Back catalogue: Soundtracks

Review: For many people, the wait for the latest Bond movie to finally be released after long Covid delays has been excruciating. But for a certain group of us, the soundtrack will always be more anticipated, especially when it is by a modern great like Hans Zimmer. On this one, the masterful composer captures all the glamour, danger, high drama, class and suspense you would expect, but all in his own unique way. Johnny Marr, who is also the featured guitarist on the album, helps with the score and of course Billie Eilish's electrifying title track 'No Time To Die' also makes the cut.

Review: For many people, the wait for the latest Bond movie to finally be released after long Covid delays has been excruciating. But for a certain group of us, the soundtrack will always be more anticipated, especially when it is by a modern great like Hans Zimmer. On this one, the masterful composer captures all the glamour, danger, high drama, class and suspense you would expect, but all in his own unique way. Johnny Marr, who is also the featured guitarist on the album, helps with the score and of course Billie Eilish's electrifying title track 'No Time To Die' also makes the cut.

Review: Let's face it, Hollywood director Christopher Nolan broke the mould with his re-envisioning of Batman. Taking things closer to the original comic books, themselves forced to 'go soft' by censors in the early-1950s, his films payed direct tribute to the saga's direction from the mid-1970s onwards. A trilogy of movies that were visually arresting, tonally dystopian, and viciously unhinged. It's not clear if we'll ever get a superhero (or anti-hero) film series of that class and calibre again, the world on screen so immersive you quickly feel like a Gotham native. A big part of that universe-building comes through the music, which enlists two of the greatest names in the history of soundtracks to help weave the tales. Hans Zimmer has composed for more than 150 films, James Newton Howard in excess of 100. This compilation of their shared caped crusader efforts proves why they're so well respected.

Review: Grossing over $1.4bn globally, Top Gun: Maverick may not have been the film everyone wanted last year, but it was the film everyone needed. Not least in the cinema. The long-long-awaited follow up to 1986's iconic (for good and bad reasons) tale of naval aviators (not pilots) singlehandedly saved the big screen summer in 2022, and that speaks volumes about where we are right now.

Film is a window on society, and in the aftermath of a pandemic during which we stepped over the line into the future unawares, it seems people really want an old school blockbuster void of cynicism. That's what they got here, and although it has both contemporary pop that won't stand the test of time, and bits from the original motion picture's soundtrack repeated, the score to the 21st Century reboot is perfectly in-keeping. Zimmer ramps up the emotional resonance with tunes like 'Penny Returns', Kenny Loggins does Kenny Loggins, and that theme tune rounds it off.