" with lighter, jazzy renditions and extends in chords only (appropriately) in "You May Shed a Tear in Private" before consolidating into the theme. A heroic burst late in "The Lepidopterist" is its last major performance for a while, overlaying the Statesman theme briefly in "Statesman" and returning in the middle of "Ginger's First Test" before an annoying synthetic crescendo to close the cue. It's extended on bass flute at 0:38 into "The Gondola Experience" and is beefed up in tumultuous action at 5:23, ripping with electric guitar coolness. The main theme is accompanied by the twangy American spirit in the middle of "Flying to Poppyland," dilutes to heroic fragments early in "No Time For Emotion" for the concept of sacrifice, and overtakes the villain material at the three-minute mark in "Temple Battle." By 1:07 into "A Man Who's Honorable," its confidence is restored and formally joined by the American twang and fragments of the Stateman theme; the positive conclusion to this cue is exemplary. The album leaves listeners with a parody of the theme in "Kingsman Hoedown" that takes the bluegrass element to intentionally hideous extremes. Meanwhile, the franchise's interlude for this theme, most prominent in "To Become a Kingsman" and "Finale" from the previous score but appearing elsewhere there and in 2021's The King's Man, is more closely attached to Harry here. It returns at 1:23 into "Memories of Harry" with dramatic gusto and again at 2:01 into "You May Shed a Tear in Private." Subtle late in "Rescuing Harry," the idea recurs in "Dancing Disease" but achieves more weight at 1:17 into "Flying to Poppyland." A quick reference against the main theme at 3:05 into "Temple Battle" yields to a more outright statement of melodrama for the theme at 3:50 and at the end of the cue. It's very slight at 2:53 into "Not in Vain" and opens "A Man Who's Honorable" on strings, by this point suggesting it as something of a broader, romantic representation of "honorable men." These two Kingsman themes are only barely referenced in The King's Man, which is understandable given that film's shifting of the story to the past. The main franchise theme is largely replaced in that score by a similar but more complicated melody that references some common chord progressions before finally building up to the main Kingsman theme at its climax.

The villain of the 2014 movie didn't receive particularly well-developed material in that score, but Jackman and Margeson don't make that same mistake again in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The Golden Circle theme is infinitely superior to the stewing Valentine music, even if it's a humorously demented version of Alan Menken's "Belle" material from Beauty and the Beast. (One can only hope these connections were purely coincidental.) The primary melody of bloated importance for the group and its leader, Poppy, is often joined by a plucky rhythm representing the bio-weapon of mass destruction she intends to use on humanity. Both are introduced during the entirety of "The Golden Circle," the Golden Circle theme expanding to full action mode in "Poppy" but never shaking that underlying rhythm. The theme explodes at 1:24 into "Incoming Missiles" in full menace mode for the attack, and the rhythm becomes more sinister over brooding fragments of the theme in "Poppy's Terms," gaining over-confidence in the last minute for a great performance. It drives action rhythms early in "Dancing Disease" and turns melodramatic and huge early in "The Gondola Experience," during which it later overtakes the main theme on bass flute and belts out on full brass at 3:25 with power. The theme returns at 3:01 into "Cabin Ambush" over driving propulsion and informs the early suspense of "Horrific News Report" before busting out in full form. The Golden Circle theme remains prevalent throughout the score's later action sequences, extending directly out of two hero themes at 2:37 into "Flying to Poppyland" while its rhythm becomes pronounced again. It repeatedly defines early force in "Temple Battle" and includes its rhythm in the third minute; by 5:15 into that cue, the rhythm becomes even more dominant. The villain theme is subdued in the middle of "Viva Las Vegan," with deep choral lament joining, and the weapon's rhythm closes out the cue over blasting bass notes. The evolution of this theme is better than one would expect from a standard "Bond villain" affair, matching some of the better identities conjured by David Arnold for that concept. The constant reminders of the weapon's rhythm are a keen and effective choice, its descending nature adding something of a ticking clock notion to the music. Perhaps most importantly, Jackman and Margeson offer this theme in direct musical conflict with those for the Kingsman and Stateman gangs by the final cues. This thematic interplay is especially effective in "Temple Battle."

The new theme for the Stateman group opens with a similar three-note structure to the main franchise theme to denote a Kingsman connection and is introduced in "Rescuing Harry" with bluegrass instruments in action form. Its formal statement follows in the optimistic fanfare of "Statesman" for various brass layers. The theme comes to the rescue late in "Tornado in a Trailer Park, " returns at 4:22 into "The Gondola Experience" (a brief respite from the villain theme), is hyperactive in the middle of "Cabin Ambush," becomes integrated with the main theme in the middle of "Flying to Poppyland," and interjects at about four minutes into "Temple Battle." It takes a solemn form at 2:10 into "Not in Vain" and closes the cue with redemptive sadness. Related at times is a twangy bluegrass spirit for the Tequila and Whiskey characters of that group, though in "Tequila" the fiddles and guitars are a bit much to tolerate. This influence extends to shades in "The Lepidopterist," opens "Whiskey's Demons" on guitar, becomes cool and aggressive on guitar in the middle of "Tornado in a Trailer Park," and formally serves as counterpoint to the Statesman theme in the middle of "Not in Vain." Finally, of course, there, is the use of the Denver "Country Roads" melody for the Merlin character who puts himself in a situation that didn't require him to outright sing the song, but he does anyway and manages to lure in and wipe out a slew of bad-guys in the process of sacrificing himself. The composers use uilleann pipes to humorously foreshadow the usage at the outset of the film in "Eggsy is Back." At 1:24 into "No Time For Emotion," actor Mark Strong's rather poor but effective performance is a source-like application that includes sound effects from the film as part of the album track; the pipes, snare, and choir join the crescendo to his destruction, with the supplemental vocals provided by members of the score's crew. Arguably the highlight of the entire score is the strikingly gorgeous symphonic performance of the Denver song's melody that opens "Not in Vain," eventually yielding back to the uilleann pipes. Hearing the pipes perform this theme is a wink and a nod to the countering contribution by the bluegrass style to the sophisticated spy music of the British, and the blend works wonderfully by the end of the score. On the whole, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is an improved overall package compared to its predecessor, containing twenty minutes or more of truly outstanding action and melodic material. The action mode is particularly finely tuned, stylish and entertaining. Together with the slightly inferior The King's Man, these follow-up scores to the concept are riotous fun deserving of appreciation in a lossless presentation. **** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

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For Henry Jackman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.8 (in 25 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.79 (in 7,751 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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