After his success on both the original Toy Story and A Bug's Life, Randy Newman once again teams up with the Pixar team for their Toy Story sequel. One of the hilights of the original were the great songs, all sung by Newman as more of a backing to the screen action rather than being sung onscreen. For the sequel, Newman doesn't (fortunately or unfortunately - depending on your point of view) get to sing. The opening Woody's Roundup is a weird hoe-down kid's TV theme kind of thing - although I thought that the solo fiddle work sounded more like something that Stefan Grapelli might play. It seems rather long for a kids TV theme, but it's great fun and with a lively performance by Riders in the Sky. When She Loved Me can certainly be added to the catalogue of beautiful female solo songs that Newman has composed. Sarah McLachlan's voice seems to become a fraction thin in the higher sections, but otherwise the performance is lovely. While not in the same league as Feels Like Home it is still very fetching and warm hearted. The performance of You've Got a Friend in Me (the song that everyone remembers from the original) turns the rather intimate ragtime version into a full blown big band version. It curiously reminded me of the kind of big band songs they have on the Simpsons - indeed Robert Goulet appears on said TV show singing Jingle Bells. His performance here is a wonderful croon that only adds to the loony charm of the overblown, but hilariously entertaining effort.
As with the original, the score itself is a fraction hit and miss, although I think it's a fraction more coherent. Yes, there are the start-stop radical changes in style from time to time, but the there are some good more extended sections. The opening cue, Zurg's Planet is a delightfully overblown sci-fi extraveganza that retains the Newman sound, but successfully adapts it to outerspace. The emphasis in a lot of the score is on more ye-haw country and western elements, most notably in Woody's Dream. These actually form some joyous extended sequences that make a change from the flitting about that occurs. The album rounds out with an instrumental version of the big band You've Got a Friend in Me which is perhaps a fraction surplus (I seem to have more versions of that song than I thought possible), but is an enjoyable way to round out the album.
All in all, slightly less coherent than A Bug's Life, but lacking enough great new songs compared with the original. As an album it works better than the original I feel - the score does jump about, but less often and recurring motifs and musical ideas make it a slightly smoother journey. Not Newman's best score for a kids film by any stretch, but a great opportunity to hear him having fun with an orchestra.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 48:18