Five Nonesuch Soundtracks Make IndieWire's Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century

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IndieWire has published its list of The 25 Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century, including five for which Nonesuch released the soundtrack: Philip Glass's score to Stephen Daldry's 2002 film The Hours; Clint Mansell's for Darren Aronofsky's 2006 film The Fountain, performed by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai; and three scores to Paul Thomas Anderson films—Jon Brion's for 2002's Punch-Drunk Love, and Jonny Greenwood's for 2007's There Will Be Blood and the just-released Phantom Thread. IndieWire says "the last 18 years have given us some of the most memorable music ever written for the movies."

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IndieWire has published its list of The 25 Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century, and among them are five for which Nonesuch Records released the soundtrack: Philip Glass's score to Stephen Daldry's 2002 film adaptation of Michael Cunningham's The Hours; Clint Mansell's for Darren Aronofsky's 2006 film The Fountain, performed by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai; and three scores to films by Paul Thomas Anderson—Jon Brion's for 2002's Punch-Drunk Love, and Jonny Greenwood's for 2007's There Will Be Blood and the just-released Phantom Thread. All great examples of why IndieWire contends that "the last 18 years have given us some of the most memorable music ever written for the movies."

Philip Glass's Oscar- and Grammy-nominated score to The Hours starts off the list at No. 25. The film interweaves the stories of three women, including the author Virginia Woolf, portrayed by Nicole Kidman. "You’d be hard-pressed to find a contemporary composer more suited to scoring a movie about Virginia Woolf than Philip Glass," writes IndieWire's Jude Dry. "Both artists leave an indelible imprint on the reader or listener ... Each refrain [of Glass's score] swells into a cascade of ideas, a musical representation of the inside of Woolf’s troubled and brilliant mind."

On the list at No. 17 is Clint Mansell's score to Aronofsky's time-traveling sci-fi romance The Fountain. "At once awe-inspiring and understated," says IndieWire's Eric Kohn, "Mansell’s achievement clarifies the nature of Aronofsky’s intentions by giving the movie an ethereal quality that defies precise definition."

Phantom Thread, which has been nominated for six Academy Awards this year, including Greenwood's first, for Best Original Score, is the composer's fourth score for Anderson, and comes in at No. 11 for the century so far. "Each of the brilliant scores Jonny Greenwood has composed for Paul Thomas Anderson have been bonded to their films on a molecular level," writes IndieWire's David Ehrlich, who calls this one "a masterpiece." He suggests: "If Greenwood’s contributions to Phantom Thread are the most beautiful (and self-sustaining) music that he’s ever written for the screen, it’s only because his compositions are even more inextricable from this movie than they were from There Will Be Blood, The Master, or Inherent Vice."

Jon Brion's score for Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, which stars Adam Sandler in a Golden Globe–winning performance, is on the list at No. 7. "When combined with Paul Thomas Anderson’s camera movement and Sandler’s nervous ticks, the music externalizes the raging storm inside Barry in a way that is pure cinematic magic," says the site.

Finally, Jonny Greenwood's hauntingly dramatic score for There Will Be Blood, his first collaboration with Anderson, is No. 2 on IndieWire's list of the century's best—"one of the most memorable scores this side of the year 2000," exclaims Michael Nordine. In this adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning performance, "Greenwood’s work, which is string-heavy and beautifully unsettling, is as memorable as Day-Lewis' performance ... Close your eyes and you can almost feel the oil pulsing beneath the ground."

To read more and see IndieWire's complete list of The 25 Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century, visit indiewire.com. You can hear all of the above soundtracks below. To take pick up a copy, visit the Nonesuch Store now.

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IndieWire: 25 Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century, 2018
  • Friday, February 2, 2018
    Five Nonesuch Soundtracks Make IndieWire's Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century

    IndieWire has published its list of The 25 Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century, and among them are five for which Nonesuch Records released the soundtrack: Philip Glass's score to Stephen Daldry's 2002 film adaptation of Michael Cunningham's The Hours; Clint Mansell's for Darren Aronofsky's 2006 film The Fountain, performed by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai; and three scores to films by Paul Thomas Anderson—Jon Brion's for 2002's Punch-Drunk Love, and Jonny Greenwood's for 2007's There Will Be Blood and the just-released Phantom Thread. All great examples of why IndieWire contends that "the last 18 years have given us some of the most memorable music ever written for the movies."

    Philip Glass's Oscar- and Grammy-nominated score to The Hours starts off the list at No. 25. The film interweaves the stories of three women, including the author Virginia Woolf, portrayed by Nicole Kidman. "You’d be hard-pressed to find a contemporary composer more suited to scoring a movie about Virginia Woolf than Philip Glass," writes IndieWire's Jude Dry. "Both artists leave an indelible imprint on the reader or listener ... Each refrain [of Glass's score] swells into a cascade of ideas, a musical representation of the inside of Woolf’s troubled and brilliant mind."

    On the list at No. 17 is Clint Mansell's score to Aronofsky's time-traveling sci-fi romance The Fountain. "At once awe-inspiring and understated," says IndieWire's Eric Kohn, "Mansell’s achievement clarifies the nature of Aronofsky’s intentions by giving the movie an ethereal quality that defies precise definition."

    Phantom Thread, which has been nominated for six Academy Awards this year, including Greenwood's first, for Best Original Score, is the composer's fourth score for Anderson, and comes in at No. 11 for the century so far. "Each of the brilliant scores Jonny Greenwood has composed for Paul Thomas Anderson have been bonded to their films on a molecular level," writes IndieWire's David Ehrlich, who calls this one "a masterpiece." He suggests: "If Greenwood’s contributions to Phantom Thread are the most beautiful (and self-sustaining) music that he’s ever written for the screen, it’s only because his compositions are even more inextricable from this movie than they were from There Will Be Blood, The Master, or Inherent Vice."

    Jon Brion's score for Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, which stars Adam Sandler in a Golden Globe–winning performance, is on the list at No. 7. "When combined with Paul Thomas Anderson’s camera movement and Sandler’s nervous ticks, the music externalizes the raging storm inside Barry in a way that is pure cinematic magic," says the site.

    Finally, Jonny Greenwood's hauntingly dramatic score for There Will Be Blood, his first collaboration with Anderson, is No. 2 on IndieWire's list of the century's best—"one of the most memorable scores this side of the year 2000," exclaims Michael Nordine. In this adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning performance, "Greenwood’s work, which is string-heavy and beautifully unsettling, is as memorable as Day-Lewis' performance ... Close your eyes and you can almost feel the oil pulsing beneath the ground."

    To read more and see IndieWire's complete list of The 25 Best Movie Scores of the 21st Century, visit indiewire.com. You can hear all of the above soundtracks below. To take pick up a copy, visit the Nonesuch Store now.

    Journal Articles:Artist News

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