Video game soundtracks. Sometimes shite. Sometimes alright. Hannah Ryan delves into the archives to pick out a favourite.
When you find yourself in search of a trustworthy spot to find some of the best music of the year come autumn, with just a few months left before it all draws to a close, where do you first turn? Is it Pitchfork? Do you leaf through pages and pages of ‘Albums of the Year’ countdowns nestled at the heart of culture sections in newspapers? If so I would like to offer up an alternative place in which the year’s cream of the crop can often be found without fail, alongside a substantial selection of smaller international artists brimming with potential. This is a site upon which tears, too, are shed and impossible battles won amidst a collection of summer bops and lo-fi spring beats – an amalgamation of the year’s most invigorating musical offerings and a timeless provider of triumph. This is, of course, is EA Sports’ behemoth: FIFA and its accompanying soundtracks.
The first time I picked up a PS2 controller and entered into a race for the Premier League title, it was 2002 and Robbie Keane was the coveted star at my beloved Tottenham Hotspur. Ryan Giggs was hailed as a hero at Manchester United and was yet untouched by the romantic scandals that would come to surround him in later years. VAR was a thing of the future and no one could imagine that it would eventually serve as the maker of men and destroyer of worlds in the Champion’s League. Times were different. Perhaps the greatest aspect of this particular edition of FIFA, however, was not the fact that I could leave Arsenal in the dust in consecutive North London Derbies in the virtual realm – where Spurs could not manage it in the real world – but rather the fact that FIFA 2003’s soundtrack contained some of the most definitive artists of the early noughties. From Ms. Dynamite to Kosheen, each track was woven so effortlessly alongside the selection of a dream starting XI is its finest achievement.
Floating amongst the notable coolness of the aforementioned artists on FIFA 03, too, was that great emblem of the era – Canadian beacon of punk pop – Avril Lavigne. ‘Complicated’ taught an entire generation of kids everything they knew about love and turmoil, most of whom I can only presume, like me, first came into contact with it as they attempted to orchestrate a state of play in the midfield that would ensure victory in the Community Shield. As I grappled with my first real taste of loss – in the form of a devastating penalty shoot-out against Chelsea at an animated White Hart Lane – Lavigne was on hand to let me know that romantic heartache could – and would – sting just as much as defeat on the grass did.
There they stood side by side, Kosheen, Ms. Dynamite, and Lavigne. Each of them emerged from FIFA 03 to teach me a different lesson (one on love, one on boogying, and one on radiating cool – even as a child) and each, in their own way, captured the varying spirits of 2002 and 2003, as British R&B sat comfortably next to teenaged punk rock, and set the precedent for the future of FIFA soundtracks – where adhering to the conventions of just one genre was simply never an option. Now, we sit in a genre-less world and maybe, just maybe, we have FIFA 03 to thank.
