This year’s Golden Globes showcase a more varied and intriguing field than 2019’s, leading to a less-clear frontrunner. While the nominations have some familiar faces and inevitably cater to the more mainstream of film and film music (the nominated composers […]
Despite the ever-present strife and squalor in The King, Nicholas Britell’s score brings a sense of majesty to Hal’s transition from prince into King Henry V. The clearest example of this is during Prince Hal’s coronation. As grandiose images of […]
Scores for Christmas films tend to be filled with the same cliched, seasonal sounds. Danny Elfman creates an alternative Christmas classic in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Rather than jingling bells and children’s choirs, Elfman creates the soundtrack to a kooky […]
Too often film music takes things a bit too seriously, making Nathan Johnson’s score to Knives Out all the more refreshing. Johnson manages to have some fun without it becoming completely irreverent. The clearest example is “The Thrombey Family Theme,” […]
What creates a supervillain? Most commonly it’s something supernatural, otherworldly, or otherwise impossible to experience in our world. But Joker – and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score – shows a different kind of origin, one in which the villain is molded […]
Fresh off of their 2019 release Egoismo and their recent overwhelming and oppressive score for Hagazussa, Greek drone/ritual ambient band MMMD (pronounced Mohammad and stylized MMMΔ) agreed to answer a few of my questions. Among other things, we discuss their […]
Borrowing from a concept he first explored in The Witch, Mark Korven‘s score for The Lighthouse gives a voice to the film’s monolithic “Lighthouse.” A monotonous, deafening wail roars out intermittently, overwhelming everything. This is the call of the Lighthouse, […]
October has been far and away the strongest month this year for new film scores. The downside of this eruption is that there are simply too many, with quite a few otherwise worthy scores being left out of this writeup. Oppression […]
Unlike the scores of most horror films, composer Christopher Young’s approach to the music of Hellraiser largely avoids anything verging on “scary.” Instead, his synth-heavy score conjures a feeling of grandeur that is more akin to dark fantasy. The main […]
Drone and ambient have increasingly found their way into film music in recent years. However, most of these scores, like Annihilation or First Reformed, stay relatively approachable for those less comfortable with these genres. MMMD (pronounced Mohammad) take these genres […]
Short films present a unique challenge for film composers: their diminutive length makes the music (or lack thereof) all the more noticeable. It’s much easier for a short film to be overscored or for its music to be overwhelming and […]
Home is supposed to be safe, comforting, “where the heart is.” Horror films push against this, perhaps none more famously than The Amityville Horror, in which Lalo Schifrin’s score shows us that home is where hell is. Schifrin makes frightening […]