Keita Takahashi’s surreal gaming masterpiece Katamari Damacy marks its 20th anniversary this year, and publisher Bandai Namco has done something truly meaningful to celebrate: It’s resolved whatever rights issues were keeping the game’s classic soundtrack album off music streaming services, and republished it. Royal rainbow!
The album, officially titled Katamari Fortissimo Damacy, really is one of the all-time great game soundtracks. (I’m listening to it as I type — you can find it on Spotify and Apple Music.) Fitting the cheerful, absurdist tone of a game about rolling up miscellaneous junk into ever larger balls until you consume the solar system itself, it’s an eclectic collage of styles in the shibuya-kei tradition: hectic bubblegum drum and bass, samba, lounge jazz, J-pop, hip-hop, electro, chiptunes, and more.
One of the things that makes this soundtrack so unique and memorable is that Bandai Namco didn’t assemble its jumble of styles by throwing licensed tracks into the mix. Incredibly, it’s all original and bespoke music for the game; the soundtrack was written and produced by a team led by Yuu Miyake, and lyrical and melodic themes keep recurring across its 21 tracks.
It’s all great, but if I was forced to pick highlights, I’d choose: “Lonely Rolling Star,” a lovely chiptune pop song with vocals by Saki Kabata; rolling and scatting swing jazz number “Red Rose with Gin & Tonic”; astral electro freak-out “Taste of an Angel”; the immaculate bossa nova stylings of “Roll Me In”; and the utterly adorable “Cherry Blossoms”, sung by a chorus of little kids over swooning strings and plucked acoustic guitar.
The only thing that could be better for your mood right now than listening to this soundtrack is playing Katamari Damacy. It’s available now in a remaster called Katamari Damacy Reroll for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One. There’s also a remaster available of its direct sequel We Love Katamari, which is just as good; hopefully that game’s soundtrack album is on its way back, too.
