Review: SimCity Societies Soundtrack The soundtrack for SimCity has no doubt made impressions on many SimCity fans. From Sim Broadway to ElectriCITY, such themes have become an integral part of the SimCity Community and culture. These very themes offered a great deal of immersion that captures the imagination of SimCity players. Previous SimCity soundtracks have been well thought out, offering a great deal of depth. They offered culture, life and captures the essence of a city. Now enters SimCity Societies. Its a totally different game play offering cultural elements and societal energies that influence the sphere of game play. The question is: Does the SimCity Societies soundtrack follow true to SimCity legacy offering a soundtrack of depth, and emotion, like previous SimCity soundtracks before it? SimCity Societies Soundtrack was composed by Emmy winning composer Trevor Morris. You may not recognize the name, but you should recognize much of his work. He's composed music for feature films such as The Hills Have Eyes 2, 3 Needles, The Ring 2, Rancid, The Lost Angel, The Artificial Feast, Terminal Venus, Hulk, Judge is God and Teen Knight. He's also composed additional music to Stealth, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2, The Last Samurai, The Island, Bad Boys-2, Blade Trinity, The Ring-2 (+Score Producer), The Amityville Horror, Spanglish, Shark Tale (+Score Co-Producer), King Arthur (+Score Co-Producer), Shrek-2, Somethings Gotta Give, and others. Mr. Morris is also no stranger to the gaming industry as his past compositions include Need for Speed: Carbon Score and Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars. Ive had the pleasure for the last few days to immerse myself in the themes and melodies of SimCity Societies these last four days. EA Trax approached us over the past two weeks letting us listen and shred the soundtrack to pieces. But lets look at the soundtrack in more depth. There are 15 tracks that make up the SimCity Societies soundtrack. Kittens, Cake and Cotton Candy 3:11 Simolean Beat 2:55 Lunch Pails and Coattails 3:03 Welcome Home 3:04 Android Dream 2:54 Spirits Walk 3:06 Immortal City 3:13 Video Introduction 0:58 Civic Duty 3:10 The Essence of Thought 3:10 Urban Development 2:56 March of the Obedient 3:04 City in a Box 3:16 Cappuccino Clouds 3:07 The Planners Promise 3:10 The SimCity Societies soundtrack starts off with a fun circus, carnival styled theme entitled Kittens, Cake and Cotton Candy. Its themes and melodies reflect those of a little kid walking around the circus. One can picture themselves walking among the rows and being giddy about seeing lions, tigers and bears. Kittens, Cake and Cotton Candy captures the feeling of being a circus from the rides like the Ferris wheel, to the food and spectacles of a circus. As we move on to the rest of the soundtracks, each track offers a variety of tunes with a cultural element. A few of the tracks appear to have roots with the Jazz or Roaring Twenties culture with the use of instruments like the saxophone, and double bass. Lunch Pails, and Coattailss melody offers a dark mysterious jazz theme that simply make you want to get up and dance, and snap your fingers through the entire song. (Im quite guilty of that actually.) Its catchy tune and beat simply made it to my favorites list of SimCity tracks rather quickly. It is really hard not to tap your foot to double bass as it strums along with the melody. Ive personally gotten lost in thought as Ive gone from the catchy jazz styled themes to the serene Asian theme and the harmonies of Paris and Italy. The Asian theme, as clich as it sounds, shows a great deal of thought on the part of Mr. Morris. He invokes serenity and elements of Zen in the Japanese culture with his soothing melody. At the same time, he brings forth elements of the Chinese culture and sounds through the confidence in the score. You become centered, and relaxed. The Zen-styled melodies simply lull you to a calm state of mind with its slow movements of the deep thoughts. As you stroll through the European theme, you are whisked away walking down the streets of Paris and Venice. It invokes classic imagery of Paris from the Eiffel Tower to the canals of Venice. The SimCity Societies soundtrack offers a many calm, serene themes found in SimCity 4: Rush Hour soundtrack. The melodies parallels the soundtrack found in SimCity 4: Rush Hour, but in some cases, offers a great deal more depth than Rush Hour. They are very calming and relaxing and could be easily mistaken as part of the original Rush Hour soundtrack. The music reminds me of a calm night wandering the streets of downtown. The only real complaint I would have is the Spirits Walk theme in the mix. While its truly a spooky and eerie piece, it felt out of place in the soundtrack with the rest of the jazz and soothing calm themes. SimCity soundtracks fans: this soundtrack lives up to the legacy of SimCity soundtracks. By being thoughtful and evoking emotions as like its predecessors, it truly deserves to join the ranks being a great SimCity soundtrack. Mr. Morris strikes at the heart of SimCity and composed an album worthy of the SimCity name. The music are simply a must have for any SimCity game and devoted SimCity fan. You can purchase the SimCity Societies soundtrack and all other EA soundtracks at the EA Trax site (http://ea.com/eatrax)
