4 out of 5

Produced by: Jonathan Mayer

Label: Sony

I am indebted to the Infamous soundtrack in a couple ways: it made me appreciate the breadth if Amon Tobin’s talents, and it opened my eyes to the wide world of video game soundtracks.

To the former, I owned some of Tobin’s stuff and dug it, but admittedly slotted him in to a jungle-geared electronica slot in my mind and left him there.  I wasn’t aware of the several scores he’d worked on, not to mention all of the non-jungle stuff he’s created.  And though, fair enough, Infamous still falls within that genre, being a fan of the game, it was the way I felt Tobin successfully latched on to the mood, and created full-on compositions that demonstrated proper restraint while still being fully satisfying as standalone tracks.  Identifiably Tobin, but not showy: the score ans the game are a unified experience.  So my appreciation for his work grew from there, and I approached more and more of his catalogue with fresh anticipation.

Regarding video game scores, Infamous wasn’t the first to net a “name” composer, or to have a full-on album’s worth of material, but it was the first game, for me, during which the music struck me as something Id want to listen to on its own.  Ans when I discovered Tobin was involves, I was further intrigued.  Of course, after tuning in to the world’s of game soundtracks, my ears.got hungry and suddenly discovered just how much there is out there, of guys and gals working solely in that field, and how much awesomeness there is as well.  It’s really amazing to look at the history of the art and recognize the effort (with likely little recompense, in some cases) that goes into it.

So those are two big pluses for inFamous the soundtrack.

Thankfully, the actual music is damn fine as well.  Tobin sets the stage with a little less than half the tracks here, kicking us into the dirty streets and alleys of the game with found-sound style percussion and a sense of momentum: Eyes scanning the landscape, looking for trouble, watching for threats.  Sudden orchestral flourishes add the cinematic, heroic aspect to things, all still grounded by this heartbeat pulse rhythm.  Though the Tobin tracks are easily sussed out by their beat-heavy backbone, the composer / producer is still working at a peak, adding electronic tweaks and layers that gibe our other contributes further musical.hooks to latch in to, as well as pushing the overall album toward a more layered nature.

Our two other main artists operate at degrees of Tobin-ness, with Jim Dooley finding a fascinating middle ground between his more dramatic sensibilities and Tobin’s junk-percussion sounds – his track with Tobin, Genesis, is one of the album’s best – and JD Mayer keeping some musical themes going, albeit in a much more traditionally soundtracky vein.  These two guys work well together (and would continue to do so on subsequent inFamous soundtracks), but there is a pretty clear divide between their sound and Tobin’s that unfortunately prevents the album from fully sticking together, despite best intentions.  It’s more rightfully Tobin’s show, with Mayer and Dooley following suit to fill in the runtime.  Again, all the work is well done, but handing the reins fully over to one person or the other might’ve closed that slight gap.

But hey: All these here opinions?  Based on a ton of listens.  Infamous is notable, as a fan of Tobin, or as a fan of the game.  It’s got a unique flavor, and a set of talented musicians delivering a full set of varied, creative tracks.