wakanda forever musical analysis

SPOILERS! get the good headphones out for this one

I am not a big movie person at all. I don’t know actors or actresses. I don’t know a single thing but what I do know is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a wonderful movie. From the first minute the movie had me stuck in a trance. It had me speechless and afraid to move and I fucking hate most movies so this means a lot coming from me, the big hater. After my fourth time watching this movie I finally feel like I can dissect how I feel about the soundtrack because that’s what I care about the most. I won’t know movies but I do know my soundtracks and composers. 

Ludwig Göransson is behind the original score of Blank Panther and every time I listen I am shocked at how this Swedish man pulled this score off like this. The score is a version of a classic superhero movie but with a generous dusting of African instrumentation and its tasteful done with due to Göransson’s references. He went to study African music and instrumentation in Senegal and to see the International Library of African Music. You could tell a lot was learned from the experiences because the score is brilliant. I like how you could tell every part of the score was directly for the movie and it perfectly aligns with the story being told. 

There are a few songs in this score that align perfectly with the movie in my eyes so if you haven’t watched the movie I highly suggest doing that before reading on. I have warned you because I am spoiling the fuck out of the movie for you. 

The first thing I wanna say about the score is that it demands you feel what is being portrayed in the movie. If you are feeling sad about the movie the score is going to be just what you need to make you cry. Right off the bat, Göransson frightens the hell out of you by introducing the people of Talokan’s opening theme, Sirens. Sirens starts off very quiet and honestly not quite scary; almost calming. As the song goes on it gets more intense and frightening; it feels as if the music wants to pull you in like sirens. I have noticed any theme in the soundtrack related to Namor or the people of Talkan is absolutely horrifying. Namor, Namor’s Throne, and Imperius Rex are the scariest songs of the album for sure. It made the hair on the back of your necks stand up and that theme relates to the movie and storyline very well. Through the movie Namor and the people of Talokan were very paralyzing fears for the people of Wakanda. So many points in the movie Namor’s army were rising out of the water and the people of Wakanda were frozen in fear. The soundtrack does a wonderful job portraying that feeling of frozen and sudden fear well. I think that theme is consistent when it comes to the movie because the people of Wakanda never had to deal with others that have or knew about vibranium. This was quite a scary time for them because they lost the Black Panther, their signal of hope.

Hope and persevering are a common theme in the movie. After Shuri Gets captured by Namor and his crew, he starts by telling her his backstory and how vibranium came to be in their civilization. It seemed like he wanted to come to some agreement and even an alliance. He goes about trying to persuade her by showing Shuri around the kingdom. At this point in the musical score Göransson is trying to get the viewer to be swayed by Namor’s flattery and quite honestly had me deceived when he used the film version of Con La Brisa by Foudeqush. The translation to the title of the song is “With The Breeze”. It’s a very soft and dreamy song with very beautiful lyrics. This song paired with the pleasing scenery of the people and kingdom of Talokan I felt drawn to Namor’s story. 

There are two times that I cried watching this movie and the first time was the silent Marvel opening and the scene in the movie where Mama is being played. In this scene, Queen Ramonda is going to save Riri Williams and she drowns herself doing so. The piece starts off very quiet and suspenseful. It seems like that was used to aid in the emotion of watching Queen Ramonda swim up to the surface. That tension built up until about a minute and a half in where to where the rumblings stop and Jorja Smith’s vocals take over. It feels sad and expressive before the suspense in the music starts to build again. It goes quiet. I think this part of the score where it goes really quiet parallels well with the movie and what’s being shown. Like the music starting very chaotically, the scenes leading up to Queen Ramonda’s death were very wild and unhinged with Namor’s attack against Wakanda. That silence after all the beginning craze was definitely meant to represent the Queen's death and the loss of Shuri’s last immediate family member. The piece made you feel alone. 

My favorite part of the score would have to be It Could Have Been Different. It sounds like a classic superhero soundtrack. Throughout the entire album there has been clear African instrumentation and themes within the movie and this is the first time within the album we don’t hear too much of that. Even at the end there’s like a futuristic sounding synth line at the end that adds to the uniqueness of the score. It sounds tense and very serious as this is a part of the final fight scene between the Black Panther and Namor. I think that Göransson wrote this part of the score like this to make the viewer realize this is THE scene of the movie and this can be compared to other superhero movies.  

I love this score and I love when composers take the time to learn from direct sources and do it well. Tell me what you think of it.