Yeah Civ IV Music!
by Alex
I admit: like everyone else who plays Civ IV I am in love with “the opening track”:http://sushi-delight.blogspot.com/2005/11/baba-yetu.html composed by “Chris Tin”:http://christophertin.com/biography.html and performed by “Talisman”:http://www.stanfordtalisman.com/html/frames.htm. Sure, in a post-Graceland, post-Lion King world this sort of thing sounds derivative, and Talisman’s website has loud music playing by default. But “just listen to it”:http://christophertin.com/samples/BabaYetu.mp3 (link to MP3)! I think Civ IV is one of the best-designed games EVER, and the entire thing oozes with classy, thoughtful presentation. While the soundtrack concept owes something to EU II, it avoids being a ‘greatest hits’ soundtrack (with the exception of the Allegri Miserere) and features John Adams in the modern period. That’s classy. Also the game has managed to jettison most of the ugly racist unilinear evolution evident in earler incarnations, and the opening sequence is heavy on the optimistic hope of global progress and low on blood and gore quotient. And there are, afaik, no Hot Coffee sequences squirrled away in any of the wonder movies. Way to go Sid — and especially way to go Chris Tin and Talisman!