Zanobard Reviews

Happy Holidays all! The end of 2023 is nigh, and with it of course comes another highly anticipated soundtrack best of list, where we discuss each of the best film scores of the year!

Here we are once again, with another year having rolled by. We’ve been quite lucky this year though – having gained an immense assortment of new film, television and game music all across 2023 – and now that we’ve reached year’s end, the best have now of course been assigned their rankings. As always with these lists though it is just a bit of fun really, and just my humble opinion versus the world’s. If you disagree or indeed have your own best of lists for the year please do share them below, I’d love to compare and contrast! Without further ado though, let’s begin my one with the Honourable Mention of 2023:

Star Trek: Picard – Season 3
By Stephen Barton & Frederik Wiedmann

This year’s Honourable Mention goes to the television score of Star Trek: Picard‘s third season, simply because of how brilliantly orchestral and just magnificently… Star Trek it is. Composers Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann conduct a frankly spellbinding celebration of all things musically Trek throughout this wonderful album, with faithful thematic reprisals from the Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and Dennis McCarthy eras (to name but a few) playing alongside some genuinely fantastic new themes in the Titan and Family motifs, all wrapped in this magnificently styled orchestral bow. Ahsoka was close but gotta say; Picard takes the television score cake for me this year.

10. Five Night’s At Freddy’s
By The Newton Brothers

Coming in at number ten this year is the Newton Brothers’ fittingly ominous score for the Five Nights At Freddy’s movie; their well-crafted main theme linked above here – an 80s-styled videogame-esque synth and creepy children’s choir combo – pretty much expertly captures the chillingly playful nature of those iconic creepy animatronics, and that together with the composers’ excellent use of coldly terrifying ambience throughout the soundtrack album makes this score solidly worthy of this year’s top ten.

9. Barbie
By Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt

A surprising addition to this year’s list (if you’d asked me a year ago, anyway) is Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s Barbie score; it’s a well-stylized, fun and energetic work overall that serves as an excellent companion piece to the film itself, and the main theme – featured throughout Standout Cue “Pink (Barbie Opening Theme)” – is an exquisite showcase of the album’s stylistic strengths as playful, exuberant orchestra holds Barbie’s new theme high throughout the track. All-in, a happily and fittingly optimistic style and a solid main theme make this entry very much worthy of this year’s list.

8. Godzilla Minus One
By Naoki Sato

Ah, the one score on this list that I sadly didn’t get around to reviewing this year (due to unfortunate time constraints) – Godzilla Minus One is a fantastic showcase of just sheer atmosphere in music, with Sato’s score evoking a keen sense of dread and ominousness throughout its runtime. Unlike Holkenborg’s Godzilla Vs Kong score as well Akira Ifukube’s iconic theme does indeed reprise here, but surprisingly it actually comes in secondary compared to Sato’s fantastic orchestral style and tone, with Standout Cue “Resolution” being an excellent example of this as dramatic hope finally rises towards the end of the story. Worthy of this list? Oh absolutely.

7. Oppenheimer
By Ludwig Göransson

A violin is the stylistic centrepiece for Ludwig Göransson’s Oppenheimer score, with the orchestra building and swirling around it throughout, and the overall result is a deeply atmospheric and emotional work that not only expertly ties into the solemn tone of the film but also is a breathtakingly enjoyable album in its own right. The main theme – featured at its thunderous best in Standout Cue “Can You Face The Music?” – is the highlight of the show, being a heartfelt, intimate and solemn piece for Oppenheimer himself, and the way the theme twists and turns emotionally in this elegant two minute track as the violins get louder and faster alongside increasingly emphatic electronics makes this score well worthy of this year’s top ten list all by itself. Just phenomenal.

6. Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts
By Jongnic Bontemps

Jongnic Bontemps achieved actual musical greatness with his score for Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts – his thunderous orchestral style matches pretty perfectly with the epic tone of the Transformers movies, but it’s the themes – both old and new – that have won this particular album a spot on this year’s top ten. Bontemps crafted some enjoyably versatile new themes for the Maximals, Autobots and Terrorcons, and the way they then join forces pretty much seamlessly with fan favourite motifs from the Steve Jablonsky and Vince DiCola eras of the franchise is the absolute highlight of a genuinely stellar soundtrack overall.

5. The Marvels
By Laura Karpman

Unapologetic, thunderous heroism is the tonal focus of Laura Karpman’s wonderful score for The Marvels, and what a score it is as a result. Centre stage is of course the main theme – showcased across Standout Cues “Higher, Further, Faster, Together” and “The Marvels” – a fist-pumpingly grand and happily memorable piece to represent the titular team-up that combined with Karpman’s exquisite orchestral style and many an excellent action setpiece here makes this superhero score solidly entertaining throughout, and as such an easily worthy entry on the Top 10 Scores of 2023.

4. Indiana Jones & The Dial Of Destiny
By John Williams

The release of the fifth and final Indiana Jones film this year saw one event in particular that film music fans everywhere were absolutely ecstatic about; a brand new John Williams score. To say that his work for Dial Of Destiny was highly anticipated is underselling it quite dramatically, and while it isn’t perhaps the best of the five Indy soundtracks – that award for me is solidly held by The Last Crusade – Williams certainly brought his A-game here, with a frankly gorgeous theme for Helena, a wonderful return to his iconic action/adventure orchestral style and of course many an appearance from the magnificent March itself more than making Indy’s last adventure musically worthy of this year’s top ten.

3. Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
By Christophe Beck

Christophe Beck dramatically expanded on his musical world for Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania; a much darker and grander orchestral palette reprises the titular characters’ established themes, giving the Ant-Man motif in particular a dramatic makeover in Standout Cue “Theme From Quantumania”, and this fresh orchestral/electronic style combined with several well-crafted and memorable new themes in the brightly upbeat Cassie’s and the villainous Kang and M.O.D.O.K. motifs makes for not only several impeccably standout moments across the score – see frenetic action setpiece “The Hunter” or the thunderous “Sting Low Sweet Variant” to name but two – but also a damned solid superhero soundtrack entry that’s very much earned a place on this list as a result.

2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
By Brian Tyler

Brian Tyler’s score for The Super Mario Bros Movie is an actual work of musical art. In interviews you can tell that the composer absolutely adores the Mario games, and no truer is that feeling felt than in his frankly impeccable score here; all over the album Tyler seemingly effortlessly weaves Koji Kondo’s classic game motifs with a wide array of brand new and genuinely fantastic themes of his own, and that together with an impeccably grandiose orchestral/electronic style (even mixed with 8-bit sounds) makes this album so worth checking out it ain’t even funny. It’s so genuinely fantastic in fact that if it wasn’t for the next soundtrack down this would have absolutely won Best Score Of The Year, that’s how utterly impeccable a testament Tyler’s work here is to how a video game movie should be scored.

1. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
By Daniel Pemberton

Daniel Pemberton is a composer that I’ve immensely enjoyed the career of over the years, simply because his film music is just so… different, in an incredibly enjoyable way, and his score for Across The Spider-Verse is an absolute testament to that statement. All of Pemberton’s weird and wacky yet entertaining and memorable stylistic ideas for each of the characters fly in each and every direction all across this spectacular album, making for not only an unapologetically loud, incredibly heroic and indeed very different superhero score overall, but also an absolute sonic wonderland in in terms of sheer style as well. Tracks “Falling Apart” and “Start A Band” are pretty much my favourite film tracks of the year, and so these combined with the frankly phenomenal rest of the score easily crowns Across as the best film score of the year for me. Bring on Beyond!

And that’s all, folks! Hope you all have a wonderful remainder of your holidays, and I’ll see you next year.