Loki (2021)'s score, composed by Natalie Holt, is far and away one of the most acclaimed scores in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Ludwig Göransson's work on Black Panther (2018), and for good reason. Like Goransson, Holt does a fantastic job in giving the series its own identity and scoring the awe and wonder as the show unravels into something much bigger than the MCU at large.
Awesome Music pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
- The first trailer
's theme is a sinister and chaotic theme befitting the God of Mischief. - The opening theme, "TVA", by Natalie Holt. A very atmospheric piece that encapsulates the sheer surrealism and cosmic horror elements of the show.
- One of the best and most atmospheric pieces of music in the show is by far "Catch Up" which, as the name implies, plays during the Previously on… segments of the show before the Marvel Studios logo. It's not only a more chaotic arrangement that borrows motifs from "Loki Green Theme" (mentioned below), but it also showcases that literally anything can and will happen in this chaotic adventure through The Multiverse.
- The music that plays when Loki is D.B Cooper is the sort of mischievous little tune one would expect to play when hijacking a plane, with the theremin highlighting the surreal aspect of Loki's character.
- Loki's theme, "Loki Green Theme" is dramatic and energetic, and many similarly compelling variants on the theme play throughout the show. You first hear it in all its glory in the end credits for The Variant.
- "Frigga" plays when Loki has to watch his mother die in the Time Theater and learn about Ragnarok in the archives. The violin solo at the beginning alone will leave you in tears. It sounds like Loki's mom is calling out to him across time and space. Then a transition into a gloriously ominous horn motif building up to silence, then some truly unsettling voice-adjacent sounds to close out.
- "Demons" by Hayley Kiyoko scores the opening scene of "Lamentis". After the tense flashback to the second episode, we're instead greeted with a very dissonant and upbeat track that suits Sylvie's character quite well both in the context of the scene that it plays in as well as the later reveal that Loki — like the source material — is bisexual (or more than that if we're talking the Loki from the original Norse myths).
- "Lamentis-1, 2077" scores Sylvie and Loki's introduction to the actual moon, and captures the desolate loneliness and the beauty of this dying world. The main motif itself is a fun riff off the show's main leitmotif, and it's played on the perfect instrument. It even manages to make a metronome sound intimidating.
- "Very Full" is a treat. A delightful Norse folk song lightens the darkness of the dying moon and compels even the rich assholes in the train car to clap along, before suddenly dropping back for a mournful solo. As Loki serenades Sylvie, the violin from "Frigga" comes in and punches you and Sylvie right in the feels. Suddenly, Loki bursts back into the chorus and rushes to a climax. For bonus points, the song includes his toast to Sylvie and request for "Another!" The lyrics focus on an unnamed maiden who sings, "Come home," whenever she sings. Loki's singing about Frigga.
- "Dark Moon" by Bonnie Guitar plays at the end of the third episode after the Ark that Loki and Sylvie tried to board is destroyed. The lyrics — again — really go hand in hand with the bleak situation of Loki and Sylvie, and most of all the doomed people of Lamentis-1. Especially the Irony of the fact that, well... Lamentis-1 itself is a moon.Dark moon a way up high up in the sky
Oh tell me why oh tell me why you've lost your splendor
Dark moon what is the cause your light withdraws
Is it because is it because I've lost my love - "If You Love Me" by Brenda Lee plays at the end of the fourth episode, punctuating the entire sequence of Loki and Sylvie's "sentencing"—much of which is heartbreaking due to a) Mobius being pruned after standing up for himself, and b) Loki just being pruned by Ravonna as he was on the verge of admitting something to Sylvie that is clearly emotionally charged. It's also nightmarish given the lyrics about what they'll do if the world ends, considering the sheer apocalyptic horrors that are unleashed by the season finale...
- "Classic Builds", the track that plays as Classic Loki conjures a breathtaking illusion of Asgard to distract Alioth, features quotations from "Ride of the Valkyries" from Richard Wagner's Norse-inspired Die Walküre, a music choice so fitting that it rivals Thor: Ragnarok's use of "Immigrant Song".
- "Living Storm" plays during the scene where Loki and Sylvie attempt to distract Alioth, and is as fearsome as the living tempest itself.
- "Pruned", the ending theme for Episode 5. A somber and ominous arrangement befitting the bittersweet ending of the episode, that underlines Loki and Sylvie's feelings as they approach the dwelling of the true leader of the TVA.
- Stop plays during Loki and Sylvie's Nexus Event and partly during Loki's interrupted love confession in Episode 4, and during their kiss in Episode 6. It is beautifully romantic but also melancholic, and perfectly illustrates Loki and Sylvie's complicated feelings for each other. It starts off with a soft melody played on a theremin and swells up to become orchestral, only to turn soft and ominous as Sylvie prepares to and goes through with killing He Who Remains.
- "Back in the TVA" scores Loki's somber return to the — what else? — TVA after he and Sylvie exchange a Big Damn Kiss and the latter slays He Who Remains. It's a very atmospheric and haunting piece that underscores just how lonely Loki really is after Mobius asks for his name, seemingly forgetting everything the two went through together.
- How do you signal the Beginning of The Multiverse as Kang is about to make his impact on the MCU — nay — MCM? With a Dark Reprise of the show's main leitmotif, "He Who Remains", which plays in the end credits for the first Season Finale. Shit just got real.
- In "Science/Fiction", as reality literally unravels around Sylvie, the eerily-appropriate "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" by Velvet Underground moans in the background, perfectly matching the leisurely destruction but also Sylvie's confused feelings after finally managing to convince Loki that the TVA isn't worth saving.Lyle: This will either cure what ails you or make it a whole lot worse.
- In the second season finale, the Failure Montage of Loki's constantly futile attempts to save Victor Timely from spaghettification is set to "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy. The bouncy remix of a familiar classic helps bring the viewer to a point of being just as frustrated as Loki is.
- Loki's Heroic Sacrifice in taking over He Who Remains is accompanied by the aptly named "Ascension", a stunning and epic piece that begins both ominous and tragic and incorporating elements of Loki's theme, before slowly building up from melancholy to an absolutely captivatingly powerful arrangement as Loki becomes the almighty God of Stories and holds the timelines together with all his power.
- In her self-described "culmination of all the music from the last few years working with the show", Season 2's penultimate track, "Purpose Is Glorious", perfectly reflects the bittersweet nature of the TVA (and multiverse as a whole) being allowed to continue free of He Who Remains' influence at the cost of Loki being stuck at the End of Time, maintaining the branches himself for all eternity.
- "History Is Now" also takes us into the Grand Finale's credits, as Loki embraces his Glorious Purpose.
