I’ve been obsessed with Arcane since the release of season two a couple of months ago. The animation is beautiful, and the story is incredibly written, but I’m here to talk about the soundtrack because that’s the entire point of my column.
Riot Studios got some relatively big names to make season two’s soundtrack, such as Ashnikko, Stray Kids, and Twenty One Pilots, to name a few.
The first song I want to talk about is “Ashes and Blood” by Woodkid. This song appears in the third episode of season two during the fight between Jinx and Vi, the two main characters. The cool thing about this song is that the pre-chorus is Shuriman, which is a language invented and used in League of Legends. The Shuriman is supposed to be the prayers of kids in Zaun, the poor city of the show. I love this song and think it fit perfectly for the scene it was in.
One of my favorite songs from the album is “Paint the Town Blue” by Ashnikko. This song is the second most listened-to song in the album with a whopping 16 billion streams. It appears in a montage at the beginning of episode four. The lyrics “Paint the town blue” means how Zaun citizens came together under one of the main characters, Jinx, to revolt against Piltover, the rich city. I don’t think they could have hired anyone better than Ashnikko to make a song for Arcane. Her cyberpunk aesthetic matches the show so well.
The next song is “Remember me” by D4vid. It plays in episode six during flashbacks of Vanders’s, the main character’s dad’s, memories. Even though this song is short and a little repetitive it’s amazing in the show and even better live. D4vid’s voice is also beautiful.
“這樣很好” (“Isha’s Song”) is probably the saddest song in the whole show. Eason Chan, a Chinese singer who has made a few other songs in the past for the show, “Isha’s Song.” It felt like my heart was ripped out during the scene it was played in and then ripped out again whenever I learned the translated lyrics. The chorus is the best part of the song and fits Isha so well.
“Ma Meilleure Ennemie” has been on my repeat during the past couple months. Two French singers, Pomme and Stromae, sing the song. The song is played during a dance scene in episode seven. It tells the story of two ex-lovers who are tortured by their feelings for one another. I think this is the best song in the entire show and deserves to be even more popular, despite it’s already extremely high status.
I only talked about my favorite and popular songs, but here are many more songs in season two. While they are all good in their own right, I wasn’t blown away by them. My honorable mentions, though, are “Come Play” by Stray Kids, “Fantastic” by King Princess, and “Wasteland” by Royal & The Serpent.
*I go by the Tyson Meter, which is based off of a zero to 10 scale. Zero to four is nearly or completely unlistenable; five to seven is in the “maybe listen to this” or “this is kind of good” range, and eight to 10 is genuinely good “I recommend this.”*
FINAL RATING: 7
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