Vidya game music.
Saw this linked on a tumblr somewhere:
Orchestral version of the "Suicide Mission" track from ME2. (No idea why the youtube thing shows that ME3 still.) Apparently, it's from a recent album, The Greatest Video Game Music, performed by the London Philharmonic. The trend of game score orechestrafication is one I enjoy - it yields some pretty great music, often stuff I wouldn't find otherwise since I'm not actually interested in a lot of the games themselves. When I was in college, I went to a Video Games Live concert with some friends, and it was seriously awesome. Even when I didn't recognize the games or have any real connection to them, it was still really good music.
So I was initially curious about this album. (If nothing else, that cover art is hilarious/amazing.) Even though I've only played two of the games included (ME and Bioshock), it still seemed to have some other strong offerings - I know Halo is often praised for its majestic score, and although WoW is generic Big Fantasy, it's fairly solid stuff. MGS ok, Fallout ok... But why is there Angry Birds and Tetris and Super Mario Galaxy? Angry Birds come on, that hardly counts as a video game. I guess the compilation was going for variety, but listening to this album would be a jarring experience - it's veering back and forth between dinky fun-times and intense EPIC in a weird, awkward way.
Anyway, back to the ME score. The main composer for the first two games was Jack Wall, who I'd never heard of, but he's a really experienced guy. I found a neat interview with him, in which he says, "Composers are composers. They are not just film composers, or game composers. They compose music and with games being such a big industry, it’s just another medium for the composer’s art form." It's a good point. Sometimes I’m surprised at who gets picked for what, though. I mean, Hans Zimmer for CoD: Modern Warfare 2? Kinda seems like a waste, but hey why not.
The ME1 score was meant to follow an "80’s sci-fi sound", so it's kinda boop-boopy synth-y at times. The ME2 score still had that, but moved into a more traditionally orchestral score, the kind I have to think of as "cinematic". This is most obvious in pieces like the aforementioned "Suicide Mission" - it's the kind of SRS BSNS music with all the subtlety of a mack truck that nevertheless manages to make me Feel Emotions. Even though I’m aware it’s actually rather cheesy and unoriginal, it’s still effective; I suppose the final chapter* of the game is like that as well. There’s no shortage of dramatic cliches, but I’m willing to go with it because the overall result is very engaging.
*To be honest, the entire game is comprised of cliches and rather heavy-handed draamaaaaaaa and sometimes I’m still surprised I like it as much as I do.
The third and final ME game (which will be released next year) will have a new composer, Clint Mansell**, and I’m excited to see what he’ll come up with. His work is really remarkable; even without a killer “hit” like Lux Aeterna, I think he’d always stand out from most film composers. His score for The Fountain is probably the most powerful soundtrack I’ve ever heard and is a huge reason I find that strange movie so incredibly moving. He’s well suited for the ME3 score - he’ll definitely be able to achieve the kind of massive grandeur necessary for a finale of this scale, but I imagine he could accomplish this in an interesting (ie. less hackneyed) way. I read a nice interview with him; this one came out with Black Swan and focuses on his work for the film, but he also talks about his previous projects as well as the ME3 stuff.
**Mr. Mansell, what is up with your official website, this is totally unhelpful.
I LIKE SOUNDTRACKS.
Click to viewOrchestral version of the "Suicide Mission" track from ME2. (No idea why the youtube thing shows that ME3 still.) Apparently, it's from a recent album, The Greatest Video Game Music, performed by the London Philharmonic. The trend of game score orechestrafication is one I enjoy - it yields some pretty great music, often stuff I wouldn't find otherwise since I'm not actually interested in a lot of the games themselves. When I was in college, I went to a Video Games Live concert with some friends, and it was seriously awesome. Even when I didn't recognize the games or have any real connection to them, it was still really good music.
So I was initially curious about this album. (If nothing else, that cover art is hilarious/amazing.) Even though I've only played two of the games included (ME and Bioshock), it still seemed to have some other strong offerings - I know Halo is often praised for its majestic score, and although WoW is generic Big Fantasy, it's fairly solid stuff. MGS ok, Fallout ok... But why is there Angry Birds and Tetris and Super Mario Galaxy? Angry Birds come on, that hardly counts as a video game. I guess the compilation was going for variety, but listening to this album would be a jarring experience - it's veering back and forth between dinky fun-times and intense EPIC in a weird, awkward way.
Anyway, back to the ME score. The main composer for the first two games was Jack Wall, who I'd never heard of, but he's a really experienced guy. I found a neat interview with him, in which he says, "Composers are composers. They are not just film composers, or game composers. They compose music and with games being such a big industry, it’s just another medium for the composer’s art form." It's a good point. Sometimes I’m surprised at who gets picked for what, though. I mean, Hans Zimmer for CoD: Modern Warfare 2? Kinda seems like a waste, but hey why not.
The ME1 score was meant to follow an "80’s sci-fi sound", so it's kinda boop-boopy synth-y at times. The ME2 score still had that, but moved into a more traditionally orchestral score, the kind I have to think of as "cinematic". This is most obvious in pieces like the aforementioned "Suicide Mission" - it's the kind of SRS BSNS music with all the subtlety of a mack truck that nevertheless manages to make me Feel Emotions. Even though I’m aware it’s actually rather cheesy and unoriginal, it’s still effective; I suppose the final chapter* of the game is like that as well. There’s no shortage of dramatic cliches, but I’m willing to go with it because the overall result is very engaging.
*To be honest, the entire game is comprised of cliches and rather heavy-handed draamaaaaaaa and sometimes I’m still surprised I like it as much as I do.
The third and final ME game (which will be released next year) will have a new composer, Clint Mansell**, and I’m excited to see what he’ll come up with. His work is really remarkable; even without a killer “hit” like Lux Aeterna, I think he’d always stand out from most film composers. His score for The Fountain is probably the most powerful soundtrack I’ve ever heard and is a huge reason I find that strange movie so incredibly moving. He’s well suited for the ME3 score - he’ll definitely be able to achieve the kind of massive grandeur necessary for a finale of this scale, but I imagine he could accomplish this in an interesting (ie. less hackneyed) way. I read a nice interview with him; this one came out with Black Swan and focuses on his work for the film, but he also talks about his previous projects as well as the ME3 stuff.
**Mr. Mansell, what is up with your official website, this is totally unhelpful.
I LIKE SOUNDTRACKS.