I have been consistently and notoriously behind the times since, well, forever. (Maybe that’s a contradiction in terms.) I have yet to purchase an iPod or any form of portable audio device, unless you count the Walkman I owned a couple hundred years ago. The only reason I have a DVD player is because someone gave it to me for free. I recently—or finally—purchase my first cell phone. Heck, I still do my writing on a glorified Etch-A-Sketch. (Granted, it’s a bona fide computer, but not much of one.) I guess you could say I’m stuck in the past.
It may come as no surprise, then, that I bought my first video game soundtrack only last week. I’ve loved film scores for over a decade but I haven’t dabbled in any related subgenre. So yeah, purchasing my first game score was pretty exciting. I felt like I had burst onto the stage of the Modern Age—which, to the rest of you, is closer to the Stone Age.
The CD is Mercenaries, composed by Michael Giacchino and Chris Tilton. I know, it’s been out for a couple of years. I could have been one of the first to preorder the album and get a copy autographed by Chris Tilton himself. I mean, I listened to the online suite at the La-La Land Records site and really liked what I heard. So why did I wait until now? Well, it was on sale for the month of September only. You see, money talks. More appropriately, the prospect of paying less money is what did the talking. So did word-of-mouth praise for the album, but the reduced price is what did it for me.
So anyway, Mercenaries rocks. (But you already knew that, didn’t you?) I’m going to have to investigate the video game soundtrack market more intently. Who knows what other new—or old—gems I might find?
I love both composers as well. In fact, Zimmer used to be my favorite (until JHN took his place). I still think a JNH solo project would be more rewarding for “Batman Begins…Again” (or whatever they’re going to call it) than a Zimmer solo effort.
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