3 out of 5

Label: (self-released)

Produced by: Danny Baranowsky (?)

In terms of the content, I loved the Super Meat Boy soundtrack, and this reproduces the – no pun intended – meat of that in full, so no complaints there. While obviously Baranowsky owes a debt to all the VGM creators who came before, I imagine I’m not alone in his works being my gateway to really taking that stuff more seriously, with Binding of Isaac the first “retro” game of the more modern era that really caught me with its compositions, making me realize how deep and complex this stuff could go, while still being fun or goofy as needed. Physical items don’t make music any more legit – there are certainly tons of digital-only artists I adore – but I can’t deny that it feels like an important step when you can conceptually immortalize something as an item that takes up space on your shelf. In that sense, also no complaints: I’m super happy to have funded this set.

That said: accepting that I have no idea of the costs involved with producing something like this, meaning that my following complaints could’ve perhaps been resolved by increasing the price to something less reasonable, the ranking is reflective of some issues I have with the presentation of this album.

The artwork is cool, and the LP label design is neat, but… not having any tracklisting on the album (or any liner notes) feels reductive, making the pressing less special. The labels don’t even indicate A- / B-sides or etcetera, and though I can squint and see it in the runouts, again, it cheapens things. And physically, the gatefold is a very tight fit for the two LPs, meaning I might not sleeve them each time, and that kind of bums me out. Lastly, there’s some minimal noise at places on the A- and C-sides of my pressing, which may be a standalone issue (same with the tight fit), but it goes into this pile of things that mean I’ll likely be listening to this digitally, since the recording doesn’t necessarily get any special bumps from being on wax.

…So if you own the CD version of this, you might be better off.

As to the bonus track, not on the previous score, it’s Danny doing vocalizations of the themes, which is pretty funny but obviously not a must-listen. Rather, for completists, the digital probably appeals, featuring bits and bobs (menu scores, cues) to probably 100% all of the music used, alongside some extended and unused version of tracks. I think the core score that was already released essentially covers the gems, but I dig having the rest of these tunes as a nice long coda to the previously released tracks.