Words by Sonal D’Silva

As we move further into 2024, let's get up to speed on some of the hottest soundtrack releases.

From action-packed animation to spectacular sci-fi, it's been an abundantly creative time at the movies — and we have the soundtracks to prove it. Featuring the work of inventive young artists and Oscar-winning veterans, here’s a roundup of five diverse movie scores that are firmly on our radar.

Rye Lane – Kwes (2023)

Rating: 4/5

Director Raine Allen-Miller’s 2023 rom-com Rye Lane follows a well-established movie tradition of young people meeting by chance, spending a day together, talking while walking, and, inevitably, falling in love. It’s a story as old as… 1995 at least, when Before Sunrise’s Jesse and Celine did the same over one night in Vienna. That’s where the similarity ends, and while the setup of Rye Lane might be traditional, the soundtrack is anything but. 

The film is all pops of colour and youthful energy, with a strong streak of whimsy for good measure, and the 23-track soundtrack by British producer/composer Kwes keeps score of all the fizzy, exhilarating connections formed by the two leads. Delicate keys drift in and out between filtered basslines, before making way for dreamlike pads; voices stutter, loop hypnotically, and ricochet with reverberant delay; beats syncopate and sizzle; and on tracks like ‘Open Up’ featuring Sampha & Tirzah, the lead vocals are deliciously close-up, reinforcing the fast-developing intimacy between the characters.

The soundtrack has a ‘listen on headphones for maximum enjoyment’ quality to it and is also very much of its location – this is not a score that could have come from anywhere else in the world. Kwes’s London roots bestow the melodies, textures, vocals, and production with a standout, singular style. Even though it underscores the intimate story of two people falling in love, the sonic lens is wide-angled, bringing all the energy of their surroundings into the fold.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse – Daniel Pemberton (2023)

Rating: 5/5

Fans of composer Daniel Pemberton’s score for 2018’s Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse – the first movie in this franchise – will know not to expect generic superhero music from the sequel. A vivid, vibrant multiverse such as this one demands a score that paints with a diversity of colours, and Pemberton delivers with full marks.

The genre-defying score is a fitting complement for a film whose premise defies the idea of a single universe. Airy, atmospheric passages evolve into firing-on-all-cylinders orchestral movements; operatic vocals sit alongside dreamy synth pop melodies; Indian percussion shares the stage with futuristic electronica; and rock makes its presence felt in distortion guitar riffs and propulsive basslines.

The icing on the cake is a veritable cornucopia of record scratching sounds where, according to Pemberton, everything from felt-tip pens to car crash noises and even the sounds of a goose were given the record-scratch treatment. The entire 34-track album can be listened to standalone, with no visuals to accompany it, and it still evokes a dynamic, kinetic multiverse of feelings. Absolutely top-notch.

Beau Is Afraid – Bobby Krlic (2023)

Rating: 4/5

Bobby Krlic’s evocative score for Ari Aster’s surrealist drama Beau Is Afraid successfully lends a strong sense of unease to the proceedings. Unnerving sustained tones and ragged woodwinds build an atmosphere of slowly creeping dread with no real relief in sight. Vocal motifs float through melodies as if originating from some other-worldly presence (whether malevolent or not remains to be determined). String instruments unleash the full force of their ability to create dissonance, with detuned instruments also doing their bit to keep things unsettling.

The score conveys a sense of isolation; of the character moving through a dark abyss. It’s almost surprising to listen to this score in the context of the film where some of the bright, urban visuals seem in stark contrast to the lost-in-the-vast-outdoors imagery evoked by the score. Krlic employs an arsenal of rich textures and tones to deliver a haunting suite of tracks for the three-hour-long oddball odyssey.

Monster – Ryuichi Sakamoto (2023)

Rating: 5/5

At only seven tracks long, the utterly moving soundtrack to the Japanese film Monster marks the end of an era, with it being the late great Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final scoring project. Director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s decade-long wish to collaborate with the Oscar-winning composer finally came true, even if under the sombre circumstances of Sakamoto’s ill health which played a big part in shaping the nature of the score.

The track ‘Monster 1’ is a masterful example of the power of minimalism in music, with all the heavy lifting being done by a meditative pad and spare piano melody; the quietly fading decay of certain notes playing as much of a part in the feeling evoked by the piece as the actual notes themselves. The lush, reverberant piano chords of ‘Monster 2’ are punctuated by faint breath sounds in the background, reportedly that of Sakamoto as he played the piano despite being unwell. Monster is a complex, heartbreaking film about things often not being what they seem, and Sakamoto’s tender score is exquisitely poignant, especially so because it is his swan song.

Dune: Part Two – Hans Zimmer (2024)

Rating: 5/5

Larger-than-life sci-fi appears to be the playground where Hollywood legends come together and push the boundaries of their craft, and Dune: Part Two is no exception. Composer Hans Zimmer, with his penchant for sonic world-building, returns to score this sprawling sequel and brings handpicked, virtuoso collaborators along for the ride to sculpt the themes, leitmotifs, and soundscapes that underscore this epic intergalactic saga.

The opening track, ‘Beginnings Are Such Delicate Times’, immediately sets the tone by blurring all the lines: voice and wind instruments seamlessly intertwine to carry the main melody; music dips into the realm of sound design with what feels like shimmering sand moving in a slow pan to fully envelope the listener. Attack cues seem to close in menacingly from all directions, somehow delivering a surround sound experience even in a stereo mix. Rising drones, visceral chants, metallic attacks, earthquaking bass hits… it’s all there and it’s all colossal.

While it’s fascinating to delve into the lore of how the sonic universe was developed (custom-built instruments, a duduk reinvented, electric cello experimentation), the score’s great power is that it successfully makes us, present-day humans, feel deeply for our futuristic counterparts. The musical language of emotions is timeless, even if the tools used to express them sound like nothing we’ve heard before.