If I have one more thing to nitpick, though, it's that the ending could be shortened. You definitely get across the feel of an almost eerily tranquil passing of a dying world with impressive ability; I just think it could be a bit shorter than that.
The length of the song was definitely something I was conflicted on. I felt the intro AND outro were too long for peoples' attention spans, as was the instrumental passage in the middle.
But then I just decided fuck it. I listen to music like this myself, it's exactly how I want to hear it and it doesn't feel too long to my own ears - every once in a while I gotta just make something that pleases me first and foremost
TRUE STORY: I've been working on a video about the message of The Last of Us. The working title? "The Best of Us"... now I don't know if I should call it that. Mind if I put this in the credits or something? 'Cause it is really cool, and certainly a refreshing sound. Also, I think you and I are on totally opposite sides when it comes to interpreting the last of us, LOL.
If I have one more thing to nitpick, though, it's that the ending could be shortened. You definitely get across the feel of an almost eerily tranquil passing of a dying world with impressive ability; I just think it could be a bit shorter than that.
The length of the song was definitely something I was conflicted on. I felt the intro AND outro were too long for peoples' attention spans, as was the instrumental passage in the middle.
But then I just decided fuck it. I listen to music like this myself, it's exactly how I want to hear it and it doesn't feel too long to my own ears - every once in a while I gotta just make something that pleases me first and foremost
Of course. Create for yourself and just present it well for the audience. If you try to make something for everyone, you'll spread yourself too thin and please no one.
That has to be one of your best, and that's not an easy thing to be when comparing with your other works. I haven't been able to play the game yet (sold out and rented out everywhere over here.) so I didn't watch the video, but man the guitar in this one is what impressed me most.
The length seemed just right to me as well, sometimes a shorter melody is good, but from what I hear this is the greatest game ever, so an epic that spans over six minutes seems appropriate to me. This might have taken Distant Honors place as my favorite of your work.
Did this song flow together in creation quite easily? Or was this one of those really challenging ones where you experimented a lot and had to change lots to get it that certain way you desired it.
Great job Gavin! The next I would like Gavin to do is do a complete 180 from the tone of this song and do a song about the Deadpool game lol. It would just be interesting to see how crazy Gavin could go with it lol.
I'm feeling like I'm *this* close to 'getting' the song... but somehow I feel I can't quite put it together.
The lyrics allude to giving up what you once were, shedding who you once were and your old sense of right and wrong, in order to stay strong and resolute after the world has ended. But doesn't the game itself illustrate how that just leads to Joel and Ellie becoming monsters, rather than saviors? I always that's what the title meant; the best of us all all dead, and this is a story about who is left.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the song; I'm just confused. Can someone please help me understand?
On another note.
How are you Gav? You've made a few songs since the "tinnitus disaster", getting better?
I guess you still have some working with it, keep up the good work!
I'm feeling like I'm *this* close to 'getting' the song... but somehow I feel I can't quite put it together.
The lyrics allude to giving up what you once were, shedding who you once were and your old sense of right and wrong, in order to stay strong and resolute after the world has ended. But doesn't the game itself illustrate how that just leads to Joel and Ellie becoming monsters, rather than saviors? I always that's what the title meant; the best of us all all dead, and this is a story about who is left.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the song; I'm just confused. Can someone please help me understand?
Define 'best'. Best at what? Or at being cold blooded, mass murdering survivors maybe? That's one meaning. The other is to do with Ellie's choices at certain points in the story,
she want to sacrifice herself for the good of the many, but doesn't get the chance
I'm feeling like I'm *this* close to 'getting' the song... but somehow I feel I can't quite put it together.
The lyrics allude to giving up what you once were, shedding who you once were and your old sense of right and wrong, in order to stay strong and resolute after the world has ended. But doesn't the game itself illustrate how that just leads to Joel and Ellie becoming monsters, rather than saviors? I always that's what the title meant; the best of us all all dead, and this is a story about who is left.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the song; I'm just confused. Can someone please help me understand?
Define 'best'. Best at what? Or at being cold blooded, mass murdering survivors maybe? That's one meaning. The other is to do with Ellie's choices at certain points in the story,
she want to sacrifice herself for the good of the many, but doesn't get the chance
Absolutely beautiful. Your best work since Dream of the Sky... Which I know wasn't all that long ago, but still. Definately one of your best, and that's saying something.
I've listened to this song many times now before commenting and I have to say that I absolutely love it. However there is one tiny section which doesn't quite fit in my opinion and that's the "move like a shadow" part.
Whichever way you play the game Joel is shown to be a violent man who is desensitised to murder. I would have preferred "move like a shadow" to have been a more lyrical exploration of the morally questionable aspects of his behaviour during the game. Instead I find the section conveys a more passive image of the character, despite the rest of the song speaking of what Joel/Ellie will sacrifice in order to be the "best of us."
It's more of a personal preference I guess, after all I know you have spoken before about the fact that you write each song based on your personal experience with the game and I wouldn't want to dispute that.
Two still hands
A fragile, faded photograph
I walk in the shadow of
The missing half
Lyrical rebuttals aside, how can anyone get to the end of this game and not become angry?
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So, granted, this trope is so common in Zombie stories that my friend called it Zombie Plot #6, but apparently I haven't been exposed to enough zombie media to have seen it coming. The daughter chooses to lay down her life so that humanity can have a Cure, and the protagonist goes "NOPE! Gonna murder all the doctors now! Gonna lie to my kid. All so she can live another 2 or 3 years, tops, in a dystopian hellhole." Maybe I'm a sucker for the zeroth law of robotics but I kind of think humanity as a whole is more important than one life, especially because, GUESS WHAT, FATHER OF THE YEAR, if you doom the whole human race, YOU'RE DOOMING HER TOO!
If we look at zombies as an allegory for the Human Condition, the route taken by the protagonist is one we've all seen happen in real life. The group gets screwed over to promote the interests of one powerful individual. And if it was a parent who did the screwing-over, when you call them on it, they say something like "Well you don't have kids, so you wouldn't understand." And I know normally you can justify ANYTHING by squeeling "Somebody PLEASE think of the CHILDREN," but this game is trying to justify genocide of the entire human race. Really, game!? Really?
And I totally get it if the game was supposed to have this "secret band of data" that speaks to the parenting experience, but do we have to end with "Kill more people than Hitler! You're a good parent if you do!" It's not what the kid wants, and it's not what 100% of the human race wants. The dude in the game is fucking over literally everyone in the entire world.
}
I could see parents coming forward and saying "This game really made me think," or "It's sad, but true. In the heat of the moment, you really feel like that." But why are we holding this type of mentality up as something praiseworthy? Something noble and honorable and good and pure?
It's not. If you think about it for even a second, it's not. Screwing over strangers to help your kid DOES NOT help your kid! Because you can't help your kid more than a million other parents can hurt your kid. When every parent adopts this "fuck you, got mine" mentality, ALL kids suffer, including their own. We should be trying to find a way to be BETTER than this. Not reenforcing instincts that turn us into selfish assholes.
Yes, that's right! I said it! You can do something for someone else and still have it be a selfish, hateful act! All you have to do is be hurting more people than you're helping. More harm than good. This game went out of its way to illustrate the most hyperbolic example possible, and all anyone can do is applaud it and say how great of a dad this guy is! Really!? Come on, people!
Actually bands like Opeth & Tool inspired the structure, so yeah, metal/prog/post rock kind things
chozo_hybrid said:
Did this song flow together in creation quite easily? Or was this one of those really challenging ones where you experimented a lot and had to change lots to get it that certain way you desired it.
It was a tough song in that it took a long time to find the balance between being somewhat catchy and not being cheesy. It was also challenging in that I was pulling between what I wanted to hear and what I thought might alienate then listener - in the end it was one of those times where I was selfiSh and left it just as I wanted it
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