Galar’s musical impressions

What are your opinions on the music so far? What’s good, what’s not so good, best and worst themes, etc.

Spoiler: My little analysis

I haven’t had a chance to listen to the full soundtrack, but I have listened to most of it. I must say, from what I’ve heard, Galar has quite the unique soundtrack- I’d go to say the most diverse of them all.

One thing I really like about the soundtrack is the inclusion of vocals- whether it be the chanting of the crowds or the choir in Chairman Rose’s theme, I think the vocals really add something unique not just to the songs themselves, but the overall theme of Galar’s music selection. It also makes me happy that we’re getting more vocal tracks, seeing as we only had a few vocal tracks on all previous generations.

Now looking at the rival themes, I love that each rival has their own theme. Hop, Bede, and Marnie all have vastly different personalities, so I don’t think one song could have encompass all 3 of them. Each rival’s theme matches their personality well: Hop’s is upbeat and happy, Bede’s is passionate and a bit chaotic, and Marnie’s is edgy and cute.

In the Pokémon League version of Hop’s and Marnie’s themes (idk if Bede’s changes at all) change slightly. Hop’s theme sounds more serious than his original theme, emphasizing his determination to win the Pokémon League and become the champion. However, there’s still an upbeat, playful element to his theme, and these 2 contrasting themes are excellently balanced. The cherry on top is the crowd clapping and cheering to his theme (the cheers almost sound like they’re saying “Go Hop!”). As for Marnie’s theme, spit starts right at the main guitar part, showing that she is putting her all into the battle. The rest of her theme is relatively the same, but there is much more cheering than before. Considering her backstory that she was a timid little girl before the support of Team Yell and Piers, this theme shows that she has become confident with the support of not just Team Yell cheering along, but the whole stadium cheering her on.

A lot of the songs share a snippet of Leon’s champion theme (I learned recently this was called a “leitmotif”). I think that was a great idea, considering that everyone in Galar loves Leon, so it makes sense that you can hear some version of his theme everywhere. Some examples include Wedgehurst, Motostoke, and Eternatus’s phase 3 theme (which is very similar to the champion theme). Then when you finally reach Leon’s champion battle, all the leitmotifs start to make sense. Galar is wildly cheering along to the battle theme (which is very similar to, if not the same as, the Hall of Fame theme). It starts off serious at first, then like the Kahuna theme in gen 7, it takes a 180 and becomes a hype, upbeat song, emphasizing that, while this is the championship battle, you should still have fun, win or lose. (Also I would like to point out that one part of this theme shares the same guitar as the one in Hop’s theme, which I think is a nice touch.)

Probably the most surprising thing about Galar’s music selection is the inclusion of howling. Sword and Shield make great uses of an unconventional “instrument” by using it multiple times throughout the game, each with a different meaning behind it. In Slumbering Weald, the second half of the song first showcases the howling. Here, it’s very mysterious, playing into the mystery of Slumbering Weald. In the first encounter theme with Zacian and Zamazenta, we hear almost the exact same theme as Slumbering Weald, except it is much faster to emphasize the seriousness of this Pokémon. In Eternatus’s phase 3 theme, we can hear them howling along as well. Their howling is frequent in this song- they are fighting with all their strength to protect Galar. Finally, in their true battle theme, of course we can hear them howling along. Their theme is basically a sped-up version of Slumbering Weald, calling back to when we first met them.

(Edited because I wanted to update my analysis)