Homestuck is this comic that a lot of cats seem hella pumped of. And this album is sitting on my desk for review, so I’m like, yeah man I’ll write something. Know what I’m saying… Bro… Yo Ma?
Alright, there’s no way I can keep that up for more than a paragraph, not even for ‘MAD IRONY YO.’
I’ve been following Homestuck since the spring or so. I’m an unabashed fan of the comic. And one of the biggest features of the comic is the Flash animation segments, which more often than not feature original songs by the comic’s music team.
The scope of music used throughout the comic defies genre. Labels like ‘electronic’, ‘experimental’, and ‘chiptune’ apply to a great many songs, but the catalog ranges as far and wide as heavy metal,Western,orchestral, and jazz. There’s something for everybody here.
And maybe that’s what has drawn me deeper into the soundtrack in the first place. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve expanded my own musical tastes to this extent. Reading the webcomic is a gateway towards enjoying the music on its own, and there’s a great deal to be enjoyed (hours and hours of total playtime so far).
Such a large library can be intimidating. I haven’t seen many formal reviews of the albums that have been released in conjunction with the comic. There’s many postings reviewing individual songs, but the songs are sold as a part of albums, which can be purchased from Bandcamp. Which albums are the best? If you could only purchase one more album from the catalog, which one would it be?
So I’ll throw my opinions into the ring. The artists who create this music are extremely talented. And I’m more a fan than a critic. I’ll try to keep it light-hearted but honest.
It’s a weird combination of a rap percussion beat and a symphonic overture, complete with pizzicato strings and soaring brass. It’s exactly the sort of genre-mixing that makes music in the Homestuck catalog so appealing.
This one was a bit of a coin toss for me. This version’s mostly chiptune, and there’s another version of the song on the album: Beatdown (Strider Style). In the second half of that version, though, some choppy audio effects detract from it, rather than adding to the beat. Great mix-master energy in both versions, either way,
Written by George Buzinkai, Arrangement by Michael Guy Bowman
The first really ‘epic’ end-of-act Flash track. It’s a great combination of chiptune (the main melody) and rock. It works brilliantly: it feels like neither a piece of video game music, nor a radio play. It’s something else entirely. Each verse adds a new layer, whether it’s an accent to the melody, a more elaborate drumbeat, or distorted power chords driving the anthem home. My top track for the album.
It took me a few listens to warm up to this one. The first time I first listened to it, this style of music simply wasn’t on my radar. The latter half of the song, with its crazy speeded-up Eddie Morton and its squiggly, synthesized lead, was a little too electro-thrash for me. Each time I’ve revisited it, though, I’ve liked it better. The energy is undeniable.
Written by Malcolm Brown. Arrangement by Kevin Regamey
The original haunting refrain, and the very first track on the album. I would be remiss not to include it as a pick. Homestuck Vol. 1-4 contains many remixes and reimaginings of this song, and many of them are good listens, but I prefer the original, unaccompanied piano out of all of them.
The most shocking twist yet. Heavy, ominous horns drive it forward behind a rushing arpeggio of strings. Brief, but it stands on its own (and it’ll show up again later on).
This track opens with a great steady bassline that underpins the whole song. The melody is rolling and leisurely, working its way up to a high point before cruising back downwards with a counterpoint hook. It’s relaxing and it doesn’t become dull or repetitive.
Simple and undeniably catchy. What could make a mournful, whistled melody even better? Hoof clops right out of Monty Python’s playbook. I’ve replayed this song far more times than I’m willing to admit (even here!).
Together with the Flashanimations in the webcomic, the effect is hilarious. You’d think Rose wasn’t even moving, except for the slow-scrolling SNES background and the scarf whipping spastically behind her.
By Mark Hadley, Andrew Huo and Toby “Radiation” Fox
“Sunny”, to describe it in one word. The song is featured in the comic, but the middle third of the album version is reworked to replace some of the chiptune instrumentation with an orchestral version.
Written by George Buzinkai. Produced by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell and Michael Vallejo
For the record (a snarky web-blog counts as ‘the record’, right?), I don’t hate this track. And I know many people are a fan of it, being the inspiration for many songs on follow-up albums. I think that’s why I can’t get into it on its own: the melody is much more effective as an accent for something bigger.
When combined with other songs, the two become much greater than the sum of their parts. I’ll explain more about what I mean later on, when we start hitting some of the songs that incorporate Doctor as a part of their structure.
This remix isn’t really effective: it dilutes the original track with a heavy, muffled beatline, rather than taking it in a new direction or putting a new twist on it.
Homestuck Vol. 1-4 contains virtually all of the webcomic’s music from the first few acts. It’s a great starting point for getting further into the catalog: the main volume albums tend to collect most of the music from the comic. That being said, albums a little further down the road surpass it in scope and quality.
In the first half of the album, bouncy chiptune tracks like Showtime (Imp Strife Remix) and Harlequin predominate. The songs are catchy, but it’s hard for them to stand up to repeated listening: they’re more on the ‘functional’ side, as they work very well within a brief Flash game or skit. The more ambitious tracks tend to be towards the end of the album, and it finishes strong with songs like Black and Ballad of Awakening.
It’s a good taste of the ‘homestuck’ genre of music, and it gets even better.
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.
Beatfox takes an original song by Radiation and moves it into a whole new genre. Sunsetter (the original) is fast-paced and electronic, with a fantastic hook. Yet this version is even better. The pace is slowed down a bit and the saxophone / xylophone lead is replaced with a simple, well-executed electric guitar.
The main melody is something you could have pulled out of an album written in the middle of the stadium-rock 80’s (and I mean that as a compliment). This song is has ridiculous replay value (I swear, I could loop it for an hour and not grow tired of it). It’s a great example of the music team building upon earlier works and producing something even greater, and it’s one of my favorite tracks in the whole Homestuck catalog.
A cool, mellow chiptune song. It’s at its best around the minute mark. All it takes is a deceptively simple drum beat and a shimmering electronic chorus to really make the tune shine. Great, easy listening.
Shut up and jam. It’s a short fragment of a song, but its pseudo-Eastern rhythm is terribly catchy. It has the potential to be even cooler if it could have been explored longer, made into a more complete and stand-alone song.
By Erik “Jit” Scheele. Original (Crystalanthemums) by Alexander Rosetti. Original (Mannequin) by Perry Sullivan
Music to watch trolls be blown up, blinded, and beaten to death by. It’s a different take on the original Crystalanthemums (also featured on this album), and a better one, I think. The intro’s a little abrupt, and the siren’s a little jarring near the end of the track, but that doesn’t stop this from being a rockin’, hard-driving song.
Featured in the end of Act 4 flash animation. In a very crude way, you could describe Descend as a ‘greatest hits’ for Homestuck music up until now. It’s composed of bits and pieces of many different songs. The electronic drumbeat from Upward Movement (Dave Owns) ties the whole thing together, and little bits of songs like Liquid Negrocity, Explore, Atomyk Ebonpyre, and many others make appearances.
It’s a great, fun puzzle, in a way: some of the familiar songs are executed so differently, they can be difficult to recognize. Only upon repeated listening did I realize that the funky bass part at 0:47 (when Mom and Dad are shown on the ship) is the main melody from Aggrieve. Or that the staccato chiptune melody at 2:24 (when Jack start’s tearing shit up on Prospit) is a modified version of Doctor.
The editing job is fantastic. Except where the effect is intentional, the flow of the track is great. This song rightfully serves as the anchor, the featured track, for this album. It speaks to the album’s quality that I rank a few songs even higher.
By Mark Hadley. Original (Homestuck Anthem) by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell
Absolutely superb. As I’ve mentioned previously, this is my favorite single track in the Homestuck catalog (to date, in any case).
An ethereal, mellow xylophone provides the main melody, backed by a reserved string section. A subtle harp counter-melody adds just the right amount of complexity: it’s a simple track, and is all the better for it. The second half of the song is more powerful, but this is accomplished austerely by adding deeper strings and doubling up on the main melody. The song evokes feelings of discovery, of new beginnings, of simple, childlike wonder.
In the flash animation (which kicks off Act 5 Act 2), certainly these themes make sense. As the viewers, we’re seeing John’s life in fast motion: his relationship with Dad, the first time he meets Jade, all kinds of poignant moments. Moments in a protagonist’s life, one whom we care about as a character.
Within the story, ironically, Karkat’s mind is racing in completely the opposite direction. His initial curiosity begins turning to anger, then to hate. In his own words, “IT IS A HATE SO PURE AND HOT IT WOULD CONSUME YOUR SAD UNDERDEVELOPED HUMAN THINK PAN TO EVEN CONTEMPLATE.” Watching Karkat get madder and madder forms a hilarious contrast to the viewer’s experience. It’s like seeing Sonny Corleone get shot… while Dream Weaver plays in the background. Well, that’s how Karkat would describe it, anyways.
Fantastic. Usually I’m put off by the sort of choppy audio effects that this song features, but here’s is subtle: it’s there to establish atmosphere, not drive the song forward. This track is way up there on my list of favorites (probably top ten), and this isn’t even my favorite version of this song.
I mentioned that Black was almost a little too electro-thrash for me: this song took a rocket-sled past the ‘too electro-thrash’ line. It’s a strange combination of 60’s science fiction computer sounds, electric guitar, and Snoop Dogg.
There aren’t many albums in the catalog that are better than Homestuck Volume 5.
Some of the best tunes in the Homestuck library are on this album (Homestuck, Descend, Sunslammer, and Savior of the Waking World, for starters). But it’s not just these songs that make this an excellent album.
Unlike Vol. 1-4, a significant portion of this album is not featured in any of the Flash animations in the comic. I had read the entire comic prior to purchasing any of the albums, and it was a lot of fun discovering brand new music on my first listen-through.
A few parts can get repetitive: there are no fewer than six Endless Climb remixes, and five Doctor remixes, though they’re salted out pretty well throughout the album. On the plus side, this helps to tie the album together: you’ll hear a new, interesting take on a familiar theme throughout.
The album’s a little more expensive than most, but that’s due to its sheer size (65 tracks for two and a half hours of runtime). If you’ve only got a few bucks to spend, and you can only afford one or two albums, this one’s pretty damn close to the best in the catalog.
By Joren “Tensei” de Bruin. Original ‘Homestuck Anthem’ by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell
OK, it’s elevator music. Let’s just put that on the table where everyone can see it. Now that that’s on the table, we can talk about it as a song. Before the advent of Muzak, bossa nova used to be pretty popular in a real, non faux way (and it still is in some real, totally non-fake circles that I wouldn’t know anything about).
This song takes a basic existing melody (one of my favorites, as it happens), and executes it in this new style very, very well. I dare you not to like this song. Go ahead, try it.
By Mark Hadley. Original ‘Black’ by Toby “Radiation” Fox
There’s two versions of this song in the catalog, and I’m a big fan of both of them for completely different reasons. Restrained, skittish piano set against deep, gloomy strings. The otherworldly synth whomping that starts in the second half is great.
By Toby “Radiation” Fox. Partial remix of “Unbreakable Union” by Kalibration, “Courser” by Alexander Rosetti and Seth “Beatfox” Peelle, “Carefree Action” by Mark J. Hadley, and “Homestuck Anthem” by Clark “Plazmataz” Powell
It wanders from calm traditional introduction to frenzied tribal rhythm, and hits every point in between. My favorite part of the song, by far, is the piano interlude in the middle. It’s ominous and terribly foreboding: the most reserved part of the song serves as an accompaniment to the biggest reveal in the webcomic, up to that point.
By Mark Hadley. Original ‘Squiddles!’ by Alexander Rosetti. Original 'Dissension’ by David Ko
There’s been a fewgood songs on the Dissension theme, but this one’s my favorite. It has a personality of its own. It dances around the main melody with its own unique voice. Just when you think it’s about to move into familiar territory, it sidesteps towards something new and different.
And then, you’ve got to give credit to a track that uses the Squiddles theme as a source, yet results in a song that would fit into a dramatic moment in an action movie.
It’s sort of a slow burn, what with the deep piano lead-in and the string backing, but the payoff comes about a minute in. After all of that, it’s a fun video-game chiptune piece. Definitely an interesting mix.
An atmospheric, shimmering chiptune track. The backing percussion’s my favorite part: it’s really muted, and serves to complement the song, rather than overwhelm it.
Not enough troll violence for you yet? Here’s some more. Another great mash-up of genres, with a synth / chiptune lead dueling with an electric guitar. The hook’s as catchy as they come.
Yeah, it’s a novelty song. And the first part is clever and entertaining: Nicolas Cage probably sets a record for ‘largest quantity of batshit crazy packed into a career’. I’ll check with Guinness on that.
But frankly, even a song like this starts running on fumes in the middle when the entire set of lyrics consists of the word ‘boner.’ I guess that was the plan.
Shocking, I know. Yet I cannot tell a lie. I can’t even enjoy this song on an ironic level. It just makes me want to punch Dennis in the face. He was so wasted, ha ha, I mean damn.
RATING: 7 / 13 - im 0k with it. im 0k with a l0t 0f things
Perhaps it’s inevitable that the follow-up release to Homestuck Vol. 5 doesn’t quite reach the same heights as that album did.
Volume 6 is significantly shorter than Volume 5 (though with a somewhat reduced price). And it’s hit or miss: there’s some excellent tracks on the album, but it starts losing steam around the second half. The production values are there: there’s a great deal of experimentation, and some of the tracks tread on new ground. Umbral Ultimatum perhaps best illustrates this on the positive side. And then there’s tracks like Tribal Ebonpyre: it’s very well done, and it’s of a style completely foreign to the library so far, but it just doesn’t have that ‘hook’ that leads me to want to include it in a playlist.
The music-box intro, with its string quartet backing, gives off a great ‘fallen from grace’ vibe. I don’t like it as much as the remixed version used in Cascade (the chiptune glissando scales are a little off-putting), but it’s still a great, atmospheric song.
By Toby ‘Radiation’ Fox. Original “Upward Movement” by Kalibration
A cool variation on Upward Movement (Dave Owns). That rad drum line gets yet another feature. The rather common classical trio of oboe, harpsichord, and Scalemate is used for most of the main melody.
By Malcolm Brown. Originals “Chorale for Jaspers” by Michael Guy Bowman, and “Aggrieve” by Mark Hadley
It’s a shame this wasn’t featured more extensively in the webcomic: only a few short segments are featured here. It’s as ‘strife’ a song as they come. Favorite part? The section with the eerie choir and the electric guitar lead that starts around the two minute mark.
By Joren ‘Tensei’ de Bruin. Original “Spider’s Claw” by Toby 'Radiation’ Fox
Starts off with a kick-ass guitar solo by Troll Eddie Van Halen (Edward Vhalen, I guess?). Seriously, if you like the intro on this song, go check out Eruption. So far as the rest of this song goes, it’s a slick combination of hard rock and blues horns, with a clean electric guitar bridge snuck in the middle.
By Malcolm Brown. Originals “Doctor” by George Buzinkai, and “Savior of the Waking World” by Toby ‘Radiation’ Fox
Awesome. Just awesome. Rises from a sober melancholy chorus, through a hopeful pizzicato rendition of Doctor, to a ridiculously energetic, driving overture. The song would have a completely different feel without the power-chords backing the main melody.
Technically, this version of the song is not used as part of a Flash animation (though it forms one of the main sections of Cascade). The coda is a bit different from the version used in Cascade: it doubles down on the energy with strings that smack of the shower scene in Psycho, until dropping just a little too abruptly.
I only realized recently that it’s not just generic, Gregorian chanting in the song: it’s ‘Warhammer of Zillyhoo’ repeated twice. That just adds to its cleverness. Bonus points for performing it completely straight, without a hint of silliness or irony.
By Clark ‘Plazmataz’ Powell. Original “Upward Movement” by Kalibration
The weird synth intro resembles sonar, as if it’s searching for something or someone (quite fitting for the void player featured in the Flash). The main riff has a sort of Eastern flair. It’s well done and makes for a great song, even as it treads back into more familiar territory in the second half.
By Erik ‘Jit’ Scheele. Original “Harlequin” by Mark Hadley
This music library must have the greatest collection of ‘scary as hell carnival music’ tracks in the world. Gamzee approves. As strange as it sounds, this is probably my favorite version of the ‘Harlequin’ motif. Crazy honk horns (and what seems to be some kind of a dinosaur) in the background are a bonus.
White Host, Green Room (By Joren ‘Tensei’ de Bruin) is one of the album bonus tracks (and thus only available if you purchase the album). It’s a jazzy, slow-paced piece. I’m not a big fan of it: don’t hate it, but it’s not really on my playlist. There’s one thing about it that does interest me: the intro.
The song begins with a fuzzy medley of four songs. The first two are Terezi Owns (on this album) and Cascade (on Volume 8: this sneak peek was released well before Cascade came out, mind you). The last song is Black Rose / Green Sun.
There’s an excerpt from one other song in the middle, starting at the ten second mark: epic choir chanting and heavy, distorted electric guitar. It sounds like a ‘final boss fight’ song. Yet the track that this little snippet belongs to hasn’t been released in any official way. So, what’s it all about?
Turns out it’s an unfinished track called 'The King in Red’. Tensei made a blog post about it here, and you can listen to the work-in-progress version of the song there.
By Erik ‘Jit’ Scheele, Original 'Beatdown’ by Curt Blakeslee
It’s a different take on the two source songs, but one that abandoned the best part of each, I think. It plays as though it’s building up to a payoff that never really comes.
Maplehoof’s Adventure (By Michael Guy Bowman) is another album-only bonus track on Homestuck Volume 7.
I travel to the South a fair bit, where sweet tea is king. Here in the North, once the sugar stops dissolving in your iced tea, that’s it, it’s sweet enough. In the South, the laws of chemistry aren’t allowed to get in the way: it must be sweeter. The tea is heated to near boiling and even more sugar is dumped in. Then it’s cooled back down again. It shouldn’t be possible, yet there it is. It’s Trickster Mode iced tea.
That’s what I think of when I hear this song. Just ridiculously saccharine sweet.
Fanart. Source: 
