The Daily Spin II

Johann Johannsson | Arrival OST

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: Arrival OST (2016)

Artist: Johann Johannsson

Link:

One of the finest scores in recent memory, Johann Johannsson’s work on Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival perfectly fits a sci-fi picture - mysterious, captivating, sublime.

A movie ostensibly about linguistics and space hits at a very tight niche that speaks deeply to me personally, and every moment here is so beautifully accented by Johannsson’s work that it’s impossible to discount its presence. There are pieces here - like ‘Xenolinguistics’ - that, with no hesitation, fall towards a natural underlying sound with such ease and grace that they almost become missable.

Normally, this would be a detraction, but I’m not going to be as harsh as I might be for a quote-unquote ‘normal’ album - whereas I’m not really looking for most music to fall into the background, I think what works so brilliantly about this score is that capability to accomplish just that - when you need it, it’s there, loud and boisterous and stunning, terrifying in its own right. All the same, if you ask it to step back, it’s already behind you, slinking evenly into the shadows to lurk and provide much-needed sonic depth.

Rating: 9/10

Best Tracks: Xenolinguistics

Worst Tracks: Hazmat