Providing a nice contrast, the heavily percussive action cues are interrupted by a few stylistically-varied pieces. A tender love theme, "Lee and Lacy" is based around heavily reverbed, finger-picked guitar. The cue is named after a pair of romantically linked characters, Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and his fiancé Lacy (Charisma Carpenter). It's a brooding, melodic piece. Given the movie's plot, a group of mercenaries attempting to overthrow a South American dictator, there are some appropriately Latin flavored cues. "The Contact" is chief among them, a relaxed bit of trilling acoustic guitar with syncopated percussion. The same contemplative guitar work spices up other cues, such as "Lifeline" and "Aerial."
Long before hearing the score, I was champing at the bit in anticipation of seeing The Expendables. Brian Tyler's work only enhances that feeling. The Expendables: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is musically varied enough to allow for stand-alone listening. How well it works in conjunction with the visual action on-screen is yet to be seen. However with such a rousing set of themes, there seems to be no imaginable reason to find fault with the music.
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