In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Half-Life 2 by Valve.
THE STATS
Name: Half-Life 2Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Release Date: November 16, 2004
Genres: First-person shooter
Composer(s): Kelly Bailey
MY FAVORITE *SELECTED* TRACKS
(The titles link to YouTube videos... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)Brane Scan
(Length: 1:40) Nice beat, dark piano, distortion, building complexity... I could wish for a better balance between the elements, but it honestly outshines the rest of the soundtrack (and I wish I didn't have to say that).
Triage at Dawn
(Length: 0:45) This has SO MUCH PROMISE. It's like they throw a bone out to musicians who might be playing the game. It's just a theme, and it goes nowhere. I had more fulfillment by these other interpretations of the theme: this metal remix, and this melodic dubstep remix.
(Length: 1:11) This one needed to be longer. It's got a great beat, it plays around with undertones -- it does things most of the other tracks don't!
(Length: 2:13) Ambient chill-out music with dark undertones. It's almost relaxing, and just a little bit spoopy.
(Length: 1:57) The soft percussive line in this is phenomenal, but it's drowned out by too much heavy, occlusive bass notes. This could have been something more interesting and provocative than it is, and it's killing me!
You can listen to the full soundtrack on YouTube:
WHY I *DON'T REALLY* RECOMMEND IT
This soundtrack was recommended to me for my Soundtrack Saturday series, and... while it has some merits, especially for a game from 2004, it fell short of my expectations. There are teasing snippets of good things in various tracks, but nothing solid and nothing longer than a teaser clip you can listen to on Amazon before buying an mp3.
I'm curious to know if the different Valve composer for Half-Life: Alyx took liberties or tried to stay on-track with the earlier music... and sort-of hoping they got more creative than this. There's a Reddit AMA that indicates Bailey was consulted, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. Overall, I don't feel like I can actually recommend this soundtrack aside from sampling what bits I did and seeing how other musicians turn it into something more... whole.
THE COMPOSER: KELLY BAILEY
I guess Mr. Bailey is known mostly for his work on the Half-Life franchise and for Valve games as a whole, but also a VR title from his own company, IndiMo Labs. That's really all I have on this guy. Based on the short tracks for this OST, and that he's listed as a game designer, conceptual artist and programmer in addition to composing music, I'm not surprised I haven't heard the name before now.
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