[Tom_Servo]

As a Gen X film score fan who grew up loving the usual cadre of composers we all loved unequivocally – Williams, Goldsmith, Elfman, Horner, Silvestri, Barry – Zimmer was always an interesting yet complicated composer to approach. During the 90’s, in FSM and online, the overall consensus seemed to be that we weren’t supposed to like his music, as if it was akin to liking junk food. Of course I had my favorites (BLACK RAIN, THE PEACEMAKER, BACKDRAFT), as everyone does, but over the last 10 years or so I found myself in new mindset I like to call “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Hans Zimmer”! Part of this was helped by when I focused an episode of my podcast on his career, his approach to scoring (a band-like philosophy) and his music.

The expanded editions of older scores of his helped, but I also kept buying his new scores and really loving many of them. WONDER WOMAN 1984, THE CREATOR, DUNE and NO TIME TO DIE are all recent Zimmer scores that are so memorable in my book. I then discovered mid-career scores of his I missed and now love, such as the two SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE LONE RANGER. INTERSTELLAR and INCEPTION are awesome, as are all his PIRATES and BATMAN scores. I feel like the only album of his that I bought in the last 10 years and hated was WIDOWS.

I made a 5 volume set of highlights spanning his career up until now, with some custom suites I made from scores like WHITE FANG and THE ROCK, and it’s my favorite way to interact with his music.