2026 is approaching, which means I will start writing Spotlight articles with soundtracks released this year that I still want to talk about. Please enjoy the first one of those.
Wicked: For Good – John Powell, Stephen Schwartz
Wicked is a very well-received musical, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, which premiered on Broadway in 2003 and is still being performed today. It comes as no surprise that such a popular musical has been adapted into a movie. In the case of Wicked, this meant even two films, with Wicked in 2024 and Wicked: For Good this year. Schwartz was involved with both movies, but for the score, he received help from none other than John Powell. For the first Wicked film, they already wrote a fantastic score that earned them an Oscar nomination.
For some reason, I did not pay much attention to music for Wicked, since it was released at the end of the year, and it became one of the many scores I had to listen to before that year ended. I wanted to change that for Wicked: For Good, and I was blown away immediately. The combination of Powell’s outstanding orchestral writing, full of emotion, the use of the choir, and lots of amazing musical ideas working with and against each other shines throughout the score. The music also has excellent thematic integration, using Schwartz’s magnificent melodies from the songs. All these aspects make this soundtrack one of the best to come out this year. I am not really into musicals, but this musical has excellent songs, and the music between them is, once again, worthy of an Oscar nomination.
Nachtvlinders – Merlijn Snitker
As 2025 comes to an end, one thing I noticed is that I did not encounter many Dutch scores this year. This may either be because I have been unable to find them or because fewer have been released. Luckily, some work is coming my way, as is the case with Nachtvlinders by Merlijn Snitker. I have to mention that while Snitker is a Dutch composer, the film is a Belgian production.
Nachtvlinders is a film about an ex-convict who is unsuccessfully trying to get his life back together. When you listen to the soundtrack, three things stand out. The first are the jazz cues, with a solo flugelhorn player, which give the music wonderful film noir vibes. The second thing I noticed is the gorgeous string tracks, showcasing how suited an ensemble is, together with a piano, to portray all kinds of styles and emotions that a movie needs. The final aspect I want to mention is the use of a single human voice, which can be layered to create tense moments but can also be used to create a gorgeous choral piece like “Nachtvlinders Koraal.” Nachtvlinders is another excellent score by Snitker.
Predator: Badlands – Benjamin Wallfisch, Sarah Schachner
Many movies featuring alien hunters called Predators have been made over the last few decades, with some of them having impressive scores. Of course, the music for the first Predator from 1987 by Alan Silvestri needs to be mentioned, but in recent years, we were also surprised by the stunning score for Prey, written by Sarah Schachner. In 2025 we were treated to two more Predator movies: Predator: Killer of Killers, with music by Benjamin Wallfisch, and Predator: Badlands, a live-action film. For Badlands, Schachner and Wallfisch collaborated on the music for the first film in which a Predator is the protagonist.
For the music in this film, the composers used a distorted voice to represent the Predators, which you can hear in tracks from both composers, but there are also differences in the music they wrote. In Schachner’s music, I can clearly hear the Prey influences, with an emphasis on the lower strings and distorted vocals. She is also responsible for most additional themes, such as those for Thia and Tessa. Her music provides the more emotional elements of film. Wallfisch’s music is mostly heard during the action sequences, with lots of percussion, the distorted voice, and many musical patterns. It does not contain much melody, something that has become quite common in Hollywood blockbusters. Unfortunately, these cues make the score also less appealing to listen to on its own. I would describe the score for Predator: Badlands as decent, which works with the picture, but I also think it could have been so much more if the music had gone for more of a Prey style instead of taking the safe route of a standard action score.
