And the Oscar for the best film soundtrack goes to . . .
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (Atlantic)
WITH its soundtrack battling to usurp Ed Sheeran at No1 in the albums chart, The Greatest Showman is a theatrical blockbuster in the style of last year’s La La Land.
Its empowerment anthem This Is Me, sung by actress Keala Settle, already nestles in the Top 20 and emerged victorious as the best original song at Sunday’s Golden Globes.
The feelgood tunes of Broadway team Pasek and Paul are brought to life by a cast led by Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron, with Loren Allred adding the obligatory big ballad.
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Walt Disney)
STAR Wars stalwart John Williams scores his eighth successive spectacular from a galaxy far, far away. His thunderous orchestral music for The Last Jedi combines new motifs of stunning melodic potency with passing references to earlier Star Wars themes.
His title music gets an expected reprise, while a piece called Canto Bight leans heavily on Brazilian pianist Ary Barroso’s samba standard Aquarela Do Brasil. With Williams hoping to land his sixth Oscar, the force is still strong in this one.
THE SHAPE OF WATER (Decca)
ANOTHER Oscar contender — it won best original score at the Golden Globes — Alexandre Desplat’s accompaniment to Guillermo Del Toro’s forthcoming Cold War-era romance is a bold, sometimes jazzy affair that reunites the veteran French composer with the London Symphony Orchestra. Amid Desplat’s stirring string and woodwind flourishes, a brace of standards by Glenn Miller and Andy Williams add a period feel, and there are woozy torch songs from operatic soprano Renée Fleming and jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux.
BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Sony Classical)
BUILDING on the legacy of Greek composer Vangelis’s music for the 1982 Blade Runner, Hans Zimmer and his protege Benjamin Wallfisch shun modern orchestration in favour of a Yamaha analogue synthesizer from the 1980s.
The results are striking, with pulsating industrial beats augmented by sax-like electronic wails reminiscent of David Bowie’s Low album.
Four classic Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley songs complete the picture, with fabulous rendition of The King’s Suspicious Minds having lost none of its magic.
BABY DRIVER (30th Century)
OUT on producer Danger Mouse’s label, and with a vinyl version available in an attractive gatefold sleeve, the soundtrack to this crime caper provided the framework to writer Edgar Wright’s tale of a music-obsessed getaway driver.
It doubles up as an excellent, eclectic playlist, with soul standards by Martha Reeves and Barry White taking their place alongside punk-era hits by the Damned and Jonathan Richman, and two gems from the mid-70s.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Hollywood)
ANOTHER album that works as a playlist is the second Awesome Mix, based on a battered cassette of 70s and 80s hits given to displaced earthling Peter Quill by his mother in Guardians Of The Galaxy 2.
An enjoyable selection deemed collectible enough to be given additional releases on vinyl and cassette, it stars George Harrison and ELO, plus blasts from American pop’s cheesy past, including Chicago trio Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah’s catchy 1971 hit Lake Shore Drive.
PHANTOM THREAD (Nonesuch)
JONNY Greenwood has made such a seamless move from alternative rock into the soundtrack business that the Radiohead guitarist could land his first Oscar nod when this year’s nominations are revealed on January 23.
Phantom Thread is his fourth collaboration with director Paul Thomas Anderson, and his most assured yet. Out digitally now and on CD on February 9, a week after the movie, it was made with a 60piece orchestra, with its subtle strings and harp a world away from the crunching guitars of Creep.
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Sony Classical)
SINGER-songwriter Sufjan Stevens once began an ambitious project of writing an album for all 50 of America’s states.
He gave up after Michigan and Illinois, but has now turned his considerable talent to film music.
His songs illuminate Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age movie, but the presence of reflective pieces by Satie, Ravel and Ryuichi Sakamoto make this album too piano-heavy.
With the film set in Italy in 1983, there is light relief in some kitsch Euro-pop from that era and the Psychedelic Furs’ rousing Love My Way.