‘Songs Of Time:’ A Musical Journey

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For this post, I will be reviewing an album that is near and dear to my heart by an artist who I have grown to love, named NateWantsToBattle, or Nathan Sharp. I will be reviewing his most recent album, Sandcastle Kingdoms, sometime in the near future, but as we just passed the two-year anniversary of Songs of Time, I thought it appropriate to start here. Sharp is a musical artist who has been writing and composing music for a while now, but he’d generally kept himself to parodies and covers until the past couple years. During the time of the “Five Nights At Freddy’s” video game series, Sharp released his first full original album, with songs relating to the stories from the game. Since then, Sharp had continued to write songs, and had moved from away doing video game and anime covers to doing covers of actual songs. Two years ago, he’d returned to the video game album stage, releasing his first album released through iTunes: Songs of Time, which walks the listener through a journey from the perspective of Link and the other characters in the “Legend of Zelda” video game franchise. Now, I admit that I haven’t personally played through all of these games, so I will be reviewing it from a musical and lyrical standpoint, although slipping in things that I know about the series.

1. “The Same Old Forest”

The album starts off with a peppy and fun song, sung by Link in the forest of home. The track has an acoustic feel, with some synth and drums in the background. The song is about a boy who desires to leave his home and go on an adventure to the outside world, even though he may face some danger. At the beginning of “Ocarina of Time,” Link is stuck in his home village because he hasn’t yet gotten a fairy, because he’s different. But he learns that he is different because he’s special. It’s a very inspiring song about home and the excitement and jovial nature of youth, which will be challenged later in the album. One strange thing that I have noticed about this album is that the tracks sometimes seem to end in the middle of a line. I have no idea why Nate does this, but it doesn’t detract too much from the album for me. This is one of the tracks in which that occurs.

2. “Far Away”

This is one of the two songs on the album in which Nate does not sing. Instead, it’s a female voice. I’m trying to interpret who the singer is supposed to be, and I could be completely wrong (a shrewd “Zelda” fan would likely correct me on my assessment), but I believe this is the voice of the town that Link is from. It’s a beautiful song of acceptance and a sendoff to the main character. The track also contains a famous “Legend of Zelda” song played on the Ocarina, which Nate has proven he can play in the past.

3. “Lullaby”

This is the second track on the album sung by someone who isn’t Nate, and once again a woman. The song is sung from the perspective of Zelda upon her first meeting with Link. This is a beautiful melody, quiet and calming, with beautiful vocals and a background track that I believe to be heavily inspired by the “Zelda” series. This is also the last calm song on the album, as the rest are Link’s journey straight to finale.

4. “Hero of our Time”

In one of the best tracks on the album in my opinion, Nate takes up the mic again, and he keeps it for the rest of the album. This song is extremely catchy, and has a fantastic Irish influence in its beat and instrumentation. The lyrics are inspirational and is one of the first tracks that does not have a discernable singer, though it is definitely addressed to Link (the “you” referenced in the song). The song is an intense call to arms and is a perfect fit for the beginning of a journey.

5. “Time to Go”

This song is another more peppy song on the album, and it’s sung by a creature or a person waking Link up from a long sleep. The song’s style is unique, almost feeling like a ballad, and has a very artistic, lyrical form. The backing track is mainly piano, playing chords as it continues, and it ends on a minor chord to set up for the next track.

6. “Twisted”

This is quite a fun little track. As someone who doesn’t know the “Zelda” franchise very well, I’m assuming from the lyrics of this song that it’s sung by a chorus of witches encountered in the game. These creatures are telling Link that he might as well stop now, because the world isn’t worth saving. It’s the first song of a few that are interestingly sung from the villains’ perspective, which is one of the aspects of this album that I love.

This song and the next five are all from a villain’s perspective, and this is definitely one of the good ones, and is musically quite enjoyable and different from the album. It has a different, Halloween-esque feel that establishes a spooky and quirky mood that is very successful.

7. “Grounded”

Another of my favorite tracks on this album, this song starts off with a heavy guitar that establishes the feel of the song from the get-go. This song is very fiery, and it’s so easy to picture some kind of boss fight to this song, which is one of the things that Nate was certainly going for in this album. This song’s heavy beat and violent guitar riffs are very powerful and driving, and Nate’s near-scream vocals rip through the song and make this a solid addition to this album.

8. “Drowning”

This song’s only issue is that it the guitar sometimes drowns (haha) out Nate’s vocals. It is therefore more difficult to discern the lyrics, although the chorus is still solid and extremely peppy. The best part of this song is the solid and funky contrast with “Grounded,” because “Grounded” is focused on fire and this one is about water. It’s short and one of my least favorite songs on the album (although that may change the more I listen to it).

9. “Shell”

This song is fantastic, but it does have a line that I, as a Christian, have fought with whether or not is appropriate. Very early on in the song there is a line that says “all your hope has gone to h—.” I still haven’t decided personally whether or not I think this is an appropriate usage of the word, but it’s possibly the objectionable line in the entire album, which, for a secular artist, is remarkable. So use discretion when putting this song on your iPod or computer.

The song musically is fantastic: Nate’s vocals, along with the co-singer he employed for this song, are on point, and the song is lyrically quite intense, as the main singers are both villains discussing the fate of Zelda to Link, trying to demoralize and break him down, although by the fact that the album continues, we know that they fail.

10. “Hands of a Thief”

This is another one of my favorite tracks on the album, with great vocals (Nate has another co-singer, but his voice is hard to discern from Nate’s). The track has driving guitar, but starts off with a quiet drum track so that the intensity of the track is not obvious from the beginning.

11. “The Evil King”

In my opinion, this is the best track on the album. You should listen to this track last—listen to the album in order, because this track has a lot of callbacks to other songs, and it’s awesome because of that. However, this was ruined for me because this was the first song I heard on the album, so it just sounded like he was reusing elements from this song in other songs, rather than the other way around.

This is the final battle Link must face, and the song is sung by Gannon, the main villain of the series. It is fantastic and intense, and is riddled with all of the things that have always made Nate one of my favorite artists. The driving rhythms and the intense lyrics wrapped in solid vocals make this track a fantastic finale to the album. I won’t say any more—listen for yourself.

Overall, this album fully and completely impressed me. It will certainly be listened to again and again on my iPod and computer. Sharp had put out another masterpiece, and I have looked forward to his original content ever since he proved himself to be such an excellent artist.

A Thinker in Space