StreamingSoundtracks.com - Bioshock

#	Track Listing	Length	Played
01	Bioshock Main Theme (The Ocean On His Shoulders) Garry Schyman	1:51	77
02	Welcome To Rapture Garry Schyman	1:47	64
03	Dr. Steinman Garry Schyman	0:59	7
04	The Docks Garry Schyman	0:53	8
05	The Dash Garry Schyman	0:35	7
06	Step Into My Gardens Garry Schyman	1:05	11
07	Dancers On A String Garry Schyman	1:28	10
08	Cohens Masterpiece Garry Schyman	2:53	132
09	The Engine City Garry Schyman	1:03	6
10	Empty Houses Garry Schyman	1:40	23
11	This Is Where They Sleep Garry Schyman	1:19	9
12	All Spliced Up Garry Schyman	0:59	8

Hint: Hover over buttons and album/artist name next to the cover for more info.

Reviewers Rating

1 review done for this album.

Not what I expected from a game score

By:	LadyInque
Date:	4 Jun 2009
Rating:

Most of the game scores I’ve heard are either electronic music of varying quality, or bombastic symphonic noise. This score, or at least, the tracks released, is different, because it is performed almost entirely by a small ensemble of strings. In that way, it sounds more like the score to an old horror movie. I think this may have been done to keep in flavor with the game’s setting, which is an underwater city in 1959, in which things have gone very, very, wrong. The score sounds more intimate, more emotional, than your usual game fare. Though as with other game scores, all of the tracks are rather short.

The “Bioshock Main Theme” is a perfect example. The strings here are slow and mournful, and the track is really very lovely. The themes from this track are repeated in #10, “Empty Houses.” The second track, “Welcome to Rapture,” has a Philip Glass quality to its urgent strings. “Cohen’s Masterpiece” is a solo piano piece. It doesn’t end satisfactorily, probably because, in the game, the pianist is brutally murdered mid-play. I rather wish some of these tracks were a little longer, so that there would be more room to develop the musical ideas.

There are some more horror and action tracks, but nothing jarring. “All Spliced Up” is the boss battle, so the score keeps pace with the face-kicking. “Dr. Steinman” is more horror, akin to the Psycho score.

Personally, I’d skip “The Docks,” which is mostly atmospheric sounds of boats in (you guessed it) a dock, with a jig played on accordion somewhere far away. I kinda like the string solo in “Welcome to my Gardens,” but it’s a pretty short track.

4 of 5 found this review helpful

Please log in to vote on this review

Please log in to write reviews and submit corrections.