Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2

The first Awesome Mix pulled off something no soundtrack had managed before: it topped the Billboard 200 as the first soundtrack made up entirely of previously released songs. That left the sequel with an impossible job, and rather than chase the same breezy AM-radio rush, this second mixtape goes somewhere softer and stranger. Soul, yacht rock, and late-seventies studio pop, sequenced as the tape Peter Quill inherits and can't stop playing.

It opens on the orchestral sugar rush of Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky" and moves through Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me," George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," and Cat Stevens' "Father and Son." Glen Campbell's "Southern Nights," Cheap Trick's "Surrender," Looking Glass's "Brandy," and Parliament's "Flash Light" round out the middle stretch, and the whole thing lands on "Guardians Inferno," a purpose-built disco novelty fronted by David Hasselhoff that is every bit as unhinged as that description promises.

What makes it hold together is the emotional throughline. Where Vol. 1 was pure nostalgia fuel, this set keeps circling back to fathers, sons, and the people who raise you, which is exactly the story the film is telling. It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and held the top spot on the soundtrack chart for five straight weeks, went gold in the States, and finished as the eighth best-selling album in the country in 2017 at roughly 600,000 copies.

This single-LP edition from Hollywood Records collects all fourteen tracks in their album sequence. A warm, funny, surprisingly moving comp that plays start to finish without a skip.