The Stupendium
(Is this thing still on? No, not really. I just wanted to post about The Stupendium and this seems to be the place to do it.)
There's a musician named The Stupendium who makes songs based on video games who I've been getting really into recently.
Many of his songs are absolutely spectacular, and in most cases absolutely worth listening to even if you don't know the game it's based on. (Personally I find quite a few of his songs are too dark for me - he does particularly like horror games - but plenty of the rest are fantastic.)
Interestingly I don't generally like most rap music. But a lot of Stupendium's songs are just so lyrically clever, more like the best bits of Hamilton or Gilbert & Sullivan patter songs, that I think they're awesome even though I wouldn't normally be a fan of the genre. So I just wanted to share some endorsements :)
My top recommendations for his absolute best songs would be:
• A Matter Of Factories. Industrial-capitalist factory-building sci-fi. Verse 1 is just okay; verses 2 and 3 contain some of the best rhymes and wordplay I have seen anywhere in any medium. Familiarity with Satisfactory not required.
• The Data Stream. Cyberpunk social media megacorp song with some incredibly clever wordplay. The more I listen to this the more subtle awesomeness I notice. I have no desire to play Cyberpunk 2077, but familiarity with it is completely unneeded to appreciate this song. Most of it works disturbingly well as a cautionary tale about social media and megacorps today.
• Fragments. Unexpectedly beautiful and inspiring song about rebuilding after your world gets shattered. The wordplay is still here but uplifting rather than cynical. Familiarity with Ratchet and Clank completely unrequired.
• (Edited to add:) Gotta Build A Zoo. Cheerfully upbeat song (kid-friendly!) but very clear about humanity's responsibility to our natural environment. Inspired by Planet Zoo but if you gather "it's a game where you build a zoo" that's all you need.
The next tier of merely very good songs (that still don't need any familiarity with the source game in question) would include:
• Room For Improvement. Really fun song with some lovely rhymes and wordplay, about an exaggeratedly dodgy cowboy builder.
• Fiend Like Me. Cartoonishly over-the-top supervillain song, highly entertaining, apparently based on a game called Evil Genius 2.
• What A Fowl Day. The amusingly mean pranks of a goose. Familiarity with Untitled Goose Game not required but might help a little.
• A Little Heart. Inspired by Kingdom Hearts 3 but the main thing about this song is it's almost entirely composed of references to Disney songs. If you like Disney songs and cheerful music, check it out.
• He's done three Animal Crossing songs. I think the first two need better knowledge of the game than I have, but the third one, Rogue's Gallery, is very amusing even knowing nothing about the source. Stupendium as Crazy Redd, a brazenly unscrupulous counterfeit fox art dealer.
• Theme from OnlyCans. Bizarrely hilarious song about what is apparently a suggestive game about dating soft drinks, but familiarity is completely unrequired.
• Chairman of the Board. Showing off Stupendium's impressive repertoire with several very different characters each representing a different board game, and some lovely clever puns and rhymes. Familiarity with Scrabble and Cluedo probably needed but doesn't everyone know them?
• The Fine Print. More dystopian capitalism, an astonishingly audacious chorus and some very clever lyrics in the verses. Apparently based on a sci-fi game called The Outer Worlds.
• Milk Milk Lemonade. Lots of the Cuphead references go over my head, but this video's whole schtick is that it has 100 beverage puns embedded in less than 4 minutes of lyrics. Many of them are impressively hidden: listen closely!
• Shine Through. At first I wasn't sure about this. I really wanted to like it, because it's very optimistic and upbeat and has a bunch of colour puns. Also he was actually sponsored by the publisher of Life Is Strange: True Colours to make it which is pretty cool. At first I found it a bit too saccharine and schmaltzy, and I still think Fragments does the same thing better. But it's been growing on me - there's a bit more wordplay than I initially realised - and if you're looking for an earnest, encouraging song about finding your way through tough situations, I do recommend it.
And then there's some which are great if you do know something about the source material, such as:
• The Most Fashionable Faction In TF2. Highly amusing verses about each of the TF2 characters and a delightful chorus. Language warning.
• Way Deeper Down. Familiarity with the game Undertale is probably required to appreciate most of this, but if you get the references there's a lot of clever puns and wordplay in here.
• Why Did I Say Okie Doki? You need to know a certain amount about Doki Doki Literature Club here. Warning: dark.
There's a musician named The Stupendium who makes songs based on video games who I've been getting really into recently.
Many of his songs are absolutely spectacular, and in most cases absolutely worth listening to even if you don't know the game it's based on. (Personally I find quite a few of his songs are too dark for me - he does particularly like horror games - but plenty of the rest are fantastic.)
Interestingly I don't generally like most rap music. But a lot of Stupendium's songs are just so lyrically clever, more like the best bits of Hamilton or Gilbert & Sullivan patter songs, that I think they're awesome even though I wouldn't normally be a fan of the genre. So I just wanted to share some endorsements :)
My top recommendations for his absolute best songs would be:
• A Matter Of Factories. Industrial-capitalist factory-building sci-fi. Verse 1 is just okay; verses 2 and 3 contain some of the best rhymes and wordplay I have seen anywhere in any medium. Familiarity with Satisfactory not required.
• The Data Stream. Cyberpunk social media megacorp song with some incredibly clever wordplay. The more I listen to this the more subtle awesomeness I notice. I have no desire to play Cyberpunk 2077, but familiarity with it is completely unneeded to appreciate this song. Most of it works disturbingly well as a cautionary tale about social media and megacorps today.
• Fragments. Unexpectedly beautiful and inspiring song about rebuilding after your world gets shattered. The wordplay is still here but uplifting rather than cynical. Familiarity with Ratchet and Clank completely unrequired.
• (Edited to add:) Gotta Build A Zoo. Cheerfully upbeat song (kid-friendly!) but very clear about humanity's responsibility to our natural environment. Inspired by Planet Zoo but if you gather "it's a game where you build a zoo" that's all you need.
The next tier of merely very good songs (that still don't need any familiarity with the source game in question) would include:
• Room For Improvement. Really fun song with some lovely rhymes and wordplay, about an exaggeratedly dodgy cowboy builder.
• Fiend Like Me. Cartoonishly over-the-top supervillain song, highly entertaining, apparently based on a game called Evil Genius 2.
• What A Fowl Day. The amusingly mean pranks of a goose. Familiarity with Untitled Goose Game not required but might help a little.
• A Little Heart. Inspired by Kingdom Hearts 3 but the main thing about this song is it's almost entirely composed of references to Disney songs. If you like Disney songs and cheerful music, check it out.
• He's done three Animal Crossing songs. I think the first two need better knowledge of the game than I have, but the third one, Rogue's Gallery, is very amusing even knowing nothing about the source. Stupendium as Crazy Redd, a brazenly unscrupulous counterfeit fox art dealer.
• Theme from OnlyCans. Bizarrely hilarious song about what is apparently a suggestive game about dating soft drinks, but familiarity is completely unrequired.
• Chairman of the Board. Showing off Stupendium's impressive repertoire with several very different characters each representing a different board game, and some lovely clever puns and rhymes. Familiarity with Scrabble and Cluedo probably needed but doesn't everyone know them?
• The Fine Print. More dystopian capitalism, an astonishingly audacious chorus and some very clever lyrics in the verses. Apparently based on a sci-fi game called The Outer Worlds.
• Milk Milk Lemonade. Lots of the Cuphead references go over my head, but this video's whole schtick is that it has 100 beverage puns embedded in less than 4 minutes of lyrics. Many of them are impressively hidden: listen closely!
• Shine Through. At first I wasn't sure about this. I really wanted to like it, because it's very optimistic and upbeat and has a bunch of colour puns. Also he was actually sponsored by the publisher of Life Is Strange: True Colours to make it which is pretty cool. At first I found it a bit too saccharine and schmaltzy, and I still think Fragments does the same thing better. But it's been growing on me - there's a bit more wordplay than I initially realised - and if you're looking for an earnest, encouraging song about finding your way through tough situations, I do recommend it.
And then there's some which are great if you do know something about the source material, such as:
• The Most Fashionable Faction In TF2. Highly amusing verses about each of the TF2 characters and a delightful chorus. Language warning.
• Way Deeper Down. Familiarity with the game Undertale is probably required to appreciate most of this, but if you get the references there's a lot of clever puns and wordplay in here.
• Why Did I Say Okie Doki? You need to know a certain amount about Doki Doki Literature Club here. Warning: dark.