I think we need to stop this trend of reviewing film scores as standalone musical compositions.

WALL-E is a perfect score because it works well in the film, an inseparable part of it.

Every film score does not need a dominant melody to give it identity. The score has plenty of identity.

Every sentimental track does not need to have gushing emotive string melodies. Newman's soft music box conveys far more emotion in a smaller package.

I guess the problem is that Newman is a director's composer, not a filmtracks-reviewer's composer. Newman prefers to support a film and contribute to it rather than take over the film.

Considering all of this site's reviews of Newman's works, it seems that filmtracks' interest in Thomas Newman's film is correlated to how much it sounds like John Williams. Unfortunately, Newman is simply not the "loud blaring horn melodies" type, and prefers to support the film in a more subtle way.

In my opinion, as a score, this is the finest film score of the year.