[REVIEW] Madden 2012 Soundtrack
Most of my favorite personal pastimes begin with the letter "m". One is obviously music, one is illegal, one continuously leads to enormous amounts of Catholic shame and guilt, and one is the widely-played EA Sports football game series Madden. God only knows what I could have accomplished in life by now if I had channeled the energy I put into Madden towards something constructive.
It started in the early 90s, when the game first hit the market. My dad and I would go head-to-head 3-4 times a week. In the beginning, he held his own for an old dude. However, I eventually became just straight unbeatable: I was a master at executing the HB Toss play, and I would crush his spirit by ALWAYS going for it on 4th down and CONVERTING. We still fire it up every now and then, but I have to "take it easy" on him. He's savvy enough to be competitive but hasn't won a game in over a decade. It's still fun, and I'm always thoroughly entertained by the perplexed look he has on his face as he tries to figure out the controls and navigate through the play-calling windows. It's like a caveman stumbling upon a cell phone.
Aside from that, over the years, I've gotten unhealthily engrossed in Madden's various modes -- Franchise Mode, Dynasty Mode, Superstar Mode, etc. I'll take the worst team in the league, and through some front-office wizardry, bring them along from bottom of the barrel to Super Bowl champion status. Or I'll make myself a white running back and see how many ankles I can destroy with my killer spin moves and incredibly athletic left-right jukes (the game is pretty realistic: I always end up as a bruising workhorse of a back and never an explosive game-changer with breakaway speed...sigh).
I've been doing this since the late 90s or so, and every year, it's always the same: the new version of the game drops in the middle of the summer, and for the next three months (who am I kidding -- all football season long), I'm in a Madden twilight zone. You would think that after high school and college, I'd discontinue this behavior and focus more on my "adult responsibilities" -- you know, my job, finding a woman to procreate with, building a future for myself, blah-blah-blah. But no, here I am at 28, and I still stay awake at night thinking about fake coaching schemes, fake draft prospects, and how the fake media will describe my different fake players. I'm sure there's an apt psychoanalysis out there about me trying to somehow live out my unfulfilled sports fantasies. But whatever, there are worse things I could be doing. And besides, I love it, and I'm fucking awesome!
Interestingly enough, Madden has been intersecting with another one of my pastimes more and more over the last 4-5 years -- music. The Madden soundtracks have really become a source of new music for me. Sometimes the tracks are by rookie groups or artists who no one has really heard yet. And sometimes the tracks have been around, but for one reason or another, they've never found their way into my iTunes library. Whatever the case, I typically add about 6-8 Madden tracks to my collection every year.
So, I thought I'd do you non-Madden players out there a favor and give you a quick review of this year's soundtrack and note what I think are the 10 best tracks. This year, EA got back to form and put together a pretty rad, eclectic mix of tunes. Last year and the year before, I was able to pull out some fresh material, but the soundtracks were too laden with classic rock and metal: Nirvana, Rage, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Alice in Chains, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Pantera, System of a Down, Bush, and Ozzy Osbourne. Obviously, this is all great stuff, but I've come to expect Madden to expose me to some new artists and genres and nudge me out of my comfort zone. This year, they just did that and turned down the metal and tossed in some edgy hip-hop, some explosive dubstep, and some emotive indie rock.
1.) "Colours" - Grouplove
2.) "6 foot 7 foot" - Lil' Wayne ft. Cory Gunz
3.) "That Ain't Classy" - Classified
4.) "Last Man Standing" - Asher Roth ft. Akon
5.) "Pass Out" - Tinie Tempah
6.) "Get Up!" - KoRn ft. Skrillex
7.) "Ghetto Dreams" - Common ft. Nas
8.) "They Reminisce Over You" - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
9.) "Bridge Burning" - Foo Fighters
10.) "Make Some Noise" - Beastie Boys
