MIDI Week Singles: "The Poet and the Muse" - Alan Wake (PC)

 

"The Poet and the Muse" from Alan Wake on Xbox 360, Windows (2012)

Composer: The Old Gods of Asgard*

Album: In the Valley of My Shadow, & Alan Wake OST**

Label: Self Published, & Steam

Publisher: Xbox Games Studio & Remedy Entertainment

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

There is a lot of good music in Alan Wake, a lot of which was pre-existing music that was played during the credits sequence like the end credits of a TV show, which fit in with the whole presentation of the game.  That is not to say that the original music composed by Petri Alanko was bad, but it fits very well with the setting and the type of game being told and as we have learned over the last two decades, that survival horror (and action survival horror) games typically have fitting music, but not necessarily melodic pieces that you can hum while at home cooking dinner or doing dishes.  There are obvious exceptions in Eternal Darkness, Dead Space 3, Layers of Fear, or Silent Hill, but for the most part, music in this genre tends to be subdued.

Since we featured Alan Wake on Monday, I knew that I wanted to use a track from the game, and one of the more interesting pieces of original music for me was "The Poet and the Muse" from the in-game group, The Old Gods of Asgard.  The song itself fits two facets of the game.  First, it is entertaining as a song in its own right.  Secondly, it functions as a puzzle for Alan Wake to solve in how he can save Alice from the Dark Presence.  If I am being honest though, the meaning of the song was lost on me while playing, and only after beating the game and listening to the song again, with all of the information I had gathered did the meaning behind the lyrics actually make sense.  The only negative thing I have to say about "The Poet and the Muse" is that I cannot imagine Odin Anderson as they are portrayed in the game singing and/or performing this song.  Their other song, "Children of the Elder God" seems more in line with their style of 1960-70s harder Black Sabbath.  Maybe this was just a softer side of their music brought on by interactions with Thomas Zane.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

But Hidden Inside the Delusion

*P.S.  I love that there is a webpage for The Old Gods of Asgard as if they were a real band akin to Spinal Tap, but in a found footage kind of way.  And after writing this article, I think I will go and listen to more of what Poets of the Fall have to offer

**P.P.S.  The song is also available on the soundtrack as paid DLC through Steam which also comes with a bunch of other stuff that I haven't fully checked out yet.