Hello and welcome to the final (for now) part of my grand tour of the best soundtracks in games, cinema and… television? I’m always confused as to what to call TV shows now that we don’t often watch them on TV. In this case, there’s a few entries from series which never even aired on TV, but are purely creations of the web, instead. So, without further ado, let’s begin.
Runner up: Harbinger
We’re opening with a big one.
If DOOM 2016 turned out to be a terrible game, it would still be famous for its soundtrack. Mick Gordon worked pure dark magic to create a soundtrack as furious and unstoppable as the DOOM Slayer himself. When you’re actually playing DOOM and you’re in the middle of an arena of waves and waves of demons and this comes on, everything sort of clicks into place, and you feel like an indomitable killing machine as the game’s universe sings to you in deep guitar.
I’m yet to play DOOM Eternal, and from what I hear of the officially released soundtrack, I’ll want to hear it in the game as it was originally mixed.
Runner up: Departure to Destruction
If I may slip into a sacrilegious opinion for a second… I may prefer this to even DOOM’s incredible soundtrack, with a caveat. I think BFG 9000 fits better in DOOM than Reflections of Violence does in Dusk. But when listened to outside of the context of their games, Andrew Hulshult’s soundtrack just about tops it for me, mainly due to the velocity of the thing, the build-up. I… don’t know if progressive is the right wait to talk about it, as every time I look up actual music genre definitions my brain turns to mush, but JUST LISTEN TO THE WAY IT GOES.
Sorry, I hit 2:42 as I was typing that and caps lock sort of activated itself.
No Man’s Sky has a beautiful atmospheric soundtrack. Some of the tracks on this album are titled and arguable more direct in their approach to being, well, music, but I chose this track because of its long, atmospheric charm. I’ve spent many hours exploring the Euclid Galaxy, and this soundtrack really helped to secure the feeling that the game’s story also tried to achieve, the sense of you being a lone traveller among an unfamiliar galaxy of weird creatures and aliens. It’s not quite isolating, but it’s certainly alien.
Runner up: Spoiler’s Noble End
And on the subject of space, we ever so subtly pivot back into the world of film. How fitting. Almost like it was done… on purpose.
All right, so there were two good things that came out of Episode I: Pod racing, and the Duel of the Fates, the latter backed by this epic. The chorus is used to great effect here, I believe to emulate the Sith threat of Darth Maul. It’s just timeless. You can imagine any number of fateful duels to this.
Runner up: Spoiler vs. Spoili-wan
I love this duel track even more than Duel of the Fates. There’s just something so awful about that chorus, in the best way possible. It’s really signalling to the audience how far our hero has fallen, and how heartbreaking of a fight this is for Obi-Wan, whilst all the time reminding us of the perilous surroundings where this all takes place.
Listen, I’m not saying that the prequels didn’t do a lot wrong, but I can’t imagine not being moved by that final duel.
I… what do you even expect me to say about this one? It’s timeliness, it’s iconic, it’s the frickin’ Imperial March, I doubt there are many people on this planet who don’t recognise it.
Seeing as I’ve decided to order the Star Wars soundtracks in chronological order as opposed to the date of their creation, I suppose the Mandalorian’s theme fits in here. I know a lot of people were sceptical upon learning that the Mandolorian wouldn’t feature a soundtrack by John Williams, but Ludwig Goransson knocked it out of the park. He didn’t even try to emulate the pre-established sounds of the Star Wars universe, and that was absolutely the right call given the show’s subject matter. It’s technically not done airing here in the UK, but I doubt I’ll love a piece more than the Mandolorian’s own theme.
Runner up: Rey’s Theme
I bloody love the theme for the Resistance. That scene in The Force Awakens where they approach flying across the lake is absolutely cheer-worthy, and it’s backed by this theme of pure determination. It’s also, like a lot of the sequel trilogy and TFA in particular, reminiscent of the original trilogy, which likely wins points for a lot of people.
I like a lot of Harry Potter themes, but I don’t love them. Except for this one. It’s heartbreaking! Which is a good thing, in this instance. It really gives the sense that something awful has happened, something that leaves so many characters lost for words. I vaguely remember being in the theatre watching this scene, hearing more than a few sniffles.
Stranger Things is another one which mostly uses contemporary music for the driving force of its soundtrack, but this original score for a spoiler which I won’t discuss was moving and fantastically appropriate to the world of Stranger Things. After all the action and all the horror, this felt like the show taking a moment to stop and assess the repercussions of the events of season two.
Part of me feels like I have to defend my enjoyment of the Crown, as if my watching it suddenly makes me a royalist or that I believe it’s entirely historically accurate. It’s not, and there’s far too many behind-closed-doors scenes for it to not be a lot of conjecture, but that doesn’t detract from how interesting and dramatic it is. And this soundtrack in particular succeeds remarkably in establishing Elizabeth as a determined, yet restricted character – in the show, at the very least.
It’s been long enough since I watched this show that I don’t entirely remember which episodes were season 1 and which were season 2, so I don’t have a lot of context to base this around. Nonetheless, it delivers a similarly royal theme to the previous entry, with a nice escalation to epic tones.
Season 3 not only changed the cast, but the composer too. And yet, Philip’s theme here is fantastic! It fits in with the previous themes of the show whilst being different, of its own nature, which is probably what they were going for when you look at the character of Philip himself.
I haven’t fallen in love with a huge amount of Sherlock themes, but this one stands out to me, as it explores Sherlock’s grief after he loses the one person who managed to get past his insecurities and challenge everything he thought he knew about himself.
Daredevil had some cracking good fight scenes, and the soundtrack behind this one is just… chef’s kiss. Again, it’s been years since I watched season one of Daredevil, so my lack of contextual knowledge betrays me, but it’s just… good, innit?
Red vs Blue is a machinima-based web series which I encourage everyone to go and watch if they can find the time. It’s a remarkable example of just what can be achieved with nothing but a videogame, a screenrecorder, some voice actors and a lot of dumb jokes. Watching it evolve over the years has been an absolute pleasure, and I chose this soundtrack for the Masterpieces playlist because it’s just a chill backing track which ran throughout season 12 that I always appreciated. It’s also a perfect example of the production value that the series achieved as it got older.
Runner up: Contact Redux (feat. Meredith Hagan)
And god damn, if that humble little machinima series doesn’t go places. It is hilarious, but then it breaks your damn heart! How rude! Burnie Burns owes me therapy. Along with… you know… a couple other people. I’ve got a list.
Runner up: Beginning of the End
Buoyed by the success of Red vs Blue and various other projects, Rooster Teeth went on to make a western anime series that you’re far more likely to have heard of – RWBY.
I love this soundtrack because both Qrow and Winter have distinct themes, and you hear them clash to fantastic effect here, sometimes shining on their own and sometimes intermingling. It is – as is the theme with this playlist – masterfully executed.
Okay… so the previous entry also got bonus points for being 50% based around Qrow’s theme. I LOVE QROW’S THEME. SO MUCH. And this is it. It describes his character so brilliantly, and the cadence of “I am no-one’s blessing / I’ll just bring you harm” belies the self-loathing that defines him.
You… won’t find my anime soundtracks on this list. And that’s because there’s hardly any anime soundtracks on Spotify. I would love to include them and this list would be at least another blog entry long if they made it to Spotify, including the likes of Bleach, Naruto, Angel Beats, One Punch Man and more.
As it stands, though, My Hero Academia is available, and doesn’t this theme just scream the word “valour”? It embodies the spirit of the anime itself in that it’s super motivational and upbeat, but not without being earned. If you haven’t watched My Hero Academia yet, do. I’m long overdue a catch up myself.
Okay, so it’s You Say Run but it’s turned up to 11. I don’t think I need to say anything more.
Changing tracks a bit – Orphan Black is a drama which does not shy away from exploring the darkest areas of the human mind, and this soundtrack is as beautiful as it is sad for that very reason. It’s also a show which explores the nature of self, and nature vs nurture. I still need to watch the final season.
I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game, but Sephiroth’s theme is transcendent. Who hasn’t heard it, honestly? And this right here is the Advent Children version, which is, in my opinion, even more badass. I’m excited to hear FFVII Remake’s version of this theme, if they ever get to this point.
I just love how demonic it is. I obviously don’t know much about Sephiroth as a character, but I feel like this tells me everything I need to know. He brings dread. Oh, and I love the emergence of what I’m guessing is Cloud’s theme towards the end, cutting through the gloom with a theme of hope.
The other soundtrack in this list from a game I’ve never played! A friend of mine is a big DMC fan and was very enthusiastic about the music in DMC 5, and a review video I watched used this as its backing track, so I figured I’d track it down myself.
I’m now playing through DMC 1.
The Theory of Everything was such a heartwarming movie about the life of Stephen Hawking. Given the nature of his illness, he was always seemingly near death’s door, and therefore the virtues of life as a concept was highlighted in this film to tremendous effect, amplified beautifully by this soundtrack.
Hollow Knight, or more specifically Hollow Knight’s soundtrack, really helped me come to terms with the idea that sometimes it’s okay to embrace melancholy. Not depression, not dark thoughts, but melancholy… which I suppose I would classify as reflecting on sadness, without entirely losing yourself to it. I don’t know, it’s difficult to quantify.
Either way, Hollow Knight is an absolutely gorgeous game in every sense of the word. It looks beautiful, it sounds beautiful, and it plays beautiful.
STRAFE is a first person roguelike with an eighties-inspired soundtrack which slaps. The entire game is a love letter to all things retro, from the Playstation One aesthetic to DOS-like menu screens. It’s also a fantastic listen without the context of having played the game!
The alternate history of The Man in the High Castle makes for a fascinating and unique setting, by way of an America split into two halves, one ruled by the Nazis, and the other, the Japanese. It’s such an interesting narrative, and this particular soundtrack backs an important scene for Frank, who is driven by hatred and ready to lay down his life for vengeance. The way it builds up alongside the scene is tremendous, which wouldn’t work half as well without this piece behind it.
This closed out the second season, and continued to drive home feelings of desolation, hopelessness and revelation found within the show. Again, it’s been a long time since I watched it, but it’s a cracking good theme.
I love love looooooove violins being used to signify madness, and without giving too much away, this theme does it to such a fantastic effect that it makes me giddy. I listened to this so much over the period of a few days that it rang around inside my head and stopped me from being able to sleep, and the only other theme to have that affect on me was Light of the Seven by Ramin Djawadi. If that isn’t high praise, I don’t know what is.
I didn’t know what to expect from The Umbrella Academy when I started it, but I was pleasantly surprised. I eagerly await season two.
Runner up: The Dragon
I finished God of War for the first time a few weeks ago, having no idea what to expect from the game going into it. That initial fight with The Stranger had me sat up straight and paying full fucking attention, and, as coincidence would have it, this is his theme. (Note, once more, violins to signify mental instability.) God of War is just… epic. In every sense of the word. If you haven’t played it, don’t look up a playthrough or a plot synopsis or anything of the sort. You don’t need to play the originals, I didn’t. This is a standout game all by itself.
That’s it. That’s all I’ve got for you so far.
I’m a little concerned that I may be overusing the term “masterpiece”, given that these three blog posts surpassed 7000 words and contain a solid 93 songs. But to put it into perspective, these are the “chosen few” from a much larger playlist consisting of 914 songs, and counting. And I don’t just dump albums in there, I go through and pick out my favourites. So, to summarise, yes; masterpieces.
I mentioned during the My Hero Academia tracks that I lament the lack of anime soundtracks on Spotify – the same goes for many Nintendo games, and Playstation 2 and earlier era games. The issue is that while I could find most of these on Youtube, they would by their very nature be unofficial, and prone to being removed from the website by publishers, so any playlist I made would fall into a state of disrepair within the year. That being said, I’m not ruling out a similar style of blog post where I link them here and discuss them, as you’ll then at least have the title of the song should the video be removed entirely.
If you’re interested in my soundtrack playlists, here’s Multiversal Masterpieces through which you just read, and Multiversal Melodies which contains… the other 90% of amazing soundtracks.
If you made it this far: thank you.
Perpetually Perturbed 