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   CURRENT NUMBER OF:
     • Years Online: 28
    • Editorial Reviews: 2,307
   • Unique Albums Covered: 3,371
  • Reader Messages Posted: 494,923
 • Reader Votes Cast: 2,718,742


   CURRENT BEST-SELLING SCORES:
       1. The Wild Robot
      2. Solo: A Star Wars Story
     3. Dune: Part Two
    4. Avatar: The Way of Water
   5. Cutthroat Island
  6. The Mask of Zorro
 7. Tomorrow Never Dies
8. Willow
   CURRENT MOST POPULAR REVIEWS:
         1. Batman (1989)
        2. Beetlejuice
       3. Alice in Wonderland
      4. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
     5. Spider-Man
    6. Raiders of the Lost Ark
   7. Doctor Strange: Multiverse
  8. LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring
 9. Titanic
10. Justice League
The Life List
Snow White
The Electric State
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La Dolce Villa
Covering the best and worst of original film and television music from America's Big Sky Country since 1996, Filmtracks is your spirited home for comprehensive, humorous, and controversial soundtrack reviews. Join our community to support this niche music genre!
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4/16/25 Son of God   (Hans Zimmer/Lorne Balfe/Various)
All New Review
Buy it... if your faith compelled to view and enjoy this film, in which case its souvenir soundtrack with re-used Hans Zimmer derivatives and movie quotes might inspire you.
Avoid it... if you prefer to use your brain.
4/13/25 9   (Deborah Lurie/Danny Elfman)
All New Review
Buy it... for its ten-minute payoff of compelling action and fantasy at the end, including hints of Danny Elfman magic in the dramatic finale cue.
Avoid it... if an effective but workmanlike, anonymous thematic core in typical orchestral style doesn't hold your interest for a concept as unique as this one.
4/9/25 Logan's Run   (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
Buy it... for Jerry Goldsmith's masterful interplay between the score's two themes, the romantic payoff at the end a hearty conclusion to an otherwise challenging work.
Avoid it... if the composer's synthetic explorations of atonality during the 1970's drive you insane, for the completely electronic passages in the score are wildly intrusive.
4/6/25 Out of Africa   (John Barry)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if broad John Barry romanticism of consistently dramatic tonality melts your heart, in which case Out of Africa is among three or four scores of absolute certainty for your collection.
Avoid it... if you expect this score to sound anywhere near as decent in its original recording quality as some of Barry's equivalent works or if you desire a plentitude of thunderously melodramatic performances in the ranks of Dances With Wolves.
4/4/25 High Velocity   (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
Buy it... if you consistently appreciate Jerry Goldsmith's suspenseful action mode of the 1970's and wish to hear that sound infused with Latin specialty instrumentation.
Avoid it... if you expect any of the melodies or performance techniques of this score to reach out with distinction, the terribly archival quality of the recording hampering the soundscape considerably.
4/1/25 Woman in Gold   (Martin Phipps/Hans Zimmer)
All New Review
Buy it... for a competent, conservative drama score that adequately shares a chamber feeling between understated themes supplied by Martin Phipps and Hans Zimmer.
Avoid it... if inspiration is your expectation, Phipps' work elevating optimism and determination for the protagonist in only a few cues and Zimmer's portion stewing in the gloomier flashback sequences.
3/29/25 Restless   (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
Buy it... for an extremely conservative, lightly touched Danny Elfman drama with almost none of the composer's trademark quirkiness.
Avoid it... if you, like Gus Van Sant, ponder why Elfman never provides the director's stories with overtly orchestral and deeply emotional scores, this one never really hitting the heart.
3/26/25 The Cassandra Crossing   (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
Buy it... on the 2008 Prometheus album only if you are an established enthusiast of Jerry Goldsmith's brutally raw, propulsive action and pretty character themes of the late 1970's.
Avoid it... if you expect any truly satisfying presentation of this merely average score to exist, its film recording relegated to muted mono sound and its stereo album sometimes significantly different in tone.
3/24/25 Twisters   (Benjamin Wallfisch)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you can appreciate a competently exciting adaptation of the film's country song environment for an engaging and occasionally clever but ultimately anonymous orchestral romp.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear anything from Mark Mancina's 1996 score, Benjamin Wallfisch taking an arguably overthought approach to creating a complex sound for the sequel that is lacking a truly punchy thematic presence.
3/21/25 Damnation Alley   (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
Buy it... on the 2017 Intrada Records product only if you wish to hear Jerry Goldsmith provide marginally interesting post-apocalyptic chase music with a full ensemble and early synthetics.
Avoid it... if you expect the quality of Goldsmith's output to merit the collectible albums on which it has appeared, the composer clearly not greatly inspired by the wretched film.
3/18/25 The Son   (Hans Zimmer)
All New Review
Buy it... only if you seek to complete your collection of drab, unexpressive, and emotionless Hans Zimmer dramas of minimal scope.
Avoid it... if you're badly constipated, because nothing in this music will help inspire that stubborn turd to get moving.
3/15/25 The Woman in the Window   (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
Buy it... for the opening and closing renditions of the main theme of vaguely warm but still challenging accessibility, the remainder of the score sufficiently mundane and workmanlike in the suspense genre.
Avoid it... unless you are prepared for a lesser incarnation of The Girl on the Train and a host of other Danny Elfman scores of moody minimalism.
3/13/25 The Matrix   (Don Davis)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... on the 2008 limited album if you desire a most balanced and palatable presentation of Don Davis' often difficult, postmodern score, the 1999 and 2024 albums too short and the 2021 complete version only for true franchise enthusiasts.
Avoid it... if you demand the greater role of thematic tonality that develops in the two sequel scores by Davis, both featuring a more interesting blend of challenging dissonance and quasi-religious drama.
3/10/25 The Salamander   (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
Buy it... for the impressive 2013 re-recording to hear the only available album of Jerry Goldsmith's compelling 1981 score and suites from two similar works from the same period.
Avoid it... if the aggressive brutality of Goldsmith's thriller mode of the late 1970's has never appealed to your tastes, this score very true to the composer's methodology at the time.
3/7/25 The Lonely Guy   (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
Buy it... only if you seek to complete your collection of 1980's Jerry Goldsmith film scores, the comedy tones here far less mature than in the composer's genre works just a few years later.
Avoid it... if you have little tolerance for Goldsmith's lighter and upbeat synthetic mannerisms of the 1980's, their presence largely dominating the otherwise pretty orchestral presence.
3/3/25 Filmtracks announces its 2024 Awards
Filmtracks celebrates the best film music of 2024 with its annual nominees and winners in the categories of "Top Film Scores," "Top Composers," and "Top Film Cues." The nominees for "Top Film Scores" in 2024 are:
• Here  (Alan Silvestri)
• Spellbound  (Alan Menken)
• That Christmas  (John Powell)
• Wicked  (John Powell/Stephen Schwartz)
• The Wild Robot  (Kris Bowers)
• Young Woman and the Sea  (Amelia Warner)
Visit the 2024 Awards section to view the winners (and other categories). Also available is an official page for the 2024 Filmtracks Community Awards. For more information about these awards or to view the results from previous years, browse the Filmtracks Awards index.
2/27/25 Young Woman and the Sea   (Amelia Warner)
All New Review
Buy it... for one of the most dramatically wholesome and inspirational sports scores in cinematic history, Amelia Warner rising to the occasion with simple tonalities that work wonders in the picture.
Avoid it... if your brain cannot accept the general lack of complication to this score, or if you have an aversion to synthetic and rhythmic infusions that will remind you of Enya's heyday.
2/23/25 Atlas   (Andrew Lockington)
All New Review
Buy it... to hear Andrew Lockington return to his comfort zone with large ensembles and creative vocals, Atlas conveying his vintage adventure and fantasy voice with familiar appeal that leads to a truly outstanding end credits suite.
Avoid it... if you have always struggled with the composer's tendency to force his themes to earn their presence for a payoff at the end of a film, this score's set of identities smart but not truly satisfying until the rousing end.
2020 FILMTRACKS WINNER: The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild
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ATTN: JB11SOS - My Top 10 Scores of 2008 Submission   Expand
Michael Arlidge - April 17, 2025, at 4:33 p.m.
3 messages  (35 views) - Newest: April 17, 2025, at 5:53 p.m. by JB11sos
Attention-JB11sos / My Top10 2008 [EDITED TWICE]   Expand
Tasos B. - April 17, 2025, at 2:46 p.m.
2 messages  (57 views) - Newest: April 17, 2025, at 5:51 p.m. by JB11sos
Attn. JB11sos: My 2008 top-ten   Expand
ArborArcanist - April 17, 2025, at 1:23 p.m.
9 messages  (71 views) - Newest: April 17, 2025, at 4:16 p.m. by ArborArcanist
Oh no, 70 scores in five weeks?   Expand
AhN - April 17, 2025, at 9:25 a.m.
4 messages  (106 views) - Newest: April 17, 2025, at 4:44 p.m. by Peter G.
Attn. JB11sos: My 2008 top-ten   Expand
Solaris - April 17, 2025, at 8:56 a.m.
5 messages  (76 views) - Newest: April 17, 2025, at 3:17 p.m. by Peter G.
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Summary of site status for 2024
Christian Clemmensen - January 26, 2025, at 10:59 a.m.
1 update  (2149 views)
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