• Composed by Craig Armstrong
• Globe Soundtracks / 2016 / 37m

The third film in the series starring Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Baby sees the character coming to terms with the fact that she may be getting too old to start a family – and lo and behold she then indulges in a spot of how’s-your-father with two different men on two consecutive days and as if by magic there’s a bun in her oven.  Like the first two films, scored by Patrick Doyle and Harry Gregson-Williams respectively, the third one has a high-calibre composer attached to it, this time Craig Armstrong; unlike them, it’s actually received a score album release.  Pretty much everything about the music is predictable – and I don’t mean that as an insult – lots of very pleasant, tuneful, string-led rom-com sequences, generally upbeat and always warm – and the most predictable thing is how lovely it is.

From the opening track, “Race to Mark’s Flat”, the score is dominated by a single theme which is put through a load of variations.  It’s a typical Armstrong theme for a film like this, very romantic and summery and uplifting, receiving a thoughtful extended treatment in “Bridget Jones’s Theme”, a lovely variant with some instrumental pop colourings in “Race to Hospital”, a surprisingly dramatic “Birth” and a delicate piano solo arrangement to close the album.  There are one or two other melodies – “Bridget Calls Mark” and “Bridget’s Last Stand” don’t stray too far from the tone, but “News Theme” is something a bit different (not just to the rest of the score, but also to a news theme).  It’s an entirely undemanding, quite charming little album that sounds exactly how you think it will and exactly how you hope it will.

Rating: ***

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