This Cover Album Reimagines The Wind Waker’s Music as Surf Rock Jams
Posted on May 16 2024 by John Lortie
Hang ten, Small Fry!
The Wind Waker’s soundtrack is a perfect accompaniment to Link’s seafaring adventure. The game’s music features boisterous sea shanties and Spanish guitar-inspired melodies, with a wide array of adventure, introspection, and melancholy in between. More than simply serving its purpose of providing ambiance against which the game is set, the music itself is an intrinsic part of The Wind Waker‘s experience.
One sea-centric genre the game’s musical score doesn’t explore is surf rock. Luckily for us, video game music platform GameGrooves (which encompasses a record label, website, and podcast) asked more than twenty artists to create surf rock covers of eleven of the game’s iconic tracks. The result is King of Rad Lions: A Surf Rock Tribute to The Wind Waker.
The album draws from some of The Wind Waker’s most memorable music. By juxtaposing these timeless tunes with surf rock instrumentation, the artists featured on the album have crafted something that’s both unique and familiar.
King of Rad Lions’ tracklist is as follows:
- “Outset Island” by Pokerus Project
- “Inside the Pirate Ship” by Bobson Dugnutt Jr. ft. Rahul Vanamali
- “Windfall Island” by Allison Martin
- “Title” by Ian Martyn ft. Ronin Op F and V-Ron Media
- “Little Z’s Surfy Slumber Party (‘Princess Zelda’s Theme’)” by The Surfle Jerks
- “Dragon Roost Island” by Lucas Guimaraes ft. Various Artists (JohnZelda, Ian Cowell, Kev Ragone, Sean R Hanson, Darmock, angrypolarbea, and Ronin Op F)
- “Grandma” by Pegster McDudeson
- “Mini-Boss” by Cool Danch and Pheller
- “Molgera” by JiggyTones
- “Ganondorf Battle” by SaiyaSounds
- “Ocean” by Audio Mocha
I love these takes on The Wind Waker‘s music, and I can’t believe that the album’s artists have been able to translate the game’s score so well into the surf rock sound. This goes especially for Pegster McDudeson’s “Grandma” – before hearing this rendition of Grandma’s theme, I never would have thought a surf rock-inspired arrangement of it could be this compelling.
You can purchase the album on Bandcamp. King of Rad Lions is also available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, YouTube Music, Deezer, and Tidal.
Had you heard King of Rad Lions before or is this your first time listening to it? What do you think of this surf rock treatment of The Wind Waker’s music? Head down to the comments and share your thoughts with us!
Source: GameGrooves
John’s been a Zelda fan since he was seven years old (which was a good few decades ago). He loves the last three months of the year, analog media, his family, and Tolkien. His favorite Zelda game is Breath of the Wild and his favorite game is Night in the Woods.
