Thanks for putting this together this year, Dark Schala! I'm really enjoying reading people's votes. My picks this year are a bit unsurprising, but I feel confident in them.
3. Mario Kart 8
Mario Kart 8 comes in one flavor: bold. Its percussive horns, rock guitar interludes, humming synth, and crazy saxophone licks are not for those looking for a contemplative listening experience. But for those with even the smallest soft spot for big band, this soundtrack cannot be missed. It features one of gamings best new trends, the dynamic soundtrack, bringing in delectable saxophone or guitar solos as you tear out of the water in
Dolphin Shoals or soar into thunderclouds in
Cloudtop Cruise. There are a lot of songs that are just plain fun to listen to, like
N64 Rainbow Road, and the new DLC instant-favorites
Mute City and
Hyrule Circuit, the latter of which is, by the way, heaven for a Zelda music nerd. It may rarely turn down for what, but Mario Kart 8 brings with it the joy of live music and musicians with immense instrumental talent. Now sing to me, Dolphin Shoals sax man.
2. Bravely Default
Rock and orchestral elements are familiar to any fan of JRPGs, but they usually only emerge in bombastic boss and final boss themes. Rarely is an entire soundtrack constructed with both in mind. While most rock and orchestra ensembles go straight for the jugular at every turn, Revos claim to fame here is his ability to blend and balance all of the instrumentation available to him. With Bravely Default, Revo has done some incredible work capturing the adventurous, poignant, and surging spirit of the JRPG.
Utilizing the recurring leitmotif sketches of the four protagonists,
Four Legends gives us a glimpse of the games musical breadth.
Silence of the Forest, with its ethereal vocal crescendos and bells, breathes and echoes with a Yasunori Mitsuda-like touch.
Beneath the Hollow Moon features a blissful trio of tin whistle, violin, and guitar.
Infiltrating Hostile Territory, earlier mentioned in this thread, is a smartly layered blend of basic rock elements, sparse piano, echoing bells (a staple of this soundtrack), and periodic thrums of string. The balance here is impeccable no element overwhelms, creating a swirl of suspense that continues to interest the listener without wearing out its welcome.
Yet regardless of the integrity of the rest of the soundtrack, people will most likely remember Bravely Default for its rock anthems. I dont fault them. Each is a highly rhythmic and intense affair that uses its access to many different instruments, beyond its rock and orchestra ensembles, to create an aurally interesting and invigorating melting pot.
That Persons Name Is is a great boss battle theme that purposefully interplays its violin and rock guitar leads. It is forceful, but not overwhelming, making it a perfect fit for the in-game function it serves. It even manages to work in the games main leitmotif in a way that flows. No mention of this soundtrack is complete without a nod to
Serpent Eating the Ground, which makes for a truly incredible final boss theme. Revo dials it up to 11 here with a choir, a driving electric guitar background, horn stabs, and arpegiatting strings and guitars, without ever burying any individual part. The musical progression here is immaculate and keeps the listener engaged. In truly impressive fashion, it manages to work in pretty much every important leitmotif in the game, making for what is undeniably an epic final hurrah for the entire soundtrack.
Ibitsu Naru Shinen Sono na ha Mao, the theme for what I can only assume is an incredibly difficult postgame boss, has a similarly powerful finality to it, but also works in some unsettling child choir and bells, as well as a female vocalist who gives the piece a dramatic and operatic quality at turns, all while quoting musical ideas from the game's final battle themes. Revos beloved ascending and descending intervals are on full display here in several moments that strip back in order to drive on to the next musical idea.
Rather than blasting the listener with every tool at his disposal, Revo uses the balanced interplay of each instrument in his orchestra, along with a plethora of aurally interesting musical ideas and, more importantly, precise timing, to compile a soundtrack clearly born out of passion, but with technical composition that rarely babbles. Here is game music from a composer who understands what he likes, what sounds good, and why. I am sad to see him missing from the helm of Bravely Second, and I hope that we see more work from him in gamings future.
1. Shovel Knight
Sometimes, when Im listening to music, I anticipate a certain chord change or melodic line while thinking, It would sound really cool if they went for this, but I bet they wont do it. Nine out of ten times Im right, but through sheer strength of volume, Shovel Knight may have upset that ratio. I dont know if the restrained aural 8-bit palette simply gave him less room to miss, but with so many melodic moves that tickled my music bone, Jake virt Kaufman must be on my wavelength.
Theres just such an excellent synthesis of melodic and bass lines, such a deluge of catchy, anthemic tunes and leitmotifs, such an understanding of where and when to use chiptune tricks like vibrato, trills, and scoops.
Strike the Earth! is the quintessential Shovel Knight tune, encapsulating all of these qualities. The bridge section is my favorite part, where Kaufman hangs on a couple of seventh octaves and just jams for a bit with the melodic line, even working in some call-and-response, before doing a couple of two-five arpeggiating moves back down towards the chorus. I have no idea if people react the same way to this stuff that I do. Maybe Im just crazy. But God, I love it.
Everyone has his or her favorite area theme, and they are almost all unanimously excellent.
High Above the Land, which I believe is the first area theme that Kaufman previewed before the games release, is one of my favorites simply because of its irresistible melodic line. I especially like how Kaufman worked in some chip sounds that sound like the whirling of helicopter blades. That song ties with
An Underlying Problem as my favorite area theme. The latter is just so cool, particularly because of its thick, buzzing bass. Its more than just melody theres a thumping rhythmic interplay shared with the melodic line, like a bassist comping in a jazz band.
Whats interesting is that although Kaufmans particular style might simply be written off as the style of chiptune in general, if you listen to Manami Matsumaes compositions, there is a clear difference in feel. Matsumae turned in two clearly articulated and thematically fitting pieces with
A Thousand Leagues Below and
Flower of Antimony. These are good songs, and conceptually you can hear the sureness of the ideas they articulate. But they lack Kaufmans performance flair, his trills and vibratos and melodic interplay, and the end result seems a bit workmanlike. This is all the more apparent when you listen to
Matsumaes remix of High Above the Land on the Shovel Knight Arrange Album. When you boil down Kaufmans work to just the component parts, you cant help but feel that the magic dissipates. It is his musical soul that gives this soundtrack its boundless energy.
There are a host of other great themes on this soundtrack, tracks like the vigorous Black Knight battle theme,
The Rival, the pretty, glittering soundscape of
The Starlit Wilds, and the jamming clash of minor and major keys in the climactic battle theme,
The Betrayer. Kaufman doesnt phone it in with one-off tracks, either:
Waltz of the Troupple King is a full-fledged waltz with a pleasant melody and an even more amusing context. The whole thing is a labor of love, and almost every track sways with energy and swagger, as if Kaufman cant wait to show you what hes got next in store. Some might say that its a little starved for variance, but I cant possibly fault a soundtrack that is so full of joy. For that reason and many more, Shovel Knight is my soundtrack of the year.
Honorable Mention: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
The release of new installments in the Smash Bros. series is like a second Christmas not only because the gameplay makes the series itself one of my all-time favorites, but also because each game is an excuse for dozens of famous composers to remix some of gamings most venerable tunes.
If I were to be honest, this round of Smash Bros. has some of the series weakest tracks songs that rehash original tracks, often in the most boring MIDI-synth possible, with little care for instrumentation or dynamics. However, it also has some of the best tracks in the series, so go figure. The Wii Us
Final Destination Ver. 2 is a rocking rendition of the games main theme, complete with piano, synth, and electric organ. Its highly melodic and a heck of a jam, and I cant get enough of it.
King Dededes Theme Ver. 2 is a brilliant take on a classic.
Fortress Boss Remix is an unexpected joy with its flamenco guitar styling and vocal callouts.
Shadow Man Stage is a groovy rendition of a Mega Man favorite.
Destroyed Skyworld, with its softly sibilant female vocals and organ, evokes Keiichi Okabe on 2010s phenomenal action RPG soundtrack, Nier. General remix rules apply here it is when composers go for either a pleasantly surprising new take, or a rock-solid, guaranteed crowd-pleaser take that the new Smash Bros. soundtrack succeeds, and I feel that it does this often enough that it warrants a mention here.
LTTP: Xenoblade Chronicles (2012)
Because of Shulks inclusion in the new Smash Bros. games, I decided to watch all of the Xenoblade Chronicles cutscenes on YouTube. Id heard some of the music in this game before its nearly impossible not to, given how much buzz this soundtrack has been getting in recent years but putting the music into its proper context turned already strong compositions into amazing ones.
I went in expecting to be impressed by Yoko Shimomura, whose work in drammatica and memoria I have enjoyed discovering throughout the year. But the clear star of the show here is ACE+, whose use of rock instrumentation indeed does not diminish, but instead immortalizes what will surely be remembered as some of gamings finest rock tunes. My favorites are everyones favorites, and it shouldnt be much of a surprise why these tunes pop with dynamic energy and inspired melodies. The fan favorite
Gaur Plains, with its unique minor melody, stands at the head of a pack of almost universally strong and atmospheric area BGMs.
You Will Know Our Names and
Mechanical Rhythm, with their swirling, chugging guitars and crashing drums, end up soaring in powerful melodies. And the piano-and-string-led composition
Engage the Enemy never fails to get my blood pumping with its delicious rock ballad crescendo.
This soundtrack has almost no low points. Off the beaten path of tracks now canonized in Smash Bros., you can find gems like
Prologue B, Zanza, Imperial Capital Agniratha, Forest of the Nopon, and the serenely nostalgic ending theme from Yasunori Mitsuda,
Beyond the Sea. You just cant beat a soundtrack like this. It may be treading familiar ground, but it is unpretentious and unabashed, simultaneously exciting and dignified. Like the game itself, it feels like a celebration of the epic Japanese RPG. It begs to be enjoyed.
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