These are the cream of the crop from this year’s incredible films and the music that made them shine that bit brighter than all the rest.

It’s been a powerful year in film. We had the Barbenheimer duo creating waves across the world from two different sides. Scorsese released perhaps his most powerful piece of film yet.

Of course, behind the films that made 2023 special are the soundtracks and film scores that elevated them.

Let’s look together at the very best film soundtracks and scores of the year.

Barbie

It’s impossible to downplay how big of a hit Barbie was. I sat alone, a bearded man nearing his thirties in the very centre of a whopping auditorium surrounded by thousands of little girls. I still had a great time and returned to watch it a second time.

It was something of a movement, bringing together people of all ages. Combine that with the temporary dichotic zeitgeist created between this film and Oppenheimer, becoming paired as either side of a coin and you have something impactful.

What made Barbie even better was its fantastic soundtrack. Helmed by Mark Ronson and backed up by artists like Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Lizzo, and many more. It was a good vibe front to back but memorable highlights are Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance The Night’ and Charli XCX’s ‘Speed Drive’.

Oppenheimer

The Ying to Barbie’s Yang. As we mentioned, these films together marked a landmark cultural moment for 2023. Oppenheimer was the dark to balance Barbie’s light.

Of course, the soundtrack here offsets the punchy pop of Barbie’s soundtrack. Ludwig Göransson creates a surprising level of wist with his uncomplex and string-heavy soundtrack. It’s power comes in the contrast of it’s subtle creeping moments and the odd electronic sound introducing chaos to the beauty.

This tension swells throughout the soundtrack until we are thrown more and more into a sonic disorder, feelings of sadness, confusion, and lament. It is the perfect companion to the feelings that the film’s topic should evoke.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

The follow up to 2018’s Into The Spider-Verse, this film managed to do the impossible and blow audiences away even further. With an incredible approach to the artistic design, a story well balanced in tension, heart, and comedic relief, and of course – a fantastic soundtrack to boot.

As Miles Morales and pals cross between dimensions the soundtrack flits between almost video-gamey electronic music, then shatters reality with distorted, glitchy effects that truly feel reality-bending. You have moments of powerful operatic singing bent into fast-paced electronic rock style action music with bizarre flutes and Doctor Who-esque mystery. It’s a wild soundtrack for a truly wild ride of a film.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Scorsese’s powerful return to the big screen has been described by some as his magnum opus. For sure, the director is on top-form here for a powerful film that is beautifully shot, artfully crafted, and with top-notch acting to boot. It all helps to tell this tragic truthful tale with impact, and a stunning soundtrack brings it all together.

Robbie Robertson’s arrangements combine tribal drums with the sound of white South. Twangy guitars and piercing harmonica propel forward with tense basslines and then the rhythms and flute providing a tribal sound allow the two cultures to sonically meld and intertwine, much as the characters in the film do.

For every solemn meditation on the landscape there is a piece of aching sadness. It is the perfect soundscape to perfectly capture the film’s contrast of cultures and the tragedy of the story it tells.

Poor Things

Bizarre and unsettling. The film or the music? Both. This soundtrack flits madly between subtly strange and almost enjoyable to the downright fearfully weird.

Silly guitars play out tuneful melodies but give way to frightening punches of strings that manage to strike a perfect harmony with the captivatingly unusual new film from Yorgos Lanthimos.

Beau Is Afraid

Where would Ari Aster go after the stunning horror of the redemption story Midsommar? Not even the wildest of guesses would have come close to what we got: The unsettling, anxiety fuelled Beau Is Afraid.

The film is dark, very dark. So, a similarly doom-fuelled score was necessary to keep the audience in their position of confused anguish. Bobby Krlic pulled through with a soundtrack that tows the line between horror and magical absurdity.

The Boy and the Heron

Hayao Miyazaki could have happily just left us with his astonishing filmography, forever regarded as a genius, when he retired in 2013. This year, we were blessed with his return to filmmaking with The Boy and the Heron.

Whilst we’re still desperately waiting for it’s theatrical release here in the UK (just 5 more days!) we’ve had the chance to fall in love with the soundtrack already. Thanks, Spotify. It’s an uncomplicated collection of pieces, relying on simple arrangements on piano and strings more often than not. Yet within the restrained notes are a melange of emotion, encapsulating childhood curiosity and wonder in it’s gentle refrains leading to energetic explosions with the occasionally melancholy of time passing.

Napoleon

Ridley Scott’s historical biopic tries to tell the epic tale of Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power, and subsequent fall(s). The film takes us all over the world as Joaquin Phoenix’s Napoleon love for his country overextends to the conquering of others’. All of this, alongside his bittersweet romance and severe love for Josephine.

Martin Phipp’s score meets the demands of an epic with music that truly feels epic. Especially as the French soldiers tread foreign territory, it truly helps build a sense of the massive journeys so many went on into lands not their own. A highlight is the marching bombast of Austerlitz Kyrie.

Godzilla Minus One

A mythical, unbeatable lizard beast emerges from the depths to destroy Japan with – at times – nuclear devastation, all following on from the end of World War II and Japan’s visceral memories of regret, shame, and horror. What an incredible palette to paint a film upon.

The tension, existential fear, and hopelessness felt by the characters and the country we’re allowed a glimpse into is matched note for note by the atmospheric soundtrack. It is both chilling and devastating. Fans of Godzilla may recognise motifs from the original Godzilla soundtrack, especially in Godzilla Suite II.

Knock at the Cabin

M. Night Shyamalan continues to baffle critics as to whether he’s capable of creating a film to match his early highs. A mixed response to this film suggests we’ve not stumbled upon another Sixth Sense, sadly.

However, while Knock at the Cabin may be a mediocre film it is held up by a fantastic soundtrack. Herdís Stefánsdóttir steps in to weave a truly mysterious soundscape that doesn’t rely too heavily on horror film tropes. Sure, the creepy discordance of strings can be found throughout with the breathy tension of long, distant vocals. But, there is something much more wistful to the overall soundtrack here that transcends the overdone horror of creepy strings and jump scare synths.