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March/April 2026
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4/30/26
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Three Men and a Little Lady (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for twenty minutes of charmingly likeable and effortless light drama and romance music early in James Newton Howard's shift
to orchestral recordings.
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| Avoid it... |
if you demand any real substance to the listening experience, a pair of full-ensemble performances providing depth but the
remainder largely restrained to pretty piano and woodwind solos.
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4/28/26
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Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a moderately entertaining children's score from Patrick Doyle with a heartfelt character theme and a fantastic moment
of tribute to his score for Henry V.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the majority of the themes, the occasional prancing heroism, and the bulk of the suspense and action material
to maintain your interest for long.
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4/26/26
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Flight of the Navigator (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a less-developed, synthetic version of Alan Silvestri's similarly conceived score for Mac and Me two years later.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have no tolerance for Silvestri's attempts to utilize his early Synclavier tones to emulate orchestral tones when an
organic touch was truly needed.
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4/24/26
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Grand Canyon (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you specifically approved of certain facets of James Newton Howard's score in context, because to find peace with this
highly disjointed music on album, you have to embrace the reason for its schizophrenia.
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| Avoid it... |
on either album presentation if you value film music that intelligently connects highly disparate narrative elements into a
common whole, Howard strategically missing the mark badly.
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4/22/26
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A United Kingdom (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a conservatively pretty Patrick Doyle character drama score with few highs and lows, the rather low-key orchestral
ambience led by occasional hints of passion in the fullest performances of the two primary themes.
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| Avoid it... |
if you lament the significantly missed opportunity for this score to express multi-cultural instrumental complexity for the
topic, Doyle instead playing the story as safely as possible.
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4/20/26
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Slumberland (Pinar Toprak)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a rousing adventure fantasy score of immense scope and a final third that is melodically and emotionally phenomenal.
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| Avoid it... |
if you cannot sit through the less resounding portions of the narrative to receive that payoff, or if you expect the score
on album to match the more vibrant mix heard in the film version.
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4/18/26
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Overboard (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for Alan Silvestri's heartwarming love theme for the main sparring couple of the tale, a preview of many similar pretty
ideas to come for the composer.
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| Avoid it... |
on the score's sole, rare album if you seek undated quality from any of the other facets of the work.
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4/16/26
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Diggstown (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you're an established apologist for (or even enthusiast of) the contemporary sports comedy stylings of the late
1980's and early 1990's.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have zero interest in hearing James Newton Howard whip up a blend of rock and blues enthusiasm at near-parody levels
for a ridiculous boxing flick.
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4/14/26
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Whisky Galore! (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for roughly ten minutes of lovely melodic material in Patrick Doyle's top Celtic mode, the highlights of the work
heartwarmingly alluring despite their parody roots.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have no interest in brazenly Celtic comedy music, the ethnicity pervasively challenging in the many wild jigs that
dance through this score.
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4/12/26
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Young Guns II (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a significant improvement over the prior film's music, Alan Silvestri intelligently balancing traditional Western
elements with a flashy rock personality.
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| Avoid it... |
if Silvestri's typical mannerisms are what draw you to his music, very little in this score resembling his later mainstream
works.
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4/10/26
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The Saint of Fort Washington (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a handful of distinctively pretty highlights that foreshadow popular James Newton Howard scores of subsequent decades.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear an engaging narrative outside of those singular highlights, most of this score depressingly drab in
its demeanor.
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4/8/26
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Jig (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a more contemporary and less intense take on the same constructs and instrumentation as Patrick Doyle's impressive La
Ligne Droite.
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| Avoid it... |
if cohesive narratives are your key to the success of the composer's lyricism, this work tending to meander to address the
plethora of characters in the story.
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4/6/26
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Shattered (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for Alan Silvestri's attractively contemporary and optimistic main theme in all its various romantic variations, over
twenty minutes of such material existing on the longer album option.
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| Avoid it... |
if you demand the composer to be top form for his suspense portions, which utilize effective but mundane motifs and rely
upon abrasive, metallic stingers and high-pitch whining to earn their pay.
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4/4/26
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Intersection (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on its shorter, adequate album to enjoy one of James Newton Howard's most uniquely styled drama works, the highlighting
blues personality of this score a breath of fresh air.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect that distinct sound to make much sense for the location and content of the story, or if you demand consistent
thematic clarity in your intimate tragedies.
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4/2/26
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Sleuth (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on album for the sheer originality of the music in Patrick Doyle's career, its dance mixes particularly fun in their
outrageous interpretations of the composer's classicism.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect anything you hear in the film to remotely function, Doyle's risky score not paying off due to its inability
to convey a stylish presence in its otherwise intriguing, cyclical formations.
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3/31/26
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Beverly Hills Cop III (Nile Rodgers)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
to experience a total strategic failure of a soundtrack, Nile Rodgers set up for failure by the director's insistence that
Harold Faltermeyer's franchise sound be replaced by that of Elmer Bernstein.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are a purist favoring the Faltermeyer renderings for the first two scores, because the orchestral redirection in
this score, while sometimes admirably executed, sounds awkward with the legacy theme's various parts.
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3/29/26
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Soapdish (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a highly spirited and unique, mambo-led comedy from Alan Silvestri, one of the composer's zaniest and wonderfully sarcastic
career works.
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| Avoid it... |
if your testicles retracted into your body the moment the word "mambo" was mentioned above, because you have to love the Latin
aspect of this score to appreciate its enthusiastic madness.
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3/27/26
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Junior (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a highly likeable, direct extension of James Newton Howard's warmly melodic and occasionally robust music for Dave.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear Howard's popular song from the soundtrack on the short but still recommended score album.
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3/25/26
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Pars Vite et Reviens Tard (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for brief moments of lightly dramatic intrigue in an otherwise sour atmosphere of suspenseful dread, Patrick Doyle
exploring uniquely morbid structures for the topic of the plague.
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| Avoid it... |
if you require a compelling sense of mystery or character depth in this adequately cold symphonic exploration of simmering
fear and bitter revenge.
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3/23/26
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Dutch (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on its problematic album to extract a pair of redemptive, pretty Alan Silvestri cues of light choral and orchestral drama
at the story's conclusion.
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| Avoid it... |
because there's nothing particularly attractive about the rest of the basically functional but neither funny nor caring
music for the failed film.
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3/21/26
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Just Cause (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you want a more action-oriented take on James Newton Howard's crime thriller sound, the thematic portions not quite as
impressive as the robust suspense and chase passages.
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| Avoid it... |
and seek the related Eye for an Eye or Primal Fear instead if you desire better roles for the dramatic character themes in
this style of Howard score.
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3/19/26
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As You Like It (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a moderately interesting combination of Japanese tones and Patrick Doyle's conservatively pretty melodic base in a
smooth but restrained atmosphere of light drama.
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| Avoid it... |
if you thrive on the lush romanticism of Doyle's lyricism, this score's thematic narrative cloudy outside of its
violin-highlighted main theme.
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3/17/26
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Ricochet (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if tortuously unpleasant revenge thrillers stir your loins, because Alan Silvestri rarely went as broodingly unpalatable in
the 1990's as he did in Ricochet.
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| Avoid it... |
even if you can forgive the score's unappealing demeanor, its narrative flow on a short album nearly incomprehensible as
presented.
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3/15/26
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Eye for an Eye (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you have an established interest in James Newton Howard's proficient but not particularly memorable suspense mode of the
1990's.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the decently pretty but anonymously melancholy character drama of this score to compensate for the many cues
of synthetic droning.
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3/13/26
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Wah-Wah (Patrick Doyle)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a conservatively attractive Patrick Doyle character drama that is easy to digest but offers nothing of true
distinction.
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| Avoid it... |
and seek Doyle's related music for A United Kingdom if you desire more symphonic resonance for similar locales and general
story concepts.
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3/11/26
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The Island (Steve Jablonsky)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you accept that Hans Zimmer's clone army was an ironically perfect selection to compose this music, because all the
worst traits of his vintage Media Ventures action and the finale of Gladiator are mindlessly regurgitated.
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| Avoid it... |
for anything other than its famous final cue, because the other 100 minutes of music from Steve Jablonsky and five others
for this film is largely insufferable.
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3/9/26
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Black Sunday (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek a grim, but intelligent maturation of John Williams' morbidly suspenseful thriller material that had developed
throughout his disaster scores of the 1970's.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect any part of this score to rival Williams' famous alternatives in 1977, for as technically precise as his
subdued ideas for Black Sunday may be, they are not as memorable in most of their elaborations.
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3/5/26
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Filmtracks announces its 2025 Awards
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Filmtracks celebrates the best film music of 2025 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 2025 are:
Visit the 2025 Awards section to view the winners (and other categories). Also
available is an official page for the 2025 Filmtracks Community Awards. For
more information about these awards or to view the results from previous years, browse the Filmtracks
Awards index.
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3/2/26
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Frankenstein (Alexandre Desplat)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for its magnificent highlights, Alexandre Desplat exploring robust and lyrical fantasy tones that yield plenty of engaging
moments of gothic romanticism.
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| Avoid it... |
if you aren't prepared to sift through a long album presentation to extract the melodic attractions from the smooth but
sometimes atmospheric narrative of unfulfilled thematic branches.
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