While fans of the hugely popular BBC adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective novels had to wait 18 months to get their hands on the original score for the first series, the official soundtrack to the second arrived just weeks after its intriguing finale pulled in a massive eight million viewers. Composed yet again by
Michael Price (Band of Brothers) and
David Arnold (James Bond), its 19 instrumentals pursue a similar minimal and suitably suspenseful classical sound as its BAFTA/Emmy-nominated predecessor, from the haunting violin solo of "Irene's Theme" (the opening track dedicated to the ruthless dominatrix who appeared in A Scandal in Belgravia), to the unsettling percussion and eerie sound effects of "Pursued by a Hound" (from a pivotal scene in The Hounds of Baskerville), to the unbearably intense orchestral crescendo of "Prepared to Do Anything" (the climactic number from the watercooler final episode, The Reichenbach Fall). Apart from the sweeping elegance of "Sherlocked," which could have wandered in from Downton Abbey, and the playful incorporation of the theme music on "Status Symbols," the sparse and restrained pieces are little more than incidental music which understandably fail to pack the same punch without any visuals. But it's still an appropriately dramatic and atmospheric affair which should appeal to those who want to immerse themselves even further in the modern-day mysteries of the great detective. ~ Jon O'Brien