2013-09-17 0:40:51 ¶ ●

## Flash vs Non-Flash Tracks

On the first Homestuck compilation album, virtually all of the tracks are used, in one way or another, in the webcomic. It’s the only album where this is the case. In general, the ‘best’ tracks seem to be chosen for Flash animations in the comic, but being enshrined as such also inevitably ties that track to a ‘moment’ in the series. That emotional connection gives these songs an even greater boost to their popularity (quite deservedly so).

Homestuck is my favorite single track in the entire catalog. I mean the track on Homestuck Volume 5, not the webcomic. If the comic were a single song, it would be seventy hours long, written by Doug Ingle, and would loop Revolution 9 as an intermission for an hour and a half in the middle. Also, most of the band would be killed during the song. PAUL IS DEAD, YO. I’m getting sidetracked.

The first time I listened to that particular track was when I saw the beginning of Act 5 Act 2 in Homestuck. The song and the animation work together as well as any in the comic: they improve one another immeasurably. But it leads me to ask myself: would it still be my favorite track, were it not featured in the comic? It’s a question I can’t answer.

There are many, many excellent songs in the catalog that are not (or have not yet) been featured in the webcomic. It would be foolish to ignore the Flash tracks, but I’ll also be making an effort to spotlight non-Flash tracks that I feel deserve attention. I’ll also tag them with #non flash tracks, so that they can be searched easily.