[Nick Zwar]

I like quite a bit of Danny Elfman’s music; I first took notice of him in the 1980s. He had done the theme for the funny TV series SLEDGEHAMMER, and then of course came the two punch when he scored Tim Burton’s huge hit BATMAN and the theme for the still running THE SIMPSONS.
My favorite Danny Elfman scores? Hmmm… off the top of my head:

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)
Just a beautiful score… love it from start to finish.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND & ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2010/2016)
Danny Elfman meets Philip Glass with chorus.

PLANET OF THE APES (2001)
I didn’t care for the movie, but wow, what a score. At the time I said it sounded like the Vienna Philharmonic took acid and started banging and clanging on anything that made noise. Forget “heavy metal”, this is much more in your stomach.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY/DARKER/FREED (2015-2018)
These scores for the silly “pseudo-BDSM” love story show a different side of Elfman. While the movies are of course high-concept fan-fiction nonsense, the music is elegant and has class, and goes well around the selection of classical pieces and pop songs also used in the movie.

DOLORES CLAIBORNE (1995)
Elfman provides a restrained and brooding score for one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever.

Bonus mention:
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)
Of course, it’s a film score, but basically it’s a musical, so I mention it apart from this others. But yes, I love it. Great, fun songs, lots of good music. And the album with Patrick Stewart’s narration is just perfect.

I mentioned only film scores, I put his concert works aside for now and did not include them in consideration.