1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
2. Ratatouille
3. The Golden Compass
4. Lair
5. Spider-Man 3
6. Angel
7. Battlestar Galactica Season 3
8. Halo 3
9. Medal of Honor: Airborne
10. Warhawk

Composer of the year: Michael Giacchino

Track of the year: End Creditouilles.

Guilty pleasure track of the year: Uncharted: The Eldorado Megamix by DJ Shadow.

***** for spots 1-3. ****½ for 4-9. **** for 10.


Comments on the top 10
Warning: No The Fall Guy, but still may include gaslighting

Thoughts on most MV / RC scores from 2007, including my top pick:
https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=109608
https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=109688
https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=109726
https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=109802
https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=111505

-------

That’s Spider-Man 3 as it pertains to Young’s original scoring, not the later Debney / Lurie partial replacement work. Hopefully La-La Land continues releasing the franchise’s albums at its current pace and announces this for Black Friday 2026.

-------

I really don’t listen to Angel as much as I should.

-------

Back when Lair first came out I - like many others - pointed out the commonalities with John Williams’ Prequel Trilogy scoring. Now I hear all the 90s Goldsmith allusions too! But does that change where the score placed? OF COURSE NOT. As with the same year’s Warhawk, the score is stylistically similar to earlier classics without being blatantly derivative, and its well-developed set of themes also helps it stand out on its own.

I also wish the game had been more successful so that Debney could’ve scored a sequel called Lair Lair.

-------

Yeah, that’s right, there are three other game scores in that top 10!

Thoughts on Halo 3 - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=142528

Michael Giacchino’s three prior Medal of Honor scores are terrific, but - perhaps thanks to the intervening years of Lost and Mission: Impossible - this year’s Airborne was the first score in the franchise that sounded much more like Giacchino’s own voice than it did the Williams homage of the earlier trio.

Thoughts on Warhawk - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=134228, with two significant corrections: 1) it was commenter malpractice to not cite how not just Williams but also Alan Silvestri informs this score and 2): it finally has returned to digital / streaming services! https://open.spotify.com/album/2tFlJ8HIVzwQ6Qy5DFH1s1

-------

Coming very close to the top 10 was Patrick Doyle’s bombastic The Last Legion. The other **** residents of my top 20 are Dario Marianelli’s sad Atonement, Rupert Gregson-Williams’ jazzy, snazzy Bee Movie, Murray Gold’s great leap forward for Doctor Who music for the 2007 Christmas Special Voyage of the Damned, Howard Shore’s austere Eastern Promises, Naoki Sato’s grand Heroic Age, Jane Antonia Cornish’s robust throwback adventure sound for Island of Lost Souls, Joe Hisaishi’s mighty “greatest hits”-style The Legend, Roque Baños’ often gorgeous The 13 Roses, and Marco Beltrami’s spaghetti-flavored 3:10 to Yuma.

Thoughts on Hisaishi’s 2007 - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=129038


My most appreciated 2007 specialty releases
1. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King complete recordings. WHAM.

2. Intrada’s expanded release of Jerry Goldsmith’s majestic The Wind and the Lion.

3. FSM’s release of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s powerfully dramatic Kings Row and unexpectedly spooky The Sea Wolf.

4. Naxos’ complete re-recording of Korngold’s finest score: The Sea Hawk.

5. Tribute’s two tremendous Bernard Herrmann re-recordings: Mysterious Island and Fahrenheit 451.

6. La-La Land’s complete release of David Arnold’s booming Godzilla.

7. Two spellbinding Miklós Rózsa re-recordings: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Spellbound.

8. Chandos’ new set of recordings of the film music of John Addison. The only affordable way to hear Strange Invaders!

9. The Deluxe Edition of Jerry Goldsmith’s supremely goofy The 'Burbs.

10. FSM’s release of Franz Waxman’s The Silver Chalice, perhaps the only good thing that came out of that bizarre movie.


Oh, look, MORE 2007 scores
Note: If it’s green then this activity is what catalyzed me finally hearing and/or rating it.

Other **** recipients are Naoki Sato’s warm Always: Sunset on Third Street 2, Mark Mancina’s heartfelt mix of song covers and score for August Rush, Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz’s blissfully amusing Enchanted, Christopher Young’s snarling Ghost Rider, James Newton Howard’s solemn I Am Legend, and the unnerving duo of Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood and David Shire’s Zodiac. The three ***½ scores rounding out my top 30 are Murray Gold’s varied Doctor Who Series 3, Ilan Eshkeri’s derivative magic for Stardust, and James Newton Howard’s instrumentally questionable but nonetheless lovely The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.

Other ***½ (round up to 4 stars): Brian Tyler’s bludgeoning Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Marc Streitenfeld’s blues-adjacent American Gangster, Craig Armstrong & A. R. Rahman’s disjointed but occasionally awesome Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Brian Tyler’s funky Finishing The Game, Mark McKenzie’s sometimes compelling The Last Sin Eater, David Holmes’ franchise finale Ocean’s Thirteen, Fernando Velázquez’s largely functional but climactically exquisite The Orphanage, Brian Tyler’s soaring but repetitive Partition, John Powell’s underrated P.S. I Love You, Klaus Badelt’s intimate Rescue Dawn, Harry Gregson-Williams’ funny Shrek the Third, Joe Hisaishi’s elegant The Sun Also Rises, and Klaus Badelt’s East-West replacement score fun for TMNT.

***½ (round down to 3 stars): David Arnold’s Amazing Grace, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis’ The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, John Powell’s The Bourne Ultimatum, Philip Glass’ Cassandra’s Dream, Geoff Zanelli’s Disturbia, Armand Amar’s The First Cry, Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna’s Fracture, David Arnold’s Hot Fuzz, Joel McNeely’s I Know Who Killed Me, Alberto Iglesias’ The Kite Runner, Tuomas Kantelinen’s Mongol, Alexandre Desplat & Aaron Zigman’s Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Marco Beltrami’s Live Free or Die Hard, Michael Giacchino’s Lost Season 3, Alexandre Desplat’s Lust, Caution, Lalo Schifrin’s Rush Hour 3, Patrick Doyle’s Sleuth, and Howard Shore’s Soul of the Ultimate Nation.

***: Tuomas Kantelinen’s Arn: The Knight Templar, Bear McCreary’s Battlestar Galactica: Razor, Alan Silvestri’s Beowulf, Aaron Zigman’s Bridge To Terabithia, James Newton Howard’s Charlie Wilson’s War, John Debney’s Evan Almighty, John Ottman’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Debbie Wiseman’s Flood, the combined efforts of Gerard Marino, Mike Reagan, Ron Fish & Cris Velasco for God of War II, Harry Gregson-Williams’ Gone Baby Gone, Dario Marianelli’s Goodbye Bafana, James Newton Howard & Peter Golub’s The Great Debaters, Geoff Zanelli’s Hitman, Danny Elfman’s Meet the Robinsons, Trevor Rabin’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Harry Gregson-Williams’ The Number 23, Trevor Morris’ SimCity Societies, Hans Zimmer and team’s The Simpsons Movie, Andrew Lockington’s Skinwalkers, Mychael Danna’s Surf’s Up, Naoki Sato’s Sword of the Stranger, Joe Hisaishi’s A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies, Steve Jablonsky’s Transformers, Trevor Morris’ The Tudors Season 1, and Greg Edmonson’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Eh: Jesper Kyd’s Assassin’s Creed, Dario Marianelli’s The Brave One, Mychael Danna’s Breach, Bear McCreary’s Eureka Season 2, Nicholas Hooper’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Mark Isham’s In the Valley of Elah, Mark Isham’s Gracie, Danny Elfman’s The Kingdom, James Newton Howard’s The Lookout, Mark Isham’s Next, Ramin Djawadi’s Prison Break Season 2, Brian Tyler’s War, and Wojciech Kilar’s We Own the Night.

Meh: Mark Isham’s Lions for Lambs, the combined efforts of Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, Richard Jacques & David Kates for Mass Effect, James Newton Howard’s Michael Clayton, Ramin Djawadi’s Mr. Brooks, John Ottman’s The Invasion, Tom Holkenborg’s Need for Speed: Prostreet, Mark Isham’s Reservation Road, and Mark Mancina’s Shooter.

Oh dear: Steve Jablonsky & Trevor Morris’ Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (quite possibly the worst score from the Remote Control brand across 2005-2012), Mark Isham’s The Mist, and John Murphy’s extension of Underworld’s improvisations for Sunshine.

Ow: Brian Tyler’s Bug. In any other year it might’ve been an easy winner of the coveted red lantern for last place, but there’s a difference between deliberate ugliness and outright ineptitude…

Epic fail: Harold Faltermeyer’s Two Worlds. When the legendary synth composer muses about how it would have been nice to score a movie like Pirates of the Caribbean, you can point to this work for why that likely would have been an abysmal idea.

Super helpful post as I'm digging in!

> Composer of the year: Michael Giacchino

As someone who's pretty meh on his big years in the mid-2010s, this is in contention for the best of his career.

> Track of the year: End Creditouilles.

But this...this is not quite how I see it haha.

> Super helpful post as I'm digging in!

Thanks!

Yeah, you'll note that the abundance of green entries as you get lower in the post is perhaps a sign that my "plug the gaps" listening was very much an exercise in quantity over quality for that year. Six Isham scores and I didn't like any of them, for starters. Though I'm glad I kept at this as explorations of unknown works from earlier years have proved more rewarding.

Honestly the most pleasant surprise among my 2007 discoveries might've been Brian Tyler's Finishing The Game, his most obscure score from the year and probably his best of them - admittedly helped by the comparative brevity of its album length relative to AVP: R and Partition. It almost made up for having to hear Bug!

> As someone who's pretty meh on his big years in the mid-2010s, this is in contention for the best of his career.

Yeah, to go from the Lost Season 3 finale (back when I really only knew his music by watching the show) to Ratatouille made for a great summer. Admittedly it took me a few more years to discover the MOH franchise.

> But this...this is not quite how I see it haha.

Any score piece with a lengthy bass clarinet solo wins track of the year by default. It's in the rulebook.

> 1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
> 2. Ratatouille
> 3. The Golden Compass

The biggest thing that will keep our lists from looking identical...

> 4. Lair
> 8. Halo 3
> 9. Medal of Honor: Airborne
> 10. Warhawk

is my lack of game scores.

> 5. Spider-Man 3
> 6. Angel
> 7. Battlestar Galactica Season 3

Oh right, television. Need to finish drafting that part of my list.

> Composer of the year: Michael Giacchino

A proper triple threat year from him (even though I'm mixed on Lost S3)

> Warning: No The Fall Guy, but still may
> include gaslighting

Damn, I'm never going to live that one down, am I. But anyone who puts At World's End in its rightful place on this list is welcome to gaslight me a bit from time to time.

> That’s Spider-Man 3 as it pertains to Young’s original scoring, not
> the later Debney / Lurie partial replacement work. Hopefully La-La Land
> continues releasing the franchise’s albums at its current pace and
> announces this for Black Friday 2026.

Due to the law change in 2005 making reuse fees for LA-recorded scores significantly more expensive, I wouldn't hold your breath.

> I really don’t listen to Angel as much as I should.

Top of my catch-up playlist, but knowing my own taste, quite likely fated to end up such a score for me as well even if I do end up rating it this highly.

> Michael Giacchino’s three prior Medal of Honor scores are terrific,
> but - perhaps thanks to the intervening years of Lost and
> Mission: Impossible - this year’s Airborne was the first
> score in the franchise that sounded much more like Giacchino’s own voice
> than it did the Williams homage of the earlier trio.

In my expanded field of candidates to explore over the next few weeks, so I'm curious as to whether this will end up being a positive or negative compared to the original three scores.

> Joe Hisaishi’s mighty “greatest hits”-style The Legend

Hope to check this one out too. I noticed that Jon Broxton ranked it but titled it The Story of the Great King and the Four Gods, but they are the same thing, so I hope the other JB is aware!

> Mark McKenzie’s sometimes compelling The Last Sin Eater

Probably didn't mean it that way but this is a fine example of damnation by faint praise

> David Holmes’ franchise finale Ocean’s Thirteen

Happened to watch this on a flight recently and that reiterated my opinion that while Holmes' scores for these flicks are perfectly functional in generating the requisite heist atmosphere, I find them so inert that I don't think I could rate them nearly so high. There's no sense of momentum whatsoever, it's just funky library music. They strike me a bit as proto-Pemberton scores without nearly as much dynamism (though offhand I can't actually recall if I liked Pemberton's own Ocean's entry any better).

> ***½ (round down to 3 stars): John Powell’s The Bourne Ultimatum

Damn, bit harsh. Below an Ocean's score is rough work. But perhaps ultimately fair if based on just the regular album and/or film context. Unfortunately a couple of this score's better action cues can be heard in neither; Greengrass developed a nasty habit of replacing original cues with temping from the prior two entries, perhaps the beginning of the end for his collaboration with Powell. Check this out - while a bit more-of-the-same, it's got energy to spare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y690no3BBTM

> Howard Shore’s Soul of the Ultimate Nation.

Had this as a 2006 score in my list for some reason. Add it to the longlist!

> ***: Alan Silvestri’s Beowulf

Spoilers: will end up much higher on my list. Supremely guilty pleasure and a mode I badly miss from latter-day Silvestri.

> James Newton Howard’s Charlie Wilson’s War

And he shall purify

> Steve Jablonsky’s Transformers

Spoilers: will end up much higher on my list. Supremely guilty pleasure and a mode I badly miss from latter-day Jablonsky.

> Oh dear: Steve Jablonsky & Trevor Morris’ Command & Conquer 3:
> Tiberium Wars (quite possibly the worst score from the Remote Control
> brand across 2005-2012)

Spoilers: won't be on my list haha. Haven't heard it and you don't exactly make me keen to. My chief competitor for that title would likely be On Stranger Tides but that's more of a dislike on principle than a "this score contains nothing of merit" situation. I guess Badelt's Rebellion from 2011 would no longer be considered of the RC brand but it is certainly one of the worst scores I've heard from an RC or ex-RC composer, or indeed by anyone, ever.

> Epic fail: Harold Faltermeyer’s Two Worlds. When the legendary
> synth composer muses about how it would have been nice to score a movie
> like Pirates of the Caribbean, you can point to this work for why
> that likely would have been an abysmal idea.

Given our gracious host's conniptions over how the Pirates scores we did get turned out, a tiny part of me wants to see how he'd react to that hypothetical scenario

> Damn, I'm never going to live that one down, am I. But anyone who puts At World's End in its rightful place on this list is welcome to gaslight me a bit from time to time.

I think I’ll leave it in for a few more of these before retiring it. All good jokes must be run into the ground after all.

> Hope to check this one out too. I noticed that Jon Broxton ranked it but titled it The Story of the Great King and the Four Gods, but they are the same thing, so I hope the other JB is aware!

Oh yeah, and someone else will put Taewangsasingi, I’m sure.

> Probably didn't mean it that way but this is a fine example of damnation by faint praise

I was surprised how underwhelmed I was by parts of it. The Morricone pan pipes stuff didn’t do much for me. The big sweeping string parts did in the back half did.

But that phrasing is more a reflection of me trying to have my succinct descriptions of each score this tier and up be unique - and getting to this one after I’d already burned a bunch of words on 2000-2006 scores.

> Had this as a 2006 score in my list for some reason. Add it to the longlist!

I think the album came out in 2006 but the game didn’t come out until the following year.

> Spoilers: will end up much higher on my list. Supremely guilty pleasure and a mode I badly miss from latter-day Silvestri.

I admittedly didn’t revisit it. Maybe an oops.

> Spoilers: will end up much higher on my list. Supremely guilty pleasure and a mode I badly miss from latter-day Jablonsky.

I admittedly didn’t revisit it. Not an oops.