2013-11-13 1:41:00 ¶ ●

RATING: 6 / 13 – could enjoy it on a nostalgic level

Alternia is the first ‘solo’ album that I’ve reviewed. These albums are created primarily by a single musician (in this case, Toby “Radiation” Fox). It wasn’t widely featured in Homestuck proper: in fact, the closest it comes to factoring into the comic is a link to Showdown on this page.

The music was written immediately before and during Hivebent: for reference purposes, this was where Homestuck was when the album was released. We had only just met many of the trolls. Yet in one fell swoop, Radiation has composed memorable, recurring themes for many characters (neo-Baroque harpsichord for Terezi, Western for Tavros, uh, crabby for Karkat, and so forth). It’s impressive how these motifs have persisted in future albums.

In part, that helps to explain the rating, too. Once again, hindsight and access to future material unavoidably skews how things are perceived. There’s some good music on this album, but many of the songs are released in superior form on a follow-up (AlterniaBound). Alternia itself is brief but wide-ranging in genre, and it feels a little rough around the edges in comparison. It contains the seeds of some great tracks (and a few very strong, stand-alone ones like The Lemonsnout Turnabout), to be further explored and refined.

Click here for individual song reviews for Alternia.