To my surprise, 2011 turned out to be one of the best overall years for new film, TV and video game music in recent memory. 2011 saw the return of John Williams, who scored not one but two films, after a three year hiatus. Pinar Toprak scored the first ever documentary film to break into my yearly top ten, and Mark McKenzie crafted the greatest score of his career for a tiny, Mexican animated family film, which just so happened to capture the top spot on our countdown. Those scores along with six others will be featured on the program today as I present ten of my very favorite scores from 2011.
And to spur on some more conversation I will be breaking a fifteen year trend by listing the ten scores before you have a chance to listen to the show. Enjoy the show and whether you agree or disagree with my list feel free to discuss the selections in the comment area below!
And don’t forget to check out the very best individual cues of 2011 by clicking HERE!
CINEMATIC SOUND’S TOP TEN OF 2011
10. DREAM HOUSE (John Debney) – Part I (0:00)
9. MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (Conrad Pope; main theme by Alexandre Desplat) – Part I (21:30)
8. PRIEST (Christopher Young) – Part I (39:09)
7. THE WIND GODS (Pinar Toprak) – Part I (58:22)
6. THE TREE OF LIFE (Alexandre Desplat) – Part II (0:00)
5. WAR HORSE (John Williams) – Part II (22:30)
4. THE ARTIST (Ludovic Bource) – Part II (44:29)
3. THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN (John Williams) – Part III (0:00)
2. SOUL SURFER (Marco Beltrami) – Part III (21:47)
1. THE GREATEST MIRACLE (Mark McKenzie) Part III – (41:22)
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
This is a very nice program with great selections. Part 3 was my favorite (naturally), but I’m also a big fan of Priest, The Tree of Life and I will definitely purchase The Wind Gods if it ever becomes available.
Probably the only two scores I would switch in are Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Alexandre Desplat) and W.E. (Abel Korzeniowski), because I think they both feature some fantastic piano playing. But I can’t really complain about any of the scores you chose either. It really was just an awesome year for film scores and really woke up my passion for scores again after several years of only somewhat keeping up with new scores. It’s amazing to see John Williams return and still at the top of his game even at, as of today, 80 years young. 🙂
Keep up the good work with your show! I enjoy listening while I’m at work.
Thanks David! W.E. is very good and almost made the list. I wasn’t too impressed with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. If I had to pick another Desplat score I probably would have went with The Ides of March!
Hi Erik!
I’m Italian score fan, and I especially love composers like Desplat, Giacchino, Williams, Shore and so on…
I know you because I read your name on the booklet of much of Giacchino’s CDs (MEDAL OF HONOR, SECRET WEAPONS OVER NORMANDY etc.).
I just wanna ask you if you knew something about the CD of EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE, because it can only be bought on Amazon.com as a CD-R (but this is a non recommended format).
I’d like to buy it from Amazon.co.uk: do you know something more?
Thanks!
Hope to write more on this nice score website! 🙂
Good selections, Erik! No Patrick Doyle though? How rude! ;-o)
Some very similar to mine. Great minds think alike.
I was trying to imagine you saying “How Rude” while doing a Jar Jar impression. 😉 Here’s hoping that Doyle can crack the list this year with Brave!
Hi Eric, Just finished listening to your best scores of 2011 show and I must thank you for introducing me to Dream House, Priest and especially Beltrami’s Soul Surfer. It just goes to show you that there are still some theme driven scores out there. Please keep doing what you are doing and I look forward to the next show.
Well said, Colin! Thanks for visiting the site!
I remember two other scores that I simply couldn’t stop listening for weeks and weeks one is James Horner’s Glory and the other one was Maestro John Williams’s Saving Private Ryan. Now the same is happening with Pinar Toprak’s “Gods of Wind”. Just overwhelmed me. What a great score. My beef with this is though like Eric says in his comments that it is not available commercially. Yet if this were a dumb pop hit, it would be everywhere 🙁 Thanks to Erik for some deserving choices.
Here’s hoping Toprak’s score gets a commercial release. It seems to be a perfect fit for a label like Movie Score Media.
Ides of March is definitely in my top 20 from last year, but aside from a few tracks it hasn’t engaged me as much overall as some of Desplat’s other scores from last year or scores by others like Patrick Doyle or Marco Beltrami. Hugo and Super 8 were nice scores too with definite highlights. There was just so much goodness last year! I’ll stop before I start to ramble. haha Anyway, I’m looking forward to your next show.
Ramble on, David!