5. Jonny Greenwood/Various Artists – “The Phantom Thread”
If we’re lucky enough to get a Paul Thomas Anderson movie within any given calendar year, there’s really no such thing as a best soundtracks list without Radiohead guitarist’s Jonny Greenwood’s haunting and atonal scores on it with music that inevitably goes with PTAs film. “Phantom Thread” is arguably a little different from say “There Will Be Blood,” wall to wall Greenwood score, and more like “Inherent Vice,” selected soundtrack cuts mixed within the composer’s moody aims. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t shout out those impressively used selections which are arguably some of the film’s highlights. The romantic classical jazz of Oscar Peterson is particularly striking with its magical harps and slowly swaying and swooning orchestration. It’s a brilliant mix, really. Greenwood providing the askewed and shadowy contours of the dark psyches of its lead characters; a punctilious, sometimes cruel and always demanding dressmaker (Daniel Day-Lewis) and the deceptively timid muse who won’t stand for just being a pretty object of inspiration (Vicky Krieps). “Phantom Thread,” for all its twisted, naughty humor and monstrous, controlling characters is also resplendent and extravagant and features elegant, beautifully sharp, sometimes furious compositions from Claude Debussy, Fauré, Franz Schubert, Hector Bariloz, are a strong counterbalance (though props for selecting darker, classical music cuts that you’d certainly believe were composed by Greenwood if you didn’t know better). “Phantom Thread” is another bewitching PTA film examining the mysteries of human behavior and in this case specifically, the inscrutabilities of love. With a soundtrack rounded out by Duke Ellington, Luis Alberti and what appears to be a leftover Greenwood cut from the “Inherent Vice” soundtrack, PTA, his music supervisors and the Radiohead instrumentalist curate a beguiling, furtive suite that’s a splendorous fit for the emotionally complex enigmas that stir inside.
4. Hans Zimmer – “Dunkirk”
He was one of the film music world’s legends even before “Batman Begins,” but Hans Zimmer’s collaborations with Christopher Nolan — enormous, anthemic, quotable — have elevated Zimmer’s star to the extent that he literally played Coachella this year. And even as ‘Zimmeresque’ becomes a slightly damning adjective to throw at other composers (Junkie XL is one of those who does similar things, but not as well), the man himself continues to put out big, bold, surprising compositions like his sixth team-up with Nolan on “Dunkirk,” and if it doesn’t exceed Zimmer’s classic “The Thin Red Line” score, it’s a fascinating piece on its own. The Zimmer/Nolan trademarks are all there, but like the film itself, pushes more into expressionistic territory than ever before: the sheer volume, the rhythm like lapping waves on the shoreline, the ticking clock vibe, they all add up to make Zimmer’s music the one true throughline in a film where the characters are deliberately cipher-like. But it’s not just a tension-generating machine: Zimmer brings in some warmth very gradually as its characters move closer to safety, ending with the appropriation of Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” to moving effect.
3. Oneohotrix Point Never – “Good Time”
Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never, has only taken a handful of film gigs before, the most high profile being Ariel Kleiman‘s underseen “Partisan” and Sofia Coppola‘s underwhelming “The Bling Ring” (on which he collaborated with Brian Reitzell). But with his score for the Safdie brothers’ delirious, neon-soaked, pavement-pounding “Good Time” picking up the independent Cannes Soundtrack award this year, it almost feels like he was biding his time, waiting in the shadows for the perfect vehicle for his sensibilities, so fully-formed and utterly integral are his propulsive and yet pathos-laden compositions here. It’s not just that the electro score drives the film, it’s the way it drives it: Even within individual tracks, which map onto individual scenes, Lopatin’s synthesizer arpeggiations layer nervy, chemical energy over acidic backwashes that as often as not, resolve, like the film itself, into something surprisingly affecting and forlorn. In the bigger picture, that winsome end note is achieved by the film’s signature song — the beautiful “The Pure and the Damned” with brokenhearted vocals by Iggy Pop — which briefly lets a warm, sentimental, sad piano and Iggy’s cracked and husky voice lead the synthetic electronica. Walking the same high-wire act that the film does, between knockabout heist thriller head trip and movingly doomed relationship drama, Lopatin’s defining work here is a score that feels like it couldn’t have existed without the film, but that can now live outside it as a pure, damned, complete album in its own right.
2. Alexandre Desplat – “The Shape Of Water”
It’s possible to take Alexandre Desplat for granted. He has for so long been composer royalty (even if he did only win his first Oscar on his eighth nomination, for “The Grand Budapest Hotel“) and recently has been so incredibly prolific, often turning in up to ten soundtracks in any given year, with 2016’s tally also including an 8-part television series. But while Guillermo del Toro‘s bewitchingly waterlogged fantasy is certainly directly in his wheelhouse (some of Desplat’s most striking work comes with directors who have a highly idiosyncratic aesthetic, like Wes Anderson or Terrence Malick) it is anything but business as usual. It can’t have been an easy task, to find an acoustic accompaniment to del Toro’s retro-futurist design, in which fantastical steampunkish elements somehow sit comfortably alongside recognisably Cold War-era politics and in which black and white TVs showcase Carmen Miranda footage while Glenn Miller‘s big band sound plays through a gramophone crackle in the background. But Desplat score is, quite simply, as delightful as the film it envelops. Its main, curious and hopeful motif is carried in the soundtrack’s signature cut, by a lone whistler, sometimes echoed by an single accordian, before the orchestral elements flood in. And as undeniably sentimental as it sometimes gets, there is always a dark swell underneath, just as there’s always an upward tug of escapist whimsy in even the most melancholic stretches.
1. Various Artists – “Baby Driver”
Compared to the 1990s, we feared that the era of the soundtrack might have come to an end: even Tarantino mostly uses orchestral stuff these days, and the time when ever movie had an accompanying hit single seems to have passed. Or at least, it did until a few years ago, when “Guardians Of The Galaxy” and “Frozen” helped inspire a bit of a soundtrack record revival. But Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver” might be the finest of this new wave — a 70s crime thriller as jukebox musical (or jukebox musical as 70s crime thriller?), where every song choice is inextricably woven into the fabric of the film for one of the purest audio/visual big screen experiences all year. Wright’s song choices (which were virtually all picked out from the scripting stage) are an eclectic mix, from classic soul (just try and get Carla Thomas’ “B-A-B-Y” out of your head) to hip-hop by way of jazz and the Simon & Garfunkel title song. But what makes it special — aside from how terrifically well the film is choreographed and cut to the music — is how personal it feels. Artists who’ve appeared regularly across Wright’s films — T. Rex, Queen, Beck — feature prominently here, and there’s no pretense at being cool for cool’s sake. It feels like a grand, cinematic mix tape made just for you, and it’s our favorite compilation soundtrack in an age.
So, what else? Well, we discussed John Williams’ score for “The Post,” but no one quite liked it enough to break the top 25, whereas his “The Last Jedi” work was more popular, but not enough people had seen by the time the list came together. Composers already on the list that nearly made it with an additional pick included Michael Giacchino for “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” Benjamin Wallfisch for “A Cure For Wellness” and “It,” and Alexandre Desplat for “Valerian And The City Of Stories”
We also considered A Winged Dream For The Sullen’s score for “God’s Own Country,” the “Trainspotting 2” soundtrack, Clint Mansell & Lorne Balfe’s “Ghost In The Shell” score (which oddly hasn’t been released), Rupert Gregson-Williams for “Wonder Woman,” Dan Romer with “The Little Hours,” James Newton Howard’s ‘Detroit,” Bertrand Bonello’s “Nocturama” score, Tom Howe with “Professor Marston,” Balfe again with “The Florida Project,” Nicholas Britell’s “Moonlight” follow-up with “Battle Of The Sexes,” and Marco Beltrami’s “Logan.” Oh, and sorry “Circus Musical!” You’re under embargo until the day you open.Anything else we’re forgetting? Let us know in the comments.
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