Image source: Homestuck.
I’ll be reviewing Land of Fans and Music next. It’s an album where every song is dedicated to Arquiusprite.
Alright, that’s not true at all. It’s completely false. But I had this picture handy, so I figured I’d throw it out there.
Arranged by tynic. Original MIDI by Beast72. Vocals by tynic and Goatmon
Alright, I knew that Aradia’s and Equius’s relationship was unconventional, if not a little twisted. But I’ve never heard the charges levied quite so eloquently as in this song. I had to go backwards and tick off each individual adjective. So, in order:
Yep, it’s all there. God damnit. The song itself is ridiculously saccharine and catchy, too. Mary Poppins wouldn’t last a day on Alternia.
RATING: 8 / 13 – Ill, dog. I’m basically titillated here
A lot of fan-created music has been made over the years, and fortunately there have been efforts to collect it into an organized form. This is one of the early ‘fan music greatest hits’ compilations.
It’s a great deal of music, and it’s a little patchy as one long play-through. But it’s comparable in quality to the Homestuck volume albums. It most definitely carries that ‘Homestuck’ vibe: it has the same smattering of remixes, the same genre-bending variation, and the same general feel as the official material. Small wonder, I suppose: all of the artists were inspired by the comic, and many tracks on this album were written by members of the official music team.
Of course, the best part about this album is that it is completely, utterly free. The entire album (one ZIP file, all in MP3 format) can be downloaded from skaia.net. Give it a whirl.
Click here for individual song reviews for Land of Fans and Music.
RATING: 8 / 13 – ripping sonnets of STRONGNESS
A solo effort from Jeremy “Solatrus” Iamurri, and with a coherent (if bifurcated) theme to boot. The album’s broken into two distinct halves (representing the eponymous planets in the comic). There are four bright, triumphant tunes for Prospit, and four darker, more aggressive songs for the Derse dreamers.
I found the second half to be stronger than the first. Maybe it’s more due to personal taste than anything else, but the Derse tunes tend to have better hooks, while the Prospit ones are a little more old-fashioned and stodgy.