The Music of the Game

We have around half a year until the new season of Game of Thrones unfolds. There's no telling when George R.R. Martin might actually finish writing the next book. What's a fan to do to scratch the Ice and Fire itch?

Well, there is the TV series' season 3 soundtrack album, from composer Ramin Djawadi.

I've written before about the solid first season soundtrack and the even better second season soundtrack. The third installment is perhaps the weakest entry of three, but it may still be a worthwhile addition to a fan's collection. It doesn't really have any major "5-star tracks" like the earlier albums, perhaps because many of the biggest storytelling moments of the season are more personal in nature, rather than slugged out over a raging battlefield. Still, there is plenty of good music here.

There's something engaging about the insistent, almost melancholy "A Lannister Always Pays His Debts." The initially slow and brooding "Dracarys" ultimately gives way to a thunderous chanting chorus. The uneasy bookends of "Wall of Ice" contain a harrowing burst of percussion in the core. And you can hear a horror in the tracks "Reek" and the pivotal "The Lannisters Send Their Regards."

Not everything on the album is a winner. Young "Shireen's Song," moving enough in the context of the episode in which it appears, is simply a breathy child singing awkwardly without accompaniment on the album. "Kingslayer" is not nearly as moving on its own as it is with Jaime's story to go with it. And I didn't like the anachronistic punk rock "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" even when it ran over the end credits of one episode; I like it no better mixed in with an otherwise orchestral album.

In all, I'd give the season 3 soundtrack album a B-. Cherry picking the better half of the album and discarding the rest, I have enjoyed listening to it. That may not be quite enough "good stuff" for everyone's collection, but it'll get me through a dry spell for things Game of Thrones related.