Composer Threads The Bear McCreary Thread

[DangerMotif 1,037]

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

I listened to the first track of this on my ride into work this morning.  It sounded straight out of Rings of Power, like really no different from the Sauron/Dwarf material in that score.

But maybe on subsequent listens they will differentiate more for me

Trying to avoid listening to it for that exact reason.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

That God of War theme came first!

[Jay 37,263]

Yea but I only listened to that score album once 4 years ago and don't remember it

[germanewa01 0]

I've been searching through internet and have found only few tracks from "The Walking Dead" without sound effects.

 

Can someone direct me in location where I can find complete or expanded release (or leak) of TWD's score, at least for 1st season (I'm well aware of Official OST, but 23 tracks for 7 seasons is not my format)

[Richard Penna 3,664]

As far as I know, the 30 second or so sample tracks going around (which originate from Bear's blog) is the only extra material there is on top of the OST.

 

Honestly, that OST should have been just for the first few seasons - trying to use it to represent seven seasons is a complete joke. My most educated guess would be that AMC was very restrictive about what he could release for the album (like one disc only) and that releasing anything beyond samples for the rest would be forbidden.

[Jay 37,263]

It is funny that out of all the many many shows Bear has scored, the one that by far has had the most viewers has the least music available 

[Jay 37,263]

Another week, another new McCreary OST album

 

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/the-witcher-blood-origin-soundtrack-from-the/1659226344

[Edmilson 7,369]

McCreary's blog post on God of War: Ragnarok:

 

https://bearmccreary.com/god-of-war-ragnarok/

 

[Stark 307]

I didn’t necessarily love the Witcher score, but Serpent Queen (which I previously missed) is great.

[Knight of Ren 775]

On 20/12/2022 at 4:23 AM, Edmilson said:

McCreary's blog post on God of War: Ragnarok:

 

https://bearmccreary.com/god-of-war-ragnarok/

 

That's such a nice insight into his fantastic score, which is probably one of my favorites of the year!

 

I haven't listened to The Witcher yet, but I think we can all agree that McCreary's had one hell of a year. Ragnarok, Rings of Power, Outlander, Serpent Queen, Paws of Fury... All were great in their own style, and show his versatility as a composer, but probably my two favorites are the ones closer to his usual style, that being Ragnarok and Rings of Power.

 

God of War in particular manages to be even better than the score for the previous game, which was already great! And Rings of Power is probably my favorite score of the year, so I think he probably is my favorite composer of the year!

[Jay 37,263]

Oh, it's a stunning year for any composer to have, for sure!  What an accomplishment!

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

Indeed he had an incredible year. I thought he wouldn't be able to top 2019. But his Rings Of Power work is such an accomploshed it baffles me everytime.

 

Paws of Fury is one of the most fun scores of the year, a true syrpirse when it came out and a very strong contender for best animated score.

 

Then his other tv work on Outlander (outstanding as always), Serpent Queen & The Witcher are all great and different from each other.

 

Then his God Of War score is indeed a masterpiece and even better than the first. And his new thematic material is terrific.

 

If you count all his themes from all his projects this year, it's insane how many different melodies he was able to come up with.

Composer Of The Year for me is between McCreary & Giacchino who both had outstanding years

[Jay 37,263]

Giacchino was up and down for me this year - I love The Batman and Werewolf By Night, haven't really been able to get too much into Lightyear or Thor 4 (or his 1 Zootopia track)

[Edmilson 7,369]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

Giacchino was up and down for me this year - I love The Batman and Werewolf By Night, haven't really been able to get too much into Lightyear or Thor 4 (or his 1 Zootopia track)

What about JW: Dominion?

[Jay 37,263]

Oh damn I forgot that score even came out this year!

 

It's ok - I guess I'd have to say it's forgettable since I couldn't even describe anything from it right now apart from that one malta chase cue that came out before the OST album that's pretty cool

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

 

With this also the news that Outlander is renewed for it's 8th and final season. So there are 2 more seasons of music coming!!!

[Richard Penna 3,664]

I have still to watch season 6 as I'd have to sign up to Prime's 'Starz' subscription. Season 5 hardly ended in a 'what happens next?!' way.

 

My hopes of this thread being bumped with news of a RoP episode box are diminishing. I'm beginning to think they haven't gone down that road and I'll actually have to buy the lot digitally  

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

 

[Richard Penna 3,664]

It appears that I'm not a fan of Sinead O'Connor - that's up there with the least palatable versions of the theme I've heard, sadly.

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

Me neither. I'm not really sure what to think of it. Maybe it's just that I like Yara's voice so much in the intro and gotten used to it, that it just takes some getting used to.

[mstrox 6,637]

LOVE Sinead O’Connor.  She’s been working through some things and back when I was on social media, I had to unfollow her because it was too much of a bummer, but any release of hers is a must-buy for me.

[Jay 37,263]

36 minutes ago, mstrox said:

back when I was on social media

 

When did you leave?

[mstrox 6,637]

I still technically exist on them because I manage the school PTO’s socials, but I never log into my personal accounts.  I quit Insta a year or two ago.  I quit Twitter when Musk bought it.  I want to say I quit Facebook last spring, except when my spouse asks me to do something on it like post Girl Scout cookies links (which happened a few weeks ago, at which point I clicked the like on all the November birthday wishes, oops).

 

I am on a private Mastodon server and a private Discord server with IRL friends and will hop onto various other topical public discords (like the one run by some people here) just to make bad jokes, which is pretty much all I do anywhere publicly now including here.  I don’t particularly want to spend the brainpower thinking about that stuff.

 

Here are some good recent-ish Sinead O’Connor tracks - two downers and an upper.  Looks like I’ll be buying my first Outlander album whenever they release this one.

 

 

 

 

 

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

Another new score by McCreary.

A film by the same director as Happy Death Day & Freaky

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/we-have-a-ghost-soundtrack-from-the-netflix-film/1668891134

 

 

[Jay 37,263]

Wow, never heard of that at all!

Freaky was a super fun movie!

[Tom Guernsey 2,277]

20 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Another new score by McCreary.

A film by the same director as Happy Death Day & Freaky

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/we-have-a-ghost-soundtrack-from-the-netflix-film/1668891134

 

 

Blimey. I’m starting to think that if you counted up the number of hours in the day and a plausible number of minutes per day a composer can write (without sleeping!) then Bear McCreary must surely be working about 194% of the time…*
 

*entirely fictitious figure made up for effect. No implication that Bear McCreary can time travel is meant or otherwise implied. Probably. 

[Edmilson 7,369]

Either he is a time traveler or possess the ability of not needing to sleep... Or he has a large team of additional composers and orchestrators.

[dylanskie 104]

He typically uses 2-5 additional composers for each project according to what I've seen on IMDB (except for TROP). Not sure about the workload distribution though

[Tom Guernsey 2,277]

Pfft. You people and your “realistic” and “sensible” reasons. Definitely probably maybe a time traveller.

[Richard Penna 3,664]

8 hours ago, dylanskie said:

He typically uses 2-5 additional composers for each project according to what I've seen on IMDB (except for TROP). Not sure about the workload distribution though

 

The Droughtlander podcast he was on suggested that for Outlander, his team are to some extent there to handle short-term, or 'unexpected' musical needs, and to help out when revisions are needed or suddenly they need 15 minutes of music they didn't need before.

 

He does talk also about certain 'important' cues needing time to get them right, and so if deadlines are approaching, maybe he has to give other portions of that episode to someone else to allow him to concentrate.

[1977 1,743]

I don't have any Bear McCreary CDs and only one digital album (RoP FYC).

 

Is 10 Cloverfield Lane worth picking up? I'm see a reasonably priced copy available at one of my usual online retailers.

 

The fact that it has blaster beam in it has me intrigued.

[Jay 37,263]

I like 10 Cloverfield Lane a lot, I'd say it's easily one of my favorite Bear scores, up there with TROP, BSG, and Paws of Fury

[Tom Guernsey 2,277]

8 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

I don't have any Bear McCreary CDs and only one digital album (RoP FYC).

 

Is 10 Cloverfield Lane worth picking up? I'm see a reasonably priced copy available at one of my usual online retailers.

 

The fact that it has blaster beam in it has me intrigued.

I gave this a listen a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it, although if you’re expecting the blaster been to be like all the V’Ger material in Star Trek: TMP, you might be a little bit disappointed, the uses are a little bit more subtle most of the time, but it is very effective. 

[TSMefford 1,509]

11 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

Is 10 Cloverfield Lane worth picking up? I'm see a reasonably priced copy available at one of my usual online retailers.

 

Absolutely. I also enjoy quite a few moments from Cloverfield Paradox, though I only revisit certain tracks from it often. I could definitely throw on 10 Cloverfield Lane in full though.

[Faleel 5,326]

3 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I gave this a listen a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it, although if you’re expecting the blaster been to be like all the V’Ger material in Star Trek: TMP, you might be a little bit disappointed, the uses are a little bit more subtle most of the time, but it is very effective. 

So would you say it is more like it's use in the Horner's?

[crocodile 7,975]

Both his Cloverfield scores are really good.

 

Karol

[John F 100]

Hope he gets another go with Godzilla. He wrote the perfect Godzilla score. 

[Jay 37,263]

I couldn't get into Cloverfield Paradox at all beyond the great "Overture" track, but the whole 10 Cloverfield Lane album flows really well!

[EhTar 63]

A 2-CD set from God of War Ragnarok is announced by Sony Music for May the 5th !

See it here:

https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0BVZPDQ5Z/

and maybe elsewhere...

[Jay 37,263]

Sweet!

 

Amazon US listing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVZPDQ5Z/

 

Screen Archives should eventually carry it as well

[Jay 37,263]

Here's a non-Amazon store carrying it

 

https://www.swiatksiazki.pl/god-of-war-ragnarok-original-soundtrack-2-cd-6971055-muzyka.html

[Jay 37,263]

Another week, another new Bear album

 

 

https://store.na.square-enix-games.com/en_US/product/810932/forspoken-original-soundtrack-cd

https://vgmdb.net/album/125341

https://vgmdb.net/album/117112

 

Does anybody know anything about this?

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

Also a new blog about We Have A Ghost

 

https://bearmccreary.com/we-have-a-ghost/

 

 

25 minutes ago, Jay said:

Does anybody know anything about this?

McCreary just did the main theme and 8 other tracks. The rest is by another composer

[Jay 37,263]

Doesn't mean it's not worth listening to

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

I'm not saying that. I'll check it out

[Jay 37,263]

Doesn't seem to be available digitally.  Maybe that's why Bear doesn't mention it on his site yet?

[JNHFan2000 2,941]

Maybe Friday

[Jay 37,263]

Actually I just remembered that Square Enix's soundtracks tend to not show up on streaming platforms until many months after their games are released.

For example the game Final Fantasy VII Remake came out on in April 2020, but the score album wasn't available on streaming sites until February 2021!
 

 

Anyway, this game has been out since January, so you'd think Bear would have put it on his website then.... strange.

[1977 1,743]

On 18/02/2023 at 2:37 AM, Tom Guernsey said:

I gave this a listen a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it, although if you’re expecting the blaster been to be like all the V’Ger material in Star Trek: TMP, you might be a little bit disappointed, the uses are a little bit more subtle most of the time, but it is very effective. 

 

Would it be more in line with John Barry's use thereof in The Black Hole?

[Thor 7,453]

On 01/03/2023 at 9:19 PM, JNHFan2000 said:

McCreary just did the main theme and 8 other tracks. The rest is by another composer

 

That 'another composer' is Garry Schyman, last I heard, who's one of the best video game composers around. His score for TORN is excellent, as is his iconic BIOSHOCK from years ago. To be honest, his involvement makes me want to check out this more than McCreary, who's been very hit/miss for me recently.