There month of January is often a slow one for new releases as companies regroup from the Holiday shopping season.  Out of the many recordings that passed through this month, here are five that really stand out and are worthy of your attention.

First up is a 2-disc set reviewed here earlier this week of Murray Gold's music for Doctor Who--Series 5.  Gold's music for this BBC series continues to be some of the finest on television and fans of the series will want to add this to their collection.  If you have been missing some great sci-fi action music, Gold's scores deliver with the addition of engaging themes.  His "new" hybrid theme for the series also opens the set.  See the review for more information.

Also reviewed last week, a new disc of Rozsa's concert music from Naxos is well worth your time.  While one can dismiss these works as influenced by Rozsa's biblical epics, the works on this disc allow us to see that the composer was another valid Hungarian musical voice worth paying attention to along with Bartok and Kodaly.  The overture that opens the disc and the Hungarian Sketches that close are quite engaging works worthy of more concert appearances.

I finally had a chance to hear Desplat's music for The King's Speech.  The Decca release, while being terribly brief at 40+ minutes still gives listeners a chance to revisit Desplat's score well.  His main thematic idea reminded me a lot of Williams' score for The Accidental Tourist in its orchestration and the way in which Desplat threads it through the various sequences collected on the CD.  It also made sense to me why AMPAS recognized this for an Oscar nomination--it, like several other candidated this year, makes use of unique recording techniques as part of the ending creative process.

Next week you will be able to read a bit more about the next two discs on my best of January list in a review of the CDs themselves.  Michael Daugherty is one of the most frequently performed of contemporary composers and there is a brand new release from Naxos that will give you a chance to hear four of his more recent works.  Both Ghost Ranch and Sunset Strip are excellent pieces worthy of entering the repertoire.  They are featured alongside Route 66 (from which the new release takes its name) and Time Machine.  Marin Alsop's committed performances are also a highlight.  To gain perspective, I also requested a release from last year featuring the composer's Metropolis Symphony and the piano concerto, Deus ex Machina.  The release has just been nominated for 4 Grammy's and features the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.  Check in next week for a fuller review of both these discs, but they are well worth your time--I think the newer disc is a better listen only because it has more contrast in its selections.  But they really make great companions.

I have spent ten years now writing and paying close attention to film music old and new.  There was a stretch from the mid-1990s until about 6 years ago that I managed to predict the five score nominees (I think 2003 was the last year of my perfect streak.)  Since then I have somehow managed to bat 3 of 5 most of the time.  This year though is a real head scratcher

It is sort of odd that one of the best "new score" releases of 2010 was actually an expanded 2-disc set of 2009's Star Trek!  After that I can perhaps point to 5 or 6 more.  Danny Elfman has two of my favorite scores on the list.  The first is his interesting score for Alice in Wonderland with one of the most memorable themes that permeates this score and film.  The other was for the at times laughable remake of The Wolfman with a beautifully perfect score in a more classic horror movie vein.

I'm also a big fan of Alexandre Desplat, and though I have yet to hear The King's Speech, I suspect it would make an expanded list of scores.  At any rate, his fascinating Herrmann-esque music for The Ghost Writer continues to linger in the ear.  It is definitely worth being on the Oscar short-list, but I doubt many will remember this release from early last year.

Hands down, the one score that worked so well in a film and on its own was John Powell's fantastic effort in How To Train Your Dragon.  This is one of his strongest scores in a while with perfect action sequences and great thematic development all around.

Two scores featuring music from other sources were also among the better releases.  First was Christopher Gordon's beautiful music for Mao's Last Dancer.  Those whom I have heard from who also discovered this film and score tend to agree that it is another strong effort.  Gordon's day will hopefully come someday.  The other score is Clint Mansell's music for Black Swan.  This is a score that warrants repeated listening so that you can pick out the threads of the Tchaikovsky source music adn Mansell's deconstructing of it within the score.  It's pretty amazing the more you think about it.  Unfortunately, the score was deemed 'ineligible" by the Academy which is rather unfortunate because rather than just use the source material, Mansell really transforms it throughout the film.

Two other films featured scores by master composers.  The first is actually from a 2009 film, Baaria, by Tornatore.  Ennio Morricone continues his fruitful collaboration with the director in a score that continues to build on approaches taken in earlier Tornatore films.  There are engaging themes and plenty of interesting orchestral choices to go around.  The other film is about Darwin, Creation, and features a surprisingly good score by Christopher Young who seems to be enjoying flexing his compositional style in a variety of genres of late.  Both scores are perfect efforts with Young's perhaps being the better of the two if one had to choose.

So with these thoughts in mind, I turn to thinking a little about this year's Oscar possibilities.  The Social Network score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross may have received a Golden Globe, but I cannot see this making it to the final five.  The other four scores nominated for Golden Globes though may have a chance.

Though A.R. Rahman captured the imagination with Slumdog Millionaire, it is hard to believe that his music for 127 Hours will have the same critical awareness.  Elfman's Alice in Wonderland, Desplat's The King's Speech, and Zimmer's Inception are more likely to appear on Tuesday's list.  In the case of the latter, I am not quite sure why the score would be considered "best" of the year.  It seems to work well in the film, but it often seems so much like everything else by Zimmer--less distinct than Sherlock Holmes--but, didn't some used to say the same about every "older" generation of composers.  It would be wonderful if Powell's How To Train Your Dragon made the cut as well--it certainly has garnered critical attention in music and film circles.  In fact each of these scores have been nominated for the Anthony Asquith Award in Film Music (BAFTA). 

That list may repeat Tuesday morning.  But somehow I feel there may be a surprise or two.  I will laugh out loud if The Ghost Writer is nominated over The King's Speech, but it would not be the first time one of Desplat's scores was edged out over another.  I have to wonder if the dark horse this year is Carter Burwell's True Grit though. So, here is my tentatively chosen list and I await to be surprised in the morning:

Alice in Wonderland - Danny Elfman
How to Train Your Dragon - John Powell
Inception - Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech - Alexandre Desplat
True Grit - Carter Burwell