Soundtrack Batman: Arkham City - The Album |
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 | Tracklist:
1. Mercenary - Panic! at the Disco
2. Deranged - Coheed and Cambria
3. Creature - The Duke Spirit
4. Shadow On The Run - Black Rebel Motorcycle
Club
5. Afterdark - Blaqk Audio
6. Oh, Stranger - The Raveonettes
7. The Years - † † † (Crosses)
8. Trophy Widow - The Damned Things
9. Drown In You - Daughtry
10. Losing You - The Boxer Rebellion
11. Total Paranoia - Serj Tankian
Release Date: 10/04/2011 | |
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On 1 Lists
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| Summary: Bruce Wayne makes a mixtape. |
7 of 7 thought this review was well written
If you were a budding video game developer back in 2009, then Batman: Arkham Asylum was probably your chief case study on how to successfully port a comic book franchise to the home entertainment console. Developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros., Arkham Asylum reaped the benefits of charging a veteran Batman writer – five-time Emmy award winner Paul Dini – with the job of creating its storyline. As opposed to most other Batman games, which are adaptations of the character from media distinct from the source material, Dini chose instead to base the game on the long-running comic book mythos, making for a simple yet engaging plot which easily resonated with the legions of Batman purists around the world. Elsewhere, convincing voice acting, innovative game design, and solid marketing sealed the deal, and the game ended up shipping over five million units worldwide while simultaneously earning plaudits as possibly “the greatest comic book video game of all time”.
Trust Warner Bros. to suckle such a golden teat for all it’s worth though; a sequel for Arkham Asylum – Batman: Arkham City – was quickly announced that same year, and extra Arkham Asylum challenge maps turned up with all the regularity of shirtless guys in Twilight: New Moon. More telling, perhaps, was Warner Bros.’ decision to release Batman: Arkham City in a multitude of formats (“Standard”, “Robin”, “Steelbook”, and “Collectors”), with each edition being distinguished by the inclusion of various – and often superfluous – forms of added merchandise. Amongst the many, many added appendages to the Collectors’ Edition of the Arkham City game is none other than Batman: Arkham City – The Album, a compendium of eleven tracks featuring musical contributions to the franchise by various alt rock and indie artists.
Although at first glance as bewildering and unnecessary an inclusion as those hard-rubber batsuit nipples and oversized codpieces in the 1997 Batman and Robin film, Batman: Arkham City – The Album quickly proves itself to be a worthwhile companion piece to its parent game. American alt rock group Panic! at the Disco kick off proceedings with “Mercenary”, an infectious pop punk tune with a frantic, vaudeville sheen that would not have seemed entirely out of place on the band’s 2005 debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. The confident and casual manner in which frontman Brendon Urie slips in a Two-Face dialogue sample behind his trademark lyrical bombast is further proof that the band are still capably trundling on, despite having lost bassist Jon Walker and guitarist-cum-chief-songwriter Ryan Ross for over two years now. Elsewhere, American alt rock band Coheed and Cambria, apparently still enjoying their runaround with making the sort of shorter and more concise efforts like those seen on 2010’s Year of the Black Rainbow, contribute the pocket-sized “Deranged”. But don’t let the song’s brevity and relatively muted instrumentation fool you, for lead vocalist Claudio Sanchez manages to serve up a piece that perfectly encapsulates the desolate and dismal feel of the streets of Arkham: “While you clean the streets of misfortune/I pick the innocent from my dirty teeth,” he explains during the song’s chorus. “We’re one and the same – deranged,” he offers a split second later, effortlessly mimicking the sort of ironic moral juxtaposition that the Batman franchise is so well-known for.
Compilation albums sometimes have the knack of bringing out the best in a band, and Danish indie rock duo The Raveonettes show us as much by treating us to a sultry, distortion-laden number – “Oh, Stranger” – that effortlessly plays to their instrumental strengths while never once eschewing the band’s trademark closely-harmonized vocals. Elsewhere, The Damned Things prove that they haven’t yet lost their hard-edged, pseudo-music-school chops by turning in a blistering, no-holds-barred performance on “Trophy Widow”, and even the otherwise mediocre Daughtry manage to withstand their frontman’s lyrical banality and hold their own with the fist-pumping euphorics of “Drown in You”. Even further down the album, The Boxer Rebellion make themselves a solid case for finally being signed, with the lofty “Losing You” acting as a perfect antithesis to the gritty and much edgier The Cold Still, which they released earlier this year.
But it is perhaps Serj Tankian’s coda to the album, “Total Paranoia”, that is the hardest track to describe here. In keeping with his constant desire to further distance himself from his halcyon days as one-fourth of System of a Down, Tankian opts to go for a theatrical, embellishing performance – complete with faux choirs, chamber rock arrangements, and dramatic oversinging – ending up with a sound that is unmistakably his own. While this bizarre hybrid of stylistic choices doesn’t exactly make for delectable listening, the number does have a grizzly sense of satisfaction about it, and on a whole manages to fit into the brooding tone of Batman: Arkham City perfectly. Still, it is Crosses', “The Years”, which wins the title of being the absolute highlight of the entire record. Herein, Deftones singer Chino Moreno channels himself through an ambient filter, slowly creeping towards a climax that is as harsh-sounding and cacophonic as it is pensive, surfacing with a set of predictably thrilling results.
Much like its titular character, Batman: Arkham City – The Album, is likely to service a world which is painfully unaware of its existence, mainly due to the relatively underwhelming role that it plays both within the overall experience of its parent game and the triviality of compilation albums to the modern day music enthusiasts. Still, we would all do well to attempt to defy the album’s stealth and predator tactics, for herein lies that rare gem: a shameless money-making grab that is actually more than half-decent. In other words: heed the summons of the bat-signal.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 3.5
Stream: http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/2
Comments and criticism welcome. Insults too.
Digging: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless Digging: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless | | |
looks interesting. will have to read this over tomorrow though because i couldn't give a decent opinion on this review in my current sleep deprived state lol
Digging: mewithoutYou - Ten Stories Digging: mewithoutYou - Ten Stories
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i downloaded this and deleted everything but 'the years' because fuck that song is amazing in the joker trailer but it ended up being an average song on its own
traded in pretty much all my video games and dvds on amazon so that i could get this game and skyrim for $0 because i'm poor GONNA RULE
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Yeah, never use faux. Despite what Chan tells you.
Digging: John Talabot - Fin
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game is gonna rule so hard, not really fussed on the soundtrack
Digging: Purplene - Purplene Digging: Purplene - Purplene
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one-fourth of System of a Down
Might that read better as "a quarter of" or"one quarter of"? One-fourth sounds a bit lumpen.
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Panic at the disco, The Boxer Rebellion, The Raveonettes...
I might get this.
Nice review as usual, Irv!
Digging: Swarms - Low Sun EP
| | | Album Rating: 3
the panic song rules
Digging: The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now Digging: The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now | | |
Sounds interesting.
Also, great review. Pos.
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should I get Arkham Asylum before Arkham City will it not matter?
Digging: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music Digging: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
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It probably won't matter but Arkham Asylum is incredible, and it was in my opinion the best game of 2009. So yeah, play it.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
First Irving review I've read that doesn't read like a thesaurus written underwater
Yeah I guess instead of screwing it this time I only indulged in heavy petting. Also, c'mon - there have been some unverbose reviews...right? Right?
Might that read better as "a quarter of" or"one quarter of"? One-fourth sounds a bit lumpen.
Believe it or not, I actually picked "one-fourth" because I thought "a quarter of" sounded a bit lumpen (as you put it).
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dont feel bad man he hates my reviews too
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Haha, no he's got a point - I've still got a long way to go in terms of writing.
Also chan, that Joker trailer was actually the thing that drove me to write this piece haha. It was pretty incredible, as you say. And I hope trading in a lifetime's worth of games for this one (and Skyrim) is worth it ;)
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"First Irving review I've read that doesn't read like a thesaurus written underwater"
lol'd hard
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Great review Irving. Couldn't find much of anything wrong with it. I will check out some of these songs, definitely the Boxer Rebellion one.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
"First Irving review I've read that doesn't read like a thesaurus written underwater"
Haha but yeah he's absolutely right. I've got to learn to control my choice of diction a bit better. Hopefully this is a step on the right track towards that goal.
Great review Irving. Couldn't find much of anything wrong with it. I will check out some of these songs, definitely the Boxer Rebellion one.
Thanks heaps SS =) The link to the stream is in the first comment as usual. Do let me know what you think yeah?
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I'll certainly check it out.
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album cover looks slightly BDSM
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Got my pre-order coming in the mail (the game, not this) and I am STOKED.
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