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 MODERN SOUNDTRACK REVIEWS |
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| • | Super Mario Galaxy Movie |
| • | Project Hail Mary |
| • | Scream 7 |
| • | Hoppers |
| • | In the Blink of an Eye |
| • | GOAT |
| 5/24/26 |
Werewolf by Night (Michael Giacchino) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a handful of outstanding gothic highlights that stand as Michael Giacchino's loving tribute to unashamed monster music of yesteryear. |
| Avoid it... | if the promise of that grand symphonic and choral magnificence is expected to last during the whole score, most of the work disintegrating into stock horror techniques. |
| 5/22/26 |
Mike's Murder (Joe Jackson/John Barry) All New Review |
| Buy it... | on the album with John Barry's replacement score if you seek all variations of the composer's subdued mystery and thriller mode, even in its most marginalized form. |
| Avoid it... | on the albums with Joe Jackson's largely rejected fusion pop score and songs that partly remained in the film despite their highly inappropriate and now dated tone. |
| 5/20/26 |
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (John Powell) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a challengingly prickly but ultimately rewardingly precise listening experience largely absent many of John Powell's usual friendly mannerisms. |
| Avoid it... | and appreciate the film itself instead if you seek satisfying warmth from more than just a few cues in this dark journey of sometimes chaotic hyperactive movement. |
| 5/18/26 |
Next Goal Wins (Michael Giacchino) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a musical souvenir from the film, because score collectors will find little narrative value to the work and will be best served by the closing suite only. |
| Avoid it... | if you expect Michael Giacchino to generate a truly engaging ethnic personality in this repetitive and surprisingly emotionless score. |
| 5/16/26 |
Jagged Edge (John Barry) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a typical, melancholy John Barry love theme of slightly bluesy personality led by flute and piano over synthetic atmospheres. |
| Avoid it... | for the bulk of synthetic suspense and killing material that defines the rest of the score, Barry's use of electronics sufficient but not very interesting. |
| 5/14/26 |
Thelma the Unicorn (John Powell) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a competent addendum to John Powell's impressive writing style for animated films of the 2020's, the quality commendable for this silly topic. |
| Avoid it... | if you cannot forgive a dissatisfying, short album presentation that omits well more than half of this score in favor of the soundtrack's plethora of songs. |
| 5/12/26 |
Society of the Snow (Michael Giacchino) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for upwards of 20 minutes of emotionally engaging music in this work's more hopeful passages, even if those cues are somewhat simplistic and derivative. |
| Avoid it... | if you have little tolerance for Michael Giacchino's tendency to overplay dissonant crescendos on strings and voices, that technique battering this score far too often. |
| 5/10/26 |
The Golden Child (John Barry/Michel Colombier) All New Review |
| Buy it... | on the one album containing the film's rejected and final scores to hear John Barry music that would sound at home in an average James Bond film of the early 1980's. |
| Avoid it... | on that same product to save yourself the torture that will result from hearing Michel Colombier's tired synthetic emulation and absolutely wretched orchestral action. |
| 5/8/26 |
Fandango (Alan Silvestri) All New Review |
| Buy it... | on its lone, rare album if you seek to complete your collection of early Alan Silvestri film scores of orchestral substance, even if it's not particularly memorable and was largely rejected from the film. |
| Avoid it... | and seek the composer's later, better-developed evolution of the same ideas in comedy and action flicks over the subsequent decade. |
| 5/6/26 |
The Package (James Newton Howard) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for over twenty minutes of rousing, Jerry Goldsmith-inspired action from James Newton Howard, a very early transition to orchestral ensembles in feature soundtracks for the composer. |
| Avoid it... | because of the entire central portion of the score, which is rooted in ambient electronic textures and highly dated pop-oriented infusions of unneeded contemporary coolness. |
| 5/4/26 |
All is True (Patrick Doyle) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a very understated, bare-bones Patrick Doyle drama that relies mostly upon the composer's own solo piano performances for its appeal. |
| Avoid it... | if you expect any semblance of passion, intensity, or even much drama in this extremely sparse and thematically wayward music. |
| 5/2/26 |
The Delta Force (Alan Silvestri) All New Review |
| Buy it... | only if you can forgive the embarrassingly dated and tone deaf personality that Alan Silvestri brought to this cinematic wet dream action fantasy. |
| Avoid it... | on any of its various albums unless you seek evidence as to why synthetic pop-oriented scores of the 1980's can cause facepalms in retrospect. |
| 4/30/26 |
Three Men and a Little Lady (James Newton Howard) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for twenty minutes of charmingly likeable and effortless light drama and romance music early in James Newton Howard's shift to orchestral recordings. |
| Avoid it... | if you demand any real substance to the listening experience, a pair of full-ensemble performances providing depth but the remainder largely restrained to pretty piano and woodwind solos. |
| 4/28/26 |
Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (Patrick Doyle) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a moderately entertaining children's score from Patrick Doyle with a heartfelt character theme and a fantastic moment of tribute to his score for Henry V. |
| Avoid it... | if you expect the majority of the themes, the occasional prancing heroism, and the bulk of the suspense and action material to maintain your interest for long. |
| 4/26/26 |
Flight of the Navigator (Alan Silvestri) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a less-developed, synthetic version of Alan Silvestri's similarly conceived score for Mac and Me two years later. |
| Avoid it... | if you have no tolerance for Silvestri's attempts to utilize his early Synclavier tones to emulate orchestral tones when an organic touch was truly needed. |
| 4/24/26 |
Grand Canyon (James Newton Howard) All New Review |
| Buy it... | if you specifically approved of certain facets of James Newton Howard's score in context, because to find peace with this highly disjointed music on album, you have to embrace the reason for its schizophrenia. |
| Avoid it... | on either album presentation if you value film music that intelligently connects highly disparate narrative elements into a common whole, Howard strategically missing the mark badly. |
| 4/22/26 |
A United Kingdom (Patrick Doyle) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a conservatively pretty Patrick Doyle character drama score with few highs and lows, the rather low-key orchestral ambience led by occasional hints of passion in the fullest performances of the two primary themes. |
| Avoid it... | if you lament the significantly missed opportunity for this score to express multi-cultural instrumental complexity for the topic, Doyle instead playing the story as safely as possible. |
| 4/20/26 |
Slumberland (Pinar Toprak) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for a rousing adventure fantasy score of immense scope and a final third that is melodically and emotionally phenomenal. |
| Avoid it... | if you cannot sit through the less resounding portions of the narrative to receive that payoff, or if you expect the score on album to match the more vibrant mix heard in the film version. |
| 4/18/26 |
Overboard (Alan Silvestri) All New Review |
| Buy it... | for Alan Silvestri's heartwarming love theme for the main sparring couple of the tale, a preview of many similar pretty ideas to come for the composer. |
| Avoid it... | on the score's sole, rare album if you seek undated quality from any of the other facets of the work. |
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