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| Scene from A Star is Born (2018) |
While there are many films out there that we likely love, how often does one go and revisit their soundtracks? This column is dedicated to the vast variety of music that composed for films and have since become their own iconic work. In some cases, it is a soundtrack that repurposes songs into something beautiful and wholly unique. Others are the more traditional soundtracks that feature sweeping music orchestrated to make us feel happy, sad and on the edge of our seats. The following is a look at the 15 scores and soundtracks that stood out to me in 2018 and have become permanent fixtures on my playlist.
1. You Were Never Really Here (Jonny Greenwood)
There's something almost humorous about Jonny Greenwood's recent run of scores. Following the Oscar-nominated score for Phantom Thread, the composer strips away the intricate elegance in favor of a sound that is manic, often idiosyncratic. The sound itself is traumatic, more relying on abrupt shifts in melodies and disconcerting instrument choices that eventually includes a dysfunctional car lock. Despite a soundtrack that sounds like madness encapsulated, it's once again evidence of his brilliance thanks to the way it manages to somehow find the meditative center in all of the chaos. There's power in every track because it's like walking down a dangerous street in the middle of the night while having deep thoughts. There's serenity in its emptiness, but there's also danger. Few scores feel as rebellious and fresh as this.
2. If Beale Street Could Talk (Nicholas Britell)
While Jonny Greenwood found a way to turn the common movie score into anarchy, Nicholas Britell found the best way to make it an art form. Few scores this year are as methodical as this, managing to fade in and out of motifs in a way that is immediately nostalgic, as if accompanying beautiful old photographs. The melodies carry the listener into a peaceful state of thought, managing to find memories that flutter around like the wind section as an underlying harpsichord adjusts the heart rate. It's beautiful and iconic, making Britell one of the essential contemporary composers who may have a lot that's classical, but still manages to use contemporary techniques to convey these strong emotions in meaningful, emotional ways.
3. First Man (Justin Hurwitz)
Not since John Williams and Steven Spielberg, Danny Elfman and Tim Burton, or Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan has a composer felt so perfectly fitted to a director as Justin Hurwitz and Damien Chazelle. This is in part because Hurwitz hasn't done anything since his Oscar-winning work on La La Land and has returned with this space biopic on Neil Armstrong. The score itself feels like a beautiful trip through space, managing to have a tender melody at the center that is ponderous, childlike, and full of wonder. The way everything builds creates a deeper emotion that elevates Chazelle's expert direction and makes the emptiness of space feel grander. After four collaborations together, Hurwitz and Chazelle feel like they're on the verge of being an iconic cinematic duo. This is their best work yet, and one can only ponder where they'll go from here.
4. Mary Queen of Scots (Max Richter)
There's something almost deceitful about Max Richter's score for this period piece. It feels familiar, as if directly lifted from music that's existed for hundreds of years. While this could be seen as a detriment, it actually helps to explain why Richter's work is an astounding achievement, managing to feel timeless and triumphant. There's a loving regal nature to the music, managing to build on swelling melodies as themes enter the film. It's a beautiful piece of music that never lets up, managing to feel grandiose and important as the strings clash in a sound of beautiful battle. By the end, it's a tender composition and one that helps add depth to the world of the film in all of the right ways.
5. Ocean's Eight (Daniel Pemberton)
While many would argue that Ocean's Eight is among the lesser sequels of the summer, there's one thing that deserves to be talked about more: Daniel Pemberton's score. Despite having an incredible career in recent years, it feels like he rarely gets the attention that he deserves for not only understanding the tone of a film, but knowing how to create an orchestral sound that fits the film so perfectly. In one of his best works yet, he manages to create one of the most bombastic, upbeat scores of the year. With the sound of a heist built into every track, it manages to play like the logical procession of Henry Mancini's The Pink Panther score. With a great mix of instruments that include everything from pianos to wind instruments and percussion, it's one of the most exciting scores that elevates the energy on screen to another level and leaves audiences with one of the funnest heist movie scores of recent years.
6. A Star is Born (Various Artists)
The year 2018 was a banner moment for the movie soundtrack in large part thanks to the now Grammy-nominated work on Black Panther and more recently with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However, there's few that feel as resonant to the pop culture discussion as that of the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper vehicle. There's a good chance that you're sick of "The Shallows" by now and are debating the merits of "Why Did You Do That To Me?" as a bad song. The film itself was a celebration of music and creativity, and thankfully the soundtrack embodies the best of these ideas with some of Lady Gaga's strongest work as a performer. It shines up until the very end where emotions grow high and Lady Gaga gives one of the saddest songs of her career. As a whole, this is the cultural phenomenon that the Fall season needed, and it delivered tenfold.
7. Isle of Dogs (Alexandre Desplat)
Any given year would be considered incomplete if it didn't include at least one memorable Alexandre Desplat score (this one also had The Sisters Brothers). With yet another collaboration with director Wes Anderson, Desplat pulls his influences from Japanese cinema for his overlying themes that build like a choir chanting underneath a thudding beat. It's hypnotic in a way that adds to the soundtrack's other tracks, including the flute-driven melodies used from samurai movies. As a whole, it's an interesting melding of styles that creates something as provocative and interesting as that of the film it accompanies. It's a melding of Asian and American ideals in a way that may be controversial, but it can't be denied the fact that it's very interesting.
8. Black Panther (Ludwig Goransson)
When director Ryan Coogler released Black Panther near the start of the year, it really felt like more than a film. It was a phenomenon encapsulated in all of pop culture, introducing a wider audience to the realm of Wakanda and the concept of Afrofuturism. Ludwig Groansson helps to create the music side of things with an overbearing wall of music that mixes familiar superhero motifs with something more tribal, incorporating drums with synthesizers in a way that connected the past to the present and future. It was ambitious and breathtaking in equal strides as it reinvented the Marvel movie score while providing one of the best that the genre has ever offered. While the Kendrick Lamarr-produced score is just as great, the film would be nothing without the meticulous score that elevates the average Wakandan scene into something authentic and new.
9. Halloween (John Carpenter,
Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies)
The realm of serial killers doesn't usually get a chance to be this good. Michael Meyers has gone through an exhaustive ringer over the 40 years and it's a relief that director David Gordon Green managed to find a perfect interpretation for the modern era. What's also thankful is that the score is just as haunting as ever. True, it's technically an edited version of John Carpenter's iconic 1978 original score, but what great edits they were. The atmosphere feels more unnerving with the synthesizer feeling beefed up in a way that is confrontational, making the silence feel like a cold night air where Michael is hiding. It may be far from the most original score of the year, but it's still one of the most tense. Carpenter, with help from son Cody and Daniel Davies, is still in top form here and few composers are as singular in style as him all these years later.
10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton)
Just as 2018 looked to finish the year with Black Panther remaining unrivaled as this towering cinematic achievement, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out with even more of a whiz-bang head spin. While many are praising (deservedly) the animation and story, certain attention should also be given to Daniel Pemberton's score, which manages to be a perfect fusion of styles that once again captivates the listener, throwing them into the action and finding contemporary techniques that jolt the music with personality. While the accompanying soundtrack features a lot of solid music selections, the score is a thing of beauty and a nice hat trick that manages to land every odd choice in perfect synchronicity.
11. Mandy (Johan Johansson)
One of the most tragic losses of the year was composer Johan Johansson, whose work on films like Sicario and Arrival pitted him as one of the most promising musicians of the modern era. It is a relief then that his final score is another masterpiece, managing to be an ethereal journey into a dark and foggy realm of danger. There's a certain beauty lying underneath this fog of synthesized uncertainty, and it comes across as meditative. Add in some metal guitar riffs and you get the perfect fit for a film that embraces the chaos in a way that is unforgettable. Every note on the score feels perfectly placed, and it's a shame that The Academy is rejecting it for a potential posthumous nomination. It's a shame that he never won, though it's thankful that he went out on a high note.
12. Eighth Grade (Anna Meredith)
There were few indie films that resonated with audiences quite like director Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade. It's a story about the angst that comes with the final days of middle school in a time where being accepted as seen as the end of the world. For a story that's so reliant on a social media presence, it makes sense then that the score is reflective of this. Anna Meredith's score is a chaotic clash of synthesizers played in a key that is reminiscent of the prepubescent lead, barely finding a deeper maturity in keys. Thankfully, it still works at embodying the electronic synapses that flow through every characters' head as they try to figure out who they are. It may be one of the most unpolished of the year, but it still works to create a sense of just how weird being an eighth grader is.
13. BlacKkKlansman (Terrence Blanchard)
Few films proved to be as surprising of a hit as Spike Lee's latest. While the film provides plenty of provocative conversation regarding race relations, the score that accompanies it is arguably just as astounding. Terrence Blanchard's score is a collage of themes that were baked into the American persona in the late 70's, managing to mix patriot themes of marching drums with motifs lifted directly from Max Steiner's Gone With the Wind. It builds into its own fascinating criticism of American culture through music, feeling at times dark and ominous in ways that add a haunting subtext to the already confrontational film. There's a power to the score's selections of references, and it's got enough to prove just how underrated a composer Blanchard has been for decades now.
14. Sorry to Bother You (Various Artists)
This past summer featured a lot of great films dealing with race relations, especially in relation to the economy. Few films felt as jarring about the two issues as that of director Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You, which mixed surrealism with propaganda in a way that was extremely entertaining. How much is Riley's heart in this project? The score is predominantly done by his rap group The Coup, and fuels the entire film with a ferocity that is hard to ignore. The music feels like a fist slamming on a door, asking for people to listen to the well produced message that Riley has to give. It's so good that this is the second soundtrack that Riley made for the film after years of not getting the film off the ground. The effort to detail alone is impressive, and evidence that this radical new director should be around more often to bother us with whatever he has to say.
15. Red Sparrow (James Newton Howard)
The latest Jennifer Lawrence film may be a bit divisive if viewed in a "polite" context, but certain attention should be paid to the score. James Newton Howard is another reliable composer who had a great year with The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald, though his first was also his best. The film is a Hard-R spy thriller that is dark and full of espionage, and it shines through in the elegant strings that Howard brings to the music. For a film that often goes to disturbing places, the music manages to navigate it with a quiet assurance. It's uncertain about where things will end up, but it's a beautiful ride the entire way.
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