Track 2 is “Short Change Hero” by The Heavy. The track featured on the band's 2009 sophomore release The House That Dirt Built. The Heavy are one of those bands whose name you might not know but you've probably heard their music because it seems to turn up everywhere. It was used to excellent effect in Gearbox Software's much loved Borderlands 2, where it was used to choreograph the introductory movie to the game. That sequence was used heavily in promotion for Borderlands 2 and the track also appeared in the trailer for another hugely popular game; Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham City. The track turned up again in the 2010 reboot of the Driver series in Driver: San Francisco. Borderlands 2 closes on another The Heavy track, the funk masterpiece “How You Like Me Now?” and “What Makes a Good Man” appears in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, as well as a recent Guinness advert. The band have also had tracks on NHL 13and NFL 17.
“Short Change Hero” takes a different approach to some of the band's funkier more aggressive output. It's a reflective song with an eclectic instrumental palette and an infectiously catchy if somewhat downbeat vocal melody. The sparse and lonesome guitar line which opens the song picks its way over a shuffling rhythm formed from the workings of a chain gang and vocal harmonies with flavours of the American deep South. The song shifts into gear with a rhythm section that marches forward like the mechanisms of a giant clock and with sorrowful looping backing vocals and guitar parts creating a downbeat atmosphere. The lyrics feature the protagonist pleading with a loved one to stop trying to be a hero because their world is better suited to people working together than heroes leading the charge. "And what matters ain't the 'Who's baddest', but the ones who stop you fallin' from your ladder". This ties well into a central theme of Borderlands 2, a game which puts a focus on co-operative team play over individual solo runs.
