Added on Thursday, December 31, 2020 Posted by Tim Horemans
These are some of the best scores from 2020
2020 Has been a really strange year. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic movie theaters were forced to close, new film releases were postponed and that had also an effect on movie scores and soundtrack releases. But even with all these delays 2020 had a wealth of new film music to offer. I have asked some of our frequent website contributors to provide me an overview of what they thought were some of their favourite film scores. Since these are all personal preferences I have a list for you with fantastic scores which are definitely worth of checking out.
Let me start with one of the more popular tv shows there was this year and that's the Netflix mini series The Queen's Gambit. Joris Hermy says about Carlos Rafael Rivera's music that it is one of the best scores written for one of this year's best tv series. A score which has a simple theme but with great development of the theme and it's orchestrations.
Lammert de Wit liked Dragonheart: Vengeance by Mark McKenzie. Lammert is one of our frequent reviewer and he gave this score 96 points out of 100. Full of melody, including Randy Edelman’s original Dragonheart theme, on which McKenzie expands. Abundant in lyrical harmony and symphonic beauty. Partly acoustic, partly electronical, but the latter sounds like a majestic orchestra.
This year offered a lot of good music for television and one of my favourite score is Lorne Balfe's music for the second season of His Dark Materials. He wrote some new theme's for this season and used also the old ones in the mix. Both albums, Anthology and series 2-CD score are really good.
2020 was the year of composer Daniel Pemberton, he wrote music for 4 films, Birds of Prey, Rising Phoenix, The Trail of the Chicago 7 and Enola Holmes. All 4 are really different albums, but all are really good. I really loved the eclectic mix of styles in Birds of Prey, the r&b rhythms in the documentary Rising Phoenix and the orchestral sounds of Enola Holmes. Holmes is one of Pemberton's most orchestral scores and the music really drives the character of Enola in the film.
With the music of Martin Phipps for season 4 of the Crown we turn again to television. Joris Hermy loved the music for this show. The simplicity of the music makes it pure and really good.
Some of Philippe Mouchon's favourite theme's of this year were for films such as The Christmas Chronicles 2 by Christophe Beck, Calamity, une enfance de Martha Jane Cannary by Florencia Di Concilio, 1917 by composer Thomas Newman and The Call of the Wild by John Powell. Philippe also liked Pemberton's music for Enola Holmes and Michael Giacchino's composition for Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Also in Philippe's list is Ludwig Goransson's score for the Disney+ serie The Mandalorian for which season 2 aired in December.
Talking about Ludwig Goransson he wrote this year the score to Christopher Nolan's latest film Tenet. The result was a pure electronical score with a lot of cool sounds and rhythms. It really served the film well. The soundtrack album has 90 minutes of the score. Maybe not everyones cup of tea but I really like to listen to it from time to time.
Lammert de Wit enjoyed Artemis Fowl by composer Patrick Doyle. He refers to the music as a magical score, in which Doyle colours his music with Celtic flavours, and full orchestral grandeur. Even the more poppy music sounds simply great, because Doyle is an artist in making great melodies. Also Onward by Mychael & Jeff Danna is in his list. It's a fantasy flavoured score, with great melodies and orchestrations, even some fine choir music is present, but also dark and grimm music, which is less pleasant. That makes this score a varied listen. A complete review of this score will follow soon on our website.
If you like orchestral music then John Debney and Alan Silvestri were the go to guys. Maybe not the most original scores but really beautiful ones to listen to. Come Away and Jingle Jangle are both written by John Debney and offer both beautiful theme's and great orchestral writing. The Witches from Silvestri has one basic idea which is transformed in numerous ways you can't imagine. This score breathes 100% Alan Silvestri's signature style.
The most listened score album of Joris Hermy is Wendy. This music is written by composer Dan Romer. The film tells the classic Peter Pan story, a story for which numerous composers already have written memorable scores. Romer stays true to his musical roots and delivers a fantastic score! A must listen score.
Normally 2020 should have been the year for Hans Zimmer with 7 scores to be released. Only 4 films have been released 3 have been moved to 2021. The most notable scores of Zimmer this year are Wonder Woman 1984 and Hillbilly Elegy. The first being a big blockbuster movie with a grand score as only Zimmer could write one, the latter a score for the Netflix drama with Amy Adams and Glenn Close as lead characters. Hillbilly Elegy is a more intimate score. The music is written by Hans Zimmer and David Fleming. The album builds up to the end track Steel in our Veins which is a fantastic track. My personal favourite of the 2.
To end this overview I will present you my favourite score of 2020 which is Michael Giacchino's score to Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. So not a score for film or a tv series but a videogame. The Medal of Honor series has already had really good music. Michael Giacchino has been a part of that and it is great to see him return to the franchise. He has written the theme's for this game and it is female composer Nami Melumad who wrote the rest of the score. Both already worked together this year on the film An American Pickle which also had a really great score. This Medal of Honor score is a fantastic symphonic action score.
Let's hope that 2021 will bring you a good health and good film scores.