While many were busy at the end of 2019 putting together their lists of the best films and TV shows of the decade, it felt prudent to get granular and really single out some of the astonishing filmmaking craft that’s been showcased over the past 10 years. A film score has the power to either ruin or make a movie—just the right piece of music playing in just the right spot is what iconic film moments are made of. And sometimes the score itself is so radical, it elevates the entire atmosphere of the movie to another level.

The 2010s saw digital musicmaking take leaps both for better and worse. The real craftspeople used this new technology to their advantage, combining it with their understanding of music to craft unique and striking soundscapes. Others simply leaned on samples and electronic cues to create an indistinguishable sea of sound.

But traditional film scores still remain, and everyone from veterans of the trade to exciting newer talents made use of full orchestras to tug at our heartstrings or make our palms sweaty. That this decade gave us both Junkie XL and Nicholas Britell is a testament to the breadth of diversity in film music that was on display.

So  let’s look back and celebrate the very best film scores of the 2010s. As with any list of this kind, it is certainly subjective, and there are innumerable fantastic film scores of the decade that are not on this list. But looking back at this precise moment in time, these feel like the cream of the crop.

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15. A Ghost Story – Daniel Hart

All of Daniel Hart’s collaborations with filmmaker David Lowery are magnificent (especially the jazz-infused Old Man and the Gun), but his work on A Ghost Story stands out for a couple of reasons. This incredibly small-scale yet emotionally epic 2017 indie is exactly as the title suggests—a ghost story—but it’s also a film about loneliness, longing, regret, the passage of time, and humanity’s impermanence. Hart’s score, then, is sufficiently reflective of these haunting themes, as you can feel the protagonist’s yearning in the quiet, Western-tinged pieces. But there’s also a forward-thinking feel to other tracks as the film wears on. It’s epically intimate.

14. Mad Max: Fury Road – Junkie XL

Mad Max: Fury Road is a perfect movie. A masterfully-executed action film from the genius mind of George Miller. So appropriately enough, it gets a larger-than-life score via Junkie XL (aka Tom Holkenborg). This score would prove influential for the decade as many other composers would look to imitate Junkie XL’s massive-sounding music, which drew heavily from digital sources. But those imitators would miss the fact that the reason the score for Fury Road is so great and so memorable is that it is perfectly proportional to the size and tone of the film at hand. Read: it's freaking huge for a reason.

13. Swiss Army Man – Andy Hull and Robert McDowell

A movie as unique as the 2016 indie Swiss Army Man gets an appropriately unique score courtesy of musicians Andy Hull and Robert McDowell. The film’s title refers to how Paul Dano’s shipwrecked character uses Daniel Radcliffe’s lifeless (or is it?) body for a multitude of purposes, and the score then reflects the variety of sounds a human body can make. Vocals and hand claps make up the majority of the music, but it’s backed by epic-sounding chords in a manner that proves to be surprisingly emotional. You’ve never quite seen a movie like Swiss Army Man, and you’ve never quite heard a score like this one.

12. Her – William Butler and Owen Pallett

How does one go about crafting the score for a movie in which the lead character falls in love with an operating system? With profound humanity, of course. That’s the underlying theme of Spike Jonze’s 2013 masterpiece Her, and it’s what runs through the touching score by William Butler and Owen Pallett. The music breaks your heart in the best way, as Butler and Pallett keep things simple for the most part with a piano and keyboard, until the whole thing crescendos in the film’s final moments which will adequately turn you into a puddle of tears.

11. Black Panther – Ludwig Göransson

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most consistently successful film franchises in history, it didn’t really get its act together sonically until these last few years. Michael Giacchino and Mark Mothersbaugh charted memorable territory with their scores for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok, but it was Ludwig Göransson’s work on Black Panther that gave us the first truly masterful score for an MCU movie. The Oscar-winning music toes the line between the music of Africa and the hip-hop influences in America, which is in keeping with the film’s themes. Indeed, writer/director Ryan Coogler made a superhero movie about what it means to be African-American, and Göransson’s score is at once triumphant, sorrowful, and downright cool.

10. Beasts of the Southern Wild – Dan Rohmer and Benh Zeitlin

I’m still kind of mad that it’s been over seven years and we’re only just now getting the next film from director Benh Zeitlin. His 2012 Sundance breakout Beasts of the Southern Wild brought fantasy to reality on an incredibly tiny budget, making the story of the central character Hushpuppy all the more impactful. The score—by Zeitlin and Dan Rohmer—is central to fleshing out the world of Beasts of the Southern Wild, and it remains a triumphant piece of music that’s emblematic of how just the right score can elevate the entire scope of your film.

9. War for the Planet of the Apes – Michael Giacchino

To be honest, Michael Giacchino could have filled a couple of spots on this list himself, but it’s his score for the 2017 film War for the Planet of the Apes that’s the most striking at this point in time (though that doesn’t devalue his excellent work on Inside Out, Coco, etc. etc.). Following in the footsteps of the iconic Jerry Goldsmith is no easy task, but for the concluding chapter in this new Apes trilogy, Giacchino crafts a score that’s worthy of standing right next to Goldsmith’s unforgettable music for the original movie. Haunting, epic, and immensely emotional. A fitting conclusion.

8. Sicario – Jóhann Jóhannsson

It’s hard not to feel angry at Jóhann Jóhannsson’s untimely death, knowing how many more unforgettable scores the world missed out on, and indeed his stirring work on the 2015 film Sicario stands tall as one of the best and most influential scores of the decade. Blurring the lines between music and sound design, the score feels angry and haunting and downright scary, echoing the themes of Denis Villeneuve’s unforgettable film. Jóhansson would push things even further on his next collaboration with Villeneuve, the terrific Arrival, and while I’m glad the world got to hear the contributions he made to the pantheon of great film music, there was no doubt even more greatness to come.

7. If Beale Street Could Talk – Nicholas Britell

Between Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Succession, composer Nicholas Britell is certainly one of the most significant breakouts of the decade. And while his other scores are excellent, his work on If Beale Street Could Talk is almost otherworldly. It feels like a warm embrace from a close friend you haven’t seen in ages. It doesn’t feel like love, it is love. Words do not do its beauty justice, except to say it’s a fine fit for this underseen follow-up from Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.

6. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Alexandre Desplat

Alexandre Desplat was one of the most prolific composers of the decade, and while one could easily cite his work on The Tree of Life here instead, I’m going with The Grand Budapest Hotel—which also happens to be writer/director Wes Anderson’s best work of the decade as well. Playful, lively and propulsive, Desplat’s score also manages to be robust and profound. It’s light but not without weight—an oxymoronic characteristic, I know, but it feels fitting for this joyfully mischievous (and Oscar-winning) score.

5. Phantom Thread – Jonny Greenwood

The best word to describe Jonny Greenwood’s score for Phantom Thread is “lovely,” which is made all the more impressive considering how prickly and unsettling his terrific scores for films like There Will Be Blood and You Were Never Really Here are. Paul Thomas Anderson’s darkly funny love story is scored at times like a classic 40s/50s romance, with a dash of “Bernard Hermann for Hitchcock” thrown in for good measure, but despite the period setting the score always also somehow feels modern. It’s sweet and odd and a little scary, much like the relationship between Alma and Woodcock itself.

4. First Man – Justin Hurwitz

I adore Justin Hurwitz’s score for La La Land, so when I say his score for First Man is even better, I consider it a testament to the guy’s talent. His miraculous and meticulous work with director Damien Chazelle results in a score that evokes the beauty and loneliness of space, but keeps its feet firmly planted in the emotional root of central figure Neil Armstrong. Part of the brilliance of Hurwitz’s score is that its themes and motifs begin to evolve as Armstrong and his NASA team move closer to getting to the moon, and once we touch down not only does the frame of the film expand to evoke the enormity of the achievement, but Hurwitz’s score completely takes off while maintaining the root of those original themes introduced in the beginning of the film. Plus, the theremin!

3. Interstellar – Hans Zimmer

Another score for a film set in space, albeit with an entirely different approach. If First Man evokes the loneliness of being in outer space, Hans Zimmer’s equally brilliant Interstellar score drives home the alien aspect of the great beyond—in every sense of the word. The use of organ is a stroke of genius, bringing a religious grandiosity into this story of a father who literally goes into the heavens to try and save humanity. Zimmer has crafted many a memorable scores throughout his career, a number of them quite inventive and unique. But Interstellar may be his crowning achievement.

2. How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell

For my money, the best theme written in the entire 2010s is John Powell’s main theme for the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, first established in the 2010 film. It’s epic and soaring, maintaining a sense of adventure and danger while also evoking the loving friendship that serves as the heart of the story. The film series always erred on the side of compassion rather than crudeness or cynicism, and that emotional maturity is reflected in Powell’s magnificent score.

1. The Social Network – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

The best film score of the decade comes from all the way back in 2010, but boy does The Social Network hold up (in more ways than one). Filmmaker David Fincher reached out to Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to try their hand at film scoring, and the result is a truly iconic piece of film music. Reznor and Ross didn’t attempt to conform to traditional film scoring methods, but instead infused the film with their own sounds and unique musical approach. The result is a wholly unique piece of film music that crackles with the spark of innovation and revels in the electronic, yet darker, more dangerous tones continuously find their way through—just as the character of Mark Zuckerberg presents an innocent veneer that hides a more merciless drive to succeed. Reznor and Ross’ score would win the Oscar and change the face of music composition forever, but it’s a testament to their talent that nearly 10 years later, few have come close to matching the brilliance of what they achieve here.

Honorable Mentions: Inception (Hans Zimmer), Gravity (Steven Price), Life of Pi (Mychael Danna), Blade Runner 2049 (Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (John Williams), Thor: Ragnarok (Mark Mothersbaugh), Inside Out (Michael Giacchino), TRON: Legacy (Daft Punk), King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Daniel Pemberton), Lady Bird (Jon Brion), La La Land (Justin Hurwitz), Jackie (Mica Levi), The Hateful Eight (Ennio Morriccone), Carol (Carter Burwell), Kubo and the Two Strings (Dario Marianelli), The Shape of Water (Alexandre Desplat), Gone Girl (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), Dunkirk (Hans Zimmer), Joker (Hildur Guonadóttir)