Even before filmmakers were even able to record and sync sound, movies and music have been tied together. Back then, music was played on a piano or an organ. Now, some of the world’s greatest composers write scores that can stand as works of art separate to the films they accompany, while often doing so much to make those works memorable. Or filmmakers curate killer compilations of songs familiar and new that can lead to some of movies’ most memorable moments (and an overlooked song being revived).
What would Spielberg’s career be without John Williams’ “Jaws” score? Or Martin Scorsese’s without The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby?” We’ve always had a special focus on the crossover of music and movies, and as such, one of our favorite year-end pieces to do is our list of the Best Scores and Soundtracks of the previous year (as of last year, including TV as well).
From car chase musicals to futuristic synths, from The Roadhouse to the Sunken Place, from The Dave Matthews Band to The Psychedelic Furs, it’s been a hell of a year for scores and soundtracks, and below you’ll find our 25 faves, along with a chance to listen to them. Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.
Click here for our full coverage of the best of 2017, includingBest Cinematography, Posters, Trailers, Horror, our Best Films Of The Year, and the 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2018
25. Dario Marianelli – “Darkest Hour”
He’s worked with other composers (The Chemical Brothers memorably on “Hanna,” John Powell less so on “Pan”), but Joe Wright’s best movies, and best scores, have always come courtesy of Dario Marianelli, who he’s worked with consistently since “Pride & Prejudice,” to the tune of one Oscar (for “Atonement”) and two further nominations. Marianelli’s music for Winston Churchill biopic “Darkest Hour” might not be as inventive as the typewriter clacks in “Atonement” or the almost balletic work on “Anna Karenina,” but it’s undoubtedly a handsome and memorable score that’s far more interesting than most period pieces. Written in part before shooting even began, as is often the case with the pair’s collaboration (and one of the reasons they always feel so entwined with each other), the urgency of Marianelli’s piano and the majesty of his strings and horns give the film the energy it needs to propel it, culminating, as it must, in one of the year’s most gorgeous cues in “We Shall Fight,” as it underlines Churchill’s unforgettable address. Even in a competitive year for scores, it would be a real shock if Marianelli didn’t get a fourth Oscar nod this time around.
24. Various Artists – “Lady Bird”
It’s easy to make a soundtrack that everyone loves from hip needle drops. But far trickier is to pull off a soundtrack full off song choices that most would dismiss as deeply uncool. But it’s another mark of the sincerity and sweetness with which Greta Gerwig approached her directorial debut “Lady Bird” that she was in no way concerned about people being impressed with her musical taste when she put the songs for the movie together (male directorial debutants, take note). “I wanted the songs in the film, the needle drop moments, to be a real reflection of teenage time at that time and in that place,” Gerwig says in the production notes, and the film is wonderfully specific in the late-90s mainstream radio hits it deploys, from Alanis Morissette and Ani DiFranco to Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River,” a song that will instantly transport anyone who was around the same age at the time back to the early 00s. We’ll admit that we don’t completely love Jon Brion’s score, which tips into tweeness in a way that the movie itself never does. But Gerwig’s wonderfully authentic soundtrack picks are a microcosm of why the film works so well.
23. Various Artists – “Dear White People”
One of the benefits of getting to remake your low-budget first feature as a Netflix series is having a much bigger music budget to play with. Justin Simien’s original “Dear White People” relied principally on a (very good) jazz-inflected score by Kathryn Bostic, but while Kris Bowers’ lovely, understated score does a lot of heavy lifting through the Netflix version, it’s the needle drops that really stand out. It’s a rare TV soundtrack that feels genuinely of the moment rather than slightly ahead of the curve, supervisor Morgan Rhodes putting together an eclectic line-up of 70 songs across the 10 episodes ranging from the omnipresent (Michael Kiwanuka, whose “Love & Hate” ends Barry Jenkins’ great episode), to the more obscure (up-and-coming British soul singer Rex Orange County) via Childish Gambino, A Tribe Called Quest, Future, Larry Levan and Run The Jewels. There’s something for everyone, but what’s most impressive (particularly in a year where even a show as great as “The Handmaid’s Tale” botched its music so badly) is how well deployed every needle-drop is. In fact, no show’s mastered the episode-ending music pick to this extent since early seasons of “Girls” — it’s the rare Netflix show that’s worth watching the credits of just for that.
22. Various Artists – “The Bad Batch”
A twisted kind of love story set in a community of cannibals in a future dystopia, Ana Lily Amirpour’s provocative bat shit crazy, “The Bad Batch,” was not for everyone and some people actively rebelled against it. But just like her striking and arty vampire movie, “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” proved, Amirpour knows how to pick songs and use them cinematically and find delirious results. There’s always a dark scintillating beat and shoegazery romantic side to her music selections which always make for a dreamy, surreal experience. Say what you will style and substance and some of the criticisms that are thrown her way sometimes, but Amirpour know how to make something sound and look effortlessly Capital C, Cool; that kind of uber-Velvet Underground-y cool that intimidates regular civilians who wouldn’t dare roll up in that club. Electronic artists like Black Light Smoke, Pantha Du Prince provide the pulsating sick beats that propel her narratives (Francis Harris, Chilled By Nature deliver quirkier EDM), and groups like White Lies and Federale offer soaring, moody and entrancing post-punky artrock that sweeps and elevated. Perhaps unsurprisingly she’s not above ironic musical gags either, using Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon” and Ace Of Base to great effect. “Bad Batch” might be uneven, if memorable and beguiling, but its group of tracks is a bumper crop.
21. Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein/Various Artists – “Stranger Things” Season 2
With the show’s unabashed emulation of its 1980s Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter influences already an established fact after season 1, there was always going to be scope for it to expand further in this direction. And Season 2’s soundtrack cuts do not disappoint: Right from episode 1, when Devo‘s “Whip It” appears, it’s obvious the Duffer Brothers and music supervisor Nora Felder are going to delve even further that territory, even going so direct as to have a Carpenter track play at one point (“The Bank Robbery” from “Escape to New York“) and referencing De Palma too with Paul Engemann‘s “Push it to the Limit” from “Scarface“. Sure enough, they dredge up enough big name pop tunes, off-kilter disco hits and near-forgotten one-hit wonders to deliver a delicious synth-heavy cruise through the 1980s. The cuts are often retro-throwback icons — it’s not like the “Ghostbusters” theme or Duran Duran‘s “Girls on Film” or The Clash‘s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” or the Cyndi Lauper, Police and Pat Benetar tracks that play during the climactic Snow Ball could ever be termed obscure. But there’s also enough rediscovery in there, of a lot of music we’d probaby all forgotten about, such as Corey Hart‘s “Sunglasses at Night,” and Jumpstreet‘s “How I Feel About You” to give it a fresh, if ever-nostalgist spin. All that plus a score by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein that, if anything, improved on the iconic synthy joys of the original.
