1. How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
2. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
3. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
4. Shazam!
5. Lost in Space Season 2
6. Our Planet
7. Little Women
8. Spider-Man: Far From Home
9. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
10. Cliffs of Freedom
Composer of the year: Bear McCreary

1-3 get *****. 4-10 get ****½. The runner-up is Dream Factory / Traumfabrik. Outlander S4 and Rim of the World contended, but the closing duo of ‘Milou’s Dream’ and the eponymous suite sealed the deal.

The rest of my top 20: Aladdin, Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, CyberWork and the American Dream, Masquerade Hotel, Swoon, Untamed Romania

Other ****: Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Good Omens, A Hidden Life, His Dark Materials Season 1, The Professor and the Madman

***½ (round up to 4) works: Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Dumbo, Game of Thrones Season 8, Knives Out, Minuscule: Mandibles From Far Away, Sordo / The (Silent) War, Zwingli

***½ (round down to 3) works: Child’s Play, Erica, The Mandalorian Season 1, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot

***: Charlie's Angels, Children of the Sea, Greedfall, It Chapter Two, Ni No Kuni: The Movie, The Secret Life of Pets 2

Random thoughts:
2019 was a middle-of-the-pack year relative to the rest of the decade. It was superior to 2016 or 2011 but nowhere near 2018 or 2014, though the year’s top 3 scores are all in my top 150 all time. I rated 43 scores from works released in 2019 (including four that I didn’t get to until this month), which was a bit higher than last year’s count.

I liked enough of the music from The Mandalorian, though portions were certainly PANTS. The weaker The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance got one listen on Spotify which wasn’t enough for a rating (probably ***, though I’m not interested in a 2+ hour repeat).

Favorite track: ‘Shazam!’ from Shazam!, closely followed by ‘Portals’ from Avengers: Endgame

Composer of the year was an easy decision. I gave at least ***½ to all 6 McCreary scores I heard, though I skipped the unenthusiastically received albums for Eli and See and, like most of America, I didn’t know the first/only season of Proven Innocent aired.

2019 specialty releases:
Favorite specialty album released in 2019 is a tricky one to pick. There was no slam dunk.
- All LLL boxes are well-produced, but not every featured score is terrific (e.g., all the Apes sequel scores).
- Superman, Lonesome Dove, A Man Called Peter, and Masters of the Universe lack much in the way of “net new” material.
- The “film versions” of the scores for King Rat, Monsignor, and especially The Thin Red Line are not better listening experiences.
- Air Force One was fun to get in complete form but still registers as a mid-tier 90’s Goldsmith action score.

My individual album pick is a tie between Intrada’s releases of Apollo 13 and An American Tail. Both are for excellent scores, feature significant new material, and contain great liner notes. My runner-up pick is the superb restoration work done on The Bride of Frankenstein by La-La Land.

My box set vote goes to Kritzerland’s Henry King at Fox. RIP Nick Redman.

Older stuff:
I would be remiss if I didn’t cite the many composers whose film outputs I was largely or entirely unfamiliar with before this year: Richard Addinsell, John Addison, William Alwyn, Daniele Amfitheatrof, Jeff Alexander, Malcolm Arnold, Georges Auric, Arthur Benjamin, Richard Rodney Bennett, Lord Berners, Stanley Black, Roy Budd, Mark Chait, Francis Chagrin, Andrew Cottee, Benjamin Frankel, Dave Grusin, Christopher Gunning, Neal Hefti, Kenyon Hopkins, Gottfried Huppertz, Constant Lambert, Leighton Lucas, Nathaniel Mechaly, Philipp Noll, Riz Ortolani, Clifton Parker, André Previn, Alan Rawsthorne, Nelson Riddle, Gerard Schurmann, the Sherman Brothers (and, by extension, Irwin Kostal), David Shire, Mischa Spoliansky, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Most of these discoveries were due to the Chandos Movies series. FSM’s MGM Soundtrack Treasury was also impactful.

New listens to older scores/compilations (214 entries) was a bit higher than my 2018 listening (199 entries). No new classical albums were played last year (vs. 95 in 2018), though I did get to plenty of Chicago classical music concerts. Better luck in 2020, classical music albums!

The top 10 older scores I discovered last year are ranked below while the rest are subsequently ordered alphabetically within rating tiers. Anything I found via Chandos is in bold text...and yes, dear reader, there is a lot of bold text below.

*****
1. The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) - Alfred Newman
2. Mary Poppins (1964) – songs by The Sherman Brothers; score & song arrangements by Irwin Kostal
3. Raise the Titanic (1980) - John Barry
4. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - Malcolm Arnold
5. Return to Oz (1985) - David Shire
6. Scott of the Antarctic (1948) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
7. Metropolis (1927) - Gottfried Huppertz

****½
8. Dark City (1998) - Trevor Jones
9. Hobson’s Choice (1954) - Malcolm Arnold
10. Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) - Alfred Newman
Runner-up: Lawman (1971) - Jerry Fielding

****1/2 (round up to 5) scores
Bitter Springs (1950) – Ralph Vaughan Williams & Ernest Irving
The Bride Wore Black (1968) – Bernard Herrmann
A Bridge Too Far (1977) – John Addison
The Fallen Idol (1948) – William Alwyn
The Flemish Farm (1943) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
49th Parallel (1941) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
Godzilla (1954) - Akira Ifukube
The History of Mr. Polly (1949) – William Alwyn
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) - Malcolm Arnold
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) – Richard Rodney Bennett
Lifeforce (1985) - Henry Mancini
The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
Odd Man Out (1947) – William Alwyn
Shogun (1980) - Maurice Jarre
Wee Geordie (1955) - William Alwyn

****1/2 (round down to 4) scores
Advise and Consent (1962) - Jerry Fielding
Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991) - Robert Folk
Boy on a Dolphin (1957) - Hugo Friedhofer
Burma Victory (1945) – Alan Rawsthorne
The Captive Heart (1946) - Alan Rawsthorne
A Christmas Carol / Scrooge (1951) - Richard Addinsell
Cold Lazarus (1996) - Christopher Gunning
David Copperfield (1969) - Malcolm Arnold
The England of Elizabeth (1957) - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967) - Richard Rodney Bennett
The French Revolution: Years of Hope (1989) - Georges Delerue
The French Revolution: Years of Rage (1989) - Georges Delerue
Greyfriars Bobby (1961) - Francis Chagrin
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - Maurice Jarre
Masters of the Universe (1987) - Bill Conti
Merchant Seamen (1940) – Constant Lambert
95 (2017) - Panu Aaltio
Oliver Twist (1948) – Arnold Bax
The Orville Season 1 (2017) - Bruce Broughton, Joel McNeely, John Debney & Andrew Cottee
Suicide Squadron / Dangerous Moonlight (1941) - Richard Addinsell

Breakdown of acquisitions by type:
- New (pre-2018): 133

- Compilation rerecording: 29 - mostly Chandos, plus Nonesuch’s Music From The Films Of François Truffaut and Kritzerland’s Unchained Melodies/Holiday Set

- Legitimate purchase of score I previously had: 16 - Air Force One, The Big Country, Innerspace, The Last Starfighter, Legend (US rejected/Europe cut), Lonesome Dove, Monsignor, The Polar Express, Predator, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Superman: The Movie, and 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

- Film recording of score I already had LP recording or rerecording of: 9 - Body Heat, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Bride of Frankenstein, Charade, Conan the Barbarian (1982), King Rat, Lost Horizon (1937), Two for the Road, and The Valley of Gwangi

- Expansion of previously owned score: 7 - An American Tail, Apollo 13, Cinema Paradiso, Minority Report, Schindler's List, The Thin Red Line, and The World Is Not Enough.

- Compilation: 7 - LLL's Potter, Apes, and Quinn Martin v1 sets; Kritzerland’s Henry King at Fox; FSM’s United Artists & MGM v1 Western sets; and...shudders...the VS Film Music Festival Krakow 2016 pre-show CD...NEVER BUY THIS, PEOPLE

- 2018 score acquired in 2019: 7 - BlacKkKlansman, First Man, Mary Poppins Returns, Otros Mundos, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Watership Down in January; Bumblebee later

- Additional recording: 3 - Tadlow’s Obsession, Tribute’s Fahrenheit 451, and the Symphonic Suite for Arion

- LP recording of score I already had film recording of: 1 - FSM’s I Spy Vol. 2

- Concert: 1 - Maurice Jarre at the Royal Festival Hall

- Non-score album by film composer: 1 - Hisaishi’s Minima_Rhythm 2