Vlarg here. Master Torgo already mentioned the videogame-related music of Rebecca Mayes in a previous article. However, he only did so in passing, and after doing some research and listening to nearly every song and watching every video she’s put out on the web, I feel, as video game nerds, we are duty-bound to pile pay more attention to this rising star in the world of enthusiasts of video games and good music in general.
As The Famous Paul can attest from his years of professional improv theater and writing funny songs (hundreds of which are piss-pants-funny and has yet to release that lazy bastard), it’s hard work making up songs all the time, and even harder to make them relevant/funny/worth listening to. To write them solely about video games, make enjoyable videos for most of them, and strike gold on a consistent basis is nigh impossible. Yet somehow Rebecca Mayes seems to pull this off with relative ease.
I first heard her music on Escapist Magazine where she’s appears in a regular feature titled Rebecca Mayes Muses, where she sings her reviews about the latest video games. Naturally I was intrigued by game reviews in song.
Her music has an almost ethereal quality, due in part to her breathy, otherworldly vocals and acoustic guitar arrangements that almost make you forget she’s singing about video games. Her subject matter casts the protagonists of her songs, the main characters in the games, as sympathetic characters, and you can almost agree with her when, in her song about zombies in Resident Evil 5, she sings “It’s not their fault don’t shoot them, try to hug them and hold them instead.”
(Editor’s Note: The management of the Ugly Couch Show and its affiliates and subsidiaries in no way endorse the belief that one should hug zombies for any reason. In case of a zombie attack, you should always shoot them in the head.)
Though her songs are not like traditional reviews of games in that they do not go into great detail about any given game’s strengths or flaws or particulars at all, they do provide an interesting viewpoint from a gamer who describes herself on her about page as someone who “represent(s) all the people who know nothing about games… The way I look at computer games is nothing like an ordinary gamer would look at them. My ‘reviews’ are naive, ridiculous observations that only someone totally inexperienced could make.” And that’s just fine with us.
In addition to her regular Muses feature on Escapist, she also publishes (somewhat) regular review songs on GamePeople.co.uk as Audiogamer. You can also follow her on Twitter as @audiogamer.
Here is a video for her song about the latest Ghostbuters video game:
Rebecca mayes was unavailable for comment… mainly because we didn’t ask her. I know, I know, get off my ass… We’ll email her this week. :)