Bear McCreary Best TV soundtrack Composer Ever?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2006-07-01 10:51am

I am sitting here listening to the Season 2 nBSG soundtrack and am just amazed by how damned good it is. I use soundtracks as temp soundtracks in my head for stories I'm writing. His stuff dominates my current list of songs I listen to when writing.

I have never encountered a tv Soundtrack (I stress the TV portion) that is this beautiful, deep, moving, rousing as the nBSG stuff. From the original miniseries soundtrack (IMO the outstanding saving grace of that movie) to this latest offering.

Mind you, I haven't even seen any of the second half of season 2 (dirty little secret) so I am lacking some of the emotional/scene context of some of these tracks but they are still gorgeous. His mix of different ethnic style music and intruments is perfect for the setting and gives it both a familiar and alien quality to the music.

I cannot gush more about this man's work on nBSG. Sadly I have never heard of him until the show so if he has other work out there that you're aware of please feel free to chime in.

Also as a sidenote, the LOST soundtrack is also pretty damned good. It has a different feel than nBSG but some tracks (Parting Words in particular) are spine tingling in how they can touch you.

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2006-07-01 02:03pm

There are some samples on his official site.

Edit: Yes his music in nBSG is full of a hard to describe mood which makes the scenes in the show have a very different feeling from the usual fanfare type scifi soundtracks.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2006-07-01 10:55pm

Minor nitpick: He didn't compose the miniseries' soundtrack, although he was the composer's assistant and obviously continued the style established in the miniseries.

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2006-07-11 08:59am

Bit of a bump, mods feel free to shout at me about it if it's past the point of etiquette, but I just picked up the season 2 soundtrack as well.

It's bloody brilliant; Prelude to War, Roslin and Adama and Reuniting the Fleet are excellent, and Pegasus and Something Dark is Coming are refreshingly pleasant. It's great to have the Colonial Anthem on there finally as well. Not quite sure why they put the main title for BSG on there as well, I've got 3 copies of it in my BSG playlist now.

Call me a sap, but Reuniting the Fleet still brings tears to my eyes as a piece of music as the moment did in Home when Adama announces that he's putting the fleet back together.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-07-11 05:46pm

Having recently bought the s1 soundtrack at the exorbitant price of AU$40, I am still more than happy with the purchase. He's fucking awesome.

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2006-07-11 10:11pm

I've only listened to a few tracks, "Galactica Attacks", "Wander My Friends", and "A Good Lighter", yet those three (in addition to what I've heard on the show) are enough to really give me a phenominal impression of McCreary.

But I dunno, its tough putting someone over Christopher Franke. I was never a big B5 fan, but goddamn if I didn't love its soundtrack. We'll see what Season 3 of NBSG has in store before I make my final ranking

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-07-12 03:59am

Battlestar Muzaktika on s1 OST for the win.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2006-07-12 09:14am

weemadando wrote:Battlestar Muzaktika on s1 OST for the win.

Muzatika is great but I prefer "Things to come" when Six is giving Baltar the vision of him and his baby. Beautiful. And for action cues Battle on the Asteroid is currently on a loop when writing my WH40K battlescenes.

I cannot find "Galactica attacks" on my 2nd season CD. Anyone wanna help me out on where to find that track?

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-07-12 09:36am

Everytime I listen to "Roslin and Adama" I am reminded - for some reason - of Blackhawk Down. I swear there must be a soundtrack piece from that movie that's really similar. I haven't watched that movie in awhile.

Another thing. I don't get what the big deal is over "battlestar musaktica." Are you guys mixed up, referring to "passacalgia"?

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2006-07-12 10:12am

Stravo wrote:

I cannot find "Galactica attacks" on my 2nd season CD. Anyone wanna help me out on where to find that track?

I found it when someone on the board awhile back posted a link to McCreary's nBSG work on an hour-plus long net radio program, it had a ton of different tracks from the show plus commentary by McCreary inbetween. The standalone track of "Galactica Attacks" however, I wouldn't know where to look

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2006-07-12 10:24am

Stravo wrote:I cannot find "Galactica attacks" on my 2nd season CD. Anyone wanna help me out on where to find that track?

"Galactica Attacks" is actually track seventeen titled "Prelude to War."

I love that track as it always make me feel like giving a roaring speech before a battle begins.

Pegasus is another that I like as I could just feel the emotion of having done something wrong but just can't reconcile it.

All that just from listening to the samples on the record company's website. I can't wait to receive my copy in the mail.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2006-07-12 10:42am

Soontir C'boath wrote:
Stravo wrote:I cannot find "Galactica attacks" on my 2nd season CD. Anyone wanna help me out on where to find that track?
"Galactica Attacks" is actually track seventeen titled "Prelude to War."

I love that track as it always make me feel like giving a roaring speech before a battle begins.

Less roaring, and more Adama-quiet.

That piece is awesome. Reminds me of the best cliffhanger in BSG to date.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2006-07-12 01:57pm

Stofsk wrote:
Soontir C'boath wrote:
Stravo wrote:I cannot find "Galactica attacks" on my 2nd season CD. Anyone wanna help me out on where to find that track?
"Galactica Attacks" is actually track seventeen titled "Prelude to War." I love that track as it always make me feel like giving a roaring speech before a battle begins.
Less roaring, and more Adama-quiet.

Well, I had a medieval battle in mind.

I'll have to correct myself in that "Galactica Attacks" is a shorter version of "Prelude to War" as it is the only the first three minutes of the eight.

Edit (July 16, 2006): My media player loves playing Blackmarket and I love it too. Bear is willing to use anything to get the emotion out. It has repeated for the seventh or so time already in a few hours time. It's crazy.