• Composed by Ramin Djawadi
• Walt Disney / 61m

While he became known for his pulsating modern scores to big action films (and a certain tv series), the first time I came across Ramin Djawadi was for a score for a film set in South Africa called Beat the Drum. He was co-credited with Klaus Badelt (higher up the ladder at Remote Control at the time – which should perhaps be a cautionary tale to those occupying that position now) and it was a beautiful, tender score which made me look forward to his future. He went off in a very different path, and I’ve liked some of what he’s done along the way, but all these years later I think I finally have the music I’ve been waiting for – the wonderfully uplifting Elephant, for Disney+. (I honestly don’t have a clue what it’s about – vampire bats is my best guess.)

Calling it “Lion King Lite” would not be entirely accurate, but it is also extremely easy, so I will do it. The album opens with a six-minute suite, “Elephant Prologue”, which gives us the first taste of the score’s real joy, which is the African vocals. Of all the Hollywood approximations of ethnic music, I think I like the African one the best, and this album offers numerous joy-filled, heart-warming songs. But it offers more than that, too – the sad beauty of “Bones”, the playful spirit of “Caterpillars”, the tension of “Crocodile Crossing”, action/drama of “Lion Hunt”, quiet tragedy of “Death of a Matriarch” – it’s consistently strong from start to finish. “Victoria Falls” is a brilliant track, perhaps the highlight – it builds quite slowly before exploding with energy and drama. This is an excellent album – not your usual sound from Djawadi, but one I hope he gets to revisit.

Rating: ****

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