Review Summary: If not number one, it sure comes close to being one of the best soundtracks ever recorded.
Ever just roamed the mountains outside Bruma, running past ogres, jumped straight up the hillside until you reached Dive Rock? I know I have. And then you stand highest in all of Cyrodiil. Looking over the lands while your computer barely renders the Imperial Tower far, far away. And in the background, the most soothing of music plays softly. The musical atmosphere Jeremy Soule manages to create in "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" is just amazing. Ranging from choir-only songs, ambient piano or full blown orchestras, everything is written in the recipe, and the resulting stew tastes extremely good. Even if Jeremy Soule had already recorded soundtracks to dozens of other games before this, he sure made his name with this. With this, everything any other game composer has done will be crushed into thin air. From start to end, you will almost never get bored.
First off you got the main menu intro song "Reign of the Septims", which lays the foundation of everything that is to come. The soundtrack switches between more intense, shorter songs which plays during battles, ambient and silent tracks featured in dungeons and caves and the most important songs which plays when out in the beautiful nature or the mighty fine cities. The longer songs played out in the wilderness are undoubtedly the most important. "Through the Valleys", "King and Country", "Auriel's Ascension" and "Glory of Cyrodiil" are examples of Soule's best composing abilities, bringing out sheer beauty and emotion in a short time span. Along with those, you get other pieces played mostly in houses and cities, such as "Harvest Dawn", "Watchman's Ease", "Minstrel's Lament" and "Sunrise of Flutes". These also manage to impress very much, sounding quite medieval-ish. Soule got this superb way of making the music exceptionally fitting, never making you question whether the music fits the environment, because it always does.
Other than these, you got combat songs and dungeon songs. To be honest, I've excluded these from my playlist, not because they're uninteresting, but maybe more the fact that I don't enjoy them as much listening to them outside the game. Nevertheless, they fit the game very well. Ironically, Soule stated that [he] didn't imagine any specific characters or events; rather, he wanted it "to comment on the human condition and the beauty of life". This is quite unique, because it just sounds so natural, no song sounds out of place EVER. "Ancient Sorrow" and "Wind From the Depths" are once again great examples of his capability to compose organic songs, never being out of touch.
Jeremy Soule is without question one of the greatest video game composers there are, and he has proved himself time after time. TES III, IV and V, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Guild Wars, Harry Potter, the list never stops. He continues to make great music all the time, never disappointing. Jeremy Soule is like that apple in your fridge that has been there for two weeks, but doesn't get rotten, it tastes just as fine as the day you bought it. I don't know how it manages to keep so fresh after that time, but it just does. Whenever I listen to this, the extremely pleasant feeling of nostalgia kicks in. If it sounds dorky to you listening to a video game score on a regular basis, you are right. But when the quality of the music is what it is, it's no shame in it. Because this game score is surely the best of the decade.
