We are in the middle of award season at the moment. The BAFTAs, Grammys, and Golden Globes are behind us, and the Oscar ceremony and the IFMCA Awards, of which I am a part, are just around the corner. This makes it a perfect time to announce my own eSWay Awards in between. But before I do that, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on how I have experienced 2024 regarding music for media.
One big trend I have noticed is that I see fewer movies in the theatre and instead absorb new music on many other different media platforms, like movies and shows on streaming services and by watching gameplay footage of games. Going to the theater has become less appealing to me. The output from Hollywood does not excite me with their ‘playing it safe’ strategy, consisting mostly of sequels and well-known franchises. Beside that, the movies are also often from genres I do not care as much about, like comedy, drama or horror.
I did not conduct any interviews this year. If I had asked, I would have had some opportunities at the World Soundtrack Awards or the Krakow Film Music Festival, but I chose not to and to focus on the festivals themselves instead, as can be read in the WSA report and FMF report. The other reason was that I already had some extraordinary interviews in the pipeline published this year, including the conversation with eSWay winner Gordy Haab and none other than John Powell, which I did in collaboration with SoundtrackFest.
Another trend that stood out to me is the rise of concerts, with music from media, especially here in the Netherlands. I went to ten different concerts this year, not including the two festivals I mentioned, and almost all of which were here in the Netherlands. Especially game music concerts are getting more popular by the year and are starting to sell out, which excites me for what the future may hold.
While I am always open to having guest writers on this site, all the content was written by me in 2024. I do have help behind the scenes for actively proofreading my work, supporting me while I am working during festivals, or standing by in case I need help. These fantastic people are:
- Chris Broekema
- Dennis van der Laan
- Erik Schreiber
- Gerard Aalbers
- Johannes Oudolf
- Jorg Oostendorp
- Maurice Boeijen
- Ola Ziółek
- Ronald Wijlens
- Saskia Schreiber
- Stefan Bosman
Soundtrack World would not have succeeded without them, and I owe them many thanks.
With the reflection part of this article done, it is now time to look at the best soundtracks of 2024. When I look at my list for 2024, I have collected thoughts on 170 scores from all kinds of media and many different countries, and I have absorbed even more music that did not make it to this list. An interesting trend on that list is the many new composers I had not heard from before. I also managed to find a better balance this year by listening to more music throughout the year instead of doing a massive end-of-the-year listening crunch like I used to do in previous years.
On the list are some scores that I did not like, with more focus on sound design and textures, to create some kind of mood, but there were a lot of soundtracks that are the opposite, with many of them being magnificent orchestral music based around thematic ideas, but also other scores, with way fewer instruments but still with great sounds and melodies. Most of these fantastic soundtracks, but sadly not all of them because there were too many, will be featured in my presentation of the eSWay Awards for the year 2024!
Soundtrack of the Year
Dragonkeeper – Arturo Cardelus
Apparently, I keep giving my Score of the Year to an animated movie, and I consider Dragonkeeper by Arturo Cardelus a masterpiece. I have gone into more detail about my thoughts on this score in my review, but I do, of course, have to summarize here why it is my Score of the Year. Animation is a perfect genre for writing a magnificent score with stunning melodies and fantastic theme integration to enhance the animated scenes, and the score for Dragonkeeper does that in spades. I was unfamiliar with Arturo Cardelus’s music, but I will be keeping a close eye on his work from now on.
Dragonkeeper was not the only magnificent score that has come out. I do have to mention the music for the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Bear McCreary, which is, again, a stunning piece of work. Netflix also continued the trend of creating live-action series based on popular animated shows with a magnificent score. This time with music from Avatar: The Last Airbender composed by Takeshi Furukawa, which will make a return on this list.
Composer of the Year
Bear McCreary
Bear McCreary had a very strong year overall. He has written a fun score for The 4:30 Movie, about which I will go into more detail later, but his work for the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is top-notch, as can be read in my review. McCreary’s stunning output in 2024 does not end there because while he was writing all this great music for media, he also released a metal album, The Singularity, for which he collaborated with many big names from the metal and rock scene. McCreary will be touring the world with his music from this album and some of his scores, and I look forward to seeing him perform live in May. Other composers with excellent output in 2024 were Hans Zimmer (Dune 2 (review), The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Blitz) and the master of animation John Powell (Wicked, That Christmas and Thelma the Unicorn (review)).
Best Soundtrack for Dutch Media
Like Tears in Rain – Matthijs Kieboom
I have listened to quite a few Dutch scores this year, and there were a fair number of gems to be found. The most popular genre for Dutch film music is comedies, but this year, the more emotional music stood out. The music for De Toeslagenaffaire (spotlight) by Merlijn Snitker and Dichter Bij Anne Frank by Guido Heeneman were two very strong scores, but the award this year goes to the music for the documentary Like Tears in Rain by Matthijs Kieboom. As mentioned in my review, he was able to write a perfect score for what this documentary needed.
Breakthrough Composer of the Year
Mick Giacchino
For this award, I am cheating a bit. According to the IFMCA guidelines, a score to a TV show is eligible for an award in the year a season ends. This means that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew will be eligible in 2025. Mick Giacchino composed the music for that show, and he wrote a fantastic score, which I heard most of in 2024. In that same year, Giacchino also wrote an incredible score for The Batman spin-off The Penguin (spotlight), perfectly suited for the mood that the show needs, making him my Breakthrough Composer of the Year.
As I mentioned in my reflection at the start of this article, I have listened to many other new composers this year who have written stunning music. Honorable mentions this year go to Lauri Porri for his work on Stormskerry Maja and Robert Ouyang Rusli, who wrote a wonderful score for Problemista.
Best Soundtrack for a Television Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Takeshi Furukawa
The winner of this award was an extremely close call, but the music for Avatar: The Last Airbender by Takeshi Furukawa came out on top. As can be read in the IFMCA Awards 2024 nominees press release, I stated that it is a stunning orchestral score in which Furukawa has an extraordinary way of adding emotion to the music, and I still believe in those words. My review of this remarkable soundtrack offers more thoughts about the magnificent music Furukawa has written for the show.
The other close contenders in this category were the music for the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Bear McCreary and ARK: The Animated Series (review) by Gareth Coker. Both could have easily gotten the top spot based on their quality. I chose to give the award to Avatar because its music is completely new and not based on existing material, such as the first season of The Rings of Power and the ARK video games for the other two nominees.
Best Soundtrack for a Video Game
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – Gordy Haab
If you have been following Soundtrack World for a while, it should not be surprising that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (review), with music composed by Gordy Haab, wins the eSWay Award for music for video games. I recently found a quote from my interview with him on the internet, which said that he takes colors created by John Williams for Star Wars and paints his own painting using these colors for the Star Wars games. This approach again resulted in a superb score for another popular franchise famous for John Williams’s music. Haab understood the assignment of the kind of music the Indiana Jones game needed and delivered the perfect score.
One of the other contenders for this award was a late surprise: Quidditch Champions by Cris Velasco. Velasco wrote a lovely score for a game in the Harry Potter universe that sadly has not seen an official release. Also, Ian Livinstone’s work for the game Classified France ’44 deserves some recognition for being a fantastic orchestral soundtrack with a strong main theme.
Best Music Composition of the Year
“Last Ballad of Damrod” from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Bear McCreary
When I look at individual tracks for this award, they have to be an outstanding piece of music on its own, but I would also like to see how it would work in the scene it is meant to. To make these tracks even better, including something new and exciting is much appreciated, as is the case with “Last Ballad of Damrod” from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Bear McCreary. The addition of the grunts and screams by a metal vocalist over the raw orchestral power of McCreary, which you can hear in the series with the big monster making his appearance on the battlefield, makes it the winner of this eSWay award.
Other stunning tracks that are definitely worth listening to are the gorgeous “Helena’s Theme” from ARK: The Animated Series by Gareth Coker or the beautiful and emotional “End Credits” from Here by Alan Silvestri.
Best Soundtrack for a Drama/Thriller/Horror Film
The Watchers – Abel Korzeniowski
Another returning winner of an eSWay Award is Abel Korzeniowski. This time he did it with the music for The Watchers. His strength in writing the most gorgeous emotional melody lines is very much present in the music for this movie. I do not have any affection for most horror scores, which is the main reason why this genre is merged with drama and thriller for the eSWay Awards, but soundtracks like The Watchers, as also the stunning music for Nosferatu by Robin Carolan, almost make me regret that decision, because now brilliant scores for the drama Here (spotlight) by Alan Silvestri and Stormkerry Maja by Lauri Porra are ‘just’ honorable mentions.
Best Soundtrack for a Comedy Film
The 4:30 Movie – Bear McCreary
This award is one of the most challenging for me since I am not fond of comedy movies, and I rarely watch them. Fortunately, there are years when a score for a comedy stands out prominently above others, as is the case this year with The 4:30 Movie by Bear McCreary. The movie takes place in the ‘80s, and influences from that period can be heard clearly, including the homage to the music from The Gremlins and Flash Gordon as my highlights. Honorable mentions for this award go to Michael Giacchino’s If and Gondola with music from Malcolm Arison and Sóley Stefánsdóttir.
Best Soundtrack for an Action/Adventure Film
Gladiator II – Harry Gregson-Williams
The fact that Gladiator II (review) wins the eSWay Award for an Action/Adventure Film is my biggest surprise this year. My thoughts on the music written by Harry Gregson-Williams went from disappointment when I first heard it, to winning this award. It shows the importance of listening to the music in the context of the movie and its story. The score was a perfect fit for the story the movie wanted to tell, and it rarely used the original themes from the first film and when it did, it was at the right moments.
Other magnificent adventurous scores are for Dune 2 by Hans Zimmer, which includes some new material not found in the first film, and David Fleming‘s wonderful score for the Netflix film Damsel (review).
Best Soundtrack for an Animated Feature
Dragonkeeper – Arturo Cardelus
Animation is always an amazing genre for writing fantastic scores, as is showcased by this Score of the Year winner, Dragonkeeper, by Arturo Cardelus. It is not even the only outstanding soundtrack that has come out for animation. You should be aware of two other magnificent scores for animations: Kensuke’s Kingdom by Stuart Hancock, which you can read more about in my review, and The Wild Robot by Kris Bowers, who got his first Oscar nomination for this score.
Best Soundtrack for a Documentary
Like Tears in Rain – Matthijs Kieboom
eSWay Award winner Like Tears in Rain by Matthijs Kieboom also wins in this category. I have heard a lot of music for documentaries, and many of them have fantastic soundtracks with great melodies to emphasize the wonders of science and nature. Still, Like Tears in Rain stood out to me because it is more delicate and intimate in sound for what the documentary needed. Other music from documentaries worth listening to is another score I mentioned during this awards presentation: Dichter Bij Anne Frank by Guido Heeneman and the wonderful melodies from Our Oceans by Ho-Ling Tang.
There you have it: My take on the best Soundtracks of 2024. It was a strong year and I had many scores on my list that I have collected during the year who could have ended up on this list. Many were soundtracks written for something outside of mainstream media and came from different countries, and I had to listen to many of them again to make my final decisions, because they were that good. It was a wonderful, luxurious problem, and I will, hopefully, have this challenge again next year!
