The 30 Best Film Scores & Soundtracks Of 2016 - Page 5 of 5

Stranger-Things5. “Stranger Things”
We can’t say we were familiar with Austin-based synth band Survive before this year, but their invaluable contribution to the TV phenomenon of the year — Matt and Ross Duffer’s “Stranger Things” — has changed that. The Duffer brothers were already fans — reportedly they used a Survive track as a sample when pitching the show to Netflix, and when it got picked up their first call was bandmembers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, who turned in enough original music for the show that the soundtrack for season 1 already runs to two albums. They’ve created an instantly appealing and iconic soundscape, from the obviously Carpenter-influenced title track to the less directly homagistic but undeniably 80s-inflected deeper cuts. What’s probably most impressive is how very much of-the-era the music feels yet it never strays into cheese or kitsch; there is a clean, modern edge to the melodies that mean that even while the instrumentation is heavy on the classic synth sounds we’re used to from 1980s Stephen King TV movies, the tracks themselves have a built-to-last quality. Sometimes emotive, sometimes poppy, often creepy there’s enough texture and depth to the “Stranger Things” soundtrack to make it not just a fine accompaniment to a well-conceived and well-imagined TV universe, but a strong standalone selection (that has been on heavy rotation as writing music for more than one of us).


La La Land4. “La La Land”
We’re unclear which level of front- or backlash we’re up to now with Damien Chazelle‘s “La La Land” so rather than trying to keep tacking with the prevailing critical wind, we’re going to continue sticking to our firmly pro- stance: this modern take on the classic movie musical may not be the most challenging film of 2016 but its blast of tuneful, colorful, bittersweet wish fulfillment can feel like a tonic, which is almost as important. And central, of course, to a musical, is the music, and with only the slight quibble that one particular piano motif (“Mia & Sebastian’s Theme”) is a little overused, for the most part the original compositions from Chazelle’s collaborator Justin Hurwitz (who also wrote the music for “Whiplash“) deliver exactly the required dose of old-school showtune magic. From the bristling, bustling opening number “Another Day of Sun” which has a good shot at becoming the anthem of Los Angeles, to the softer duets like “City of Stars” and “A Lovely Night” that thread Ryan Gosling’s breathy, weaker voice through Emma Stone’s clearer, bell-like vocals, to the beguiling loveliness of Stone’s solo standout “Audition,” to the carousel-like instrumental track “Planetarium,” Hurwitz’s songs walk a delicate line between all-out Cole Porter nostalgia, and the very slightly imperfect modernity that Chazelle injects into even the most cotton-candy moment, to make it that bit more real. It’s easy to be cynical about such confectionary filmmaking, but to do so is to overlook just what a remarkable achievement “La La Land” really is.


arrival-amy-adams-jeremy-renner-arrival_0603. “Arrival”
First things first: no, the music that you probably most remember from “Arrival” is not technically part of the film’s score. The astonishing string piece that bookends the film, including playing out after the devastating/oddly uplifting conclusion of Denis Villeneuve’s instant sci-fi classic, is “On The Nature Of Daylight,” a pre-existing piece by German composer Max Richter, of “The Leftovers” and more recently “Miss Sloane,” and it might be the most gorgeous and moving use of a single piece of music all year. But it’s only the tip of an iceberg of a stunning score that sees Villeneuve’s now-regular composer, the great Icelandic composer Johann Johansson, excel himself once again. The relationship between the two is virtually symbiotic at this point, and it’s hard to imagine the film being as effective as it is, for all its other qualities, without Johansson’s work: it does so much to create the mood and tone of the movie. Mixing looped human voices, staccato rhythms, droning synths and lilting piano, it’s quite different from the other work we’ve heard from the composer (who won two Oscar nominations in the last two years, and could well get another this time around), but just as powerful. Next year, he’ll be stepping into Vangelis’ shoes for Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” and quite frankly, we can’t wait.


moonlight-barry-jenkins-366143-jpg-r_1920_1080-f_jpg-q_x-xxyxx2. “Moonlight”
Like an arrow through the heart, or maybe a moonbeam concentrated to laser-like intensity, to put on Nicholas Britell‘s utterly beautiful classical score for Barry Jenkins‘ “Moonlight” is to find yourself immediately transported back into the film’s emotional landscape. Britell, who came to our attention with his work on “The Big Short” really outdoes himself here, rising to the occasion of Jenkins’ beautifully observed, quietly devastating film and supplying it with a rhythmic and melodic backdrop that feels both timeless, like it’s always existed, and new and questing, like it’s breaking new ground at every juncture just like its central character. Cleverly reprising the same theme three times over, at a slightly different pitch and with rearranged instrumentation to represent the three phases of Chiron’s life, and then further playing with the speed and timbre of those tracks to yield even less recognizable variations, even those are not the most outstanding tracks on the album: that honor has to go to the shimmering, sweeping, soaring, cascading violins of “The Middle of the World.” That track, which was used on the trailer and has become something of a sonic talisman for the movie is perfect for suggesting the roiling extremes of emotion that can lie underneath the calmest of exteriors, while the film’s standout pre-existing cut — Barbara Lewis‘ plaintive but hopeful “Hello Stranger” — feels like it might have been written, almost 50 years ago, exclusively to be used at exactly the moment it crops up here.

jackie-natalie-portman-movie-jackie-51. “Jackie”
Determining which soundtracks appear on this list is a tricky enough job, but trying to pick a number one is exponentially harder — the apples v oranges nature of the comparisons, not to mention personal tastes and preferences, can easily cloud the issue. So one of the criteria we apply is how transformative the film’s music is — that is how much it contributes toward making the film what it is, or how different the film would be with any other choice. And on that level, nothing really quite touches Mica Levi‘s extraordinary score for “Jackie.” Levi is no stranger to our year-end lists, with her work on Jonathan Glazer‘s “Under the Skin” — her first soundtrack — featured in our 2014 roundup. But if anything, while the unearthly, uncanny vibe she channelled there was a perfect complement to Glazer’s chilly sci-fi, the way her edgy compositions are used in Pablo Larrain‘s Jackie Kennedy picture is downright subversive. It’s the first real signal we have of just how much “Jackie” is not going to be your standard glamorous-American-icon biopic that when we see the early shot of Natalie Portman‘s Jackie alone on the White House lawn, the music we hear (“Intro”) is that eerie descending wail — the portentous sound of bad things to come, but also of disintegration, fragmentation, splintering, which is essentially what Larrain does to the standard biopic form. Elsewhere the musical decisions are equally fascinating, ranging from the almost-classical — often lone instruments playing partial melodies as though they’ve become unmoored from their orchestras — to nervy washes of fraying strings, and even the occasional ironic flourish, like the martial drums running under, and eventually swallowed by the soft piano chords of “Graveyard.”

And of course, there’s more we could have gone to beyond that, even excluding those we disqualified on a technicality like Nick Cave’s “One More Time With Feeling” (which immortalizes an album rather than being the source of original music). Among the favorites that nearly made the cut were Abel Korzeniowski’s work on “Nocturnal Animals,” Clint Mansell’s score to the “San Junipero” episode of “Black Mirror, Lesley Barber’s “Manchester By The Sea,” Alexandre Desplat’s slightly overblown but still listenable “The Light Between Oceans,” the very fine collaboration between Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Mancina on “Moana,” Nascuy Linares with “Embrace Of The Serpent” and Alex Somers’ score for “Captain Fantastic.”

There was also Carter Logan’s work on “Paterson,” Bensi & Jauriaans’ score for ‘The Fits,” Michael Giacchino with “Zootopia” and “Star Trek Beyond,” Max Richter with “Miss Sloane,” Fernando Velazquez with “A Monster Calls,Henry Jackman’s “Birth Of A Nation” score, the soundtracks to “White Girl” and “Morris From America,” John Williams’ typically fine contribution to “The BFG,” Tim Burton’s least objectionable score in a while from Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson with “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiars,” and Carter Burwell going Old Hollywood for “Hail Caesar!” Anything else you think deserves a mention? Let us know in the comments.