My Vote is Marty Supreme's by Oneohtrix Point Never. The film already has an awesome selection of 80's needle drops but Daniel Lopatin manages to brilliantly create a series of complimentary 80's pop inspired instrumentals that are highly emotive and genuinely pretty. I can hear Tangerine Dream, Carlos, late Morricone, Vangelis and Moroder in it, and it sits comfortably with those heavyweights.

Been listening to it for last two days and its making me yearn for melody to return to modern soundtracks.

He was snubbed by the Oscars which is embarrassing, because its probably the most memorable soundtrack of the year, its so good it elevates a pretty messy film.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2026

Might not be your cup of tea but production and songwriting took years and you can tell. Song structure alone is mind blowing for modern day pop music. This is the crack equivalent of hooky, melodic music.

 

Heard a few of the tracks over last few months, Technically fun and super polished modern dance pop.

Unfortunately, as a middle aged man I really struggle with the pop song writing K pop explores. They just don't speak to me emotionally at all.

Not that they need my demographic anyway :D

The producers are clearly having fun because its a musical. The switching of elements through the tracks is definitely to be applauded.

I've seen the directors talking about developing the film and definitely admire their persistence and passion. Pretty wholesome story, good work all round. I'm just too old for it :D

 

Jerskin Fendrix's Bugonia

Ludwig Göransson's Sinners

Jonny Greenwood's One Battle After Another

Daniel Lopatin's Marty Supreme

Tomaz Alves Souza Mateus Alves' The Secret Agent

m83's resurrection

Ryan Holladay–Hays Holladay–Zach Cregger's Weapons

Kangding Ray's Sirāt

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2026

Nice! im going to have a listen to Bugonia and Weapons soundtracks today. I remember liking Weapons.

 

Weapons' score it’s the kind of music that has an incredible impact, especially when you see it paired with the film... I remember that when I watched it, it struck me deeply (It doesn’t operate in the manner of a traditionally and beautifully composed John Williams theme; instead, it achieves its power through surprise, impact and atmosphere, remaining profoundly unsettling, in a provocative way...

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2026

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING 2025 - Soundtrack Suite | Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey

Spoiler: Highlights from soundtrack album of the newest installment of the Mission: Impossible series

Highlights from soundtrack album of the newest installment of the Mission: Impossible series

0:00 We Live and Die in the Shadows
0:22 Main Titles
1:20 Come Home Ethan
2:00 Martial Law (pt. 1)
3:10 Martial Law (pt. 2)
3:44 It's Only Pain
3:31 Mt Weather (pt. 1)
5:36 Mt Weather (pt. 2)
5:56 The Entity's Future
8:08 I'll Be Waiting (pt. 1)
8:56 I'll Be Waiting (pt. 2)
9:50 Eye of the Storm
10:42 Nothing Is Certain (pt. 1)
11:10 Nothing Is Certain (pt. 2)
11:36 Fireflight
13:56 The Icecap
16:12 Ascending
18:04 Cons
18:52 We'll Figure It Out
20:02 Your Final Reckoning
20:24 Liftoff
21:44 Decisions
23:00 This Is Not Good
24:02 Problems
25:26 Ten Seconds... Maybe
26:14 Good Luck
27:00 A Light We Cannot See
30:38 Encore
31:26 The Arctic
32:36 This Is My Mission
35:46 Final Reckoning
37:34 For Those We Never Meet
39:22 Curtain Call

 

I totally forgot to mention this one... such a solid score. Great reminder!

 

I remember it being more atmosphere.


Sirat is sitting there ready to be watched at some point, I already know Rays techno work, so i'm intrigued.


Recently I've needed more than moody atmospherics in a soundtrack to make me really LOVE them. Marty is very nostalgic but I feel its emotions are more naked and optimistic. It steps outside of current/common soundtrack emotions and trends. It also defines and drives the scene instead of being another pedestrian supporting bed.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2026

Marty Supreme is more colorful, expansive (positive), and hybrid, with a strong presence of synthesizers and pop references. It ultimately amplifies the humor and competitive intensity, creating an almost retro-futuristic aesthetic for the character. Bugonia, on the other hand, is darker (dense!), minimalist, and atmospheric, generating unease and tension as an extension of the film’s paranoia and social critique (conspiracy theories, denialism, predatory capitalism, class warfare, the opioid crisis, and ecology: all of which expose a damn humanity that never learns anything as a society). They serve different functions. Stylistically, I prefer the music of Bugonia, but I acknowledge that Marty Supreme might be the one capable of rivaling Sinners and One Battle After Another... but that remains to be seen!

 

Interesting you mention Bugonias narrative. Ill always lean towards what stimulates me purely emotionally. I don't judge a soundtrack on the underlying story themes of the film ever, and Ill disagree, I think all soundtracks have only one job regardless of style or story - support and amplify the story telling by effecting the viewer emotionally.

No soundtrack is more 'worthy' or 'interesting' because of the films topics? It cant reflect the dense complexity of a story, its a wordless medium, it explores emotion that arises from the story.

To be honest i don't think Marty or Bugonia are great films when it comes to the script/story, but all the other departments really delivered, elevating both films.

Constant unease and ambient tension is maybe losing its specialness/novelty after almost 30 years of dark ambience heavy horror and thriller soundtracks? its getting samey? If someone went all Jerry Goldsmith it would be a blast of fresh air at the moment :D

I know its not a cool thing to say but i don't always 'enjoy' Greenwoods soundtracks with Anderson. It is so 'nervous' feeling and still One battle is easily one of my movies of the year. I would never listen to it on its own though. If it won i would understand why, even if its not my taste at all.

Sinners - Don't like the film OR the soundtrack for many, many reasons.

 

Last edited: Feb 12, 2026

Regarding a score being judged solely by its emotional impact and not by the narrative themes or the complexity of the story, perhaps that should indeed happen (since more films with outstanding scores could reach the public). However, if you look at the films usually awarded “Best Score,” they often appear not purely for musical merit, but because of choices that also involve narrative, publicity, and even the film’s overall reception.

As for each score having a unique role, this is well established, ever since Richard Davis summarized that scores are complex informational constructions with physical, psychological, and technical functions. So, there is no contradiction here.

I don’t think a score is more interesting simply because a film is dense or complex. The point is: when you have a provocative film and a score that enhances that atmosphere, as in Bugonia, it gains strength. But it is always a matter of personal taste. As a colleague of mine, an air traffic controller who studied guitar as a hobby, used to say: "–if I miss a note, the teacher just frowns, but no one dies. If I lose sight of a plane, or a doctor makes a surgical mistake, it can be disastrous!!!". In art, impacts are subjective and evaluated differently.

I agree that other departments can elevate films. Each work is a unique “semantic frame,” whose value also depends on narrative, publicity, and reception. Today, creative boldness from names like Goldsmith, Goldenthal, Davis, or Williams often sounds like “excess.” We are in a moment less favorable to film music based on motivic development, especially melodic.

Recently, I composed a melody for a documentary, and the director asked me to remove it, not because of quality, but because it was “too beautiful” and risked pulling the audience out of immersion. Since we are in a forum that also has an informative character, let me narrate what happened: It was a scene in which the social actress walks silently through a forest, gazing at the trees and the surrounding nature. For that moment, I composed a light, veiled, introspective melody (very restrained, especially in terms of psychometry).

When I first showed it to him, his immediate reaction was: “—Holy shit, man, that’s beautiful, it fits perfectly! congrtas!!!” Yet, the very next day, he came back and asked me to remove the melody and replace it with an atmospheric pad. I simply asked whether there was any problem with the melody, explaining that I had sought to match the subtlety of the scene with the music, reinforcing its introspection and connection, rather than injecting “cheap” emotions or something artificial.

His reply was: “—The problem is too much beauty. In reality, this scene is super simple... it’s just the woman walking through the woods and looking at the forest. I don’t want anyone to be distracted by the beauty of what you did!”

Granted, documentary filmmaking is cinema of the real. Still, I had composed using a temp track he himself had provided (one that already carried a rather super generic melody, with the caveat that I tempered the very character of my melody into something more veiled. Even so, “—too beautiful, a distraction”). in short: adhere to the zeitgeist!

So, in recent decades, theater directors and audiovisual creators have shown an almost fear of melodies, 'cos historically, they have been extremely effective means of providing structural functions (organizing and developing forms and/or the very experience of musical times. I am referring here to Kramer’s concept of musical time, which highlights the paradigm shift in listening: from linear narrative to more specialized and atmospheric modes of perception—precisely where the prevailing zeitgeist fits in!), variations of mood and expressivity, and serving as engines of tension and transformation of perception and memory (different types of motivic treatments that result in the perception of a thematic nucleus that expands, confronts, and resolves—or not—tensions, thereby creating a sense of musical narrativity, as described by authors such as Almén). From both a musicological and practical perspective, directors have favored neutrality (avoiding music that dictates emotions too directly), the aesthetics of liquid postmodernity (valuing sound as atmosphere rather than as a linear, teleological construct, typical of common listening in classical form, that generates a desire for resolution), and the strong influence of the post-1960 tradition (minimalism, musique concrète, and electronic music), which shifted the focus from melody to aspects such as texture and repetition.

In short, melodies are regarded as overly explicit and narrative, running the risk of guiding or excessively manipulating the audience’s emotions. This is the somewhat “foolish” zeitgeist of the present, but in practical terms, it is what prevails! At least, until someone comes along with something entirely outside this pattern and redefines the creative “compasses.”

I understand your point about Jonny Greenwood. I’ve learned to appreciate his work, though many directors are unaware of composers who, historically, might carry more weight. Yet it is crucial to recognize something significant: Greenwood is highly esteemed, particularly among directors (most notably within the realm of art-house cinema), because he thinks conceptually about music, not just in terms of common practical application. As for One Battle After Another or Sinners, they are interesting choices, but my preference goes to Bugonia, because it is surprising and cognitively provocative in chaotic times (we are witnessing the current system imploding, yet struggling to react in a desperate and barbaric manner, revealing both its fragility and its inability to reinvent itself).

In the end, film music is not judged solely by its isolated emotional impact, but rather by a combination of narrative, historical, and market factors. The contemporary rejection of melody, the absence of more elaborate motivic treatments, and the dismissal of anything that departs from atmospheric modes of perception (moment, vertical and gestural times) all constitute the prevailing biased zeitgeist. And do you know what one of the greatest contradictions is? In general, cinema and mass culture do not engage well with postmodern music (I myself am not one of its strongest advocates, though I do admire many composers who practice it). The curious thing, however, is that cinema seeks to incorporate concepts derived from modern art—the very same concepts that permeate postmodern music!—which creates an almost paradoxical tension: The concept is adopted (postmodern conceptual thinking), but the object (postmodern music) is not, and that, in itself, is deeply paradoxical! Yet this discussion already goes beyond the scope of this post...

 

Last edited: Feb 15, 2026

These 5 film scores will compete for the Oscar this year:

Sinners (Ludwig Göransson)
One Battle After Another (Jonny Greenwood)
Frankenstein (Alexandre Desplat)
Hamnet (Max Richter)
Bugonia (Jerskin Fendrix)

I think that Ludwig Göransson will win for Sinners, if not him then I believe that Jonny Greenwood will win for One Battle for Another. Personally, I prefer the Bugonia score for its energy and the way it was applied to the film. So yeah, Bugônia’s soundtrack is my pick and Jerskin Fendrix has all my support this year!

 

i don't know about best soundtrack, but best movietrack was Tron Ares

 

I really enjoyed Tron: Ares score, which blends industrial rock and electronic music with that amazing dark, atmospheric signature (although I still find Tron: Legacy score by Daft Punk much more balanced and functional). The critical reception, however, was mixed: many praised its boldness, but pointed out that it worked better as a Nine Inch Nails album than as narrative support for a film. Some even saw it more as fan service for the NIN crowd than as a proper movie score!
In the end, it’s worth noting that, historically, the more traditional awards tend to favor scores that balance innovation with narrative clarity. The dense, experimental sound of Tron: Ares was perceived as too niche and not accessible enough for a broader audience.

 

The Tron: Legacy soundtrack, I loved it... Daft Punk absolutely nailed it for that movie. It probably made me actually love the movie more than I should have.

However, I was a little disappointed in the soundtrack to Tron: Ares and the movie itself. I wasn't expecting much of the movie, but was maybe a bit overhyped for the NIN soundtrack. I'll have to give it another listen though, as I really only heard it during the movie.

There is one Tron: Ares track that went really well with one of the scenes though.. when they're escaping out of the virtual world on a bike, IIRC. Sounded awesome in the theater, anyways. The track is "I Know You Can Feel It". Pretty minimal track, but in the theater, holy shit that bass sounded AMAZING (especially in the last min or two of the song). Really worked with the scene too.

 

Last edited: Mar 10, 2026 at 3:41 AM

After listening to this year’s nominated scores, one fact stood out: the notable absence of blockbusters such as Avatar 4, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, or the much‑anticipated Marty Supreme. Instead, the selection included two films that, while competent, feature utterly generic soundtracks. Built on clichéd ostinatos, sparse melodies, and the constant use of drones (symphonic or hybrid), they embody what one might call mood scores: Hamnet, more palatable, and Frankenstein, which drags in predictability (to clarify: I'm talking about the music!).

On the opposite end, three highly inventive works emerge. Sinners, the most conventional of the trio, stands out for its popular appeal by skillfully blending blues and Southern rock. One Battle After Another is a formidable achievement, where Jonny Greenwood extracts the maximum from a brilliant postmodern and neo‑minimalist sonic architecture. Meanwhile, Bugonia offers the most dramatic and deconstructive proposal (music that, through dramatic intensity and postmodern techniques, flirts with exaggeration to perfectly serve Lanthimos’s aesthetic).

My support lies with the audacity of (1) Bugonia or the "emotional precision" of (2) One Battle After Another. However, Göransson’s competent hybridization work may well earn him a third Oscar (which would be regrettable given the more inventive contenders).

This situation suggests five reflections on the Academy’s criteria:

1. Cohesive vsual-sonic identity: All films present an absolute symbiosis between the director’s visual aesthetics and the composer’s sonority. In One Battle After Another, Jonny Greenwood’s minimalism mirrors the latent tension of Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction. In Hamnet, Max Richter uses Elizabethan harmonic language to structure the "emotional skeleton" of Chloé Zhao’s work.
2. Narratives of "inevitable cause and consequence": The nominated films tend to be dramas or thrillers with tightly bound structures, where music acts as the "cement" that unites the story. There is no room for gratuitousness: the tracks are carefully designed to create specific moods and/or narrative closure.
3. Exploration of hybridisms: Despite the use of drones and ostinatos in some, there is a common tendency to mix the traditional (orchestral) with modern or popular elements to create a recognizable hybridizations. Sinners, for example, employs blues and Southern rock to anchor its epic identity in an appealing way.
4. Focus on interior depth and mood: Instead of grandiloquent heroic themes (like those of Mission Impossible), the Academy favored scores that emphasize atmosphere and psychological depth. Even the "exaggeration" of Bugonia is a deliberate formal choice to mirror the magical surrealism of the plot.
5. Preference for original music (without quotations or repetitions): maintaining the general trend (for about 22 years now!), the Academy has shown little appreciation for derivative works and instead favors entirely original scores. The last time a sequel won was in 2004, when Howard Shore received the Oscar for Best Original Score with The Return of the King.

Addendum on Bugonia: the film is a fascinating exception. Positioned at the threshold between mass cinema and art/experimental cinema, it shocks through deconstruction. Its score, though symphonic, amplifies visual tension exponentially, granting it a masterful dramatic dimension: In this work, one can observe the full constructive and deconstructive power of sound! I Highly recommended: watch and listen! Bugonia may cause side effects such as existential crises, spontaneous applause, or even lead your neighbors to believe you’ve joined an avant‑garde cult. I myself was left with an almost uncontrollable curiosity to know whether Will Tracy wrote the script under the influence of coffee, psychedelics, pure creative insanity (or perhaps all of them at once!)

 

Last edited: Mar 14, 2026 at 3:01 PM

Best soundtrack for me of 2025 was Predator: Badlands by

• Composers: Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch.

Sarah Schachner has been a big inspiration for me many years now :

 

That’s awesome, buddy, great to 'read' you here!

I get your point! However, in my view, the style adopted in Predator: Badlands is already saturated for the major award circuits, remaining confined to a more niche spectrum. If you look closely, in recent years, nominees prioritize psychological depth over pure genre films. The victory of Avatar: Fire and Ash at the IFMCA was a significant technical recognition (specialized in nature, since it doesn’t reflect the "exhausted formula" pattern we see in productions like Badlands — please, note that War Machine is a clear derivation of that same compositional model). So, the awarding of Avatar 3 by the IFMCA corroborates that its score operates on a distinctly differentiated scale of structural complexity. While Badlands and War Machine anchor themselves in a derivative and purely functional compositional action model, Franglen’s work preserves thematic identity (recalling material created by Horner) while simultaneously embracing density (the conjuration of a hybrid soundscape that echoes the ethnic, the electronic, and the orchestral) and thematic expansion, distancing it from the creative exhaustion typical of conventional action films (hybrid action cues, based on different EDM styles, like "do it, more cinematic, more epic, more brutal, more… marketing department’s favorite mantra!).

In the end, it all comes down to personal taste, right?
That is correct from the standpoint of appreciation, but from the standpoint of creation, mass-media composers must stay alert to the interplay between film genre (multimedia), musical genre/style, and contemporary musical trends. Historically, it is almost always inadvisable to ignore this triad, which ultimately determines the prevailing Zeitgeist (until someone with the guts proposes something contrary and achieves financial prominence, as Zimmer did). This year, Göransson is living proof that beyond aesthetic innovation (or the fixation on a particular niche), a dialogue with popular music (when truly embodied in the script) may be exactly what ensures the prägnanz necessary to generate both critical and popular resonance.

General observation: I don’t disregard EDM and its derivatives as popular music; I simply argue that, historically, blues is less niche because, as a genre, it predates EDM and its structures (the 12‑bar form, the pentatonic scale) are more ‘diluted’ into the global ear. EDM, on the other hand (though massive and absolutely mainstream within certain socio‑age groups), is a language built largely on timbre and hypnotic repetition. For more traditional listeners, this often still feels like a technological or generational niche: exhausting, even irritating, for some!. I once played the Tron: Ares soundtrack to general listeners who first reacted with ‘—wow, impressive,’ and five minutes later sighed, ‘—man, it’s all the same thing over and over...’

In terms of easy listening, one could say the human ear organizes blues melodies as a kind of embodied voice (grounded, incarnate). By contrast, in terms of film appreciation/retention, EDM may excels at atmosphere but can falter in memory. Why? Because in the current zeitgeist, which doesn’t prioritize melodic identity, the absence of a clear, singable leitmotif reduces retention. Blues and rock, by contrast, are genres built on themes and hooks that the brain closes around and stores... ‘stickier’ thanks to their closed forms, meanwhile Tron: Ares score offers broader, sparser, continuous flows that resist that kind of closure.

 

Last edited: Mar 14, 2026 at 5:25 PM

^^^^^

I really enjoy your writings here good friend ...it reminds me of :

Back in 2003 I was involved with Musicians Institute here in Cali and one the the classes was music analysis,discussing all day soundtracks and various aspects of music production.

Anyway enjoy some old soundtrack music by me,would be really interesting to hear your opinion/music analysis on these :

Spoiler