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The Bear McCreary Thread


Taikomochi

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Just now, serenifly said:

I would order the McCreary 2017 film scores as follows:

  1. Rebel in the Rye
  2. Colossal
  3. Unrest
  4. Happy Death Day
  5. Revolt

That Colossal finale always gives me goosebumps!

 

I happily endorse this hierarchy.  Haven't listened to Revolt yet though.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I happily endorse this hierarchy.  Haven't listened to Revolt yet though.

 

Revolt is most like his work on Defiance and there is actually a bit of BSG in the main theme. Plenty of synths and electronic effects.

 

I just gave the first and the last tracks another listen and they're pretty good. Not a sound I particularly gravitate towards but certainly thematic and well-crafted enough for me to enjoy on the odd occasion going forward.

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Well, I've spent the summer listening to Seasons 1-4 of Battlestar Galactica and fallen in love with Bear McCreary's sound! Now I've only just watched the first few episodes and found I enjoyed Richard Gibbs' standalone-style score to this. Did Bear also help with this one? I've also acquired lots of extra albums - The Plan/Razor, Blood and Chrome, and three from Caprica. The first two don't strike me as much as BSG or Caprica do - not quite as coherent or thematic. Caprica has it's own neat tone and I think it actually represents a continuation of the maturing of his sound through the 5-odd years of the BSG soundtrack.

 

What do people think?

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  • 1 month later...

So I'm really enjoying Battlestar Galactica and hearing in context the music I've been enjoying for nearly a year now. Some of the scoring choices are stunning, such as:

 

A Promise To Return - the screen version of this is different to the album version. Does anyone know if it has had a release? Are there any bootlegs of this series' music?

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No recording session leaks that I know of, but I'm sure people have ripped stuff from blu rays and passed them off as "expanded scores"

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I've never come across anything. As far as I know, Bear often releases 'album versions' of his work. I remember it being a bit jarring re-watching the BSG finale after becoming so used to the music on album. The BSG La-La Land albums are gradually going OOP (Mini-series, Season 1 + 2 already gone). I know there was talk of future releases so maybe they'll release more content. If you really want something it wouldn't hurt to put a request in.

 

https://twitter.com/bearmccreary

https://www.facebook.com/BearMcCrearyOfficial/

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  • 1 month later...

Outlander Season 3 is being released on the 9th of February.

   
     

Some nice long track times on the tracklist here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/outlander-season-3-original-television-soundtrack/1329110941?app=itunes

 

 

 

     
     
     
     
     
     
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Oh f**k yes!

 

I only finished watching it a few weeks ago and there's some absolutely fantastic music in there, although there was also a lot of tracking.

 

I liked it enough that I made a few rips - Car Accident will be one of them, but I fear the other won't be (a string cue heard a few times - Claire telling Brianna she's found Jamie, and Claire & Jamie having dinner).

 

Man, if they did an isolated score on the BD, I'd be in heaven. There's too much great music in TV shows like this for one cue per episode.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was just about to post this myself! 10 Cloverfield Lane was pretty great and this film is possibly in the neighbourhood of Europa Report so I'm expecting good things from Bear here.

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Great news about the score. I too love McCreary's 10 Cloverfield Lane.

 

I've got to ask the same question about God's Particle that I did about 10CL: what the f**k does it have to do with the original Cloverfield? They're using the name purely for marketing.

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Marketing or branding, yes, but I don't see anything wrong with it in this case.  I like the idea of the name being the umbrella of a JJ Abrams-produced horror anthology series.  I'd prefer that to a bunch of interrelated kaiju sequels to the original, tbh.

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Outlander Season 3 is on spotify (in the UK at least).

 

Two new Bear scores in just a few days. Pretty cool!

 

Although it's barely taken me any time to listen to the Scotland half of this release. Even with the amount of tracking, this is a pretty paltry release. What is it with McCreary's most popular shows having the least amount of score released?

 

On 2/3/2018 at 3:20 AM, Koray Savas said:

It’s just the name of the street Bad Robot is located on. It was the code name for the original film and stuck because the viral marketing was so successful. 

 

By that logic, you could make any old shitty sci-fi film and call it 'Jurassic Park: <insert cool name>' because you own the brand and you can. Doesn't mean that the branding the audience sees has anything to do with the film - I find it a rather dishonest marketing strategy.

 

In this case, I guess Netflix must be hoping that the name will entice people to watch it, faster than word spreads that it's rubbish and has nothing to do with the original.

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  • 2 months later...

Nearly 2 years on since we heard the main title performed live at E3, the soundtrack album is now available. Plenty of Old Norse in this one with both the deep registered male choir and the beautiful female solo voices taking prominence. Album starts and finishes really strong. Aside from the main title, 'Memories of Mother' and 'Valkyries' are immediate personal favourites.

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It's good for game score, but it feels a bit like Da Vinci's Demons-lite.

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  • 2 months later...

This sounds like a really weird movie... a movie about the Oxford English Dictionary starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn.... okey doke.

 

Bear McCreary Scoring Farhad Safinia’s ‘The Professor and the Madman’

Quote

Bear McCreary (10 Cloverfield Lane, The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) has recently recorded his score for the upcoming drama The Professor and the Madman. The film is directed by Farhad Safinia (Boss, screenwriter of Apocalypto) and stars Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Jeremy Irvine, Ioan Gruffudd, Steve Coogan, Laurence Fox and Jennifer Ehle. The movie is based on the book The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester and tells the story of professor James Murray, who began compiling the Oxford English Dictionary in 1857 and Dr. William Chester Minor, who submitted more than 10,000 entries while he was an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane. Safinia also wrote the screenplay with John Boorman (Excalibur, Deliverance) and Todd Komarnicki (Sully). No word yet on a premiere date for The Professor and the Madman.

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2018/07/09/bear-mccreary-scoring-farhad-safinias-the-professor-and-the-madman/

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25 minutes ago, kaseykockroach said:

I really liked what I heard of Happy Death Day. Any recommendations as far as his library goes?

 

His best work remains Battlestar Galactica, but his two Cloverfield scores are probably more up your alley

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I got The Cape cheap from LLL and I enjoyed it.  I don't put it on a lot, but it's good stuff.

 

3 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

His best work remains Battlestar Galactica, but his two Cloverfield scores are probably more up your alley

 

I loved the show and I've tried the season 1 OST a couple of times and it's good!  But I don't find myself drawn back to it like I have with his more recent film work.

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Outlander is amazing if you like bagpipes. Like, put James Horner to shame amazing. He uses many different kinds of pipes and kind of makes an orchestra of them at times. Learn about it in detail a little bit into his early blog post on the series:

http://www.bearmccreary.com/#blog/blog/outlander-sassenach/

 

Other than that my favorite McCreary TV scoring is for the first season of Human Target. Great orchestral thematic stuff. A bit frustrating that the album release is all jumbled cues rather than organized by episode. Amazing in the super fun series though. But I kinda love all of his TV music with the exception of early Battlestar Galactica (ironically as the show went on I liked it a bit less but the music got much, much better).

 

Yavar

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3 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I loved the show and I've tried the season 1 OST a couple of times and it's good!  But I don't find myself drawn back to it like I have with his more recent film work.

 

All the other seasons have better music that season 1.    The second half of Season 3 is when it really becomes something special, then season 4 is full of good stuff

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

All the other seasons have better music that season 1.    The second half of Season 3 is when it really becomes something special, then season 4 is full of good stuff

 

OK so I should just move on to season 2.  It's been a while since I tried it, but I was kind of hoping season 1 would really click with me before moving on.

 

It doesn't help that I'm listening to the music on Youtube since it's not officially available streaming anywhere.  But I'll remember to just go to season 2 the next time I fancy giving the show's music a try.

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2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I loved the show and I've tried the season 1 OST a couple of times and it's good!  But I don't find myself drawn back to it like I have with his more recent film work.

 

I've always thought the BSG scores have plenty of filler. You could probably fit everything I need from it on one CD. But those essentials come from all seasons, and they really are essential.

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22 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

I've always thought the BSG scores have plenty of filler. You could probably fit everything I need from it on one CD. But those essentials come from all seasons, and they really are essential.

 

Earlier I put the season 2 soundtrack on, just in the background while I work not a close listening, and the track "Martial Law" stood out to me as good.  I wish his BSG music had more brass..... although that track is quite Zimmery

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

 

All the other seasons have better music that season 1.    The second half of Season 3 is when it really becomes something special, then season 4 is full of good stuff

 

That's pretty much what I feel, yeah. Especially the second half of season 4 was great. BSG scoring just started at a place I didn't like, much, but grew to full thematic orchestral power by the end. But it's still my least favorite of Bear's TV work, overall.

 

Yavar

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Everything kinda clicked together once the All Along The Watchtower melody was introduced

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I'll take the opportunity of McCreary's big Godzilla news today to mention that this is my personal single favorite cue from him.  In case anyone unfamiliar is interested in checking him out now.

 

Of course, Godzilla won't sound anything like this :D 

 

 

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15 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I'll take the opportunity of McCreary's big Godzilla news today to mention that this is my personal single favorite cue from him.  In case anyone unfamiliar is interested in checking him out now.

 

Of course, Godzilla won't sound anything like this :D 

 

 

 

 

I prefer it when he did that in BSG ;)

 

 

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The similarities are very “surface-level.”  The harmony is very different in the one I posted and the opening rhythm is just a lead-in to actual thematic material.

 

I still have yet to be overly impressed with his BSG scores the way some people are.  I’ve been assured that by the time I get to season 4 I will be (still working on season 2 right now).

 

Anyway, the Rebel in the Rye cue sounds more mature and developed, like a composer who’s gotten better to my ears.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
54 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I completely missed the "I Still See You" release.

 

Bookmarked to listen to later.

 

I've only had the one listen so far. Too little time! I think I got a Cloverfield Paradox/Da Vinci's Demons vibe from it. Nice choral work. Need to give it another listen.

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  • 6 months later...

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