Recently, mostly because of my long drive to and from work, I have been listening to a lot more music. Also, at work, I am listening to my iPod shuffle more. Here is some of stuff that I have been listening to lately. The Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica is currently one of the best shows on television and so is the score for the show. I started listening to the score by Richard Gibbs for the miniseries which is a beautiful score that eschews all that we have become familiar with sci-fi scores. No longer do we get the grand orchestrations like a John William's Star Wars score, but we get a lot of taiko drums and ethnic music. I did not get the Battlestar Galactica: Season One score until I finished watching the first season. I got it a week or two ago and have been listening to it more than the miniseries. During the early part of the first season, Richard Gibbs (of Oingo Boingo fame) went back to scoring for feature films and left scoring duties to Bear McCreary. Gibbs did an excellent job of setting the tone and style of the Battlestar Galactica score. McCreary takes it to a whole new level and makes the score even more engaging. McCreary ups the use of drums throughout the score, but also produces two truly facinating orchestral pieces "Passacaglia" and "The Shape of Things to Come". The CD comes with both the US and UK versions of the Main Titles (this season, the US Main Titles are the same as the UK version). Overall, both scores are fantastic, I enjoy the Season One score a little more than the miniseries score, there's more energy in the Season One score. The other score I have been listening to is the Batman Begins score by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer with addition music by Ramin Djawadi and Mel Wesson. I like this score, but a lot of it feels like Zimmer ripping off...well, Zimmer. The new theme for Batman is just two notes (compared to the unforgettable Danny Elfman theme for Batman). This score does not hold a light to the Elfman score for Batman, but I do like this score a lot. It takes a darker approach to the movie and works. The names of the songs are names of bat species (if you're curious). I have been listening to a particular rock song over and over again. It is "Memory" by Sugarcult. A very interesting song that I found while, of all things, playing Burnout 3: Takedown. Well worth a listen. You can find the acoustic version at Yahoo! Music Unlimited and iTunes. The original rock version can be found on iTunes.