Listening/music info: Bandcamp
Info
This is a mostly “original” album attributed to Junebug, a fictional singer-songwriter from the game Kentucky Route Zero. In a memorable scene in Act III, she performs the title track “Too Late to Love You” with her musician partner Johnny, and this album features that song with ten others which were not used in the game. They were all recorded in 2014 and 2015 during the development of the game, but the album was only released in 2020 after the final act came out. It’s a flavor thing, what they might in Japan call an image album.
Junebug’s vocals were performed by the composer of the game and album himself, Ben Babbitt, by piping his voice through a bunch of effects. The result is haunting and strained, drawn thin through both mechanical process and the songs’ emotions of heartbreak and all that. It’s interesting, and the ghostliness pairing well with the haziness of the instrumentals in a way that’s evocative of the game as a whole.
The songs are mostly slow, ballad-y synthpop/dream pop, which makes sense given that Babbitt’s (great!) score for the game is generally very ambient synth music. It’s mysterious and emotionally evocative, sounding like an unlabeled cassette you found in a box or a half-remembered dream.
Recommended tracks:
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“Static Between Stations” is the song which I think is the most directly about the game itself lyrically, and it has a cool instrumental outro that reminds me of something I can’t quite place (maybe “Point of Departure” by Necros?)
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“Poison Dream” has a fun bit at 2:50 where the snare hit starts moving around a bit, messing with the phrasing a little
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“Interlude” is one of two short instrumental tracks, this one would’ve fit right in as part of the game’s background music
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“Out Here” has the most musically striking moment on the album to me at 3:06, huge chords pitch bending through consonance and dissonance
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