Need to press pause momentarily on binge-watching all those shows and movies you finally decided to catch up on? Running out of books to read or just need to take a break from social media for a spell? Then try this newfangled craze called music. Trust us, once you hear it you’ll never be able to imagine life without it!
Seriously, though, there are lots of great movie and TV scores you can listen to while relaxing at home, cleaning your place, working out, or engaging in creative projects during all this extra stay-at-home time.
Below you’ll find our recommendations for some very cool original scores — the composed music on a soundtrack rather than a collection of preexisting songs — to pass the time with.
These soundtracks range from the intense to the placid, the inspirational to the melancholy. Whatever your current mood may be, whatever it takes to get you through this time. And all of these soundtracks are available online!
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Witness (Maurice Jarre)
– Jim Vejvoda, Executive Editor, Movies
Maurice Jarre’s evocative soundtrack for Witness is as peaceful and otherworldly as the Amish community the 1985 drama depicts, the anachronistic synth music feeling as much of an outsider in this bucolic, frozen-in-time world as Harrison Ford’s tough Philly cop John Book. The score’s most memorable track — the rousing “Building the Barn” — would make even the laziest person want to go out there in the hot sun and hammer a wooden structure together for their neighbors. (Watch the movie and you’ll get it.) But Jarre’s soundtrack also includes tense tracks (for when the bad guys are after our heroes) as well as hopelessly romantic and melancholy melodies for the star-crossed couple of Book and Amish widow Rachel Lapp (Kelly McGillis).
Listen to the Witness soundtrack on Spotify!
There Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood)
– Simon Cardy, Video Producer
Look no further than Jonny Greenwood’s masterful score to There Will Be Blood to help you focus when working from home. The sporadic, staccato stabbing of strings will inject a new found sense of urgency in you as deadlines approach. There’s also the enchanting nature of the score’s opener “Wide Open Spaces” that drives the dialogue-less nature of the film’s opening 15 minutes, if you need something a little more low-key to fuel concentration. Either way, this score is the perfect way to oil those gears in your mind and unblock that pipeline of procrastination.
Listen to the There Will Be Blood soundtrack on Spotify!
Creed (Ludwig Göransson)
– Luke Reilly, Games Editor
If you’re in need of some music to truly motivate, look no further than Ludwig Göransson’s bicep-swelling score to Ryan Coogler’s potent, pugilistic crowd-pleaser Creed. While it’s true that there are many memorable riffs here on original Rocky composer Bill Conti’s existing, iconic refrains, Göransson has done a masterful job bringing the unmistakable sounds of Rocky into the modern world. The Creed score’s delicate moments will calm even the most frayed of nerves and its big, chest-thumping arrangements will have you bouncing off the walls like ring ropes. Need to get something done around the house? This will power you through it in half the time. “You’re a Creed” and the inventively-titled “End Credits” are standouts, but the heavy-hitter is “If I Fight, You Fight” – four minutes and 54 seconds of musical muscle powder that’ll have you air-punching all your problems away.
Listen to the Creed soundtrack on Spotify!
The Farewell (Alex Weston)
– Francesca Rivera, Associate Producer
Listen to the score of The Farewell if you want something on the shorter side and a little different… if a little depressing. Although the film follows a Chinese/Chinese-American family going back to mainland China to spend time with a dying matriarch, the score does not succumb to the easy motifs evocative of classical East Asian music (think plucked strings and beating drums). Composer Alex Weston flips the script and goes for a more classical European approach, emphasizing the overall tension between Eastern and Western traditions and responsibility, with which Awkwafina’s Billi struggles.
This score also features quite a bit of vocals throughout — particularly those of Mykal Kilgore — compared to other film scores. The vocals are haunting and introspective, and are effective threads between scenes. There are also tracks in the score that act as fun breaks from the other tracks and puts you into the world of the characters, with “Pathetique” and “Senza Di Te” sounding like songs you’d hear at a family party where someone broke out the karaoke machine. Alex Weston’s score balances a sense of mourning, secrecy, and moments of presence that perfectly reflects the 2019 film. It’s an eclectic collection of music to play in the background, but varied in a way that won’t make you bored two tracks in.
Listen to The Farewell soundtrack on Spotify!
Uncut Gems (Daniel Lopatin)
– Nick Limon, Producer
Daniel Lopatin’s score for Uncut Gems matches the ebb and flow of the film’s breakneck pace. The ethereal, anxious, and cathartic track list complements Howard’s descent into depravity and irrevocable change. Lopatin’s score channeled a marriage between Disasterpeace’s Fez and It Follows scores while melding it with the booming choirs and childlike echoes found in Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s work in Akira. Lopatin somehow managed to capture the existential dread that underlines the entirety of Uncut Gems, reminding us how small a role humanity plays in the universal scheme of things. Or it’s just really cool and chill. You decide.
Listen to the Uncut Gems soundtrack on Spotify!
The Martian (Harry Gregson-Williams)
– Mark Medina, Features Producer
Like the movie itself, The Martian’s original soundtrack conveys the feeling of being isolated and alone, while often sprinkling in the tones of hopefulness. Tracks like “Making Water” give that gleefulness astronaut Mark Watney feels when he’s creating water for the first time on a foreign planet. “Messages from Hermes” invokes that perfect blend of hopefulness and despair as the crew from the Hermes learns that Watney was left behind on a desolate planet. And finally, “Crossing Mars” is the perfect mix of feeling both lonely while uplifted as Watney leaves the (relative) safety of his Martian HAB and makes the months-long journey to the other side of Mars. Those were just some of the highlights of this amazing soundtrack. Hopefully in these weird times, music like this can help you power through the tougher moments.
Listen to The Martian soundtrack on Spotify!
Dunkirk (Hans Zimmer)
– Simon Cardy, Video Producer
The perpetual tick-tocking of Hans Zimmer’s Dunkirk score is exactly what you need to be blasting out when your home has become a bit too dusty. Looking to get everything tidied within an hour? Perfect. Dunkirk clocks in at a handy 59 minutes and will propel you to new speeds of cleaning before bathing in the majesty of “Home” as you sit on your dust-free sofa and take in your achievements. Music was meant for moments like these.
Listen to the Dunkirk soundtrack on Spotify!
The Fountain (Clint Mansell & The Kronos Quartet)
– Jesse Schedeen, Staff Writer
As much as I love this under-appreciated 2006 gem from director Darren Aronofsky, I’ve listened to The Fountain’s soundtrack far more often than I’ve watched the film. Aronofsky’s frequent partner Clint Mansell delivers what may well be the best work of his career. Like the film itself, the score for The Fountain alternates between quiet periods of solitude and epic moments of orchestral grandeur. You’ll find plenty of both on the climactic “Death Is the Road to Awe.” I never get tired of listening to the slow, pulsating rhythm of “Holy Dread!” transition into the dramatic swells of “Tree of Life.” The melodies and motifs are often simple, but Mansell and the members of the Kronos Quartet find ways of constantly reinventing them and translating the story of a grieving widower’s cosmic journey into an emotional audio experience.
Listen to The Fountain soundtrack on Spotify!
The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)
– Ryan Duncan, Senior Video Project Manager
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for David Fincher’s The Social Network is nearly pitch perfect. It not only fit the tone of the film perfectly, but it uplifted the whole picture beyond what was written on the page, or what was shown on screen. Right from the beginning, as Mark Zuckerberg runs home through Harvard Square, the score is deliberately off-key from the diegetic sound of the busker playing violin. As an audience member it’s unsettling in a way that is only able to be accomplished by a great score, and you know you’re in for something special.
From the opening drones of “Hand Covers Bruise,” through the frenetic energy of “A Familiar Taste” and their rendition of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” it’s a great soundtrack for hunkering down to get some work done. Whether you’re cleaning or organizing around the house, or sitting down to catch up on writing (exactly like I’m doing right now), it’s the ideal mixture of high and low energy to help keep you focused, but also break up the pace enough to keep you moving. It’s perfect to let drone on in the background and in those moments when you snap back to it you’re guaranteed to hear something challenging and engaging.
Listen to The Social Network soundtrack on Spotify!
This is Ramin Djawadi
– Khalilah Alston, Sr. Video Editor/Producer
Ramin Djawadi is a musical genius. Hearing his music makes me miss playing in my high school symphonic band. While trying to pick between whether I wanted to listen to the Game of Thrones soundtrack or Westworld soundtrack while editing video, I realized that Djawadi, the composer for both shows, has his playlist on Spotify that I can enjoy. He has scored a lot of popular movies and television shows such as Game of Thrones, Westworld, Pacific Rim, A Wrinkle in Time, Iron Man, Warcraft. Honestly, this list can go on.
What has been great about listening to Djawadi’s music is that it helps me focus and feel determined. We all know that the Game of Thrones theme slaps. His arrangements are spectacular and help set the mood for each scene or character the song was created for. “The Last of The Starks” starts solemnly and as it crescendos it becomes more triumphant and then mixes in the Game of Thrones theme. Djawadi’s arrangements of popular music into Westworld have given older songs a new life and evokes a different feeling than originally intended, such as “Sweet Child O’Mine” or “Black Hole Sun” to name a few. I can’t leave out “C.R.E.A.M.”, which was done for Season 2 of Westworld. Honestly, go listen to it now. Enjoy what Ramin Djawadi has to offer because it is a real treat.
Listen to the This is Ramin Djawadi playlist on Spotify!
Black Dynamite (Adrian Younge)
– Jeremy Azevedo, Head of Gaming Programming
Black Dynamite is the pitch-perfect 2009 Blacksploitation parody/homage from Scott Sanders and Michael Jai White. The original soundtrack by Adrian Younge (Luke Cage, Ghostface Killah, etc) is an equally spot-on recreation of classic tracks by the likes of Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Ennio Morricone and many more. If you’re stuck at home, the numbing effect of isolation is probably starting to set in before the first week is even over. As ridiculous as it may sound, I can practically guarantee you that this album, which is supposedly the backing track of a comedy film, will actually make you feel something.
There’s a weird balance of comedy, action, sexiness, swagger and soul to be found here that is probably genuinely surprising to people not familiar with this genre of film or music. There is quite simply no man or woman alive that could get through it without bobbing their head one moment, smiling despite themselves the next, spiraling moment-to-moment from melancholy to mania, maybe even shedding a cathartic tear.
Adrian Younge wrote most of the lyrics AND plays most of the instruments on the Black Dynamite record, even going so far as to record using vintage recording instruments to achieve an authentic ’70s sound. Not one single track on this album phones it in. It’s basically the funk/soul equivalent of what a Deathlok record would be to the metal genre: so adherent to the best and most beloved elements of the genre that it in many ways even exceeds the subject matter that inspired it. Black Dynamite is not only among the best soundtracks in this particular genre, but stacks up equally against the best soundtracks of any genre.
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Do you need an escape during these trying times? Here’s a bunch of feel-good movies and shows you can stream right now. And be sure to check out our guide on how to help, and stay safe, during the Coronavirus pandemic.
What are your favorite movie scores? Sound off in the comments below!
