I used to dabble in music – this was a while back. I wrote the occasional album review, sat down with a couple of artists, had a radio show or three. I even sang in a number of bands when the mood struck me. It didn’t work out. Mostly because I saw too much and didn’t much like what I saw. But there were high points. Many fond memories were made.
One of the bands I played in was based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. We were calling ourselves Finding Emo that night – don’t ask. It’s not as interesting a story as you might think. The gig was not very remarkable. It was not a great show and our set, while crowd pleasing was not our best. What I remember about that night was the band that played directly before us. They wouldn’t have been particularly notable except for one small nuance – their entire set consisted of the theme song to Super Mario Bros (the original Nintendo score). This is by no means a rare occurrence. To the best of my knowledge there are many many covers of music from early Nintendo games – especially Super Mario Bros. Nonetheless it is a memory that to this day makes me smile.
And that brings me to my point. Music and video games. Music in video games. We’ve come a long way from the digitized tonal scores of the 1980s – a very long way. Many game developers spend a hefty chunk of their budget on scoring their games and it shows. Game soundtracks are available for purchase apart from the games that spawn them – and more importantly, they sell. Video games are now a great source of new music – or at the very least an opportunity to experience different music.
Have you played Lost Odyssey? I did. Most of it anyway, just after I put the fourth (yes Fourth) disc into my xbox, the red lights of death caught up with me. Which shouldn’t have been all that surprising since the game seemed to cause my Xbox to freeze up every ten minutes or so. (That’s a lot in a game that requires upward of 70 hours of gameplay)….anyway the point is that despite the fact that I never finished the game due to technical issues and the inevitable frustration that ensued, Lost Odyssey’s soundtrack is phenomenal. Beautiful. Inspired. If you don’t believe me you should check out the title theme music. It’s a lovingly crafted instrumental piece from composer Nobuo Uematsu who wrote most of the Final Fantasy scores as well as music for games such as Blue Dragon and Chrono Trigger.
Bioshock also has a great musical score – as does its sequel. In particular I found Eleanor’s Lullaby appealing. Bioshock and Bioshock 2 were both composed by Garry Schyman, who also created the music for the Dante’s Inferno game and (trivia tidbit here) worked on the A-Team (1983) soundtrack.
If you’re looking for something with vocals and a slightly less orchestral appeal then Dragon Age 2 delivers with a remix of Florence and the Machine’s “I’m Not Calling You a Liar”. Still on the folksy side, Florence Welch has a ridiculously emotive and shockingly powerful voice. And a great feel for modulation. I actually sat and read the credits at end game so I could hear the song in its entirety. “I’m Not Calling You a Liar (Dragon Age II: Varric’s Theme)”, produced by Inon Zur is, in my opinion better than the original arrangement – just throwing that out there.
And of course you can’t write about video game soundtracks without Portal coming to mind. “Still Alive”, written by Jonathan Coulton is brilliant in its snarky, creepy but playful narrative tendencies. Ellen McLain (the voice of GLaDOS in the Portal games) captures the psychotic subterfuge of the AI as well in song as she does in game. And if my opinion isn’t enough reason for you to go out and listen to the song (understandably so), you should know that Ryan Geddes, an editor at IGN, called “Still Alive” the best game ending song of all time. Felicia Day and Coulton played a live version at PAX 2008 to ecstatic fanboys and gals. And it was featured in Rock Band playlists alongside rock and roll heavy hitters like Metallica, Foo Fighters and David Bowie. Pretty impressive, non?
Finally the song that inspired this rant. The debut trailer for Assassin’s Creed Revelations is made that much more memorable by the background music, a song called “Iron” by Woodkid. Apparently Woodkid is the musical pseudonym for French filmmaker/music video director Yoann Lemoine who brought us the music videos “Back to December” by Taylor Swift, “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry and “Mistake” by Moby. If you’re not into that kind of thing (pop culture isn’t for everyone) don’t hold it against him. “Iron is phenomenal…watch the E3 2011 AC: Revelations trailer below and see for yourself.
Toodles.
Addendum here...apparently I missed the fact that "Baba Yetu" from the Civ IV soudntrack won a grammy last award cycle. I don't have any particular love of the grammy awards, nor do I think that winning a grammy is indicative of good music or talent. But it is indicative of popular interest and demand - and this is the first piece of music from a video game to even be nominated, let alone win. So I figured I should tag it on at the end here.
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