(02.06.06) Tim Burton scored homage to 40s/50s alien invasion tales, Mars
Attacks with bombastic music of fear and panic and kitsch. Pandemic
Studios, creators of Full Spectrum warrior, have done the same with
the soundtrack to their spiritually-identical game, Destroy All
Humans!
Much like Burton’s film, the alien invaders are small, armed, clever,
and pissed, but this time, the heroes are the little green men from
outer space. In a tongue-in-cheek nod to both Burton & Orson Welles,
the soundtrack of Destroy All Humans! plays like a radio broadcast
in the fast-growing residential juggernaut of southern California.
Amid AM radio squelch, segments created by Jason Bentley hear the
radio announcer’s pleas for calm, which grow increasingly funny
alongside news reports of alien arrival and subsequent chaos. Keeping
with the spirit of the time, the majority of the tracks are remixes of
period songs, like “Sha-boom”, “Chantilly Lace”, and “Lollipop”. Well
known mass market techno artist Junkie XL features prominently on the
majority of these songs. Timo Mass predictably disappoints, but
original compositions by heavyweights like Meat Beat Manifesto blend
in and lend credibility to the record as an album on its own.
Game soundtracks, formerly relegated to novelty status, have grown to
achieve a status not
unlike that of Hollywood soundtracks. Artists like Amon Tobin with
his Splinter Cell Chaos Theory soundtrack, and the Wipeout XL
soundtrack, erase the line between popular music and video game
sounds. Destroy All Humans! follows suit, giving a convincing audio
experience during game-play that is surprisingly balanced as a
soundtrack album. While it won’t set any new landmarks in the realm
of game soundtracks, it certainly deserves mention for its successful
conceptual and musical execution. Buy it at Amazon.com [Soundtrack CD] [PS2] [XB]
Destroy All Humans! is out now on Lakeshore.
