And You Should Too - Blog Posts

thisisahyperfixationnow

1 year ago

Okay so I saw atsv recently and while I love reading everyone’s takes on the art styles, I have to bring up the music

I’m a pretty basic music nerd with minimal theory study, but I’ve taken to just playing the soundtrack. (I’m referencing specifically the Metro soundtrack, I prefer songs with lyrics, but I’m positive this will apply to the other soundtrack too, the crew of spider verse are that amazing) And in doing so, I just need to bring up how carefully these songs are constructed??

See, backing track songs need to be subtle. That’s what (in my experience) can make them boring or difficult to compose - how do you make something interesting but able to blend in? But these people, they’ve just - pulled back layers?? And spread them out???? Rarely is there more than about 3 things happening at any one point in the songs, and it means they can pack so much into them. And more than that, it gives them room to give every song a style, a reference and a character to link them to!

Take ‘Hummingbird’, for example: it’s the song that plays when Gwen opens the portal above Miles’ bed. Then compare it to ‘Sunflower’, from the original movie. The artists are completely different, the tone of the movie has changed entirely, but the songs mirror each other!! The way the vocals have a little flick (flick? Reach??) at the end, the bass and trap in the background, heck, even the emotions they convey! Miles, in each instance, is at a turning point, whether he is aware of it or not.

But the composers haven’t just decided to mimic Miles’ song from the original song - they’ve dampened it to fit the tone of the movie. The trap beat and pulses are muted, and the vocals are slightly subdued. And of course, the lyrics are very different. They are both about love, but one is optimistic, and one is resigned. GOD these people!!

And it’s like this with basically every song I’ve come across! While a lot of the characters have less (or nothing) to compare to, the composers have put bits and pieces in to make the characterisations and emotions peak through. Just look at the percussion in ‘Link Up’ (a mixture of the clicking from ‘Self-Love, which kinda was Gwen’s theme in the album, and the percussion from ‘Silk & Cologne’, which I think is supposed to be Miles’ family and their party (?)) which I took as showing Miles’ split between Gwen and the Spiders, and his family.

Just, this soundtrack has som much care and love stuffed into it. I don’t know how much this makes sense (It’s 3 AM), but I didn’t see anyone talking about it and that is a CRIME