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“It’s Videogame Music!” by Bob Otsuka

Video games have always gotten kind of a bad rap in the art world, constantly struggling for a place next to other widely accepted “legitimate” art forms, and this includes the music in them. Thankfully, in recent years, this attitude seems to have shifted a little, with a not insignificant rise of games that absolutely prove the “video games can’t be art” camp wrong, and I’d like to think that we’re all open-minded enough here that I don’t need to argue the legitimacy of video games as an art form. This is not an article meant to prove to you that there is good music from video games out there. Rather, it sets out to combat something that I often struggle with with soundtracks in general - they’re often too “soundtracky,” too dependent on the material they were meant to accompany that they just can’t stand on their own. Oftentimes the enjoyment of the music on its own is derived from memories of the full work. Not every soundtrack is like that, however, and here I’ve compiled a list of grade-A video game soundtracks that hold their own as independent works. The following albums (for they are albums), I believe, can be thoroughly enjoyed outside of their accompanying video game, and are absolutely worth your time as discerning music listeners, regardless of whether or not you’ve played them.

Hideki Naganuma - Jet Set Radio (2012 re-release)

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When talking about video games with A+ soundtracks, inevitably the Dreamcast cult classic Jet Set Radio comes up, and with good reason - it’s fucking great. Jet Set Radio takes its name from a pirate radio station in the game, providing the soundtrack for each level as you, a hip youth of futuristic, fictional Tokyo, tear up the streets and tag your turf on magnetic, jet powered rollerblades.

The soundtrack subsequently sounds exactly what I’d expect a game with such a premise to sound like—a playlist of underground hip hop and dance tracks, with the occasional grungy garage rock to break it up. Coinciding with the 2012 HD re-release of the original on Steam and PS3, SEGA put out a compilation of sound director Hideki Naganuma’s contributions to both games - which is great, since let’s be real: aside from a few exceptions, all the best songs in either game came from him. The result is the grooviest collection of sample-based hip hop, big beat, and plunderphonics, not unlike Fatboy Slim and Mr. Scruff. This makes the first half of the album what some people have described as some of the 90s-est music they’ve ever heard, and while that seems like a bit of a cop-out that doesn’t really mean anything, it is perplexingly an incredibly accurate descriptor - all you need to do is hear the effected beatboxing loops, funky slap bass, and wonderfully campy “better watch that beat cominatcha!” and “blast that shit, homie!” samples on songs like “That’s Enough” and “Rock It On” to know exactly what they’re talking about. The second half, corresponding with the game’s slightly more sci-fi-y sequel, appropriately features songs more synthesizer-heavy like “Fly Like a Butterfly,” straying more into dance music territory but still maintaining that goofy Naganuma charm and hip-hop influences, evident in the likes of “Funky Dealer” and “Oldies But Happies.” Sure, I miss the removal of some fan favorite artists from the soundtrack, like Guitar Vader and Reps, but I think the album becomes a much more cohesive experience because of it. Blast it when you’re driving, throw it on as the soundtrack to a high school snowboarding video. It won’t disappoint you.

MilkCan - Make it Sweet! (UmJammer Lammy)

UmJammer Lammy is the slightly less well-known spiritual successor to the revolutionary music game PaRappa The Rapper. If you’re familiar with PaRappa, it’s pretty much exactly like that except you play as a guitar-playing lamb instead of a rapping dog, and also for some reason the scoring system is completely fucking broken. The titular Lammy plays guitar in a three-piece, all-girl rock band by the name of MilkCan, and this album is presented not as a soundtrack CD but instead as an actual album made by the fictional band—which is probably why it works by itself as well as it does. With that in mind, MilkCan’s diverse blend of punk, rock, hip hop, and even country is hilariously awesome. It’s fun guitar rock at its core, reminiscent of a broadway show tune one

moment and vaguely thrash metal influenced the next, broken up in the middle by a De La Soul mixtape-style skit, but always somehow managing to stay musically coherent. Lyrically, the album admittedly might fall short depending on your tastes - most of the songs are sung in-character, out of context of the game’s already completely surreal and absurd story, so the words are at worst completely stupid and childish, and charmingly hokey and silly at best. What the album may lack in poetry, however, can absolutely be made up for with the music. Regardless of the nonsense she’s spouting, Katy Cat has a killer set of pipes in addition to tearin’ it up on the bass - seriously, pay attention to it, there’s always something interesting happening in the low end, quick flourishes and chords thrown in with just the right amount of discretion, always interesting, never distracting with Flea-like proficiency. This goes for the whole rhythm section for that matter - just listen to the hi-hats in the chorus of “Fire Fire!!” and the fills in “Got To Move! (Millennium Girl).” Slick as hell. And of course, Lammy shreds all over the album, playing call-and-response with Katy Cat in a way that works far better than it would on a potential PaRappa album, even lending her own voice to the two aforementioned songs. And if you really must have that rush of nostalgia, PaRappa and friends make a few appearances as well. If you think you can handle the outlandishly absurd subject matter, Make it Sweet! is a blast - silly, upbeat music that’s arguably more enjoyable than the game itself (seriously though this game actually doesn’t fucking work. What happened between PaRappa and this one??)

Katamari Fortissimo Damacy (Katamari Damacy, PS2)

I admit I almost didn’t put this one on the list, even though it was the main inspiration for it in the first place. Overtures? “Main themes? This soundtrack is certainly more of a soundtrack than the others on this list, but then I remembered that I ran into it and started listening to it as an album before I had even known what Katamari was.

And what is Katamari? I’ve played four out of nine (yes, nine) Katamari games and honestly even I’m not sure. You know dung beetles? That’s the basic premise except instead of poop you’re rolling up everything and anything, from thumbtacks and paperclips to literally entire planets by the end of the game. Nothing is safe in Katamari. It’s cute, it’s colorful, it’s nonsensical and it’s probably the most Japanese thing I can think of. It’s magical.

Just like the hodgepodge of things your Katamari rolls up, the Katamari Damacy soundtrack spans across a wide variety of styles and genres, yet still, somehow, manages to remain a tight, sensical listening experience. The album opens with introductory track “Sasasasan Katamari,” introducing you to the game’s iconic “nanana” theme, before throwing you straight into the deep end of its wonderful absurdity with D&B influenced drums, horn sections, timpani, synthesizers, female choirs, and nonsensical Japanese lyrics (with hearty servings of obligatory English phrases thrown in, of course) in “Katamari on the Rock.” After a brief interlude reprising the main theme on piano, we’re treated to “The Moon and the Prince,” a solid hip-hop jam with one of the grooviest bass parts I’ve heard in any song, played straight and seriously, completely contrary to the song’s fairly wacky lyrics (though you might not ever know it, given that they’re all, again, in Japanese). Songs like “Lonely Rolling Star” are more typical, cutesy synth-pop tracks, but certainly not undeserving of attention with wonderfully thick synth basses and catchy keyboard riffs, and songs like “A Crimson Rose and a Gin Tonic” are legitimate cool jazz pieces. Where the album really shines, however, are on its electronic tracks - Dan Deacon-esque groove based electropop on “You Are Smart,” and songs in the vein of artists like Cornelius on “Angel Flavor’s Present” with its glitchy percussion, bubbly synth lines, and dreamy pads and choir samples. The album leaves just as zany as it arrived, with “Katamari Love,” a wonderfully over-the-top-dramatic rock ballad, complete with heart wrenching vocals over lonely piano chords before swelling into the cheesiest chorus you’ve ever heard. If this all sounds like too much, I assure you, it is. But time and time again, the Katamari series is lauded for its music, and the praise is certainly deserved. Perhaps it’s Katamari Fortissimo Damacy’s unabashed outrageousness that makes it such a truly wonderful and unique experience, one that simply needs to be heard to be believed.

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