So I'm making this a bit later than I was initially planning to, but it's been a busy past 6 days for me, and these posts require me to set aside no less than an hour to make them! But anyway, we're here now!
VoicePlay's cover of We All Lift Together was released on the 11th of July, 2025 (or the 12th of July in my case), and features Jose Rosario Jr. Digital Extremes, the creators of the videogame Warframe, once again commissioned VoicePlay to cover a song from the game, and this time it's coinciding with the game's 10th anniversary, as well as the annual Warframe convention, Tennocon (which is the upcoming weekend as I post this). Layne was in charge of the creative direction and video, and he co-arranged the song cover together with Rob Dietz. If you missed my post talking about the vocals/music itself, you can find it HERE.
As I may have mentioned in posts for Sleeping In The Cold Below and/or Party Of Your Lifetime, I'm very much not a Warframe player (and I haven't even watched any reaction videos from people who do play it, at least not yet). So I'm just gonna take the video for what it is, and leave the more specific Warframe references to other folks. Now finally, let's get into this!
This was filmed at Oviedo Mall, in the old loading dock of an old abandoned Sears store!
The contrasting blue and orange lights give a cool effect, and now that I think of it, they low-key remind me of the Hellfire video.
Speaking of lights, the neon pink sign on the right of screen is fake - it was added in post-production!
See look, now the neon sign isn't there! But anyway, time for some clothing talk!
The overall vibe is more or less "mining workers with some vague steampunk-ness" (as far as the guys' outfits go, I mean), which is pretty easy for Geoff! He's basically just wearing the same stuff that he did for his cover of Sixteen Tons (which was also one of his outfits for Big Bad John), just with a couple extra accessories (which I'll touch on when I get better shots of them). Also I'm pretty sure this is the first time this year we've seen Geoff sleeveless, on either VoicePlay's channel or his!
(Actually fun fact: Jose, Cesar, and Layne are all also wearing tank tops underneath their jackets, not t-shirts!)
The harness thing that Jose has is very cool, and it goes well with his plaid flannel jacket! I also like the goggles that he and Eli both have (though they have different pairs).
Funnily enough, this is the same positioning order as Sleeping In The Cold Below: Geoff-Eli-[collab]-Cesar-Layne
No contact lenses this time (luckily for the guys), the eye glow effects were done in post! (And apparently it's likely some sort of Warframe lore thing, based on a comment I read).
I love how the soundscape and the video work hand-in-hand here to depict each individual "powering up", like they're being switched on! Geoff and Eli especially do well with the movements, like Eli lifting up his goggles as he raises his head from its previously bowed position.
(I genuinely can't tell what's around Geoff's neck. Goggles? I guess?)
(Also I spy the glint of Geoff's necklace chain!)
Maybe it's just me, but Layne looks especially good in this video. Idk whether it's something he did with his hair, or his outfit, or a bit of both or what, but man I am Looking 👀
But also, it was kinda cool to see shots of Layne whistling and doing a bit of vocal percussion while being otherwise totally motionless! (As if he hasn't yet been fully powered up yet or something?)
Aka the moment where I wish I knew how to make gifs, because screenshots don't get the point across for this one!
But like if you've seen the video (of course you have), then you know what I'm referring to. The little "glitch effects", where Cesar's movement briefly rewinds itself, and then slightly goes "fast-forward", just within a few short seconds! (At least one Patron said they had a moment of thinking their device was acting up when they first watched this video 😄)
See the thing on Geoff's right arm? That was part of his outfit from Sleeping In The Cold Below!
Also I only just properly noticed during this rewatch that Layne has some sort of fingerless glove(?) thing that goes halfway up his right forearm. (And Cesar seems to have some pair of yellow gloves hanging off his belt or something).
Kinda amusing that Eli just has a big helmet clipped up to his belt for the whole video and it doesn't even get worn (though there's a moment in the BTS for this video where he wears it, and it's a funny little scene 😁).
I wanna know where they got the tools from! (The BTS didn't say). Did Geoff get some stuff from his dad's shed like he did for Sixteen Tons? Did one of the other guys have a garden shed of their own that they grabbed stuff from?
I'm always a fan of Cesar's painted nails <3
(Also this is just a good screencap ngl)
THIS... is a very random thing but Geoff's hand movement here rung a bell in my mind, just a little moment of "I've seen him do that sort of movement before!" I believe he did it in Heavy Is The Crown, though I still haven't gone back to check, and I believe it's also a "c'mon"-accompanying gesture in Sixteen Tons and/or Seven Nation Army
On a different note, some Patrons have expressed amusement and/or befuddlement over how VP are meant to be portraying workers (or if you wanna be game-lore-accurate, wage slaves), but they're clean as a whistle in this video! (And it's not like we haven't seen them dirtied up before, and it's not like they don't still look incredibly good in such cases!). But they definitely didn't spare much effort in acquring literal tools to help sell the concept! 😄
I like the little moment of Layne and Cesar turning to look at each other here, still keeping the slightly robotic/animatronic movement style!
Hologram Layne! Hologram Layne!!
(VoicePlay really aren't beating the "nonhuman" allegations after this video /lh)
Voiceplay really aren't beating the "nonhuman" allegations after this video!!
But seriously, I really love this little moment of Geoff appearing to fix/adjust part of his own arm; like it's clear that the handlebar thing he's wearing is meant to actually be part of his actual arm in this video, as part of his 'character'! (Oh and there's another very brief "glitch effect" as he does this motion, and there are exactly 2 frames where it's noticeable!)
(Also holy muscles Batman!!! Like my god sir how have you somehow become even more jacked? (I say with much affection and adoration))
This little "power-off" "fakeout" moment is an interesting touch for the video, and when I eventually get around to watching reaction videos for this, I'm sure I'll be seeing at least a few (or more) people wondering if the song is finished already at this point! (Also I haven't listened to the audio streaming track for this, but I have been informed in the Discord that the track on Spotify and other music platforms doesn't have this pause moment, and is an uninterrupted moment).
(Also this reminds me of being in drama club in high school. I have my reasons!)
Am I going insane or does this shot look slightly less saturated and/or slightly "colder" in temperature compared to the opening shot? Is it just the shot angle and how much of the background is being shown? Like showing more of the left-hand side?
And now they've been put back on Sleep Mode! 😝
And there you have it! Not a hugely massive post (not as big as my last one, certainly), but definitely still enough to make this worthwhile! Hope you enjoyed, and hopefully I shall see you for at least a couple more of these sort of posts before the year is done! Until next time!
Oh heck yeah that was really freaking cool! Still maybe doesn't beat Hunt The Sky for me (and maybe also I'm just biased), but absolutely this is a solid second place favourite for the year!
Me as the video began: Hm, I'm not quite sure if there's enough here for a Voiceplay Visuals post...
Me, about 2 and a half minutes later into the video: Okay nevermind I'm definitely making a Voiceplay Visuals post for this.
So yeah, this post is strictly for talking about the song itself and the vocals and all that - all the onscreen stuff will be left for its own post! So yeah, I now have the lyrics up on my phone, and it's time for a relisten, with me typing my thoughts as I go!
Rather than having Omar Cardona this time around, like with the last two Warframe songs, this cover features Jose Rosario Jr! (Which means I can finally cross off a square on my VoicePlay 2025 bingo!)
Genius Lyrics actually specifies that the original song starts with "whistling, then humming". VoicePlay goes one better and starts with whistling and humming, with some extra percussive sounds as well (claps? Or like the sound of one thing hitting another thing? Hard to tell).
Then, the whistling drops out and the humming stays, and now there's sounds of metal striking metal in the background, while Geoff does some sort of bass vocal technique, and honestly I might talk about this bit more in my Voiceplay Visuals post because words are hard right now and this bit really has the visuals going hand-in-hand with the soundscape (there's a lot to focus on in the first 25 seconds!)
Anyway, lyrics time.
Jose Rosario Jr, killing it as always. Dude has such a presence about him, and a great voice of course, like he totally is perfect for this song!
I like that the lead vocals starts jumping from person to person on the second verse, when they're singing about "this, the song of sons and daughters", and "strong, united", like it's kind of proving to you that this is a song meant to be sung by multiple people together!
"...working till we FALL" Always gotta love when Geoff does some low bass vocals on a line with a word like "fall" or "drop" or "down" (or "below"!) 😁
Okay so apparently the "first verse" is actually the chorus, and the "second verse" is actually the post-chorus, and both of them repeat in that order, and then the song has a short outtro verse, and that's it! Mr Brightside vibes ngl. But VoicePlay is of course no stranger to messing around with song structures, as well as making repetitive songs sound not-so-repetitive! (I wonder who arranged this one? Layne? Layne + Eli?)
So VoicePlay has brought in the outro verse at an earlier point than in the original song, and in a way, you could even argue that in their version, it's actually the chorus!
Man I can feel some of these harmonies in my stomach! (It's because of Geoff, of course)
I like how you have really tight harmonies, and then Geoff drops out for "the land we call our home", so it's just the higher voices (Eli, Jose, and Cesar) singing, before coming back in for the next line, but the harmonies are a bit wider now I think? Like you can hear Geoff's voice a bit more distinctly.
Speaking of Geoff, he then gets the next verse all to himself (in terms of lead vocals), and goes from upper-mid range to lower range and back again ever so casually like it's a piece of cake (love him <3)
A quick bit of bell tones(?) from Layne and Cesar, or something like that?
Back to the feel-it-in-my-stomach harmonies!
CESAR! Damn that riff was wild! Was that phrygian cadence or something? I remember one or two reactors talking about it in reaction videos for If I Was A Rich Man/Girl, where VoicePlay did something similar at one point in the song
Was that Layne's voice in the background with some crazy techno post production effects on it? I missed that the first time around!
I absolutely love it when VoicePlay does a quickfire one-by-one vocal build, where one person sings something and holds on the last note, while another person does the same thing, and then another, and another! They did it towards the end of Sleeping In The Cold Below and it was great!
Wait hang on a minute, there's a new section that VoicePlay added in! "Cold, air. Hard, land. Strong, together. Still. We. Stand!" (and repeat). It's based off the pre-existing lyrics (other than the "still we stand" bit, but it's definitely not a section I can find on Genius or the Wiki! See this is why I check lyrics of the original song! Because I wouldn't catch stuff like this otherwise!
Seriously Geoff's background rumbles are insane in this one; I keep being like "what the heck is Geoff doing back there?"
And as is typical of many VoicePlay covers (not all, but many), the ending brings us back down to more or less where we started!
I'm typing this up on Thursday afternoon, the 10th of July, because us Patrons only got this video about 36 hours before the general public did, due to the client agreement/contract VoicePlay had with the Warframe team. I can't say for sure when I'll have a Voiceplay Visuals post ready to go for this video, but definitely no later than Thursday. See y'all then!
Another new VoicePlay video? Only a month after the previous one? Oh, praise be!
So this is the third time VoicePlay have covered a song from Warframe, and the second time they've done so as an official collaboration with the creators/developers themselves!
I haven't heard this song before, but I do remember people suggesting it in the comments of Sleeping In The Cold Below, and saying that they'd love to hear VoicePlay's take on it. And I really enjoyed Party Of Your Lifetime and loved Sleeping In The Cold Below, so I've got high hopes for this one!
As always, I'll have a thoughts/commentary post ready to go for just after the YouTube release, and this video might be worth a Voiceplay Visuals post as well? See you there!
