3 out of 5

Label: Sumthing

Produced by: Brain, Marc Canham, Nathan Johnson

The first inFamous soundtrack perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the game, much in thanks to Amon Tobin’s junkyard soundscapes echoing so many aspects of the story, and the general vibe of actually playing and being in the game.  As good of an experience as that combo was, the expansion of scope and design and depth that happened in inFamous 2 was equally matched by the Red / Blue soundtracks.  Under the guidance of, I believe, J.D. Mayer, he and several other composers took Tobin’s framework and made it their own.  Once again, the albums stood as individual pieces with heart and their own narratives, but that enhanced the game when considered side by side.

Mayer has returned in something of a background position on Second Son (‘Score Produced for SCEA by’), and Brain is back from the previous installment, but this is the first inFamous soundtrack entry to very much feel like a soundtrack.  The production is once again top notch, and individual tracks are very strong, but there’s not much of a sense of story or even too much of a theme.  Interestingly, this could be said to follow the pattern of being in sync with the game, as Second Son was said to look great but also commonly criticized for a lightweight story and poorly integrated good / evil mechanics as compared to the prior installments.

In place of our junkyard scrap of sounds we get a lot of chugging guitars and electro beats: a shiny exterior.  Marc Canham gives us the most generic ‘video game soundtrack’ variation of this, which follows, as Canham has been in the biz for a bit.  This does mean he’s the only guy out of the trio to establish something of repeating mantras in his pieces, but they’re generally too soundalike to build into anything notably anthemic.  Those that favor traditional sounds over electronic twiddles stand out, though, such as the stirring ‘Conflict Resolution.’  Canham’s tracks are by no means bad, they’re just more clearly cues than the finished pieces the other inFamous soundtracks contained.  Brain’s compositions are still very bass heavy, but the relative freedom of the approach on this soundtrack gave him a chance to expand his approach, so his tracks often find interesting ways to get to where they’re going.  Almost each of his additions fall back on a pretty awesome, heavy riff – like on ‘Higher Elevation’ – but his pieces work better as linking material, and since Second Son is primarily linking material, the songs don’t get propped up as well as they did on the Red / Blue soundtracks.  The standout – and surprise, based on his scores for Rian Johnsons’s films – is Nathan Johnson.  Each of his pieces feels fully orchestrated and emotional, and they’re much more raw and aggressive than I would’ve supposed.  It’d have been interesting to see how this project could’ve turned out with him taking a lead production spot.  While all of his tracks are fairly epic (‘Freedom and Security,’ especially, wends its way through several emotional vibes pretty seamlessly), there’s still the overall issue of one track not feeling quite linked to the next.

…Which is why Second Son is the most soundtracky of the lot.  These are songs orchestrated for a purpose.  They’re all pretty strong, but it’s very much a compilation this time around.  You’ll know whose name is on which track after a couple of listens, and the experience is piecemeal instead of hitting you as a united front.  Definitely an upper tier soundtrack, but a step down from inFamous and inFamous 2.