Welcome! It’s high time we did this. Today, I’m sharing the definitive list of the 23 best soundtracks from 2023. Objectively. Unequivocally. Indisputably. Agree or not, this is the list.
This ranking covers a variety of soundtracks from films, TV shows, and video games—anything released as a musical album in 2023 counts, regardless of when the project itself came out. Those are the rules I’ve made up, and I’m sticking to them.
Check out the video above, or read on below!
Reflections on the Year
This list was pretty challenging to put together—it’s already February, and here I sit, locking it all in. Does listening to more soundtracks each year make it easier? Nope. The more you hear, the harder it gets to narrow it down.
For this year, my top dozen or so picks were easy choices—they were shoe-ins for the list. But the bottom half? That’s where things got tricky. I’ve been shuffling, adding, and trimming entries up until the very last week, constantly second-guessing. However, the time has come to finalize everything.
So, without further ado, let’s dive in—starting from #23 and counting all the way down to the #1 soundtrack of 2023.
Grab some water, and let’s begin.
23. Wonderwell – Angelo Badalamenti & William Ross
Wonderwell is a gentle and lush little film soundtrack that I find very easy to like. It’s got this really beautiful and delicate main theme by the late and great Angelo Badalamenti, and it’s used well throughout—you know I love when a score is bathed in its main theme. It captures a really effective sadness in just a few well-placed notes. The flutes and strings are very inviting. It’s played by the London Symphony Orchestra, so of course it sounds good. This one is the newest/latest addition to my list; I only just came across it recently, but it’s been growing on me rapidly, so I’m very glad to have squeezed it in here.
22. Napoleon – Martin Phipps
Martin Phipps brings his dynamic baroque kinda sound he’s always so good at to this Ridley Scott epic. And it’s placed somewhere between elegant drama and comic farce, which is quite a balance to maintain. But between godfather-ish mournful horns, elegant cultured strings, and opulent sophisticated choirs, the balance is something I find wonderful to listen to. I often find music by Martin Phipps to be really good to do other work to, like writing and things, when you need to focus. I mean that as a compliment.
21. The Devil Conspiracy – Anne-Kathrin Dern
This is quite a unique score by a composer I’m not familiar with for a film I know absolute nothing about. Weepy large dramatic choirs are joined by cool synths to create an enormous gothic flavour. I don’t know what this movie’s about, but the music’s certainly got a sci-fi futuristic flavour. Baroque choirs, pipe organ, electric guitar… it’s quite a mix. Sometimes it gets a bit noisy— for every beautiful classical choir piece there’s something disturbing and messy and sound designy. It certainly leans into horror at points. There are some great moments where the future synth and the gorgeous choirs come together, and it reminds me of Warhammer Darktide from last year, and it’s pretty cool. I wish there was a little more recognisable melody, a little more shape, but I do enjoy what this is.
20. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Pinar Toprak
This is a large and expansive video game score by Pinar Toprak and a team of contributing composers, all continuing James Horner’s original Avatar sound. So you can bet there are strong woodwinds and optimistic chanting choirs. And really there’s actually a lot of pleasant music here that creates a great atmosphere; a lot of it seems to be describing the lush natural world of Pandora. It does leave me wanting for some more memorable moments, like defined action setpieces or something. It just doesn’t do anything quite as striking as James Horner or Simon Franglen have done for the films. But that’s alright. This strikes me more as a gentle worldbuilding exercise, and in that it succeeds.
19. Creed III – Joseph Shirley
This past year, Joseph Shirley took the reins from Ludwig Göransson on two big franchises—The Mandalorian and Creed III. And for what it’s worth, I think he’s done a much better than adequate job on both. In fact, they’re both really good. It must be so hard to take over from someone else who has famously given these stories such a unique musical style… and then what can you do? You can either respect that musical style and keep it going or change it up. Well, in both cases, Joseph Shirley has continued the established musical style, and it’s really genuinely good. I mean, I’m saying all this just to say, I don’t know why Creed III isn’t higher on my list. And why The Mandalorian isn’t on the list. It was just a very competitive year, and I suppose it doesn’t feel like either of these scores did anything very bold or new that we haven’t heard in the respective previous entries. They’re just super solid. I mean that’s not to say uninteresting or boring or anything—Creed III continues in Ludwig Göransson’s template of really punchy, cool, rousing music, with unexpected uses of the human voice throughout. I’m super into it.
18. Diablo IV – Various Artists
Welcome to a bleak, anxious world of despair. Diablo IV is a macabre atmospheric soundtrack that makes me feel like there are bugs crawling up my legs. It’s extremely evocative. The whole score is drenched in the reverb of a shadowy church—they found a great sound for this one. It really speaks to that medieval fantasy horror featuring the most evil of demons. It’s got this great sense of history too, like each piece is telling the story of ancient creatures and places. This music just makes me so restless and uncomfortable. So you may ask why I put it on here. Maybe I like being uncomfortable.
17. The Flash – Benjamin Wallfisch
This is a really solid superhero soundtrack and has some of my favourite music by Benjamin Wallfisch. It’s doing an awful lot of work in some setpieces in particular, bringing a lot of gravitas to a film that I’m otherwise quite reluctant to care about. There’s some really nice use of piano in some of the sweeping action tracks that has stuck with me. And there are some huge moments of grandeur. I mean, some of them, like the one you’ve just heard, I kinda think is honestly too grand and wonderful for the movie and the scene it scored. But I don’t mind, as a listener outside of the movie; it’s a great piece. It’s also got a bunch of Danny Elfman’s Batman theme, and that doesn’t hurt either.
16. Genshin Impact - Fountain of Belleau – Various Artists
The music of Genshin Impact is a relatively recent discovery for me. There’s a lot of music out there already, and this latest expansion release is full of wonderful music. It’s bright, colourful, and very playful. Playful is the big word I think. Throughout the album, the music dabbles with a whole range of styles and modes, but doesn’t forget to hold onto some lovely themes. There’s over 3 hours of music here, so I’m hoping to spend a lot more time in the future delving into this world, including the scores from the previous expansions.
15. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – John Murphy
Back into the superhero realm with the third Guardians of the Galaxy . John Murphy is composing this time round, and the music has been taken in a very different direction to the previous soundtracks. This is a really emotional score, really. John Murphy leans into the tragedy and sadness at the heart of the film, and I love that about it. Although there’s a bit less action fun, it’s still quite space operatic, and there’s much more heartbreak and sentimentality. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do.
14. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Stephen Barton & Gordy Haab
This is Star Wars in dark mode. Everything’s rather bleak and grim and hard and overbearing. There’s more spooky, creepy, shadowy stuff in here than I expected. And a lot of the 4-hour runtime of the score is atmospheric, painting a range of scary, foreboding backdrops. But when the action kicks in, it’s thrilling. There’s just nothing like Star Wars music. That descriptive brass and those rich agile strings. I swear with Star Wars music you can always see these worlds so clearly— the empires and the blasters and the lightsabers. And like all of the best Star Wars music, Jedi Survivor does push a bit outside the established template, with some unique orchestrations and styles we haven’t heard in this world before.
13. Godzilla Minus One – Naoki Sato
This is a big wow, this soundtrack. It kinda blew me away. In some areas, it’s deceptively simple, but then it really just hits you. Especially inside the movie—this is one of the best scores for picture on my list. It really imbues each scene of the film with… energy. Often anxious energy. It’s got absolutely thrilling moments, but the thing I was most struck by was how incredibly anxious this score is. It elevates my heart rate; it’s physically effective and affecting. I’m in awe. As well as scoring significant setpieces with memorable original music, Naoki Sato also brings back the original Godzilla Main Title theme, as Bear McCreary did a few years ago in his Godzilla score, for some pretty incredible “wow godzilla is wild” moments. But yeah, this is really engrossing stuff. Play it loud.
12. Fast X – Brian Tyler
I’m honestly really not a fan of the Fast and Furious movies at all, but Brian Tyler knows what he’s doing. This is really impressive action scoring. It aims to be pretty grand and epic, with some choral punctuations and what I assume is a villain theme that dominates throughout the score, going head to head with Tyler’s heroic themes, some of which are now several years old. But what’s so important about the success of this music is that it doesn’t forget to have fun. It could easily be too serious, and at a couple of points, maybe it is. But for the most part, it’s just a good time.
10. Migration – John Powell
It’s John Powell doing a colourful animated score, of course, it’s good. I mean, it’s not How To Train Your Dragon , but not much is. This one is also about flying creatures—they’re just ducks, right? I think that’s right. And what a perfect provocation the concept of flight is for music, no matter the composer, but especially for John Powell. Anyway, this is tremendously enjoyable light adventure scoring with several good action cues and a few of those flourishes of wonder, awe, and delight that Powell is just the master of. His music is just so dextrous and always sounds good—the particular quality and texture of his orchestra is definitely one of my favourites out there. It’s always very creative too; there are surprises in here, like a bit of electric guitar at one point.
9. Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Bear McCreary & Sparks & Shadows
Right at the end of the year, we got this new adventure score by Bear McCreary and his Sparks & Sounds team. And it’s really just what you’d expect, which is a great thing. A memorable and noble main theme on French horn. Rich strings to build out the world. All imbued with the sense of wonder and magic that you need for a Percy Jackson story. The only damning thing to say about this score is that it’s really not that exciting compared to Rings of Power or other recent Bear McCreary scores. But that’s just because they’ve been so constantly terrific. Honestly, this really is great too.
8. The Orville: New Horizons – Various Artists
If you have any sense of nostalgia for the great classical inspired sci-fi scores, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc., this is like a warm blanket. A 72-track, 4 and a half hour-long warm blanket, packed end-to-end with classical orchestral adventure film score writing. It’s almost too much to comprehend, really. But it does everything you’d expect: bold brassy Star Trek -y themes, expressive string ostinatos for Star Wars -like action cues, and all sorts of overt classical references to stuff like Holst’s The Planets . And the cues are long—I love long setpiece cues, where the music really just gets to tell the story. Anyway, The Orville has wonderful music. How lucky are we?
7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Daniel Pemberton
This score is absolutely genius. It’s so fast and clever and tight, and it absolutely has to be to keep up with the vivid torrent of ideas on screen throughout the movie. Daniel Pemberton’s themes for this world are so distinct and memorable. Just like the different frame rates and animation styles used for characters from different worlds, Pemberton uses such diverse musical styles to represent each theme and idea. It’s a miracle that it all comes together into something cohesive at the end. Top stuff.
6. Forspoken – Gary Schyman & Bear McCreary
This ultracool video game score by Gary Schyman and Bear McCreary really drew me in with some ear-catching melodies, often led by a dynamic female voice. It’s very much in that McCreary world of moody, appealingly shaped themes riddled throughout a heavy but not exhausting fantasy world. From track 1, it’s so instantly full of heartfelt, striving character. Great incorporation of some trap beats, some heavy drums, and agile piano amongst the swirling strings. I also love how cohesive and distinct its style is—you only need to hear the start of a track to go, ah, this must be Forspoken.
5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – John Williams
The maestro is back! With Indiana Jones! Expectations were high. I wasn’t disappointed. Of course, a lot of this album is retreads of Indiana Jones of the past. Or some action writing that is so similar to things we’ve heard before that it may as well be a needle drop. But there’s still so much new magic here. Helena’s Theme is the grand new concert piece, and the way it instantly dives straight back into that romantic classical writing, with large, shameless melodic leaps… Everything from John Williams is such a gift.
4. Oppenheimer – Ludwig Göransson
This one’s already been talked about so much in the soundtrack community; I don’t know that there’s much more to say. Not everyone loves it, that’s for sure, but I’m totally on board. I think Oppenheimer is an incredible followup to Ludwig Göransson’s first Christopher Nolan collaboration, Tenet . It creates such a gloomy tragic vibe with closely recorded expressive strings that sketch out these intricate patterns that feel like human thoughts. It succeeds at creating this atmosphere of an existential fairy tale, a bit like another one of my favourites of recent years, Justin Hurwitz’s First Man. Beauty and dread, horror and wonder, all at the same time.
3. Baldur’s Gate 3 – Borislav Slavov
Just jaw-droppingly beautiful. That is my primary reaction to most of Baldur’s Gate 3 by Borislav Slavov. This is the power of melodic music. Like a worm that crawls into your brain and lives there. This music immediately got deep under my skin. And yeah, it’s all about the melodies here. Just stunningly beautiful lyrical melodies. Sometimes performed unexpectedly simply, unexpectedly quietly, unexpectedly soulfully. These are some of the best themes of the year, and they’re done so much justice across the score. It’s got some of the best songs on a soundtrack in 2023 as well. Divinity: Original Sin 2 from a few years back was great, but this is a new level. Borislav Slavov has received a lot of praise this year, and I think it’s all deserved and then some.
2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie – Brian Tyler
I never expected to be so very charmed by this, but I absolutely was and am. Brian Tyler went all out on this one. Not only does it cleverly incorporate heaps of previous Mario musical material, it makes it new and fresh and consistent and tight. It’s filled with such visceral joy; it makes you feel like you could fly. Even the villain theme is fun! And again, the orchestra just sounds so good in this. It’s a classic case of Brian Tyler featuring drums in a big orchestra, and his sound is so perfected at this point; I can’t believe how punchy it sounds. I’m so happy to have something that’s this colourful and fun near the top of my list—it’s not all just doom and gloom this year. I haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve certainly spent many hours of the past year listening to this amazing score.
1. Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One – Lorne Balfe
Mission Impossible has always had good music. I mean it started with the brilliant themes by Lalo Schifrin in the 1960s, and for the movies, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Joe Kramer, and Lorne Balfe have all put in stellar work. But I think this latest soundtrack is my favourite of the bunch. Lorne Balfe returns to take the melodrama to the next level. And he so perfectly musically represents the feeling of racing against time, of trying to go faster, of being pushed to your limits, of being up against impossible odds. And it’s all done in this larger-than-life romantic style, where everything is turned up to 11 and every emotion is the biggest thing you’ve ever felt. It’s much more emotional than any previous Mission Impossible score. It feels like this dark, exciting nightmare swirling all around you. I still don’t know how some of these tracks make me feel what they do. And the bongos! The coolest bongos of 2023! Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning is an enormous and epic work by Lorne Balfe. And make sure you check out the expanded release, with about 3 hours of music. It’s glorious.
Final Thoughts
That’s a wrap on my fifth annual soundtrack list! I’m so grateful to share this passion for scores and soundtracks with you every year.
Some Interesting Trends:
- 14 film scores, 2 TV scores, and 7 game scores made this year’s list. TV scores dropped significantly from last year.
- The diversity of composers is stronger—fewer repeating names, except Bear McCreary (3 times) and Brian Tyler (2 times).
Thank you for reading—see you next year!
