There have been a few composers in the past where my opinion has changed over time – usually only up or down by a notch or two – rarely has one been so completely transformed in my estimation as Lorne Balfe. I hadn’t used to be able to latch onto his music, for whatever reason, and in the depths of time (maybe 2017) I was accustomed when I wrote about it to give it a bit of a roasting. But one day (I think it was when I heard His Dark Materials) it was like a switch was flicked and suddenly I just got it – whether it was his music that changed or me I don’t know (I’ve revisited some of his older work and found myself more sympathetic towards it – none more so than Mission: Impossible, with the words I wrote about that one in particular seeming to be about a completely different album than the one I can hear now).