3 out of 5

Label: Laced Records

Produced by: ?

A 3 LP set produced by Laced Records covering the score for the Mario / Rabids sequel, handsomely packaged in a slim box with each LP featuring unique artwork and matching colors. The graphic design of this this is quite stellar: it gives an appropriate sense of epicness to the series no one would’ve expected to be quite so epic, and looks and feels substantial aside, with care given to the font and placement of elements and LP labels and pretty much the whole shebang.

…But: the soundtrack is attributed to three composers, Yoko Shimomura, Grant Kirkhope, and Gareth Coker, with each track listed with letters indicating the contributor – Ys, Gk, and Gc – but then there’s also Gi and Yk. While I can make suppositions about who that is (Yk is Yoko and Kirkhope together? Or Discogs links it to Yoko, but why also use Ys then?), not having a key is kind of an annoyance. One might say it’s unimportant, except I do like to know whose work I’m hearing, and if you’re taking the step to individually credit, adding this complication seems weird.

More importantly, though, the sound quality is not great. As always, this might only be my copy, as I only see one other user on Discogs reporting issues, and theirs were the opposite of mine – their LP 3 was bad; my LP 1 is noisy as heck, though 2 is not bad and 3 is clean. But even allowing for the potential randomness of that, the production just feels pretty digital. I only own one other Laced Records release – Doom – which is rather intentionally digital, but much of Rabids is intended to be orchestral, and even if that’s achieved with synths, it doesn’t have to sound that way, and I just get a bit of a distractingly hollow undertone (besides the initial noise) that kept me at arm’s length throughout.

The music itself, thankfully, is stellar. This is the score to some Goonies-esque big budget adventure, but with the slight whimsy of animated fare. Such a score would never exist outside of games, though, as by the time animated flicks were getting this kind of grandiose scope, soundtracks were being dominated by singles-making singslongs, or popular pop artists. So there’s something otherworldly about it from the start, with Shimomura’s bold full band sound kicking things off with flairs of wonder and danger, and dangling some themes which will continue throughout. Gareth Coker’s contributions are the most gamey, functioning as pauses in the pomposity for platform-esque bounce. Which is not to his, or his work’s discredit: he kind of supplants the role Grant Kirkhope might’ve taken – the songs are still dense and layered, just a bit more direct than the majority of the score. As for Kirkhope, he’s busy adding much texture, offering slightly more subdued fare, on the average, that counters Yoko’s bravado with emotion.

Alongside this nice spread of tones, there’s some in-game structure that has characters going from area to area, and so the music follows. While I do wish the differences were a bit more pronounced, they are there: we get slightly different moods in the music for each area, while linked by the score’s themes.

One further criticism that comes along with this is that the soundtrack’s “weight” is quite front heavy. All of the A-, B- and C-side are very dramatic, and that can make the relative drama of each track less-so. You get used to this amped up vibe after a spin, but it’s almost oppressive at first, and thus is a nice breath once the D-side brings in more consistently lighter themes. I’ll assume this is part of the game’s storytelling, it’s just a bit shocking at first.

So: given the presentation / quality issues, perhaos digital is the way to go with this one. As a Kirkhope fan, this is another must-own either way: excellently complementing (and evolving on) the first Rabids score, and working in amazing concert with both Shimomura and Coker, each of whom have also earned another follower.