[1] The second album consisted of original score composed by John Powell and released on February 28 by Back Lot Music.

[5] In contrast, Variety's Justin Chang opined that the songs "are genial and loopy enough to give the film something of a Seussical sensibility".

[6] James Christopher Monger of AllMusic wrote: "The main songs, "Let It Grow", "Everybody Needs a Thneed", and "Thneedville", like the film itself, are subversive and silly, incorporating dance, pop, and rock elements while maintaining the general weirdness of a tree-hugging, mustachioed monster helping a 12-year-old boy land the girl of his dreams, but they could have easily been integrated into the orchestral version of the soundtrack".

James Christopher Monger of Allmusic wrote: "Powell's deft blend of old-school orchestral grandeur and modern bombast yields some splendid fruit here, channeling the whimsy of Randy Newman, the joy of Alan Silvestri, and the mad fancy of Danny Elfman without ever breaking a sweat".

[11] Filmtracks.com wrote: "A strong balance of action, fantasy, and tragedy is conveyed by Powell in this score, though its tone is really too disparate from that of the songs to form a truly cohesive whole [...] The score-only product, on the other hand, is a decent listening experience and has roughly fifteen minutes of music that will fit nicely with Powell's similarly friendly but somewhat forgettable children's writing.

If you are stuck watching the film, at least you will hear the debut of Brian Tyler's reworking of Jerry Goldsmith's Universal logo music at the outset, arguably a more interesting attraction than what follows".