Kirby's Dream Band: A Lost in the Music review

I love the Kirby series.

I love how the cutesy, cartoony colours and game-play belie its difficulty and nightmarish villains. From enemies that are the embodiment of darkness who will rip out their eye and attack you with its blood, to enemies who use you as a patsy so they could usurp power from a godlike being and take over the galaxy.

Enter Kirby's Dream Band, a group of musicians who have put out their first album, crowdsourced through Kickstarter. From the first listen, I know I am in for a real treat as the two keyboardist Ian Luckey and Mike Montemorano work along side guitarists Ryan Munz and Ryan Olson. The four really brings out the frantic energy that Kirby music is known for, while on the bassist Andre Beller and drummer Erich Beckmann provide the backing of the songs, rounding them out and making the tracks feel complete.

One thing that impresses me with the group is how they have treated a couple of songs as an amalgamation of other songs. An example is with the first track on the album Whyspy Woods. It is a combination of both the Green Greens track from Kirby Super Star and Vegetable Valley from Kirby's Adventure.

Another example, and by far my favourite track on the album would be Milky Way Wishes which combines the two tracks from the titular game. It combines the last two tracks into one cohesive package and the group has you believe that you are a true hero. The music fills the listener with so much energy that you simply want to run out into the world. It is a great feeling.

As much as I love this album, I have two problems with it and to some people it can be considered petty. I would have loved to have heard the groups rendition of the 02 or the Marx/Marx's Soul battle themes. Those tracks showcase just how fast the mood can change in the Kirby games and I would have loved to hear a cover of it. I believe that the musicians could have pulled it off and made them something special.

This brings up my second issue with the album is that it is not strictly a Kirby album. Of the 16 songs on the album, 6 of them are from other games and while I think the songs are good, I don't feel they belong on the album. Which brings up the first problem in having 02 and Marx/Marx Soul tracks omitted from the album. I don't know why the band decided to omit these songs, but I do hope with their next album they cover these two tracks.

Nonetheless, this is not a bad album. The artists do a great job and all 6 performers mesh well., I just wish they had stuck strictly to Kirby songs as they don't nearly get as much attention as other games do. Despite this issue, this is a solid album and worth a purchase.

You can find Kirby: The Pink Album over at Bandcamp. I would suggest purchasing the album as it is great to listen to and I would love to hear more from this group.

This is Daimo Mac and I am lost in the music.