Game soundtracks aren’t about the music
Lately, I’ve come to an unpleasant realization. It feels like all these vinyl and CD releases for games are mostly just for collecting or nostalgia.
I decided that, for myself, I wanted to choose a vinyl not based on a game I already knew or had played, but purely based on the music. So I went to Laced and started listening, in order, to all the tracks from all the records for all the games they had available. And I came to a few disappointing conclusions.
Every game only has a handful of tracks that truly stay with you. Often it’s the main theme and a few other tracks that add some variety. Everything else tends to be fairly uninspired music built around certain motifs for specific in-game situations, like combat music or ambient background pieces. In other words, 95% of the tracks are quite monotonous, and you probably wouldn’t recognize them if you didn’t already know what you were listening to.
A very telling example is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I haven’t played the game, but I’ve repeatedly heard that it has a phenomenal soundtrack. And that’s true: “Alicia,” “Gustave,” “Lumiere,” and a few others are the core that the whole soundtrack rests on. But everything else is just standard orchestration without vocals, and it doesn’t really leave a lasting impression.
There are exceptions, though. For example, Bloodborne or The Witcher 3. In those soundtracks, every track feels like a completely different piece of music with its own motif. Bloodborne only has three records across two releases, and every single track feels like something that goes straight into your soul.
We buy a specific vinyl release for a specific game because the game is familiar to us.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I think that’s how it works for most people. For example, while I was listening through everything on Laced, I discovered a game I knew absolutely nothing about whose soundtrack really impressed me: Firmament. At the same time, I found a game I love a lot, but whose soundtrack didn’t impress me at all: Resident Evil 2.
And yet, in the end, I still really want to buy the Resident Evil 2 release, while something is stopping me from buying the Firmament one. I think that when we buy a game soundtrack, we’re not really buying it because of the music itself. We’re buying it to reconnect with the emotions we felt while playing that game.
Complete soundtrack releases on 4+ records are purely for collectors.
Very often, even two-record releases already start to feel weak, despite a few great tracks at the beginning. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an example of that. And if you go for the biggest edition, then 99% of the soundtrack is basically filler.
Honestly, these conclusions have made me sad, and I’ve suddenly lost the desire to keep collecting video game soundtracks. If you disagree with me, please convince me otherwise, because otherwise I think I’m going to stop buying vinyl.(
