nfssoundtrack.com
The soundtrack has been getting pieced together from gameplay before the official announcement this week.
Pretty poor in my opinion, they’ve really cheaped out with the Monstercat songs, which almost all are incredibly generic. Pulse has some decent tracks with Hot Chip, Jungle and Dua Lipa, and Block Party with Beastie Boys and DJ Shadow. Personally not a fan of XS, really changed the vibe of the station with FH4 and they’ve continued down that route. DIIV and Wolf Alice are good additions, a bit of throwback to the FH2 sound that XS had, much more summer-y alternative type of rock that is much more fitting of the setting and atmosphere of 2010s music festival. The change to the daggy ‘hard‘ rock in FH4 was major downgrade in my opinion.
In the lead up to FH1 and 2, Playground Games were heavily promoting the Rob Da Bank curated radio stations, which at the time I thought was a bit of PR fluff, but looking back the soundtracks to those games actually fit the settings, and have a large number on musicians and artists relevant to the time. Their stations were really on the forefront of indie and alternative music, and although acts like Skrillex haven’t aged so well, Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys, The War On Drugs, Phoenix, Cut Copy and Todd Terje are all popular acts that fit the setting and atmosphere to a tee. You also had the older alternative bands like New Order, Pixies, The Clash and Stone Roses.
A lot of people don’t care from the soundtrack, and fair enough, but it’s pretty major part to me for game with the setting of a music festival. A well curated soundtrack goes a long way, look at how Rockstar have done with their soundtracks and stations, people still reminisce over the music of San Andreas. I get that PG may not have the Rockstar budget for music, but a well curated soundtrack can still be done on a budget.