Exclusive Review: FIFA Street 3 soundtrack

As part of Gamertell’s exclusive look at the music behind FIFA Street 3, we received an early version of the game’s soundtrack to review.

Die hard fans of groove music and football (not the American kind) will be mightily pleased with EA Canada’s new entry into the FIFA Street series. Scheduled for release on February 18, 2008, the game features a bevy of phat beats and Gamertell was lucky enough to get an exclusive early listen.

The soundtrack features more than thirty songs and by more than twenty artists, most of whom are international or world music performers. You won’t hear any familiar artists like Moby or Fallout Boy, but the collection is largely reminiscent of these two artists.

It’s interesting to hear the vibrant, multicultural flavors these artists add to the generally lukewarm arena of videogame music, especially in games that are based on sports. The change is right in step with the tangential nature of FIFA Street 3 (judging by the demo, see below), a game that has opted to put most of its energy into fluidity of motion and seamless exterior. The music matches the gameplay perfectly in this respect because its very rhythmic, designed to make you want to dance or move your body, syncing quite nicely with the actual game of soccer. Fans of Kevin Smith’s Dogma will remember that the sport is second only to raining down fire in terms of most demanding physical feats. (Hey, it’s in the Bible, look it up.)

There are a few songs that you’ll want to look out for when you get into the game. Make these your anthems, because they’re the most likely to help rev you up to get a few extra goals.

The angst-ridden “Party” by Inner is one of the highlights, and one of the few songs that solidly elevates above the standard dance and techno milieu. “Bird Flu” by Mia and “Let the beats Roll” by Time Deluxe are also two tunes that will stick in your musical craw, the first being a salty Puerto Rican mix with a Fergie-like delivery, and the second a solid, cockney groove-fest. My personal favorite was a little tune called “Humildade da Favela” by Amilcka. Heavy, afro-cuban rhythms match the sounds of sirens and tuba. That’s right, I said it, tuba. Funky funky tuba. There’s even a very subtle sample of the beginning strains of the movie Halloween. This is Portuguese hip-hop at its best, folks (at least I think it’s Portuguese).

And that’s the best part about these songs. The most refreshing aspect becomes the inclusion of tracks in multiple languages featuring musical genres of many different nations. English is there, and one might even argue that it’s prevalent, but there are Spanish and French tracks too, which is a well placed homage to the international popularity of the sport. Okay, international popularity everywhere except America. Remember the last Super Bowl, though? Yeah, me neither.

The centerpiece track (and probably the most distinctive) is a remix of DataRock’s “I Used to Dance With My Daddy,” a song which will instantly make you want to kick a checkered ball at a net and/or get down with your bad self. Faithful readers will recall our exclusive interview with the band’s lead man Fredrik Saroea in which he comments on video game soundtracks:

If you looked at EA games, it’s very much alternative compilations that most people have never heard of unless they’ve played the games. The fact is some of these games sell by the millions and some of these have acts you have never heard of before. They present opportunities for bands to get exposure.

EA is hoping that soccer will get more exposure as well, a desire that clearly shows in the demo for FIFA Street 3 which went up on Xbox Live earlier this month. Playing it, one gets the sense that this game isn’t for diehard fans of the franchise. The demo, in fact, didn’t garner the sweetest of receptions from the community, mostly because (in my humble opinion) the newest chapter takes such a hard turn from the traditional lineage.

As I said before, this game appears to be about fluidity of motion and international appeal, not graphic power-housing or pandering to the status quo. Definitely a clever play in the face of Nintendo’s massive assault on the untapped market, and one that the soundtrack complements perfectly. All of the beats per minute for the songs are in the 90-140 range, a nice active spread for dance music or soccer. American fans of soccer video games love their meat and potatoes though, and fooling around with their game appears to have made them cranky.

Still, even if you’re not a fan of the new direction the franchise has opted for, you’ll definitely appreciate the music. Clean cut dance harmony, hip-hop delivery, and ambient electronica are the ingredients for the sonic background here. There’s even a dose of hardcore grit for when you’re getting your ass handed to you. Well played Canada, well played.

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