Music Review: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 — Music From the Motion Picture

Following up the popular 2005 film from director Ken Kwapis, which transferred Ann Brashares’ best-selling young adult series of books to the big screen, Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, and Amber Tamblyn reunited once again in this year’s delightful sequel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.   

Set during another fateful summer, we catch up with The Sisterhood’s foursome after their first year of college. We find them dealing with that instantly relatable feeling of trying to reconcile the concerns and friendships of their youth with their new busy lives studying and living in various places. As those who are of a certain age are readily aware, it’s a tough transitional time where friendships are put to the test, but the girls all continue loyally shipping the worn pair of blue jeans to each other in the hopes they will slide not only into the denim but the miraculous good fortune the jeans are purported to inspire.   

While cinematically, the film’s screenwriter Elizabeth Chandler had her work cut out for her, trying to piece together the plot from Brashares’ three sequels to her original phenomenally popular original, director Sanaa Hamri took on double duty by not only helming the film but also becoming an executive producer of the film’s soundtrack. 

Following up the terrific original soundtrack, Hamri and the album’s co-producers Broderick Johnson and Andrew A. Kosove along with music supervisor Julia Michels had their first enormous streak of luck when the talented Michelle Branch “reached out to [them] early in the process as she was interested in writing a song,” for the film.  As the press release continues, Branch was so inspired from viewing an early cut of the film that the Grammy Award winner penned the song, “Together,” which would end up playing during the film’s final credits.  Although its lyrics seem a bit too on-the-nose, Branch channels the extraordinary bond the young women share in her ode to friendship which appears as the second track on the album, following up Eric Hutchinson’s addictive, lyrically infectious up-tempo opener “Rock & Roll.”  

Article Author: Jen Johans

Jen is a life-long film buff frequently dubbed a "Walking Movie Encyclopedia.” While earning a degree in Film Studies, she joined AFI and IFP. A three-time national award-winning writer, Jen also runs her site Film Intuition as well as its Review …

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