Legend of the Boar Knight
A Grand Story + Fantastic Video Game Covers = This Album!
Band - Careless Juja
Type of Album - Original story mixed with video game covers.
Genres - Alternative rock plus accordion.
Favorite Tracks - In no particular order...
- Songs
- Matoya the Witch - Final Fantasy 1
- Title Medley - Mega Man Battle Network 1, 2, 3.
- Sword Search - Link's Awakening
- Chapters
- Chapter 7 - The Hard Sell (Part 2)
- This Concludes Side One
- Chapter 16 - Cheater Can't Be Choosers
Review - Once again, I've been struck by the great presence of the Careless from the awesome duo of Careless Juja. He came along and slipped me an early release copy so I could give a review of another one of their fine albums. Nothing more to add here, so let's hop right into it!
The Legend of the Boar Knight is a two CD album featuring video game coverss alongside an original story, full of various video game references. It sounds strange and different, but that's far from what it should be called! So that I can be fair to both parts of this album, I figure I should review both portions separately. (That is, take a shot at both the great music contained within as well as the story that is being told.) Let's start with the story and swing back around to the music.
The story of the Boar Knight is the tale of a boar named Nathaniel. He journeys throughout the land in order to defeat the evil that abounds. Lichs, Dragons, Hipsters, and much more block Nathaniel's path to defeating the ultimate evil... an Undead Butcher! There's a lot of variety and game references contained throughout. That should be a given of course, but on top of that is still a lot of great jokes and humor. The Narrator is a very entertaining personality, and he even teaches us some random grammar lessons here and there. (Something many of us could probably use...)
It's a very entertaining and well written story overall. If there were a larger and more detailed version of Legend of the Boar Knight, I'd read it to get the full story. The only problem I had... The story is neat and all, but after the first several listens, you almost want to skip the story and jump into the music. (Much like they discussed in the track "This Concludes Side One".) I still listen to them every go through the album, but I'm generally tempted to skip and keep going.
Regardless of my minor complaint, I'd still say it is a fairly strong story with lots of great humor and good points. I'd rather listen to this than read some of the things I see every day. All in all, the story gets a pass in my book. And you best not forget... We still get to enjoy all that fantastic music!
In between all the entertaining story segments you get your face blasted off with some amazing video game remixed covers! Of all the bands/groups/artists I've heard in the video game band genre, I'd say Careless Juja does the best about their variety of game music selection. We get your daily dose of Legend of Zelda and Castlevania next to random and awesome and uncommon titles like Mega Man Battle Network, Pheonix Wright, King's Quest, and Rogue Legacy. It's a smorgasbord of video game music!
Even beyond the excellent selection given here, they show off their talents even further (Inside album joke - Learned something from the album after all!) with their skills and instrument capability. Each song is carefully covered and further improved through the various use of the accordion and many other instruments. They really match the beat and flow of every song. For me, each track is an explosion into a past video game venture (a nostalgia bomb of sorts).
That being said, I do wish a few of the songs were slightly longer. And that's it for any remote form of negativity to be had with the music. Nuff said.
A special note before I wrap up this review though... Holy cow there are a lot of guests here! I know that a lot of the voices were done by Juja, but there's a lot of guest voices included as well. I directly recognized Brentalfloss's voice (and double checked in their credits) during the Shop Salesman bit in Chapter 6 and 7. I don't recognize everybody on their list, (Available on the bandcamp page as of right now.) Beyond the voices contained within is a plethora of instrumental guests. I know a few of the people on the list. Brandon Strader, Lauren the Flute, and... that's it actually. I don't recognize any of the other artists directly, but I bet I've heard their material before. (Most likely on a previous Careless Juja album!) /end special note
The Legend of the Boar Knight is the album you didn't know you wanted. It's got a great story. It's got great video game music. It's the all-in-one package with an explosion of greatness. There's a lot of material to get through, but it's more than worth your time. With enough love and laughs to get you through the evening, Careless Juja (and a pile of guest musicians) has brought us another winner!
Pros - Original story with fun jokes and a lot of wit. Huge variety of video game music contained throughout. Well done covers. Huge list of fantastical instrumental and vocal guest stars. It's everything you wanted in a video game cover album and more!
The album will drop on March 7th. I've already pre-ordered my copy, and you should get on down and get yours too! Thanks for the read and I'll see you next time... ON RECURRING FANTASY!
The Legend of the Boar Knight is a two CD album featuring video game coverss alongside an original story, full of various video game references. It sounds strange and different, but that's far from what it should be called! So that I can be fair to both parts of this album, I figure I should review both portions separately. (That is, take a shot at both the great music contained within as well as the story that is being told.) Let's start with the story and swing back around to the music.
The story of the Boar Knight is the tale of a boar named Nathaniel. He journeys throughout the land in order to defeat the evil that abounds. Lichs, Dragons, Hipsters, and much more block Nathaniel's path to defeating the ultimate evil... an Undead Butcher! There's a lot of variety and game references contained throughout. That should be a given of course, but on top of that is still a lot of great jokes and humor. The Narrator is a very entertaining personality, and he even teaches us some random grammar lessons here and there. (Something many of us could probably use...)
It's a very entertaining and well written story overall. If there were a larger and more detailed version of Legend of the Boar Knight, I'd read it to get the full story. The only problem I had... The story is neat and all, but after the first several listens, you almost want to skip the story and jump into the music. (Much like they discussed in the track "This Concludes Side One".) I still listen to them every go through the album, but I'm generally tempted to skip and keep going.
Regardless of my minor complaint, I'd still say it is a fairly strong story with lots of great humor and good points. I'd rather listen to this than read some of the things I see every day. All in all, the story gets a pass in my book. And you best not forget... We still get to enjoy all that fantastic music!
In between all the entertaining story segments you get your face blasted off with some amazing video game remixed covers! Of all the bands/groups/artists I've heard in the video game band genre, I'd say Careless Juja does the best about their variety of game music selection. We get your daily dose of Legend of Zelda and Castlevania next to random and awesome and uncommon titles like Mega Man Battle Network, Pheonix Wright, King's Quest, and Rogue Legacy. It's a smorgasbord of video game music!
Even beyond the excellent selection given here, they show off their talents even further (Inside album joke - Learned something from the album after all!) with their skills and instrument capability. Each song is carefully covered and further improved through the various use of the accordion and many other instruments. They really match the beat and flow of every song. For me, each track is an explosion into a past video game venture (a nostalgia bomb of sorts).
That being said, I do wish a few of the songs were slightly longer. And that's it for any remote form of negativity to be had with the music. Nuff said.
A special note before I wrap up this review though... Holy cow there are a lot of guests here! I know that a lot of the voices were done by Juja, but there's a lot of guest voices included as well. I directly recognized Brentalfloss's voice (and double checked in their credits) during the Shop Salesman bit in Chapter 6 and 7. I don't recognize everybody on their list, (Available on the bandcamp page as of right now.) Beyond the voices contained within is a plethora of instrumental guests. I know a few of the people on the list. Brandon Strader, Lauren the Flute, and... that's it actually. I don't recognize any of the other artists directly, but I bet I've heard their material before. (Most likely on a previous Careless Juja album!) /end special note
The Legend of the Boar Knight is the album you didn't know you wanted. It's got a great story. It's got great video game music. It's the all-in-one package with an explosion of greatness. There's a lot of material to get through, but it's more than worth your time. With enough love and laughs to get you through the evening, Careless Juja (and a pile of guest musicians) has brought us another winner!
Pros - Original story with fun jokes and a lot of wit. Huge variety of video game music contained throughout. Well done covers. Huge list of fantastical instrumental and vocal guest stars. It's everything you wanted in a video game cover album and more!
Cons - It's hard to want to listen to the story tracks every time you go through the album. Some of the tracks are pretty short, and I wish they were longer. (So I could rock out more!)
The album will drop on March 7th. I've already pre-ordered my copy, and you should get on down and get yours too! Thanks for the read and I'll see you next time... ON RECURRING FANTASY!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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