vinylfanatics.com

**★★★★☆**

In the pantheon of video game soundtracks, few albums possess the peculiar alchemy of innocence and menace that defines Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka's score for *Mother*. Released in 1989 for the Nintendo Famicom, this collection of 8-bit compositions would go on to influence a generation of musicians and game developers, despite the RPG itself never officially reaching Western shores until decades later. What emerges from the primitive sound chip constraints is nothing short of remarkable: a sonic journey that feels simultaneously nostalgic and unsettling, like stumbling upon childhood memories that have been subtly corrupted by time.

The genesis of *Mother* – known as *EarthBound Beginnings* to later Western audiences – began with an ambitious vision from Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and writer Shigesato Itoi to create a distinctly American-flavoured RPG. While most Japanese role-playing games drew inspiration from medieval fantasy, *Mother* would be set in a 1980s suburban landscape populated by baseball bats, hamburgers, and hostile hippies. This cultural pastiche demanded a soundtrack that could navigate between the mundane and the surreal, a task that fell to the unlikely duo of Suzuki and Tanaka.

Suzuki, better known as the frontman of Japanese new wave outfit Moonriders, brought an art-rock sensibility to the project that was virtually unprecedented in gaming. His collaborator Tanaka, already established as one of Nintendo's premier sound designers through his work on *Metroid* and *Kid Icarus*, provided the technical wizardry necessary to translate these ambitious compositions into the Famicom's limited audio palette. Together, they crafted something that transcended the medium's typical beeps and bloops, creating what might generously be called the first truly cinematic video game soundtrack.

The album opens with "Pollyanna (I Believe in You)," a deceptively simple melody that manages to convey both optimism and melancholy within its brief runtime. It's a mission statement of sorts, establishing the emotional complexity that runs throughout the entire work. The track exemplifies Suzuki and Tanaka's genius for wringing maximum emotional impact from minimal resources – each note feels carefully considered, every melodic phrase weighted with significance.

"Bein' Friends" stands as perhaps the collection's masterpiece, a lullaby-like composition that gradually reveals darker undertones. The way it shifts between major and minor keys mirrors the game's central theme of childhood innocence confronting cosmic horror. Meanwhile, "Youngtown" captures the essence of small-town Americana through a distinctly Japanese lens, creating something that feels both familiar and alien – a perfect encapsulation of the game's cultural cross-pollination.

The more experimental pieces showcase Suzuki's new wave credentials. "Magicant" is a dreamy, ethereal composition that wouldn't sound out of place on a Moonriders album, while the various battle themes demonstrate how effectively 8-bit limitations could be used to create genuine tension and excitement. "Mt. Itoi" builds to a climactic confrontation that feels genuinely epic despite – or perhaps because of – its technological constraints.

What sets this soundtrack apart from its contemporaries is its emotional sophistication. Where most video game music of the era focused on creating atmosphere or pumping up the action, Suzuki and Tanaka crafted compositions that told stories, developed themes, and explored complex emotional territories. The result feels less like background music and more like a proper album – one that rewards careful listening and reveals new details with each encounter.

The influence of *Mother*'s soundtrack has been profound and far-reaching. Artists like Anamanaguchi, Chipzel, and countless others working in the chiptune genre owe a debt to Suzuki and Tanaka's pioneering work. More importantly, it demonstrated that video game music could be art in its own right, not merely functional accompaniment. The emotional depth and musical sophistication on display here paved the way for the medium to be taken seriously as a creative force.

Today, nearly thirty-five years after its initial release, the *Mother* soundtrack remains a towering achievement in both video game music and electronic composition more broadly. It's a work that manages to be both of its time and timeless, capturing the specific magic of early Nintendo while transcending those limitations to create something genuinely moving and enduring. For anyone interested in the evolution of electronic music or the artistic potential of video game soundtracks, this remains essential listening