album of the week: 9.3

塊魂Tribute: Original Soundtrack

Columbia Music Entertainment (2009)

why you'll love it: well done remixes of your favorite katamari songs

why you'll hate it: shit's for babies

Katamari Damacy is a big deal to me. I see it as a video game monument. In the age of Halo and GTA, the face of gaming had become that of a bonehead frat boy who only had a eye for ultraviolence. Katamari Damacy, with its unique design, attitude, and culture all of in its own, was one of the very few beacons of innovation that kept me interested in gaming as an adult.

Its soundtrack played a big part of the Katamari aura. Drawing generally from the Shibuya-Kei genre, the soundtracks not only represent the feeling of the games, but stand alone as wonderfully clever muisic. The Katamari games got me into Shibuya-Kei music in general, and like the games, it's not something that you get into if you have any social concerns about being seen as cool. It's a unique mash up of retro pop styles using saccharine tools. Fans of twee, bossa nova, or bubblegum pop should feel right at home with this.

Since the original and the spectacular sequel in 2005, the franchise fell into mediocrity without the guidance of creator, Keita Takahashi. Takahashi is still building playgrounds and making Noby Noby Boy, but Namco/Bandai has done the best thing they possibly could do for the next Katamari game - remix the first two good ones.

Like the new game (US gets it next week, I believe), this soundtrack mostly remixes fan favorite material from the first two Katamari games. And like, previous Katamari soundtracks, a handful of fringe Shibuya-Kei artists join in on the mix. Most notably here are YMCK with a predictably brilliant 8bit cover of "真っ赤なバラとGin Tonic"; and Buffalo Daughter with a brand new song - an absolute must have track!

The first disc of the soundtrack has a surprising amount of acoustic and straight forward covers. Its a refreshing retro early 90's feeling. The second disc falls into more electronic areas. It's a great example of showing how much range the genre has; although with each soundtrack, the music is falling more into straightforward pop, ever so slightly.

The mash-ups of two seemingly random old songs are a joy to hear. One of which combines the fan-favorite "Everlasting Love" with the not-so-great "You Are Smart" the result is gold. I'm impressed how much goodness they squeezed out of a lemon like "You Are Smart". The 70's funk remix is a highlight on this over 2 hour compilation.

Like most video game soundtracks, there is a fair amount of fluff or duds; but as a Katamari fan, you'll find at least an hour of it just as worthy as the first two soundtracks.