Hades: Original Soundtrack

I've wondered before, should I be reviewing scores for video games? Hades: Original Soundtrack is not the first one that I've fallen in love with: I also adored the scores for Undertale and Into the Breach, to name a couple. Perhaps I'll circle back to those games at some point and give them their proper time. For now, though, Hades has convinced me to break with precedent.

I know that lots of people like movie scores. Personally, I don't understand the appeal. There are a few that I like, but for the most part, I think that they are too constrained by what is happening on the screen to open up and become masterpieces in their own right. Take the score for The Social Network--a brilliant film, and I was entranced by the music while I was watching it. But, on its own, most of the tracks are soundbeds for imagery, and without the imagery, they don't resonate. The one exception is the headline track, "In Motion." I was curious about why this track is so much richer and fully-fledged than anything else on the album, so I checked online; and sure enough, it accompanies a montage, which allows it to play a more central role.

Video game scores don't have this problem--well, mostly not. They still operate under a constraint, which is that the music can't grab too much of the listener's attention. It has to be part of a seamless whole. But it doesn't have to compete with dialogue, nor does it have to be carefully synchronized to images on screen. And even the constraint that I mentioned, that it has to enhance the listener's ability to pay attention, is a constraint that is compatible with interesting music.

Hades fits this description perfectly. It doesn't have any epic riffs, or weird harmonies, or complicated arrhythmic sections. It has to be a gentleman and share the spotlight. Nevertheless, it manages to be entrancing. I wouldn't want to listen to it all the way through in one sitting, if only because it's two-and-a-half hours long; but taken in pieces, it's the perfect accompaniment to any activity.

It's pretty simple music: guitars, a rich set of drums, some restrained but effective atmospherics. There are a few standout elements. I love the weird wailing synth note that hovers on top of tracks like "The King and the Bull." I love the workmanlike, methodical pace--appropriate to someone working through a video game, but also appropriate to me, sitting at my desk, trying to concentrate. And I love how the album develops its themes. There are a few of them, but the primary one, introduced in the beginning of the first track and resurrected in the last one with a richer orchestration, is my favorite.

Sometimes this album pushes what I expect from a video game score. "Scourge of the Furies" does some really interesting stuff with time signatures, and several tracks have a noisiness or heaviness which, though tightly controlled, certainly doesn't remind me of a Nintendo franchise.

Anyway, check it out! I'm excited to review more video game scores in the future.