There’s exotic flamenco in “Gerudo Valley,” honky tonk ballads in “Lon Lon Ranch,” comical caveman jams in “Goron City,” mellow Carribean grooves in “Zora’s Domain,” and the classic ¾ barcarolle “Song of Storms.” The soundtrack also remixes many compositions from earlier titles in the series to incredible effect. Plus, the sheer variety of music styles keeps the exploration consistently rewarding. Ocarina of Time was not my first Zelda game, but it was the one that felt packed with the most unforgettable tunes to accompany the beautiful settings and dramatic encounters of the game. Shoutout to the genius level virtuoso compositions of Koji Kondo You always play as the vocally-challenged swordsman Link, the Kingdom of Hyrule is related in some way to the plot, and strong soundtracks keep the energy alive and running throughout the adventure. The Legend of Zelda is a longstanding series that remains true to a few consistencies. Plus, the original songs by Jose Gonzalez and Jamie Lidell were perfectly incorporated into RDR, almost like an in-game music video. These are combined with a wealth of emotive pieces, sometimes led by tension-building strings or heroic electric guitar riffs and thumping drum breakbeats. Campfire harmonicas, rattlesnake maracas, tribal shouts, dusty brass, tombstone bell tolls many more Western tropes here all done impeccably. Perhaps the most visceral effects of this album are created by the clever implementation of a variety of instruments. Of waking up to black coffee and hand rolled cigarettes, and dying by the gun. This is the music of shootin’ whiskey, bustin’ broncs, brawlin’ in saloons. This soundtrack by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson, (whose names even sound like they could be RDR characters) is the music of solo horseback riding across the Southwestern US desert, or fighting bandits atop a speeding steam powered train. Fortunately, this American outlaw turned Federal agent has the Spaghetti-western influenced, cowboy cinematic music of the RDR soundtrack to tell his story for him.
John Marston is a man of few words and aggressive action. I could go on, this soundtrack has so many iconic themes and so few misses within a 2 hour long composition, that it easily breaks into this list. You’ve got hell-raising battle music in the form of “The 13th Struggle,” “Tension Rising” and “A Fight to the Death.” There’s evocative compositions such as “Dearly Beloved,” “Destiny Islands,” and “Roxas.” There’s even unexpected dips into rock n’ roll in the Gummi Ship battle anthem “Hazardous Highway.”
Due to these remixes, I have knocked KH2 a few spots back on the list as it does get into some grey area of soundtrack originality.Įven without these, KH2 delivers the goods. On top of that, there is a perilous rendition of Final Fantasy VII’s “One Winged Angel,” that does the original immense justice. Erratic KH timeline criticisms aside, the one hill I will gladly die on for the series is the breathtaking soundtrack work by Yoko Shimomura.Ī caveat: A decent portion of this album is original reworks of music from Disney movies such as Pirates of the Carribean, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Winnie the Pooh.
Full disclosure, I’m one of those die-hard Kingdom Hearts fans that the internet gleefully loves to dump on.