As most of you reading this probably know by now, Lukas Kendall and the gang at Film Score Monthly have decided to cease their line of venerable CD releases later this year with the arrival of their 250th disc. That will be a sad day indeed in soundtrack land as the label has lovingly produced some of the most eclectic and desired soundtracks ever made in its decade plus run. In that spirit, we celebrate some of our favorites by each choosing five discs from their catalog, some familiar and some not.

John Barry’s 50 year career in film ended this January 30th with the composer’s passing. What he left was a legacy of incredible film music that stands tall amongst his contemporaries, beginning with brassy jazz for the James Bond series and culminating in an epic sweeping style that would win him multiple awards for films like Dances With Wolves. On this podcast, we’ll examine his extensive contributions to the world of film music and his distinctive, inimitable style.

Let’s face it: 2010 was a lousy year at the movies. Aside from a few gems, Hollywood seemingly left creative storytelling and original ideas at the door for lots of stupid in glorious 3-D.

New film music didn’t fare much better, which made it especially hard to do our annual year end best-of episode. So we cheated. Instead of a top ten list, we decided to open up the conversation and let the chips fall where they may. That means we discuss not only some of our favorite new releases of the year, but also the mountain of expanded editions and older scores released for the first time on the boutique labels.

Joining us for this  episode (and hopefully more in the future) is special guest Mike Joffe, a producer at BSX Records and a respected member of the soundtrack community. Mike really adds some great insights that you’ll not want to miss.

Soundtracks discussed include: Inception, Tron: Legacy, How to Train Your Dragon, Predators, Krull, Star Trek III and V, and much, much more.

We’re wrapping up our discussion of our favorite scores of the decade with our top five picks. Scores discussed include:

• The Mummy Returns – Alan Silvestri
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – Ed Shearmur
• Lust, Caution – Alexandre Desplat
• The Patriot – John Williams
• The Village – James Newton-Howard
• The Way of the Gun – Joe Kramer
• The New World – James Horner
• Speed Racer  - Michael Giacchino
• The Fountain – Clint Mansell
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within – Elliot Goldenthal

We’re kicking off our discussion of our favorite scores of the decade with our first five picks. Scores discussed include:

• Drag Me To Hell – Christopher Young
• Catch Me If You Can – John Williams
• Coraline – Bruno Coulais
• K-Pax – Edward Shearmur
• Munich – John Williams
• The Brothers Grimm – Dario Marianelli
• Edward Shearmur – Reign Of Fire
• John Williams – A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
• Don Davis – The Matrix Revolutions
• Karl Jenkins – River Queen
• Hans Zimmer – The Last Samurai

We take a step back and talk about a few favorites that we never got to discuss these past couple of years, including Beowulf, Casino Royale, The Spiderwick Chronicles and more.

A look back at the long history of Star Trek music, plus an in depth review of Michael Giacchino’s score for the new film Star Trek.

On this episode, we’ll review Danny Elfman’s new concert work Serenada Schizophrana, talk to Howard Shore about the new Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Complete Recordings set, reveal our top five scores for horror films and a Lost Classic from Angelo Badalamenti.