Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)

Given its theme-park origins and tongue-in-cheek swashbuckling, the first Pirates film was graced with an unusually dark and ominous score by Hans Badelt, one slyly credited as "overproduced by Hans 'Long John' Zimmer." Here, Hans takes the musical reigns from his colleague/protege and turns in something of a paradox. While the franchise's second chapter is visually and dramatically darker, Zimmer's musical approach is more varied and subtly playful than Badelt's, from the loping "Jack Sparrow" theme for low strings and the brooding rhythms of "Kraken" to the drunken waltz "Dinner is Served" and effusive reel "Tow Hornpipes." The German-born vet deftly introduces the film's creepy new villain with style via the evocative, shrewdly underplayed "Davy Jones" while interpolating Badelt's familiar Black Pearl theme into "Hello Beastie" and elsewhere. Closing the album with an energetic — if wholly incongruous — nod to dance floor marketing is DJ Tiesto's trance remix "He's a Pirate."