(Un)Official Bliss Stage Soundtrack

[BlissAuthority]

I've started up a Project Playlist account with my unofficial Bliss Stage soundtrack.  If you don't know, Project Playlist at http://www.playlist.com is a free music-sharing social networking site, and I love it to death.

I'd like to note the following songs in particular:

Pilot theme songs -
Pilots in general and Eager Young Soldiers or Seasoned Vets in particular would march to battle singing a This Sacrifice by The Cruxshadows - "In the fury of our darkest hour, we will be your light - you've asked me for this sacrifice, and I am Winter-Born!"

As for Seasoned Vets, I can vividly see how Anna Lin would painfully recount how "I Fought A War" (Belle & Sabastian).

For a hopeful game or a Rising Hero, has to be It's Not My Time by Three Doors Down.  "It's NOT my time!  I'm not going!  There's a fear in me - it's not showing!  This could be the end of me and everything I know - but I WON'T go!"

Carefree Hedonists with a single scrap of ethics would muse about thier Bizzare Love Triangle (New Order and again by Stabbing Westward).  Speaking of Muse, a more disturbed one would identify more with Hysteria.

Devoted Lovers might, in a moment of desperation and jealousy, plead "Don't go wasting your emotions, Lay All Your Love On Me!" (Originally by ABBA: I prefer the remix by by Sylver for a girl talking to a boy, and the Information Society remix for a boy pleading with a girl.  There's also a version with a boy singing to another boy, but I forget who did that one).  Hysteria, again, or Muse's Time Is Running Out is more appropriate for desperate or co-dependent Lovers.

Innocent Sweethearts might find Moonlight Dentesu, the original opening theme to Sailor Moon, describes thier love life well - In English, the first stanza is roughly "I'm sorry if I couldn't have told you - I only have that strength in my dreams.  I feel as if my heart has blown a fuse, and can't tell if you're what you seem."

Anchors - A Driven or Kind Anchor would whisper the lyrics of Endlessly by Muse: "Hoplessly, I'll love you endlessly - Hopelessly, I'll give you everything - but I won't give you up.  I won't let you down.  And I won't let you fall, if the moment ever comes."
 
One who has seen far too many pilots die on her would scream "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence.

In my Final Act play-throughs, because most of my players are male Anna Lin and her Anchor usually find to thier surprise that they kissed a girl, and they liked it!  (I Kissed A Girl and I Liked It - Kate Perry)

And there's not an anchor in the world who wouldn't relate to Polly Scattergood's "I Hate The Way."

Survivors -
A bit on the nose, but "I'm Just A Kid" by A Simple Plan is mandatory.

Authority Figures -
Ones with a scientific and/or cynical bent might sarcastically tell you that "This was a triumph.  I'm making a note here - Huge success" after a particularly brutal mission (Still Alive, GLaDOS's image song from Portal).

What do you listen to while you play?

editted to fix link on 9/8/08 --mod

[hix]

Funeral, by Arcade Fire, is almost entirely a Bliss Stage soundtrack. In terms of imagery, it's really concerned with children and growing up. In particular, these songs are totally Bliss Stage:

Track 1 (Tunnels) - a lament to a world where parents have disappeared and children have been forced to grow up by themselves ...

Track 6 (Crown of Love) - a reminescence to having to abandon a love gone toxic ...

Track 7 (Wake up) - "Children, wake up. Hold your mistake up.... If the children don't grow up, our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up." ...

Track 9 (Rebellion / Lies) - "Sleeping is giving in, no matter what the time is." + "Every time you close your eyes Lies, Lies!"

Tunnels and Rebellion / Lies are pretty much key Bliss Stage tracks for me - they summarise two moods - melancholy for what's been lost and futile defiance - that really resonate for me in this game.

[Ben Lehman]

Coincidentally, I just put together a soundtrack (of songs which I played a ton of while working on the game) for an artist. Let me root around.

The first of this is from Alexis, who was a huge help at the end of the game's production. It has a specific order: it alternates mission songs and interlude songs.

Yume miro Shoujo ja Irarenai, by Aikawa Nanase (Title is "A Dreaming Girl is Unnecessary."
flying, by Garnet Crow
Dreaming I was Dreaming, by Amuro Namie
Cherry Blossom Girl, by Air
Star Stealing Girl, Chrono Cross OST
Desire, Do As Infinity
Sore Ga, Ai Deshou, Full Metal Panic FUMOFU soundtrack (Title is "Isn't this love?")
Successful Mission, Hayashibara Megumi
Touch My Heart, Devil Hunter Yoko OST
Pure Snow, Sasaki Yuko
Over the Sky [angel feather version], Last Exile OST
Laputa Theme, Laputa Soundtrack
Blue Flow, Haibane Renmei OST
Mamotte Agetai, Onitsuka Chihiro
Kiss Me, Sixpence None of the Richer
Hemisphere, RahXephon OST
Cruel Angel's Thesis, Evangelion OST
Tamashii no Refrain, End of Evangelion Soundtrack
Rebel Luck, Onitsuka Chihiro
Alien Song, Miss Red Flowers
Those to Come, the Shins
How Naked Are We Going to Get?, Blow
Dreams, TV on the Radio

Then here's some stuff from me, in no particular order, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many things (I wrote the game over a three year period, there's a lot of songs associated with it in my head.)
Breathe, by Maria McKee (I have an acapella cover I like.)
Rope on Fire, by Morphine (If there was a Bliss Stage television show, this would be the closing credit song.)
When I Grow Up, by Garbage
The Middle, by Jimmy Eat World
Superstar, by SHE
Stand Up, from the Slayers OST
Gunbuster Intro Song
Macross National Anthem

yrs--
--Ben

[BlissAuthority]

Sweet!

That's... a very, very long list, Ben.  I'm... going to need more playlists.

May I suggest that you put your top choices for opening and closing themes in Ascent Stage? 

Hix, I'm going to have to check out that album.  Rebellion (Lies) is already in the main track.

I also made a theme and image song track specifically for Final Act today.  Check it.

[BlissAuthority]

And unpacking my choices in that mix with the lyrics that caught my eye:

Opening Theme:  Winterborn (This Sacrifice) - I will gladly give my life for love, for I am Winter-Born.

Jim's Image: Still Alive - We do what we must, because we can.  For the good of all mankind (except the ones who are dead).

Sara's Image: Simple and Clean - Don't get me wrong, I love you: that doesn't mean I want to meet your father.  Regardless, of warnings, the future doesn't scare me at all - nothing's like before!

Jon's Image: Endlessly - Do I NEED to explain this one?

Keenan's Image: Mambo #5 - Again, duh.

Anna's Image: Death - Is this love beneath my wings? and That fear's got ahold of me...

Keenan's Anchor "Yukiko:" Lay All Your Love On Me (Mamma Mia remix) - Male voice: I thought love was sensible - it makes the truth even more incomprehensible.

Sara's Anchor - no idea, left blank.

Anna/Josh's Anchor "Meredith:" I Kissed A Girl (And I Liked It): I kissed a girl, just to try it - hope my boyfriend don't mind it...  (Yes, yes, just because someone is bi doesn't mean they agonize over it, but the chance that they will rises significantly in any game about relationship tensions.)

Anna/Josh's Anchor "Case:" Bizzare Love Triangle.  I admit to myself that if I hurt someone else, I couldn't see what we left behind.

[Skywalker]

This was a soundtrack I made for an Evangelion inspired scenario for CthulhuTech:

ACT ONE - Gilgal Rephaim
60 minutes

Ayn al Basha
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST2: track 2 (opening credits)
Texhnolyze: track 22
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST2: track 17
RahXephon OST3: track 6

Migou Attack
Texhnolyze: track 2
Witch Hunter Robin: track 8
Witch Hunter Robin: track 15
Appleseed disc 1: track 1
Casshern disc 1: track 3
Evangelion OST1: track 16
RahXephon OST1: track 19

Arrival of the Rephaim
Evangelion OST1: track 4
Evangelion OST1: track 19
Evangelion OST1: track 3
Evangelion OST1: track 17
Evangelion OST1: track 18
Evangelion OST2: track 18
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST2: track 1

ACT TWO - Temple House
45 minutes

Midnight
RahXephon OST1: track 5
RahXephon OST1: track 20
RahXephon Movie: track 1
Texhnolyze: track 21
Aphex Twin Druqks disc 1: track 15
Evangelion OST3: track 12
Aphex Twin Druqks disc 2: track 15

Baphomet
Silent Hill OST4: track 3
Silent Hill OST2: track 4
Silent Hill OST2: track 19
Silent Hill OST2: track 25
Silent Hill OST2: track 26

Sedeq's Demise
Silent Hill OST3: track 14
Casshern disc 1: track 9
Silent Hill OST4: track 21

ACT THREE - The Great Shrine
65 minutes

Leng
Casshern disc 1: track 1
Silent Hill OST4: track 17
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST1: track 3
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST1: track 17

Carcosa
RahXephon OST1: track 8
RahXephon OST1: track 9
RahXephon OST1: track 10
Evangelion OST3: track 5
Haibane Renmei: track 6
RahXephon OST2: track 2

The Great Shrine
RahXephon OST1: track 11
RahXephon OST1: track 12
RahXephon OST1: track 13
Final Fantasy: Spirt Within: track 2
Final Fantasy: Spirt Within: track 7

Return to the Womb
Evangelion OST3: track 14
Silent Hill OST2: track 13
Silent Hill OST2: track 22
Silent Hill OST2: track 19
End of Evangelion: track 3
Aphex Twin Druqks disc 2: track 15
Texhnolyze: track 15 (closing credits)[/quote]