It’s the epic sounds of racing thoughts and atoms, the thundering feet calling for Oppenheimer to give his speech, combined with the feet on the dance floor from the blatantly drunk patrons in Babylon through to the “hey Barbie” from across the room as a unison of Ken dancers march onward. It’s the sounds of 2023 best soundtracks.

Here are our picks for the best original movie scores or soundtracks in 2023.

5. The Boy and The Heron

The song “Spinning Globe” by pop star Keneshi Yonezu is the ending ballad to The Boy and The Heron. It’s a sad song that builds into a hopeful, more lively piece that’s tonally in line with the film. It’s a fantastic song, but the rest of the original soundtrack by longtime Studio Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi is also, as always, superb. The multiple renditions of “Ask Me Why” are the building blocks of the film’s core, and then pieces like Feather Fletching, with a strong piano and strings, create the sense of wonder and discovery seen in the middle act of The Boy and The Heron. And songs like “The King’s Parade” is utterly Ghibli to me with their horns and percussion introductions of larger-than-life characters. 

– Dylan

4. Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer is made to be watched on the largest screen and the best sound system possible. When creating a soundtrack for a film about science, war, mass destruction of a kind never to be seen again, and the aftermath, the accompanying music had to beat the same drum. Ludwig Goransson’s score achieves that in spades. The build of the first piece, “Fission”, is like listening to Oppenheimer’s mind piecing together and scrambling the outer reaches of time and space to discover what has driven him for all his years, and then halfway through the piece, it switches, it’s dark, it’s scary; what he’s discovered isn’t what he thought it would be. It’s impossible to escape “Trinity” as one of the best pieces of the film and the soundtrack, as the seven-minute accompanying track to the execution and test of the trinity bomb. It creates an unnerving feeling and captures the tension and wonderment on-screen. 

– Dylan

3. Babylon

I adore Babylon, and the music from Justin Hurwitz is such a big part of the film. The booze-filled haze of horns and clapping hands was like nothing else from the past twelve months. If the thumping of feet and the percussion and horns of “Voodoo Mama” don’t make you want to jump and dance like Nellie, thank you. I’m not sure you have a soul in your body. The way that song eventually combines into the “Finale” and the composition on the screen of cinema history is beautiful. One of the year’s most memorable scenes for me is a lovely crescendo, a lap around the cinema, a cheer and a holler for those who came before and those who will come after in creating this art form we all love and adore. Fade it out, play “Manny and Nellie’s Theme”, and appreciate what is an utterly perfect soundtrack for one of 2023’s most underappreciated films.

– Dylan

2. Barbie

The Barbie soundtrack is one of the most played albums of the year, with many hit singles and songs getting more radio play than anything else you may have heard this year. It’s a collection of some of the world’s current top pop stars collaborating to release hits like “Pink” from Lizzo, “Dance The Night” from Dua Lipa, “Speed Drive” from Charli XCX, “What Was I Made For?” from Billie Eilish and more. It’s a banger of a soundtrack; all of the songs will remind you of memorable scenes in the film. Plus, the soundtrack features another surprise hit and award winner from 2023, “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling. 

– Dylan

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

When the first bass notes of “Across the Spider-Verse (Intro)” hit, I already had goosebumps and they were there until the final notes of “Across the Spider-Verse (Start a Band)”. Arguably the most impressive part of Daniel Pemberton’s score is the variety of styles across the film to fit with the multi-versal characters like the operatic medieval music of “Vulture Meets Culture”, the Bollywood sounding “Spider-Man India (Pavitr Prabhakar)” and obviously punk-inspired “Spider-Punk (Hobie Brown)”. Add on top of that the Metro Boomin songs like “Self Love” (with Coi Leray), which amplifies the emotions in Gwen’s opening segment, and “Am I Dreaming” (with ASAP Rocky and Roisee), which fits perfectly in the closing credits, and you have a soundtrack that elevates the amazingness we’re watching on the screen.

– Ashley