Preaching to the choir, I'm sure, and no doubt this has been said many times before here, but the music in this game is just fantastic. It's hauntingly beautiful, it really is. That tune that plays while wandering around Verbobonc...so atmospheric. Other tracks are just plain sinister, or rousing as the case may be. I've heard these same handful of tracks over and over, and sometimes I'll turn it down for a bit, but whenever I come back to it I'm struck by how well composed it is. Ah Troika, master of deeply flawed gems.
I'd say ironic, in kind of a negative way. Idk how much of the gossip is true... did Atari "pull the plug" too early? So many games have that excuse...KOTOR II comes to mind. Anyway, regardless of who wrote it, it's great.
Search this forum and you will find a lot about exactly what happened, from the mouths of the folks that were involved in the making of the game at the time. I can't remember the thread it's in, but there should be a link to an interview and everything.