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Spoiler warning:
This post mentions the settings and a couple of the broad background themes of chapter 4, as they inform stylistic decisions made with the soundtrack, but it doesn’t otherwise reference the main story themes, specific plot events, or characters. The titles of the sample tracks don’t explicitly reference story events or characters, but some of them do mention locations by name.
Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: Bandcamp (tracks 39-78, including hidden tracks), Steam (disc 4)
Credits
BGM: Toby Fox
Arrangement (“Gyaa Ha ha!”): Alex Rosetti
Info
Luckily, chapter 3 being my least favorite soundtrack is immediately counterbalanced by chapter 4 being my favorite soundtrack by Toby Fox!
The chapter starts off in town, so there are a few new pieces to go along with that whole deal, mostly chill and easygoing piano tracks though there are some others with different instrumentation and moods to better fit the specific ways they’re used. It’s about on par with the town music from earlier chapters I’d say, comfy but nothing especially fancy.
The bulk of the soundtrack comes after the dark world segment starts, which in this chapter takes place in a church sanctuary full of people who talk religiously and philosophically. The soundtrack takes a pretty obvious approach for this setting and embraces mystical-sounding minimalism, with slightly more atmospheric area and event themes with repeating figures. And that’s very much my kind of thing, so I really appreciate that musical direction.
There are also more weird/experimental ambient themes in this chapter than there’s been previously, and this is of course also very much my kind of thing. Some music from previous chapters has played with sample pitches and detuning but it definitely felt like there was a lot more of it in this chapter, both in ambient themes for an uneasy effect and in action themes for some crunchy dissonance, and that’s also cool! I got lucky and Fox decided to cross off a few different checkboxes on the list of things I like in music at the same time.
One track in the game was arranged by Alex Rosetti a.k.a. Albatross Soup, an artist I’ve never heard anything by but who’s worked with Fox before on Homestuck and chapter 2 of visual novel Soul of Sovereignty. It stands apart a bit from the other tracks in the game through its folkier instrumentation, so I think it’s pretty easy to tell it’s by a different person.
Recommended tracks:
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“Another day in hometown” is one of the jauntier piano tracks
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“Hymn (Corrupted)” isn’t properly a track on the soundtrack but rather a dynamically glitched version of “Hymn” that plays in a couple of random side rooms (I spent all day listening to five different recordings I made to figure out which one I liked best, because I’m extremely normal)
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“Ripple” has a bunch of real weird bell stuff happening in the back behind the loud drums
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“13am” has some super long, phasing sustains
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“The Third Sanctuary” gets gnarly with the time signatures
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“With Hope Crossed On Our Hearts” mixes super prominent drum machine with some deep chimey chords
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