Portal 2/Awesome Music

Note: Unlike most other games listed under Crowning Music of Awesome, the OST for Portal 2 is available for free directly from Valve!^[1]

Cinematic

• The theme from the trailer of Portal 2, "Reconstructing Science", just doesn't want to come out from the listener's ears. "It's been a looong time..."
  • There's also the music from the extended co-op trailer: "Don't disappoint me..."
    • Later released without dialogue here.
    • Now that volume 2 of the OST is out, you can get the track (now called "You Will Be Perfect") for free, or even as a ringtone!
• Robots FTW... FTW.
• "Exile Vilify", by The National, certainly counts.
• The Part Where He Kills You is basically Portal 2's "4,000 Degrees Kelvin". Plays in one of the tensest moments of the game.
• "I AM NOT A MORON!" starts off as a cheery electronic theme that turns into pure orchestrated awesome. And scariness.
• "You Know Her?" is a fittingly ominous track for GLaDOS waking up, killing Wheatley and throwing you into the incinerator.
• "An Accent Beyond", a fast paced tune that fits perfectly with the situation.
• How about Bombs for Throwing at You, Wheatley's final boss theme? It's like 'You Can't Escape, You Know', GLaDOS's final boss theme from the original, except it is faster, more frantic, and has some of Wheatley's Leitmotif mixed in at some points.
• Cave Johnson, we're done here.
• "Don't Do It". It's played twice, first during the confrontation with GLaDOS, and again at the analogous spot in the Final Boss battle. What's awesome is how it starts out calm, then grows in intensity at "Please press the Stalemate Resolution Button", and then goes freaking nuts after the Booby Trap goes off.
• With the release (of the first volume, at the time of writing) of the official soundtrack, we now have The Courtesy Call from the opening without the voice over. And it's as awesome as you imagined it would be.
• The Friendly Faith Plate is an awesome tune you may have missed.
• Vitrification Order, You Are Not Part Of The Control Group and Forwarding The Cause Of Science all count on their own, but they all become even better when you listen to them all together and see how the first two build on each other to create the third, and then combine with another track (Music Of The Spheres, I think) to create The Reunion, arguably one of the best pieces in the game.
• Caroline Deleted. Even without knowing the context of the song, you can just feel that something bad is going to happen about half-way through... even though something good happens instead.
• Your Precious Moon, the music that plays when Chell fires the Moon-portal. And yes, it is appropriately awesome.

Vocal,Semi-Vocal

• The ending song, "Want You Gone", (spoilers, of course) is really good too.
  • Like Still Alive, it sounds better in a minor key.
• Before the end song, the player is greeted with a choir of turrets.
• Some humans did it in a capella, and it's pretty damn good!
  • There's something about the music box version of the turret opera that just drives you to tears.
  • And during the game you can find some of these turrets singing this.
• "Wheatley's Song", by Miracle of Sound.
• PotatOS Lament. This song only plays on the title screen while you're in the old Aperture Science testing spheres, but it's one of the most haunting, etherial melodies in the entire game. Despite the digital effects and the nigh-incomprehensable lyrics, the sheer emotion in GLaDOS' singing is enough to make you want to shed a tear.
• "This Is Aperture", a Portal-themed take on "This Is Halloween". Some of the voices in there are so good you'd swear they were the original VAs.
  • The other Wheatley Song. Villain Song at its finest.

Ambient

• "Triple Laser Phase", a haunting ambient track.
• Love As A Construct, a beautiful track to accompany a relationship that will never be until the ending
• There She Is, a gorgeous tune that plays as Chell and Wheatley enter GLaDOS's ruined chamber. It's haunting and even somewhat intimidating, and it fits the scene perfectly.
• Space Phase, a tune so calm yet, so saddening.
• Wheatley Science. It's sinister, mischievous, and almost Danny Elfman-like, and hints at just how badly the Enrichment Center is doing under Wheatley's control.
• Several pieces of brilliant soundtrack are missed simply due to perfect integration during certain contexts; notable examples include synthesized Bach when "flying" and rhythmically whirring lasers when near welders.

Other

• Smooth Jazz will be deployed in 3...2...1...DING!
  • Now in the full version! The song is called Offering, by Larry Stephens.
• Oh no, He's Playing Classical Music.
  • Machiavellian Bach, actually. Now that volume's out. Adds all the bits together, for better, um, book-reading. One of Machiavelli's best songs, that, I know, not a moron...
  • Also, the electronic version of the song that plays when you're being flung, and the mixture of the two. If you're wondering, this is where it came from.

1. ↑ And unlike some other developers they released the whole soundtrack. That's 65% more soundtrack per soundtrack.