10 best film tracks of 2015

All right, since the late release of The Revenant in my country made it impossible for me to see the movie by now - and finish my final list for 2015 and complete my best shots, best scenes and best performances list, I can only publish one list other than best trailers - best film tracks.

This has not been a year as great when it comes to film music as 2014 was, but we still got one masterpiece of a score in Tom Holkenborg's brilliant work for Fury Road. We also got a whole bunch of weird, eerie and delightful scores and many surprises (I'm stunned how delicate The Revenant score is). Last year I listed top 15 tracks, this year it's top 10 but with addition of two other categories.

Best trailer song:
5. Lunacy by Swans (Macbeth trailer)
4. Rumble and Sway by Jamie N Commons (Hail Caesar! trailer)
3. All Along the Watchtower (remix) by Jimmy Hendrix (The Martian trailer)
2. My Blood by Ellie Goulding (Cinderella trailer)
1. I'm So Sorry by Imagine Dragons (Legend trailer)

Best use of song in the movie:
5. Disintegration by The Cure (used in miniature fight scene in Ant-Man)
4. The Mighty Rio Grande by This Will Destroy You (used in the escape scene in Room)
3. Grew up at Midnight by the Maccabees (used in the ending of Steve Jobs)
2. Slave to Love (special 12 re-mix) by Bryan Ferry (used in the ending of Kingsman)
1. Free bird by Lynard Skynard (used in the church scene in Kingsman)

Best original track:
10. Old Maid (Disasterpeace, It Follows)
Admittedly It Follows score is not something to listen to separately from the movie unless you want to give yourself intense nightmares. But it's one of the best, most unique scores of the year and that list would feel very incomplete without it.

9. Let Them Up (Tom Holkenborg, Mad Max: Fury Road)

With a movie like that and a score like that, you've gotta end with a bang. Let them up is such a perfect track accompanying what we are seeing - the ascension of Furiosa and the wives and Max leaving - the triumph yet a hint of the new journey ahead.

8. Jim Jones at Botany Bay (Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight)
While when it comes to Daisy most of Tarantino's new movie repulsed me, there is one particularly delightful scene with Jennifer Jason Leigh shining as her Daisy, who is in on a major secret, grabs a guitar, starts singing and observes carefully what is happening all around her. It's such a nice moment and the way Leigh makes the catchy song into her way of telling them all to hell in the end of it, is brilliant.

7. Underwater (Johnny Jewel, Lost River)

One of the year's most overlooked films is Ryan Gosling's Lost River. Sure it's strange as hell, almost unbearably disturbing at times and overall kinda mediocre but what the film does have is amazing atmosphere. And part of that atmosphere is created with really incredible soundtrack. Gosling clearly picked a thing or two from Refn.

6. The Woods (Part I) (Keegan DeWitt, Queen of Earth)
One of the things that makes Queen of Earth so damn eerie is the fantastic score which reminded me a little of Solaris and a lot of Take Shelter. The strange sounds coming in together and still forming memorable and oddly soothing and at times unsettling melodies are one of the most amazing things about the movie

5. Discovering Buffalo (Ryūichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto, The Revenant)
And it just keeps rising and rising. Beautiful.

4. Turn Hell Hound (Jed Kurzel, Macbeth)
The music in Macbeth is one of the best things about it and one track stands above others - it's the memorable, stunning and exciting Turn Hell Hound, we hear near the end of the movie during the final duel scene.

3. Carrying Glass (Ryūichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto, The Revenant)
The Revenant score is not at all what I was expecting. I counted maybe 4 or 5 more intense moments on the score - most of it is so subtle, delicate and melancholic. The finest such piece is Carrying Glass which is just such a thing of beauty.

2. Chapter Doof (Tom Holkenborg, Mad Max: Fury Road)
This is the track accompanying the final action scene in the movie and in it most of the themes and cool notes of the film's music come together. And there is this one particularly divine moment -  at 3:01 when the guitar comes in, it's just absolute heaven.

1. Brothers in Arms (Tom Holkenborg, Mad Max: Fury Road)
Brothers in Arms is a track that plays in the most riveting moment of the movie - Max and Furiosa escaping from the canyon and for the very first time truly fighting together. Holkenborg has composed one hell of a music here - creating a sort of anthem and a great, energetic, beautiful track that goes so well with the scene and is so memorable on its own. (special extended version of the track). Since June I knew nothing will come along in 2015 that sounds better than this and I was right.

Special mention:
The Revenant Teaser/Trailer track (?, The Revenant)

Well, this is a first. The best track of the year hands down and I'm not even entirely sure who is responsible for it nor is it used in the actual movie so I cannot have it at #1. Three different artists are credited in that youtube clips and obviously there was some editing here to add the 'breathing' sound. I'm so disappointed that this track was not included on the soundtrack nor is it evidently used in the film. The music is available on itunes but that's it. What a shame because it's been years since I heard such memorable piece of music before.