Awesome Music / Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

aka: Guardians Of The Galaxy

• You gotta give Tyler Bates credit for writing the prologue's music so that it segues perfectly into that of the Marvel Studios logo.
• Quill's appropriately-named "Awesome Mix" works beautifully in setting the film's crazy-fun mood. Specifically:
  • "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone, a catchy laid back tune that plays the first time we see Peter Quill as an adult, exploring/dancing through the cave where he finds the Infinity Stone.
  • "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede, featured during the gang's entrance into the Kyln. Before the movie's release, the trailers made the song popular enough, that it helped propel the movie's soundtrack to the top of the Billboard 200! It's so popular that it reappears for the Vol. 2 teaser.
  • "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" which plays during the gang's, well, escape from the Kyln.
  • "Cherry Bomb" which plays during the Lock-and-Load Montage before the final battle. It's so awesome that Peter is shown listening to it to psych himself up.
  • "O-o-h Child" had the honor of becoming Chris Pratt's favorite song on the soundtrack. In the movie, he sings it while distracting Ronan from attacking Xandar, and from noticing Rocket repairing the Hadron Enforcer.
  • "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" kicks off Awesome Mix Vol. 2, which Star-Lord plays as the Guardians and Nova Corps relish in their victory over Ronan.
  • Moonage Daydream, a fittingly oddball playing during the visit to Knowhere, the lawless smuggler's haven.
  • Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky", used for Trailer #2, is a groovy number to nod your head to, while also setting the fun but somewhat dysfunctional dynamic among Peter Quill's ragtag team.
• "The Kyln Escape", particularly the section starting at 3:19, which plays over the team's first line-up shot, and sounds appropriately heroic.
• "Black Tears", which plays during the climax, is dramatic and unnerving but manages to swell into a triumphant close in a way that captures the scene perfectly.
• The inspirational "Sacrifice" is a trauma-inducing number as Peter Quill tries to save Gamora, even if it costs him his life...
• The badass "Ballad of the Nova Corps" is a majestic theme to show the valour and might of the Nova Corps as the galaxy's peacekeepers.
• The heartbreaking and beautiful song that plays during Groot's Heroic Sacrifice is a moving theme which shows just how much the tree alien cares for his band of misfits.

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