Verdict
Summary
There are too many songs mixed in with the score but aside from that this is solid stuff and Nicholas Britell is one to watch.
Review: Nicholas Britell’s score for the recent release Battle of the Sexes is an exceptionally powerful piece of work. Britell, whose previous scores for the indie films Moonlight and Free State of Jones helped establish his name, is quickly blossoming into a composer to watch out for. While I was listening to his music here I recalled some work by Vangelis, which is just about the highest compliment I can pay to any composer. The film, which is set in the early 1970’s, gets the sense of time and place down incredible well, and that left Britell a challenging task to match the era with his music. Film scoring in the early ’70s has never been my particular cup of tea, and so I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that Britell doesn’t try to emulate score or styles of that era so much as complimenting the film itself with a nuanced hand. Also included on the CD are several source songs.
Sony Classical has just released the soundtrack to Battle of the Sexes onto CD and on digital platforms.