Courtesy of Marvel Music
Welcome back to the latest episode of Scored! We’ll be taking a look at a pair of composers who’ve really put their stamp on the film industry over the last decade. I’m talking, of course, about the Newton Brothers!
A Pair of Talented Composers
Despite their namesake, they’re not actually related. However, Andy Newton and Taylor Newton grew up together and bonded over their love of making music for films. Their style is a blend of old and new, using electronic beats and classical-sounding music to create a unique musical identity. But they really started to get noticed in 2016 when they worked with Danny Elfman to compose the horror flick Before I Wake, before going on to score the series The Haunting of Bly Manor, and last year’s smash hit, Five Nights at Freddy’s. This leads to arguably one of their best works in their entire discography: working with Marvel to produce X-Men ’97!
Throwing It Back To the ’90s With the X-Men
X-Men ’97 is the highly anticipated sequel to X-Men: The Animated Series, which ran for five seasons from 1992 to 1997. The series focuses on its titular team of mutants that face new challenges from the outside world while dealing with the aftermath of the disappearance of their beloved professor, Charles Xavier. Marvel Studios Animation breathes new life into the X-Men with this show through excellent animation, lovable characters, awesome action and wonderfully timeless themes of social issues. But, all of this wouldn’t be as effective if not for the Newton Brothers’ intensely exciting score!
Track Highlights
The three tracks I believe to be the heart of the score are track #1, the “X-Men ’97 Theme,” track #3, “Give Them the Forecast,” and track #18, “Trails of Love.” Track #1 is, simply put, awesome. The Newton Brothers revamp a classic theme for the next generation, while still keeping the essentials of what made the original so good. Track #3 is excellent in that it beautifully blends together a mixture of instruments to really make the scene it’s accompanied with stand out so much more. Finally, track #18 is great because of its lovely and somber nature, yet it almost sounds romantic at the same time. And these are just samples of what this soundtrack has to offer!
And that’s it for this episode of Scored! To find out more about what makes this score worthwhile, you can check out the video below. You can also find this album anywhere you stream your music! And, for more stories like this here on Music Daily, read here.
