Since February 2022, Filmtracks has been providing coverage for older soundtracks that had never been featured at the site before. These scores were selected because they were popular entries in Filmtracks' internal search engine or part of major franchises for which the others were reviewed. Most (but not all) are pulling in the traffic levels expected of them.

So far, 90 of these reviews have debuted on the site since then. Another four are scheduled to be published in the coming few weeks. Then, in October, the focus of the reviews is shifting to the final segment of those slated for coverage: unreviewed scores from major composers that typically see demand on all their reviews. Roughly 30 of these reviews have already been written and await publishing, with unreviewed John Williams scores leading this next phase.

Since there is such a significant backlog of coverage awaiting debut, the pace of the publishing for these new reviews and the re-writes will accelerate for the next few months. Readers should expect that pace to slow again next year, as my writing time will be reduced later this year by a mandate that all employees at my workplace return to the office regularly, which causes me three hours of commuting per day. The lack of that commute is in part why this entire series of reviews has been possible.

By the end of this phase, look for the filmographies of the top five composers at Filmtracks to be filled out as much as reasonably possible without diving too far back outside the range of years in which this site concentrates. One composer is scheduled to receive another twenty reviews at the least. I hope you enjoy this next phase of coverage!

Christian

Since October 2024, Filmtracks has been debuting all-new coverage of film scores by major composers that had not yet been reviewed. These surveys aim to complete the "discography" (the available releases) of these most popular composers at the site, at least going back to a certain date. These reviews of the five most requested composers' works have now been published, including those by John Williams (13 reviews), James Horner (1), Jerry Goldsmith (35), Danny Elfman (9), and Hans Zimmer (9).

Mixed into those new reviews were a handful representing scores by John Barry and Alan Silvestri. Starting today, the next round of composer-based reviews will rotate between coverage of the remaining Silvestri scores (eventually marking 25 total) as well as another 19 reviews each for Patrick Doyle and James Newton Howard. The survey of Doyle scores will cover the totality of his released albums and, while these reviews are typically published in reverse-chronological order, those for Doyle will move forward through his career instead.

From there, another trio of composers will be featured, including the remaining reviews for John Barry, which will bring his total to 13 in this round. Alongside the Barry coverage will be reviews for all available albums representing two composers of the younger, current generation. After that, a special survey will cover film scores by two legends of the industry as well as two currently active favorites with robust careers arguably underrepresented at the site.

In addition to these composer-focused reviews, a handful of other all-new reviews have been completed for scores of continued interest from the past few years, and these will be sprinkled in amongst the others in the schedule. In total, 129 reviews in this series have been written so far in 2025, and 108 of them still await publishing. With such a lengthy backlog, these reviews will debut at an accelerated pace even though they suffer in traffic totals as a result.

Overall, 2025 promises to be the most productive year for new reviews at Filmtracks since 2003 at the least, and perhaps ever. While viewership for these older reviews varies widely (the Elfman reviews are immediate hits while those for Barry are largely ignored), they all fill important holes in the site's coverage from the 1970's forward. Enjoy!

Christian