The Daily Spin II

Volker Bertelmann | Conclave

Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.

As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.

Album: Conclave OST (2024)

Artist: Volker Bertelmann

Link:

Conclave is one of those brilliant movies that resonates particularly hard if you’re intimately familiar with a subject. It’s a strong contender for the actual award for Best Picture and (as it stands) my personal winner out of this year’s slate.

I could talk for ages about the film, but this is a music series, not a film series. Maybe another time - instead, let’s look at the score.

Good film scores can be the spine of a film in the way few things can - the organ swells of Interstellar, Howard Shore’s gorgeously expansive Lord of the Rings score, the beauty that comes from pretty much anything John Williams has ever touched.

With this score, I can’t say Volker Bertelmann gets to that level. The score is successful - it evokes emotion in the right moments, heavy strings accompanied by dancing little arpeggios that flutter and kick their way along the plot of the movie. It’s well-suited to a serious film about religious drama.

Unfortunately, as you can imagine, it does strike a little dull. A movie that centers itself around the drama and intrigue in small whispered moments doesn’t grant too many opportunities for a bombastic score to steal the show, but even in those minor moments, the accents lay a little underutilized.

Rating: 7/10

Best Tracks: Arrival, Overture of Conclave

Worst Tracks: Evening Prayer