What Was Your Favorite Music Cue in Guardians of the Galaxy 2?

Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Photo: Curiosity/Disney

The Guardians of the Galaxy films don't look like most other superhero films, and they don't sound like them, either. In between the thuddingly obvious music cues of Suicide Squad, and the Sturm und Drang scores of virtually other comic-volume flicks, the Guardians movies have carved out a very specific musical niche, employing a number of fondly (merely not over-) remembered radio classics from the 1970s. But which one is the best? That'due south what nosotros're hither today to hash out.

ELO, "Mr. Blue Sky"
How you feel nearly Babe Groot is a pretty expert indicator for how y'all'll experience most the rest of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. ii. That makes the movie's opening scene, in which the infant tree dances across the screen for the length of most an entire pop song, a litmus test for how you'll answer to next two hours of AM radio music cues, dazzling visual effects sequences, family unit drama subplots, and comedy bits that go the distance and then some. I must be the exact target audience for Guardians, because watching Babe Groot obliviously bebop around to the tune of Electric Light Orchestra'south "Mr. Blueish Sky" while a massive fight scene happens out of focus behind him made me giddy with glee. I've never been more my mother than when I started mimicking his movements with my feet. James Gunn knows that Baby Groot is his ace in the pigsty, and pulls information technology over and over over again, but to no ameliorate result than when he gets the tiny twig moving to ELO. —Jordan Crucchiola

Fleetwood Mac, "The Concatenation"
What's the best vocal to accept playing when you walk down a hallway in slow motion? "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"? "Sabotage"? "Battle Without Award or Humanity"? All fine choices, but slightly overused at this indicate. Credit James Gunn, then, for finding a new classic slo-mo hallway-walk song in Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain." When Peter, Gamora, and Drax wing off on Ego's eyeball spaceship, Lindsey Buckingham's agonized vocals invest what could have been a throwaway moment with real tension. Ego is breaking the concatenation that kept them together! —Nate Jones

Glen Campbell, "Southern Nights"
Call back the distinct joy of existence dwelling house alone? Not quite Habitation Solitary domicile solitary, but when the parents were out, leaving only a note and the glee of having an unabridged space to yourself and your music. What euphoria! When one-half of the guardians go off to run into Ego, Rocket, and Groot are left lone in the woods to repair their spaceship. For the offset fourth dimension in this series, we get a glimpse of Rocket in summit joy. He's listening to "Southern Nights," a song that bounces with a homegrown appeal. I'yard barely a Southerner, but Glenn Campbell's groovier encompass makes me nostalgic for swatting away mosquitoes on a wraparound porch. Rocket'due south lone fourth dimension is interrupted when Yondo and his crew roll in, merely the raccoon's sarcasm fades to playfulness. The banjo-strumming soundtracks Rocket'southward booby traps as he jumps betwixt tree branches, showing off his cunning energy. Yondo and his goons are no lucifer for Rocket when he'due south actually feeling himself. —Hunter Harris

George Harrison, "My Sweet Lord"
What's the best solo anthology by a Beatle? To me, it'south no contest: George Harrison's multidisc All Things Must Pass, which is topped by the incandescent "My Sweet Lord." While the song got some unexpected airplay in the sixth-flavor premiere of Girls, it fits much better in Guardians 2, where it cues up as Peter and the other characters arrive at Ego'southward planet. Sure, it's a fiddling on the nose to play such a religious vocal just as Ego is humbly admitting to our heroes that he's a god, but the vocal's Wall of Sound product but suits the more-more-more maximalism of Ego's beautiful home, and Harrison'due south yearning pleas — "I really want to know you / I actually want to go with you" — perfectly mirror Peter'due south paternal longing. —Kyle Buchanan

Looking Glass, "Brandy (You're a Fine Daughter)"
Who among the states hasn't felt every bit though a popular song was speaking directly about our lives? And who amongst us hasn't and then heedlessly taken that vocal's lyrics as communication about how to motility frontward? Guardians 2 presents viewers with that kind of eminently man experience, albeit in a scene co-starring a living planet. When Ego provides a textual assay of Looking Glass'due south "Brandy (Y'all're a Fine Girl)," it'south a high betoken for the motion-picture show: The humor comes non from gags or references, but from 18-carat, relatable character beats. Peter is a music obsessive and a kid with severe daddy issues, and then when his long-lost papa says "Brandy" is most how both father and son need to abandon people they dearest in order to live their all-time lives, we express joy because we're seeing a archetype Tarantino-style Hey, maaaan, did you always really think most this vocal? monologue, but nosotros besides feel the pilus on the back of our necks stand upward — no truly benevolent sage would use such a killer tune for that kind of questionable purpose. It too rocks considering the song, like Brandy, is indeed quite fine. —Abraham Riesman

What Was Your Favorite Music Cue in Guardians two?