Knight of Ren

I didn't know there was going to be a follow up to Saint Maud! Great movie. Loved the atmosphere and the slow-burn plot development till the chilling last shot. And Morfydd Clark was great as well! In 2024, the ones I'm looking forward the most are Dune Part II, Mickey17, Furiosa and Nosferatu, and probably some more will grab my attention as the start going through festivals and the reactions come out. But those are the ones I will definitely see as soon as I can!

Happy New Year to all! As some have mentioned, I'm still missing some important films that I feel perhaps would enter a top 10, like The Holdovers, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest and some others, but here's where my list stands now! BEST SCORES OF 2023 -One Piece - Sonya Belousova & Giona Ostinelli -The Super Mario Bros. Movie - Brian Tyler -Across the Spider-Verse - Daniel Pemberton -The Mageseeker - Gareth Coker -Kimetsu no Yaiba: Swordsmith Village Arc - Go Shiina & Yuki Kajiura -The Boy and the Heron - Joe Hisaishi -Creed III / Mando S3 - Joseph Shirley -Godzilla Minus One - Naoki Sato -Blue Eye Samurai - Amie Doherty -The Last Kingdom: Destiny is All - John Lunn, Eivør, Danny Saul Honorable Mentions: Planet of Lana, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Libres, The Antares Paradox, Frieren, Creation of the Gods I, Dungeons & Dragons, Oppenheimer TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2023 -Fighting Tooth and Veil - The Super Mario Bros. Movie -Training Montage - Creed III -Sylas and Wisteria III - Gareth Coker -I'm Gonna Be King of the Pirates - One Piece -Prologue to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny -Can You Hear the Music - Oppenheimer -Guggenheim Assemble / Start a Band - Across the Spider-Verse -Forever Forged in my Heart - Mando S3 -Found - Society of Snow -Return to West Qi - Creation of the Gods I BEST FILMS OF 2023 -The Boy and the Heron -Godzilla Minus One -Oppenheimer -Bottoms -Monster -The Girls Are Alright -The Teacher Who Promised the Sea -A Strange Path -Asedio -Bastarden Also, movies like Suzume, Aftersun, Babylon, RRR or Irati are from 2022, but I only got to see them in my country in 2023, so I wanted to mention them as well! BEST TV SEASONS OF 2023 -La Mesías -Blue Eye Samurai -Scott Pilgrim Takes Off -The Mandalorian S3 -Copenhagen Cowboy -The Fall of the House of Usher -One Piece S1 -The Last of Us S1

His themes for Outlander I think are my favorite from all of his scores. They're all amazing and I have a very special connection to all of them. This is also one of my favorites, but I also love John Grey's theme and the Fraser's Ridge theme. Well, in fact I love all of them and I think they're brilliant! Cannot wait for the rest of S7!

Mostly predictable choices. I wouldn't have included most of them, but happy to see Hisaishi's score there amongst others. I created a quick playlist including one track of each score in case anyone wants to check out how each of these sound. The Color Purple and The Zone of Interest haven't been released yet, so they're not here yet.

Finally listened to this after watching the movie, and I think it's one of those scores that cannot be understood out of its context. It's dark, atmospheric and dissonant for the most part, and works brilliantly in the movie, but doesn't make for a very entertaining listening experience. Even so, I think there are some great tracks for a standalone listening experience, particularly Divine, Resolution and Pray, which accompany some of the best scenes in the movie and make a huge emotional impact within it. As for the rearrangements of Ifukube's themes, it's true that they break a bit the flow of the album, but I love the new recordings (much better than what Sagisu did in Shin Godzilla, just throwing the old recordings there) and when they do appear in the movie, they really get to shine and feel earned and impactful. Overall, not a very pleasant listening experience for the most part, but brilliant score in context!

Yeah, most of his projects now are handled this way, like Foundation S2, Masters of the Universe or this, which it isn't really a bad thing in my eyes, as I feel the quality does not descend. In fact, Foundation S2 was even better than S1 for me. As for Percy Jackson, I've watched the first two episodes, and as a huge fan of the books as a kid, I'm really happy with how the adaptation is turning out, which seems to be a lot more faithful to both the overall tone and the story development. The music is nice, and the main theme is actually quite memorable in how its constantly used and developed through both episodes, but I hope it varies a bit from now on before it becomes repetitive. I like the end credits arrangement a lot though. I also caught a beautiful theme for the Half-Blood Camp in the second episode, and I think there's also a woodwind motif for Grover, but I haven't picked anything else on a first listen. Hopefully the rest of the episodes and the album coming tomorrow can clarify more things!

Yeah, I think all the main themes have already been listed above. I've been listening to Survivor quite a bit, and I came up with a shorter playlist as I did with Fallen Order. It's a bit more action heavy, as that's the cues where the main themes, both old and new, get to shine more, and I left out some great tracks more focused on exploration or ambient music, which also have some great moments, but also can be a bit too long at times. I did include Fields of Dusk because even if it's an exploration track, the main melody returns a couple of times as a love theme. Also, a couple of tracks have some awkward edits to transition between cues, but nothing can be done about that, sadly: The second game reprises 5 of the themes from Fallen Order: Cal, Cere, Merrin, Eno Cordova and BD-1, but these last two are barely in it. Cal's theme is much more prominent this theme, and can be heard a lot of times in exploration tracks, as well as some great action variants, joining some of the other themes. Merrin's theme gets to shine in Flight and also in the second half of Siege, which also allows Cere's theme to develop in some brilliant emotional variations. Cordova's theme serves as a menu theme again in Cold Dawn, joined by Cal's theme and the new Empire theme. It also appears at the beginning of The Narkis Anchorites, and at 6:30 of The Visitor, which also features some subtle references to the Imperial March after that. And BD-1's theme only appears briefly at 1:15 of The Bedlam Raiders, as far as my ear caught. As for the new themes, @Gabriel Bezerra mentioned almost all of them, so I will give some audio examples for further clarification. The Empire theme is all over the game, usually clashing with Cal's theme, but also joining some other characters affected by it one way or another, like Dagan Gera or Bode Akuna: Rayvis and the Bedlam Raiders receive a dissonant fanfare introduced in their titular track, but that really shines in action variants in tracks like Warrior's Code Dagan Gera has a very malleable theme, that can be heard in softer and majestic variations, like in the example below, but also turns quite dark and aggressive in some of his action pieces, like later in Haven or in tracks like To the Rescue or Grand Occulus Bode Akuna's theme is heroic and bright in its first appearances, and as the story progresses turns appropriately darker and menacing, confronting Cal's theme in tracks like A Step Too Far Nova Garon introduces a motif in its second half, for character that might become more important in a third part of the series, Kata Akuna. This descending motif can be heard in full at the beginning of Through the Darkness These are the main new themes for the characters of the game, and there are also several ideas for the different areas of the game: The Koboh theme appears in A Frontier Welcome, Where the Nekkos Roam or Rambler's Reach The Forest's Secrets develops a motif that also appears in Basalt Scars Fields of Dusk features what the composers called the love theme, that also appears in A Step Too Far and The Abyss Shattered Moon has a motif for the titular planet that indeed reminds me of JNH's Atlantis theme in its second phrase, and that appears again in Course Collider and Warrior's Code I haven't been able to identify yet the theme for Jedha mentioned above that appears in The Sacred Mesa, but I will check again those tracks to see if I can catch it. And I think that's pretty much it. I don't think I missed any important motif, but feel free to correct me!

I wonder why they would release the score for episode 3 before the rest? I guess it's perhaps to avoid musical spoilers, as in hearing what character themes appear in each episode? But I guess if they do this for ep 3 they will release the whole score for each episode as they did with S1. Really looking forward to it!

I have a shorter playlist of Fallen Order that perhaps may help you appreciate the score a bit better. It's focused on the character and emotion cues, also including some of my favorite action stuff, that properly develops the thematic material. I'm properly exploring the score for Survivor and I'm planning on doing something similar too: As for the themes and what they represent, I definitely recommend @TheAvengerButton's breakdown in this post: Those selected cues above highlight all the main themes for each character, and while I feel some other cues could be added to include smaller motifs, I decided to keep it under an hour and a half for better listening experience!

I've been reading a lot of discussion lately about the show, and made me curious to want to check it out, but there's a huge amount of material out there. I read somewhere that since there isn't a lot of continuity between the different incarnations, the christmas specials where a good place to start, so I was wondering if these three new Disney+ specials would be a great place to jump in for a newcomer. If not, then where would you recommend me to start?

Yeah, if it's really just the vinyl version of what's already released, they didn't have to do an announcement like that, but what do I know. I guess it's our fault for setting our expectations so high!

If it really is an expansion, then bring it on ASAP! Giacchino's work on LOST is some of my favorite music ever, so an expansion would be a dream come true! I guess some other TV shows have done it before, like Bear McCreary releasing his Rings of Power scores in full for each episode, and I think the scores for Batman The Animated Series are mostly complete, at least for the episodes they decided to include, and we also have the Twin Peak Archive. But I think it should be done more often with successful and high-profile shows like this one! I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see what it really is, but I'm looking forward to it!

I've listened to the album again, now on Spotify, and even if it's not on the same level as some of my favorite Hisaishi-Miyazaki collaborations, it's such a great score, which I like more and more after each listen! It's really beautiful, and I love the small scale of the orchestra, reduced mostly to piano and strings. And it's actually a lot more thematically complex than I initially thought. It doesn't have just the "Ask me why" theme, but several other motifs that run across the score, and I actually remember them being tied to specific concepts while watching the film, like a piano motif for the Gray Heron, and a vocal motif for Himi, the Fire Girl. Definitely improves on repeated listens!

So many great recommendations! I already know Willow, Cocoon and ST, as well as his animation works, and I really like them a lot, but I will surely check out some of the other recommendations. Thanks!

I've been listening to some Horner scores I hadn't yet discovered, by decades. So far, I've listened to a bunch of his 80's works: Brainstorm The Journey of Natty Gann *batteries not included Dad All four of them are great scores in their own way, but perhaps my favorite is Natty Gann. I just love Horner's melodramatic style, especially when coupled with the folksy instrumentation. Also, really enjoyed parts of the surprisingly dark Brainstorm! What other 80's Horner scores would you recommend I listen to before I move on to the 90's?

Yeah, I feel the biggest flaw of this score is that relies a bit too much on old themes, even when it doesn't always make sense, and doesn't allow the new material to shine as much. I mean, his themes for the saga have always been a bit confusing in what they mean or what they represent, but I always interpreted the theme from Arena Crumbles as Katniss theme, so hearing it on Coryo Enters the Capitol and a couple more cues was a bit confusing.

I think that order is pretty much correct, from what I remember from watching the film yesterday. The orchestral arrangement of The Hanging Tree reminded me of the one from Mockingjay Part 1, but with Rachel Zegler's voice instead of Jennifer Lawrence, but it could be a new arrangement.

Finally watched the movie, and the score works a lot better in context than on album, which actually has made me appreciate it a lot more than on the first standalone listens. The movie is not as action-focused as I thought, being concentrated in the middle section, and I think all of the music from that part is in there, but there might be around 20 minutes, perhaps more, of unreleased music, some of it containing nice variations on both old and new themes. At first I though the score didn't introduce any new ideas, but after watching the movie, it's clear there's at least two of them, a vocal idea used for Lucy Gray, and a string-based melody that seems to represent the relationship between Snow and Lucy. Lucy's motif gets introduced in Assigning the Mentors, at 1:27 It also appears in the middle of Meet the Mentors, in Hunger is a Weapon and in Strategy, and plays one last time in Lucy? The motif is followed by the theme for Lucy and Snow, at 1:16, and it appears three more times on the album, but I think at least two or three more times in the movie. It's introduced in Meet the Mentors (together with some strings that remind me of The Arsenal), and plays again in Saving Snow, in a pretty efective moment in the film: I feel there are some additional motifs, but I haven't been able to identify them yet. I was also surprised by the importance of the songs in the film, with several of them quite memorable in the way they're used, like the new versions of The Hanging Tree, or the way the song The Old Therebefore / Singing At Snakes overlaps with one of JNH's score cues, I think it's Get Her Out, in one of the most intense moments of the film. Definitely needed context to appreciate the score more, as I do now!

Agree! I'm always looking forward to hear what he has done for each different project. It doesn't always works as well, but for example his Spider-Verse scores are great in that aspect, and I also really like his Dark Crystal and King Arthur scores!

I also agree that I prefer to have longer albums, even if it doesn't always make for the most entertaining listening experience. That way, you can then pick your favorite cues and arrange them into a shorter presentation or just listen to the full thing. I think that's a better way of releasing a score than having a 40-50 minute album that leaves out a great cue that you have to wait many years to hear properly outside the movie. About this score, I feel that if you like JNH's scores for the saga you will enjoy this one, as it's basically an expansion on that sound, and on many of those themes and motifs, most of them returning on one way or another, even if it doesn't always make a lot of sense. I feel the album is missing some big action sequence, but I haven't watched the movie, so perhaps most of the action stuff is just left unscored. My other small complain is that I didn't catch any interesting new idea for the new characters. It's a bit of a disappointment in that aspect, but I'm sure that's just because it's only a first listen, and watching the movie and listening to the score a couple more times will help me appreciate it a lot more.

That's a lot of themes indeed! I think I already knew most of them, with the exception of those from the Rebuild movies, as I haven't gotten into those yet, but I will certainly do so soon. Thanks!

I found the score to be pretty average, and I also feel that the best thing is the suite, encapsulating the best this score has to offer. Nice use of vocals and some cool rock parts in the middle, but not much else. But I think Society of Snow will be a truly great score! Bayona's films always have great music, and that single reminded me a lot of LOST, which for me is Giacchino's best work, so really excited for that!

Yes, Evangelion's score is iconic, and there's some great stuff in there. I have only listened to the main series soundtrack, but apparently the Rebuild movies expand on some of those themes and bring a few others. The S2 Works album has lots of different variations on many tracks, sometimes presenting just different layers of the same track, but for a listening experience the official releases are definitely better. Rei's theme is also one of my favorites but I also love THANATOS and all its variations, and another personal favorite is the Anxiety theme, or A4, as it's one of the most effective pieces of music in context! Do you have a list of all the themes and motifs you noticed, to see if I missed any? Also, I found a while ago these suites on YouTube and they're a pretty great summary of some of the most recognizable themes from the show

As we all know, Ridley Scott loves to butcher the scores for his movies and apparently, he has done it again, according to this Indiewire review: We know by now this is way of working, but I wonder how much of Phipp's music has been replaced in the final movie, and if this replacements will also remain in the 4-hour cut that will be released on Apple TV+.

What a great surprise! I only knew Amie Doherty from She-Hulk and the animated Spirit movie, and both had some nice stuff, but this is definitely my favorite work of her. It's beautiful, lyrical and tragic, with a great and authentic japanese flavour, that is very fitting for the (great!) show, and also makes for a really enjoyable listening experience. Some tracks rely perhaps a bit too much on exotic percussion and dark dissonance, and might not be as enjoyable, but that's only a minor quibble for what is a really strong score, in my opinion. If you want to know if you'll enjoy this I definitely recommend listening to the two suites for each of the main themes that perfectly summarise what the score has to offer!