Persona OST: Ironic Gloom Pop For That Morning Commute
Shoji Meguro, the celebrated music talent behind the Shin Megami Tensei series is the reason I purchased the UMD version instead of the digital of the PSP remake of Atlus sleeper Persona. It just wasn't included with the digital download and that to me is unacceptable especially when the music of Persona has become such an essential part of the game's experience. It is rare I will look for anything other than game-play when making a purchase decision for a video game but there is something about Shoji that puts a spring in my step and makes the day brighter. Is it a JRPG thing? Is it a Japanese thing? I'm not quite sure but one thing I am confident of is my day is typically incomplete without a little "ironic gloom pop" to round out my musical encounters.
Shoji uses a surprising blend of hip hop, orchestral, electronica, jazz and most recently RnB to create memorable music that helps set the SMT series apart. Every time I boot up a Persona game, the opening always makes me feel like I am about to watch an episode of some lost anime show. In fact his ability to make each track feel like audio snapshots of daily moods has his music on many a playlist in my collection. The Persona OST went immediately from case to PC to ipod. Of the 67 tracks, many are short and sweet but here are some of the notables. Much of the album conjures up dark themes mixed with a sensation of hope and a general silliness that has become a touchstone of the SMT experience.
"Jump on over to read all about it!"
"Dream of Butterfly" opens the album with synth-adled vocals and Shoji's trademark rock mixing English lyrics with Japanese creating a sense of urgency and tension releasing both in an unbridled chorus. "School Days" bounces along with hyper-happy riffs that will put anyone in a good mood. The battle music: "A Lone Prayer" starts of dark and tears off on a fiercely campy route looping neatly into a somber finish. All of the dungeon music sports a techno dance party beat I would gladly grind to especially Mikage Police Station, and Deva Yuga. Finally we have "Let the Butterflies Spread Until the Dawn": the world map music, instilling a sense of dread and hope all at once.
Most times when I hear lyrics in Japanese music translated into English it sounds like some abstruse mythic race from another universe is attempting to contact us with cryptic language pointers. This can result in several laugh-worthy personal interpretations and downright genuine curiosity about the actual lyrics. I think this is because Japanese is a much more penetrating language as compared to the often times rock-to-the-head literacy of English and as a result something is most definitely lost in translation. You will find some swelling examples of this "Japanglish" here but the tone of the album more than makes up for it. Because of Persona's longevity and the patience involved with completing a quest in the series, the OST can become somewhat of a companion or extension of the game when one is not playing. If you never thought of checking out the Persona series or even of listening to an in game soundtrack I highly recommend the revamped Persona on the PSP. You might be pleasantly surprised by Shoji Meguro's ability to stay in your head and soundtrack your world.
ROCsteady
Posted to Music, Video Games on 18 October 2009
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: atlus, jrpg, music, ost, persona, psp, shin megami tensei, shoji meguru, umd
Who's ROCsteady? O.o
Didn't see any announcement of another new writer and he's not in the list of writers at the side.
Has someone changed their name or is he so eager to get to work that he's posted 4 articles in 2 days before being even announced.
Or have they always been hear and I've just never noticed? ^_^
GReat article gets me an idea for podcast question