Review: Mirror's Edge Original Soundtrack

While many people came away from EA's Mirror's Edge with mixed reactions, but few counted the game's soundtrack created by electronic outfit Solar Fields as a one of the game's faults. So it only makes sense that EA is rewarding the game's a niche, yet dedicated fan base of hardcore would-be parkour practitioners with a digital only soundtrack release. While the game's electronic soundtrack would be great for the backdrop to other games, I thought that I would take this soundtrack to the gym for my own review to find out if Faith's playlist would work well with my own cardio routine.

During my interval-styled elliptical segment, I got introduced to the first four songs including, the airy Introduction, ramping Edge & Flight, trashing Jacknife, and kinetic Heat. Each of the songs was well suited for my varying paces on the elliptical, with faster paced moments and quieter pauses to relax a little bit.

As I moved to the bike, the changing pace didn't exactly help. The soundtrack's oddest song, Ropeburn, doesn't exactly stick with one sound for very long so it was hard to get into groove of it. Fortunately, the next song, the epic New Eden, was a trance inducing track that was able to carry me through the next 9 minutes of cycling fun. Towards the end of my bike segment, I got a taste of strange ambient piece called Pirandello Kruger that is more targeted toward home listening than the gym.

Now on the final segment, the treadmill, I was in need of another New Eden. This is always the toughest part of my workout and one that requires a little bit more of a push for me to focus. Lucky for me the dully named Boat answered my prayers. Removing Faith's vocal theme, this song represents the sound that most players familiar with the game will recognize. This driving, atmospheric song kept things lively and seemed to mix things up at just the right moment. This continued with the next two tracks, Kate and Shard, and got me to my imaginary finish line without looking at the clock anxiously.

And what workout would be complete without a little bit of cool down and stretching? For this I had the game's theme, Still Alive, and an instrumental version of it. Being prominently featured the game's trailers and echoed throughout the entire game, this is the song that most likely drew people's attention to this finely crafted soundtrack. Needless to say, I could listen to this song in just about any setting.

I may have had to skip around a little bit in order to fit all these songs into my workout, but I was quite surprised with how well most of them worked outside of the context of the game and I can easily see some of these tracks finding their way into my regular workout playlist. For $10, you're getting over 70 minutes of music and with song lengths tending to be on the long side (only three of the twelve songs dipping below the six minute mark), this is an easy recommend to anyone that liked what they heard in the game.

8 out of 10

Mirror's Edge Original Soundtrack is available for download on the iTunes Music Store and Amazon.com.