Nostalgia is a powerful thing
That warm feeling you get when thinking back on simpler times. Times when the world was smaller and the only things that mattered were so uncomplicated and inconsequential, that’s the sh!t. Everyone falls for nostalgia bait, whether it be an old TV show you watched growing up getting a reboot, or playing an old game you would spend a disgusting amount of hours at a time playing when you were younger, nostalgia is a powerful and irresistible feeling that is extremely unique to a lot of other emotions. And when it is tapped into and used effectively, it creates some of the greatest and most compelling art. Taking the experience just beyond music, but into memories, and that's the sh!t that makes an album amazing.

Now, it’s no secret as to why I’m opening this review talking about nostalgia because I’m reviewing the godd@mn Minecraft soundtrack. If you grew up playing Minecraft like a lot of people did, then you understand the feeling of hearing one of these tracks years after playing the game for the first time and feeling like you’re a kid again. It’s an experience that many people have referenced, memed on, and all hold very dearly to themselves. And maybe while you were playing Minecraft at a young age you might not have noticed the music very much, it seems as time goes on this soundtrack just continues to get more legendary as people continue to come back to it as a cathartic release for all that nostalgia this music holds, making this album one of the most timeless records of all time. I mean, even years later people are still talking about this one soundtrack. Even after all the controversy the game itself and the huge names surrounding it have generated, all the ups and downs of popularity Minecraft has been through, this soundtrack is completely unaffected. It’s such a strange phenomenon that has happened to this album, but even by itself, this record is still fantastic.

I truly believe that anyone can get an equal or greater experience out of this album than someone who played the game before.

Of course, I’m one of the people on the side that listens to this album for the memories attached to it, but this thing is so perfectly produced, intricately composed yet simplistic, and amazingly lush that those feelings that players of the game get can be replicated for people who haven’t had the same intimate relationship with Minecraft before. The sounds that C418 presents on this album are complete bliss. The synth arrangements are bright but at the same time mellow, the textures are retro yet beautiful, and the whole album builds a tiny world around you that if you let it, you can get completely lost in.

Now, before I start talking about the music generally, I first want to lightly talk about this album as a soundtrack for the game Minecraft, because that's its original purpose. As cited on C418’s official description for this record this thing was crafted to be background music. It was made to be unobtrusive, to be a backdrop to the gameplay, and to even contrast the wild and unpredictable nature of the game with its minimalist and soothing sound, and it works out perfectly. A lot of people would say that Minecraft wouldn’t be the same without the score, and I one-hundred percent agree. The soundtrack makes the game experience that much more immersive, letting you calm down and forget everything around you, and focus on the peaceful gameplay in front of you.

But this record stands just as amazingly by itself as a sole piece of music. This album is just shy of an hour long, it contains songs that you would hear in the background of the game, some of the music disks, and even some extras not included in the game at all, yet it creates an experience that flows perfectly and feels like it’s own thing disconnected from the game. It’s probably my favourite ambient album due to how immense and rich the sound of the entire thing is. Very few other ambient records get me this immersed in their sound, the only other one I could name is Geogaddi by Boards of Canada, but this album makes its hour-long runtime fly by in an instant because of how immersive it is.

This record opens with the two tracks Key and Door (haha get it?). Both of these tracks serve to ease listeners into the experience as they set the stage for the first “real” song Subwoofer Lullaby with the track Key being a small one-minute cut that has been slowed down to an eerie point, and Door being a more orchestral continuation of Key with many vibrant flutes, grand synths, and a magical atmosphere somehow explored thoroughly within its minute and a half runtime. The track Subwoofer Lullaby then begins, and it captures the essence of the game perfectly. It is on one hand blissful and beautiful beyond words with its soft and comfy mellow keys and drone, but on the other hand is mysterious, having some faint glitchy sound effects in the background. This track and similar ones like it such as Minecraft and Sweden have become the “classic” tracks of the album, and for good reason. These tracks share very simple chord progressions and enchantingly minimalistic sounds that make them the most calming and universal tracks on the entire album. They are easy to get but are still wonderfully produced and even emotional as their simple sound can strike deep emotions.

Some tracks move beyond just the ambient synths and drones into some more natural instrumentations. Haggstorm makes use of the peppy and cutesy glockenspiel to make the track even more peaceful. The sound that the glockenspiel adds here is unforgettable as the soothing melody of the track adds another layer of tranquility. The track Droopy Likes Your Face ends off the album by introducing some robotic repetitive lines of “Droopy looks in a cave, no one is there. Droopy looks under a tree, Droopy is enormous.” which is oddly rewarding after listening to pure electronic ambient sounds to be graced with a voice. There is also the infamously eerie track Thirteen. This is a song that is off of one of the music discs within the game, and it is unsettling. Working almost as a two-parter in the first half we get some groaning chimes and harrowing drones before it suddenly cuts off to enter the second half of the song which has the sound of a player traversing an empty echoing cave filled with water. I think this track is genius and is by far one of the creepiest ambient tracks of all time. It feels so dark and desolate while having familiar sound effects that you would find in the game which just makes it terrifying.

There are also tracks that tug on the heartstrings a bit. Mice on Venus is the greatest example of this, with its somber and fragile low-tempo piano progression being absolutely devastating. The ending couple of keys always sends shivers down my spine. It eventually does rise back up however into a triumphant and beautifully cheery second part. Both Living Mice and Moog City use plucky strings to enhance the subtle grand feel of the tracks which works out to make them very emotionally compelling. And as a whole, this album is one blissful cut after the other. It doesn’t even matter how long the tracks are. The minute-long tracks do nearly just as much as the upwards of four-minute-long ones due to how dense this record is. There’s no other way to experience it other than to listen to the whole thing if by some chance you haven’t already done so.

This album just means so much to me. As someone who played the game when I was very young, listening to this album brings so many memories back from the dead. And as a disconnected record, this album has helped me with a lot of anxiety and stress because of how peaceful and soothing it is. It may not be perfect, but it is a masterpiece and an album I think everyone should listen to at least once to appreciate how amazing it is :D