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31 Days of Game Music: No More Heroes
Mar. 12th, 2012 11:15 pmOn first listen, you might not even think there's anything wrong here.
It's such a nice and well-mannered song. It plays as inoffensive lounge music later in the game. It's not until you stop to note what's beneath the surface that you understand something is deeply awry.
"The Virgin Child Makes Her Wish Without Feeling Anything" makes a mark through several avenues. First, there's a sheer standard of quality. "Virgin" was issued as its own single in Japan - a sure half-joke by Suda, but it's good enough in execution on all fronts to be a professional mainstream release. Furthermore, it's old, an old you don't encounter in videogames - old in musical style and in sentiment. It's quietly reflective on its little central tragedy in a manner alien to the game's "it's called fashionably late, fuckface" hero.
A great deal of the piece's force comes from the personal history of the man who's singing it, a so-called Dr. Peace. When we first hear of the man (1:50 below), he's introduced as a detective gone wrong who's "your one-stop shop for illegal deals and black-market goods":
When sociopathic protag Travis finally gets to meet the good doctor, though, the confrontation takes a bit more introspective turn, as the man engrosses himself with performing a favorite song and talking of a recent dinner with his family:
...and it becomes apparent that "Virgin"'s mourning of a spoiled childhood parallels Peace's recent failed reunion with his estranged daughter and the ruin of his family; one cannot help but connect the pinnacle he's reached in his criminal profession to his personal downfall. "Virgin," like Peace himself, exudes menace and wrong beneath a placid and genteel exterior, living out a self-aware tragedy. At this point in the game, Travis is raring to kill his way to the ultimately-meaningless title of #1 assassin in the world. Peace - who perhaps realizes that tonight's his last fight and even if it isn't it barely matters as he's lost so much anyhow, and who's made his, forgive me, peace with is own irredeemable malevolence - knows a bit better than Travis by now; it all tastes like blood in the end.
.
It's such a nice and well-mannered song. It plays as inoffensive lounge music later in the game. It's not until you stop to note what's beneath the surface that you understand something is deeply awry.
"The Virgin Child Makes Her Wish Without Feeling Anything" makes a mark through several avenues. First, there's a sheer standard of quality. "Virgin" was issued as its own single in Japan - a sure half-joke by Suda, but it's good enough in execution on all fronts to be a professional mainstream release. Furthermore, it's old, an old you don't encounter in videogames - old in musical style and in sentiment. It's quietly reflective on its little central tragedy in a manner alien to the game's "it's called fashionably late, fuckface" hero.
A great deal of the piece's force comes from the personal history of the man who's singing it, a so-called Dr. Peace. When we first hear of the man (1:50 below), he's introduced as a detective gone wrong who's "your one-stop shop for illegal deals and black-market goods":
When sociopathic protag Travis finally gets to meet the good doctor, though, the confrontation takes a bit more introspective turn, as the man engrosses himself with performing a favorite song and talking of a recent dinner with his family:
...and it becomes apparent that "Virgin"'s mourning of a spoiled childhood parallels Peace's recent failed reunion with his estranged daughter and the ruin of his family; one cannot help but connect the pinnacle he's reached in his criminal profession to his personal downfall. "Virgin," like Peace himself, exudes menace and wrong beneath a placid and genteel exterior, living out a self-aware tragedy. At this point in the game, Travis is raring to kill his way to the ultimately-meaningless title of #1 assassin in the world. Peace - who perhaps realizes that tonight's his last fight and even if it isn't it barely matters as he's lost so much anyhow, and who's made his, forgive me, peace with is own irredeemable malevolence - knows a bit better than Travis by now; it all tastes like blood in the end.
.
