Best TV music composers
This isn’t about TV main themes — that’s a post for another day. This is about music throughout TV episodes. Most TV shows have incidental music that’s not very distinctive — below are the ones that are. Best of the best 1) Michael Giacchino — Lost Now scoring movies such as Star Trek, Up, and […]
Lack of female soundtrack composers
With all the listening to soundtracks I do, I can only name one female soundtrack composer: Rachel Portman. She composed the music for Benny & Joon, Chocolat, The Lake House, Never Let Me Go, and One Day — among other things. I don’t have a whole lot to say on this topic, except the obvious: […]
Best soundtracks by year
Here’s my best soundtrack list, updated with soundtracks I heard in 2014. Of the soundtracks I heard first in the past year, my favourite is Saving Mr. Banks by Thomas Newman. On the other end, I found The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug by Howard Shore quite disappointing. How to Train Your Dragon 2 by […]
KW Symphony’s “Superheroes!”
I went to the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s performance of “Superheroes!” I didn’t know what the exact lineup would be but I expected it to contain many familiar pieces. The selection of pieces was a bit more eclectic than I expected, but it included some less familiar pieces that I’m glad I got a chance to hear. […]
KW Symphony’s “Pixar in Concert”
I went to hear the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s performance of “Pixar in Concert.” The orchestra performed music from all 13 of Pixar’s movies. In addition to making incredible movies, Pixar has uniformly great music. Scenes from the movies were shown above the orchestra. The orchestra was conducted by Evan Mitchell. I liked how he was able […]
KW Symphony’s “John Williams & Spielberg”
I went to the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s performance of “John Williams and Spielberg.” What this means, of course, is that they played the music of John Williams that he composed for movies that Steven Spielberg directed. As I’ve noted recently, Williams is one of my favourite movie composers. Not all of his great scores are for Spielberg […]
Best soundtracks by year
Here are what I think are the best soundtracks of the year, along with runner ups and honourable mentions. I’ve got a tie for winner twice, in 2009 and 1989. I stopped at 1977 because I don’t have anything for 1976. Prior to that notable soundtracks include The Pink Panther, The Godfather, The Good, the […]
Best soundtracks spanning multiple films
I’m talking about more than two soundtracks for a film series by the same composer(s). Here are the 12 I think are the best. Best of the best James Bond — John Barry Barry wrote the music for 11 of the first 15 James Bond movies: From Russia with Love Goldfinger Thunderball You Only Live […]
Best of the best: music
Here are my favourite 20 albums in three categories. There are lots of great individual songs but these are great albums to listen to as a whole. Soundtracks Klaus Badelt — Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl John Barry — Dances With Wolves Christophe Beck — Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The […]
A place for soundtrack reviews
If you’re interested in soundtracks, you might find this site useful. They review a lot of soundtracks, and they even give out their own awards each year. For a bunch of prolific composers they have a list of all the soundtracks they’ve done. I might not agree with everything the reviewers say, but they’re very […]