Music and Games

For maybe three weeks I've been listening to a song on Radio One.  I liked it, and I finally got around to tweeting that I liked it without really knowing what it was.

I heard a song I really liked on the radio today. It was by some Canadians. That’s all I’ve got, sozza.
— diaryofaledger (@diaryofaledger) January 15, 2014

I know, I'm quite the wordsmith.  The thing is though after a bit of digging and after buying Half Moon Run's album,  I realised something.  It wasn't Radio One that sold the song to me, it was Assassin's Creed IV.

I mean obviously this had happened surreptitiously.  Which is probably how advertising is supposed to work or something, but I must have seen that ad half a dozen times at the cinema and turned to my mate and said, 'I can't wait to be a pirate' before hearing it on the wireless.  The song had floated into my receptive subconscious and sat there for a couple of months until Nick Grimshaw unlocked it on the breakfast show.  I can't get 6 Music in the car, stop judging me.

So a song and a game. Together as one, exciting and of course a one off.... BUT IT'S not.

You see last year I bought FIFA 13, or was it the year before?  I'm not sure.  Anyway it was FIFA 13 and I bought it somewhen between the years 2012 and 2013 and it had a song on it.

FIFA, you see, has menus screens between matches of the soccer and when you're on those screens, songs play.  Beautiful songs.  Most of them are a bit rubbish and not beautiful, you know, chart stuff that no one over 25 cares about.  But there was this one song, with admittedly a terrible middle eight, I really liked.  If I'm honest, because of the nature of gaming, I never quite got to the terrible middle eight while playing FIFA.  That's the trouble with gaming, no time to enjoy the soundtrack... Unless you're playing a Nintendo game and then all their soundtracks are brilliant and you love them... and you are mad.  Anyway the song was called G#.  It has a hashtag in the title so I was immediately drawn to it because I use them all the time, particularly on facebook.  I think deep down because the hash tag is after the 'G' I was duty bound to like it because that's not how you're supposed to do it and I like not doing things the way you're supposed to.  It turned out the song was by this little band from the States called Kitten and I bought a couple of their EPs.  I know, people still make EPs.   Who knew?  They're virtual EPs these days though which is much better for a reason I can't explain here.

Here is G#.

The video is terrible but imagine winning the Champions League with Colchester United and hearing it.  I know. Amazing.  (That actually happened.  Still skipped the middle eight.)

I love games.  I love music.  And now I'm finding music because of games.  It's a wonderful life.

Hurrah.