The Bear’s Five Best Needle Drops

The Emmy award-winning FX series The Bear is shaped by innovative cinematography, compelling themes, and memorable characters. I would also argue that the soundtrack is an important part of the audience’s experience. Steeped in alternative, indie, and pop music, especially from Chicago and Illinois-based musicians, the soundtrack could be ripped straight from the airwaves of 93XRT. As it captures specific moods and moments, The Bear’s music also helps us connect with the show’s theology. Here are five notable needle drops, each of which carries spiritual significance for those with ears to hear.

“New Noise” (Refused, The Shape of Punk to Come, 1998)

A staple song throughout all three seasons, “New Noise” is our first introduction to The Beef: a sandwich shop that award-winning chef Carmen (Carmy) Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) inherited from his brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal) after Mikey’s suicide. With its rhythms of pure punk adrenaline—that guitar riff is electric—it sets the audience up with a panicked sense of urgency. In my interpretation of the show, “New Noise” is the sound of creation, setting each character up as they embark on an anxiety-fueled endeavor. In Season 1, it’s heard in the first episode as the show sets up a new day of chaos at The Beef. In Season 2, it accompanies Carmy and fellow chef Sydney Adamu’s (Ayo Edebiri) tense conversation about when The Beef will reopen as an upscale dining restaurant called The Bear. The track shows up again in Season 3, when Carmy’s sister Sugar (Abby Elliot) goes into labor while stuck in Chicago traffic—her own act of panicked creation. I don’t think the psalmist had the hardcore energy of “New Noise” in mind when they wrote “Sing to the Lord a new song,” but when I hear lead singer Dennis Lyxzén yell “Can I scream?” I can’t help but see this as a call to be moved to creative expression. After all, the mountains and hills burst into song and the trees clap their hands in praise.

“Chicago (Demo)” (Sufjan Stevens, Illinois, 2004)

We find Carmy standing on the shoreline of Lake Michigan at the opening of Episode 7 (“Review”) in Season 1. It’s dawn, it’s peaceful, and Stevens’ beloved song backs another nostalgic montage of the Chicago skyline with warm horns and rapid guitar strums. Stevens wrote this track about a young man guided by youthful idealism and we get the sense that Carmy was once that young dreamer. “You came to take us, all things go, all things go,” sings Sufjan. “To recreate us — all things grow, all things grow.” The audience is nothing if not hopeful about these broken characters and their possibility for growth and recovery in the face of abuse, trauma, and miscommunication. The irony is that this hopeful track sets up one of the most disastrous days at The Beef, making the much-repeated lyric “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my mind” much more appropriate. I’m reminded by what Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 about reconciling with our past: “. . . be made new in the attitude of your minds . . . put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Why should we do this? To “be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” We get the sense that the road to healing is going to be quite a long journey for Carmy and his coworkers.

“Love Story (Taylor's Version)” (Taylor Swift, Fearless (Taylor's Version), 2021)

I think everyone was surprised and delighted by the inclusion of Swift’s classic country love song in an episode called “Forks” in Season 2, featuring bristly and obnoxious “Cousin” Richie Jerimovich (beautifully played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach). After asking what his purpose is at the beginning of the season and feeling left out of the restaurant conversations, Richie discovers his talent for hospitality during a stint at a fine-dining restaurant. After a successful week learning to serve, Richie drives home under the twinkling Chicago skyline, singing along to Swift’s pointed lyrics blasting over his car’s speakers: “This love is difficult, but it’s real. Don’t be afraid, we’ll make it out of this mess . . . it’s a love story, baby, just say ‘yes.’” He grins his way through the guitar-laden outro, his transformation of heart and mind reflecting so beautifully the love of God. If we accept it, this love rearranges our own loves and gives us new purpose, bringing our lives into accordance with God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.

“Save It For Later” (The Beat, Special Beat Service, 1982; Eddie Vedder, 2024)

This British pop hit becomes a motif for Season 3. Illinois native Eddie Vedder has been covering this upbeat tune in his shows for a while now; a new, laid-back cover was released and used as the opening montage for Episode 2. With barely any percussion and plenty of folk-inspired guitar lines, this song is a quiet plea for company and understanding. “Two dozen other stupid reasons / Why we should suffer for this,” sings Vedder. “Don't bother trying to explain them / Just hold my hand while I come to a decision on it . . . Save it for later / Don’t run away and let me down.” I found it interesting to listen to this track through the experience of Sydney, Carmy’s chef de cuisine at The Bear. As she weighs the cost of agreeing to a partnership with Carmy, we see why it’s such a difficult decision for her. Sydney wants to be a part of her coworkers' lives and learn from them. In a plot thick with miscommunication, I am reminded how good these people are to each other when their common goal in the kitchen is focused on nurturing talents and passions. The Bear—both as a restaurant and a show—doesn’t work unless everyone grows together. Returning to Ephesians 4, we see that this is much like the church, which can’t function unless the love of God and one another is the goal.

“Strange Currencies” (R.E.M., Monster, 1994)

This heartfelt R.E.M. song accompanies several key moments in Season 2, particularly Carmy’s budding relationship with his old crush, Claire (Molly Gordon). It’s playing during some of the lightest, tenderest moments of the early episodes. But it’s also a song tinged with trepidation and bitterness, as Michael Stipe sings, “I don’t know what you mean to me . . . but I wanna take you on.” As the season progresses, we see Carmy struggling to become a more open, joyful person due to his crippling shame, trauma, guilt, and self-doubt. Carmy makes a huge mistake in the final episode of Season 2 when he gets locked in the walk-in freezer during service at The Bear’s first night, a panic attack resulting in brutal words that are overheard by Richie and Claire. Carmy will have the opportunity to offer apologies come Season 3; just like all of us, he will fail miserably. So the song will come back to haunt him during a brief moment of reflection in that same walk-in freezer as the show sets up Season 4. “With this love comes strange currencies . . . I need a chance, a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance,” we hear in the background. But Stipes’ voice is distorted and the guitar is drowned out by static. This song makes me think of one of the first things I learned about God: he is the God of second chances. Even more than that, he forgives “seventy times seven times” for each of our failures—a big number, meant to symbolize the infinite wideness of God’s mercy.

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At Think Christian, we encourage careful cultural discernment. We recognize and respect that many Christians choose not to engage with pop culture that contains particular content, such as abuse, sex, violence, alcohol or drug use, or that employs the use of coarse language. To that end, we suggest visiting Common Sense Media for detailed information regarding the content of the particular pieces of pop culture discussed in this article.