Composer Threads The Bear McCreary Thread

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

Made me revisit all his scores for God of War and I feel it's some og the best work he's done. So many great themes and great use and development of them!

 

It's great that he still finds some time to post these blogs, even if it's for works a year old. I hope he does some extensive blog articles for RoP S2 as they did for S1!

 

Still waiting for Masters of the Universe: Revolution though...

[tomsmoviemadness 3,592]

1 hour ago, Knight of Ren said:

Still waiting for Masters of the Universe: Revolution though...

I asked him about it this weekend, but I've gotten no answer...

[Jurassic Shark 13,351]

Burt McReary 

[Marian Schedenig 9,147]

Next up for McCreary:

A musical.

About the discovery of the Higgs boson.

 

 

[Edmilson 9,104]

LOTR isn't the only Bear McCartney score being released this month, there's also the new Kevin Smith movie:

 

 

1. 24 Karat Case of Love (feat. Brendan McCreary) (5:28)

2. Astroblaster and the Beaver Men (feat. Brendan McCreary) (4:25)

3. A Very Unassuming Day (5:14)

4. In the Pool (1:27)

5. Major Murder (3:44)

6. Manager Mike (3:11)

7. Trailers (5:00)

8. Banned for Life (3:17)

9. Friends Don’t Fight (1:47)

10. Death to the Moviemobile (6:32)

11. Melody’s Melody (6:07)

[A. A. Ron 1,947]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

LOTR isn't the only Bear McCartney score being released this month

Interested to hear the track with Brendan on it. Those McCartney boys sure are talented!

[tomsmoviemadness 3,592]

It's a really fun score. The synths are great!!! I really like the first of the two songs and the album is exactly the right lenght.

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

Just finished listening! Fun throwback score, lovely blend of synths and rock elements, and a really great song with Brendan McCreary. And yeah, the presentation is long enough to be entertaining and not overstay its welcome.

 

The fact that we have on the same week this score and then the Rings of Power albums really showcases the huge versatility of McCreary!

[dylanskie 114]

I wonder if we'll get an album for season two of The Serpent Queen. The album for season one is so fun!

[Yavar Moradi 3,027]

I was disappointed that seasons 2-4 of Black Sails didn't get their own albums. I suspect follow up season albums depend on sales figures, and I guess the season 1 album in that case just didn't do well enough...

 

Yavar

[tomsmoviemadness 3,592]

I'm also still angry we don't have a release for S2 of Masters Of The Universe!!!

[Yavar Moradi 3,027]

46 minutes ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

I'm also still angry we don't have a release for S2 of Masters Of The Universe!!!

 

Whoa, and one's definitely not coming? That's a big surprise since S1 got two!

 

Yavar

[Stark 565]

Bear seems to bounce between incredibly good and incredibly bad releases. Fortunately LOTR is in the good camp!

[tomsmoviemadness 3,592]

1 hour ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

Whoa, and one's definitely not coming? That's a big surprise since S1 got two!

 

Yavar

I honestly don't know. I once asked about it, but never got an answer. I might try again soon.

[Yavar Moradi 3,027]

41 minutes ago, Stark said:

Bear seems to bounce between incredibly good and incredibly bad releases. Fortunately LOTR is in the good camp!

 

What are the bad ones, in your view?

 

Yavar

[Stark 565]

26 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

What are the bad ones, in your view?

 

Yavar

Walking Dead - only one CD for at the time (I think) 7 seasons.

Agents of SHIELD - only one CD for 2 seasons, and no more for another 5 seasons thereafter.

See, Black Sails, and several others never got any more music as they continued.

 

There’s certainly worse release situations (Sean Callery… for the few who care) but Bear is still sparse in some shows.

[Richard P 4,263]

Walking Dead set the low bar, really, but it is indeed astonishing the varying approaches Bear has across his various shows. Even Outlander has slowed way down - two albums for season 1, then all we've had from season 7 is a sampler. Although I stopped watching that when it went behind another paywall so I don't have the connection I once did.

 

It's probably good for our musical mental health that we have the RoP episode albums, given the plethora of highlights there are outside of the season album. Never before in recent times have I been able to watch a TV show with the knowledge that almost every bit of music we hear is available, without delay.

[Yavar Moradi 3,027]

Oh, so it’s not that you think those albums are bad; it’s just that you’re unhappy he didn’t make more of them for those respective shows. Yeah, I get that. I know he was trying to make a Walking Dead album for years and couldn’t get cooperation from AMC. So I think we should just feel lucky we got anything, in that case.

 

As for the other shows, I just wish they had sold better to justify the production of further albums for the remaining seasons.

 

Yavar

[Richard P 4,263]

The Outlander albums are actually beautifully arranged - I have very few complaints about them. Possibly the best-treated McCreary franchise actually.

 

TWD is just taking the piss, really. Someone at AMC needed a talking to (assuming they were hell bent on selling that stupid 'inspired by' album and thought a score album would confuse their poor customers) because 75 minutes for seven seasons of music is laughable. You could quite easily do an album like that for just the first two seasons and easily fill it up with great music. Heck, the pilot score alone is fantastic.

 

If ever there was a case for a session leak, it's TWD, because AMC sure won't do it.

 

Although (broken record warning....) none of that will beat Murray Gold's current fan apathy.

[Thor 8,493]

11 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

The Outlander albums are actually beautifully arranged

 

The first one is, the others less so. Which is why I decided at some point that I just wanted that first album and let the others go. It's enough to sustain my OUTLANDER fix. Getting a deja vu here.

 

On 13/09/2024 at 8:36 AM, tomsmoviemadness said:

It's a really fun score. The synths are great!!! I really like the first of the two songs and the album is exactly the right lenght.

 

The songs were fun, and I had hopes the score proper would follow suit. Alas, I found it largely uninvolving and not the kind of retro synth thing I had hoped for when I listened to the songs.

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

I think we'll get a proper release for Outlander S7 when the second half of the season releases, starting this November. If not, it would be highly disappointing because, as the other seasons had great albums, and for me, it's one of McCreary's best work for TV!

 

And I'm still waiting for MotU: Revolution but it's been like 8 months now, so I'm slowly losing hope of a release

[Richard P 4,263]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

The first one is, the others less so. Which is why I decided at some point that I just wanted that first album and let the others go. It's enough to sustain my OUTLANDER fix. Getting a deja vu here.

 

Whaa?

 

The Outlander albums are totally geared towards listening! I know you feel a full CD is often too much for even an entire season of music, but the 5 and 6 albums actually pulled back a little, and if you dispose of a couple of tracks that are just cast members singing something (i.e. not actually score), they come in under an hour.

 

Certainly a TV show score release that needs curation is Tyler's Yellowstone/1883 universe - man those albums are looong. But I have them because they are nice background mood music, and not necessarily because they have highlights every track.

[Thor 8,493]

1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

The Outlander albums are totally geared towards listening! I know you feel a full CD is often too much for even an entire season of music, but the 5 and 6 albums actually pulled back a little, and if you dispose of a couple of tracks that are just cast members singing something (i.e. not actually score), they come in under an hour.

 

I jumped off before 5 and 6, so you might be right on that. The first was perfection at 50-something minutes, then he jumped to 76 in II and 72 in III and 74 in IV. A lot of it is tapping into the same Gaelic colours and stylings that were already represented on I. Obviously some new stylings too, like the regal British music or other time-specific things, so at one point I thought about combining the highlights of 2, 3 and 4 into a 50-minute something playlist, but opted against it. I really get my OUTLANDER fix from that first album alone.

 

This is a rather different beast than, say, the YOUNG INDY soundtracks, where I own all four volumes and would even welcome more. Two different composers, each score being its own unique thing, like a series of different short film scores. Same with the AMAZING STORIES set.

 

I have it the same way with his LORD OF THE RINGS stuff, btw. Barring some unpredecented new material, I'm content for now with my 63-minute playlist of the first one. For DA VINCI'S DEMONS, I've whittled all of the volumes down to a 58-minute playlist that works fine. Etc., etc.

 

McCreary knows how to make listenable, properly curated albums, but 9 times out of 10 he doesn't do it, and it becomes exasperating to make playlists.

 

1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

Certainly a TV show score release that needs curation is Tyler's Yellowstone/1883 universe - man those albums are looong. But I have them because they are nice background mood music, and not necessarily because they have highlights every track.

 

Indeed. They are also much too long. I have a 41-minute playlist of YELLOWSTONE and a 49-minute playlist of 1883. That will suffice for me, for both of these shows, even as more volumes keep rolling in.

[Richard P 4,263]

56 minutes ago, Thor said:

McCreary knows how to make listenable, properly curated albums, but 9 times out of 10 he doesn't, and it becomes exasperating to make playlists.

 

Ah, exasperating for you, fun for most of us  

 

Certainly the series 3 album is a bit unbalanced for me - Bear clearly felt his John Grey material was interesting/pivotal as most of the Scottish half is focused on his theme and it gets a bit repetitive, at the expense of a few other, more original moments that I found really interesting.

 

By series 4 and 5 the show was getting a bit meh for me, so I lose connection to the music in context and I've not seen 6 and I've never listened to that one in full.

 

But there's a collector aspect to these albums, even if individual albums are curated. This is one of just a few franchises where I have everything (full albums, that is).

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

I feel each season introduced some new material that's interesting, plus some new variations on previous themes. For example, S3 has the John Grey theme which is great, then S4 has the Brianna and Roger theme and the Fraser's Ridge theme which are both excellent, and so on. I'm really fond of both the show and the music, so everything we can get it's perfect for me. Really looking forward to a release of S7 as there are several great pieces from the first half of the season that I would love to hear outside the show!

[dylanskie 114]

Bear confirmed last week or two weeks ago on an Instagram live that the album for Outlander's seventh season will be released. He just released the three-track highlights album for the first half of the season. I believe he alluded to it being out at the end of the season.

 

I get the criticism of "long" and "uncurated" albums, but I never see the point in disliking releases with "too much" music. We're pretty fortunate to have releases at all, and making playlists is easy enough if that's your thing

[Thor 8,493]

21 minutes ago, dylanskie said:

I get the criticism of "long" and "uncurated" albums, but I never see the point in disliking releases with "too much" music. We're pretty fortunate to have releases at all, and making playlists is easy enough if that's your thing

 

It isn't. I hate it, actually. But it's necessary if I want to have any kind of enjoyment out of the listening.

[KittBash 296]

Bear was on the Katee Sackhoff podcast released today

 

 

[Cindylover1969 53]

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,731]

Surprised nobody has mentioned this!

 

“The time has finally come to take my music on the road! After celebrating the 20th anniversary of my career scoring films, television series, and video games, and releasing my debut rock record, #TheSingularity, I’m thrilled to bring my music to concert stages in some of my favorite cities in the world!

I can’t wait to connect with you all in 2025. I hope to see you there! 🤘🏼🐻

Tickets go on sale Friday, November 22, at 10 a.m. CET. For more information, go to https://BearMcCreary.com.

#ThemesAndVariationsTour”

His website doesn’t seem to give much away as to whether it’ll feature an orchestra or a band or what. Alas the London date is the first so I can’t get feedback first! 

 

[pete 993]

13 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

 

His website doesn’t seem to give much away as to whether it’ll feature an orchestra or a band or what.

 

 

I read on FSM that the venue sizes suggest more of a band approach. Googling the London venue, it seems it's more geared for rock performances. So maybe Bear will tour with an embelished rock band ensemble as opposed to a full orchestra.

 

Actually I was thinking just recently when all those Rings of Power season 2 music was released that Bear now has a pretty impressive body of work that could make for some awesome orchestral concerts. 

[tomsmoviemadness 3,592]

A while back he asked on social media what music of his you'd like to hear in a concert. I answered to it and he even replied back.

 

So when I saw this announcement I was so happy. But The Singularity is just not for me and the scores that get mentioned in the info section of one of the venues this is actually a pass for me.

 

I was hoping he'd tour with an orchestra etc, but this indeed looks more like a band playing his Singularity stuff with a few moments from his scores in there.

 

Disappointing.

[Holko 10,391]

Haha love that he's rocking his dear old hurdy-gurdy.

[crocodile 8,589]

It's a shame The Rings of Power is not an universally loved show for the music would really make a wonderful 2-hour concert for anyone to enjoy.

 

Karol

[Holko 10,391]

Yeah, gather all the concert pieces, some soloist showcases, a couple finale piece combinations that tie the themes together...

[Tom Guernsey 2,731]

8 hours ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

A while back he asked on social media what music of his you'd like to hear in a concert. I answered to it and he even replied back.

 

So when I saw this announcement I was so happy. But The Singularity is just not for me and the scores that get mentioned in the info section of one of the venues this is actually a pass for me.

 

I was hoping he'd tour with an orchestra etc, but this indeed looks more like a band playing his Singularity stuff with a few moments from his scores in there.

 

Disappointing.

Yeah that kinda what I imagined. I guess it might sell better more widely as a concept than an orchestral tour but have to admit that probably not for me either. I’ll stick to Alan Menken and his piano at the Palladium…

[GerateWohl 5,156]

He is coming to Berlin next year. I am actually thinking about going to see it.

I am sure it will be fun watching such a highly creative guy at work.

And I like rock music, so...

[thestat 425]

Love McCreary but not into Singularity at all, just not the right side of rock or symphonic metal. Give me Nightwish anyday for good old symphonic metal and orchestral/choral combination:

 

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

I don't know if there are any Outlander fans around here, but I've been working on a thematic catalogue of all the main themes McCreary has created for the 7 seasons of the show. It's still a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy it and that it helps you better appreciate the wonderful music for this show, which in my opinion is one of McCreary's best works!

 

Also did a more detailed review/breakdown of the season 7 album, analyzing the themes that appear in each track if anyone's interested in checking it out!

[Yavar Moradi 3,027]

I’m a fan of the series (though I haven’t seen the last couple seasons) and especially McCreary’s music. Were it not for Rings of Power, I think Outlander would be his magnum opus.

 

Yavar

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

I agree that RoP might be his most complex and expansive work, but on a personal level Outlander is my favorite score of his. The way the themes are used, the emotional connections you make with all of them while watching the show, I love it. The worst thing about this is that so many great variations on those themes has been left unreleased, because of the short album releases. This season in particular is specially grating in that sense. For example, John Grey's theme hasn't been heard in any of the albums after Season 3, but it does appear many times in later seasons.

[crocodile 8,589]

I don't know any of the Outlander music. Would you guys share some of your favourites?

 

Am I correct that season 7 album is about to come out and that there are single CD releases for all the other ones, except for season 1 where there are 2 volumes?

 

Karol

[Thor 8,493]

I'd say get the first volume. It's a great overview of the show's musical DNA, and is very well curated at 50-something minutes, if memory serves.

[Chen G. 4,705]

I remember walking into a friend's office and they had what I later learned was Bear's Outlander score playing, but which to me sounded straight out of some of the early cues of Braveheart... Make of that what you will.

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

As Thor said, the first volume is a great tease of what the show's music has to offer, and if you like that then I would suggest just continuing with each following season. For me, each album has some essential tracks worth listening to, but the first one is what made me fall in love with the music and the show in the first place.

 

And yeah, it resembles Braveheart because it's heavily influenced by scottish music, even referencing and adapting popular tunes and melodies from the time the show is set on. What's great is that as the story traveled to other places in the world, the musical palette got broader, but it still retains the scottish elements at its core as that's what connects and represents the main characters!

[dylanskie 114]

16 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

I don't know if there are any Outlander fans around here, but I've been working on a thematic catalogue of all the main themes McCreary has created for the 7 seasons of the show. It's still a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy it and that it helps you better appreciate the wonderful music for this show, which in my opinion is one of McCreary's best works!

 

Also did a more detailed review/breakdown of the season 7 album, analyzing the themes that appear in each track if anyone's interested in checking it out!

I feel stupid for not realizing until I read your blog that the “America” theme in season four is the Liberty Song! I really enjoyed the score for season four because of this, Brianna and Roger’s theme, and the Fraser’s Ridge theme.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,592]

On 02/12/2024 at 1:19 AM, Knight of Ren said:

I don't know if there are any Outlander fans around here, but I've been working on a thematic catalogue of all the main themes McCreary has created for the 7 seasons of the show. It's still a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy it and that it helps you better appreciate the wonderful music for this show, which in my opinion is one of McCreary's best works!

 

Also did a more detailed review/breakdown of the season 7 album, analyzing the themes that appear in each track if anyone's interested in checking it out!

Really great work on the thematic breakdown.

 

You did forget The Bakra/Geillis Duncan's theme. Heard in The Bakra from S3 and again in S7 episodes.

[Richard P 4,263]

On 02/12/2024 at 10:44 AM, crocodile said:

I don't know any of the Outlander music. Would you guys share some of your favourites?

 

Am I correct that season 7 album is about to come out and that there are single CD releases for all the other ones, except for season 1 where there are 2 volumes?

 

Karol

 

I agree with Thor that the first volume of season 1 is really strong, and well curated.

 

But the idea that there's nothing worth hearing in the other releases is ridiculous, and something I will forever tease him about   I found the season 4 album particularly strong - it's set in the American plantations, so a bit of a cultural shift.  There is of course some French and Caribbean influence in 2/3 as well, but I dont like those albums as much.

[Knight of Ren 1,082]

2 hours ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

Really great work on the thematic breakdown.

 

You did forget The Bakra/Geillis Duncan's theme. Heard in The Bakra from S3 and again in S7 episodes.

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to include it, since it was kind of a minor theme in S3, but since it returned in the latest episodes, I'll probably update my list to include it for sure!

 

2 hours ago, Richard P said:

But the idea that there's nothing worth hearing in the other releases is ridiculous, and something I will forever tease him about   I found the season 4 album particularly strong - it's set in the American plantations, so a bit of a cultural shift.  There is of course some French and Caribbean influence in 2/3 as well, but I dont like those albums as much.

Yeah, I feel each album has something great and different to offer. S2 had some epic tracks like Leave the Past Behind, and S3 has the John Grey theme which is one of my favorites in the whole show. And then for example S5 has a track like The Fiery Cross which is just fantastic from start to finish!

[pete 993]

On 02/12/2024 at 9:19 AM, Knight of Ren said:

I don't know if there are any Outlander fans around here, but I've been working on a thematic catalogue of all the main themes McCreary has created for the 7 seasons of the show.

 

I fonally got around to checking it, and wow, thank you so much. That Fraser's Ridge Theme is one of my favorites too. But what really caught my eye was this:
 

Quote

In Season 1, appears in the track «The Veil of Time» and in the bonus track «Mr. and Mrs. Randall»

 

I've never heard of such a bonus track. Where/how was it released??