Happy #NationalFilmScoreDay!
How fitting that I have this list on my draft folder, and it’s definitely the perfect day to post the film score edition of my Best of the Decade list. Soundtracks is one of my all time fave music genres and there’s been soundtracks done in the past ten years that’ve become my all time favorites.
For the most part, these are instrumental scores, though in a couple of cases, the soundtracks are composed of songs by various artists, i.e. The Greatest Showman, so I’m posting my fave song of the soundtrack. Just like my best-of-decade, there are a few on my list from the same composer, i.e. Hans Zimmer and Henry Jackman. Some of these highlight my favorite track, but some are picked at random as I generally enjoy the entire soundtrack.
So without further ado, here are my picks in the order of the film’s year of release:
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) – John Powell
Inception (2010) – Hans Zimmer
TRON: Legacy (2010) – Daft Punk
X-Men: First Class (2011) – Henry Jackman
Skyfall (2012) – Thomas Newman
Belle (2013) – Rachel Portman
Gravity (2013) – Steven Price
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – Henry Jackman
Interstellar (2014) – Hans Zimmer
Age Of Adaline (2015) – Rob Simonsen
Cinderella (2015) – Patrick Doyle
Far From The Madding Crowd (2015) – Craig Armstrong
Mad Max Fury Road (2015) – Junkie XL
Sicario (2015) Jóhann Jóhannsson
La La Land (2016) – Justin Hurwitz
Pride + Prejudice + Zombies (2016) – Fernando Velázquez
Sing Street (2016) – Various
Performed by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo
Composed by Gary Clark (of Danny Wilson band)
The Greatest Showman (2017) – John Debney + Joseph Trapanese (score), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (songs)
Performed by Michelle Williams
Composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Black Panther (2018) – Ludwig Göransson
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) – Various
Performed by: Lily James
Composed by: ABBA
Hope you enjoy my list. Now it’s your turn, what’s some of your favorite soundtracks of the past decade?
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Alan Silvestri-Avengers: Endgame, the scores of Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross for The Social Network, Gone Girl, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the music soundtrack for Coco, Jonny Greenwood’s score for The Phantom Thread and We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Oh yeah, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ work for those films you mentioned are great! I also like the score for Phantom Thread, nice picks!
You know I thought this past decade’s movie soundtracks were kind of forgettable, if I didn’t see your list here, I won’t be able to remember much of the soundtrack from the decade. Now that I see your list, I definitely agree with soundtrack from Interstellar, Gravity, Tron: Legacy, Inception and Mad Max: Fury Road.
I don’t remember much about Black Panther’s soundtrack except this song by Kendrick Lamar that played at the end of the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQbjS0_ZfJ0. I loved it so much that I bought it after I saw the movie. I’m also a fan of Lamar’s music so it’s an easy purchase.
I’m not too familiar w/ Kendrick Lamar’s music but yeah that’s a great song! I guess some of my choices are kinda off-the-beaten-path as most haven’t even seen those movies but I LOVE the music. I was surprised how wonderful the Pride + Prejudice + Zombies score was, so elegant but also has some touches of horror in it.
Nice choices. The Interstellar music gave me chills. That epilogue track is great from La La Land, a film I didn’t fully appreciate and need to revisit.
As an HM I’d like to include I Lost My Body (2019) which had an affecting score.
Hi Chris! How’s life in Denmark these days? Are you affected much by Covid-19?
I didn’t fully appreciate La La Land either but I thought the music was outstanding! I haven’t seen I Lost My Body yet, is that on Netflix!
We have corona here too and are self-isolating. None of my family are in hospital so fingers crossed stays that way. Hope all is okay with you and yours.
Yes, I Lost My Body is on Netflix. Definitely worth a look.
Yeah this is quite unprecedented in our lifetime that everyone in the world is in either lockdown or self isolation. Glad to hear you and your family are in good health!
I love a lot of these too and I’m so glad you included John Powell for HTTYD. I feel that’s so underrated, yet TEST DRIVE is a track I still play often to this day. I adore it.
Glad you love HTTYD score!! It’s absolutely amazing and adds such magical quality to the film, esp the flying sequences!
Great idea! I remember your love for many of the scores you mentioned.
Hi Cindy! Yeah I adore movie scores… I listen to them a lot 😀
Hope you’re staying safe and well, my friend!
Interesting list. What do you think of the music in “Her” and “The Martian”?
Hello! I like both films, actually I love HER, but for some reason I can’t remember their scores, I have to look ’em up now.