This was an idea for Yamatsu’s boss fight music, although it was rejected for not fitting the vibe. Totally valid.

The title of this track is a Simpsons + Wagner reference.

Game: Psycho Burst

This was my third Song Fight! entry, and I was finally starting to get at least a semblance of a recording setup. At this point I’d bought a cheap 4-track tape deck and actually played the guitar part all the way through and sang everything each in one take.

It was still pretty awful and I was still learning how to do basically anything with acoustic recordings. But I was getting somewhere with it, at least.

In 2006 I started the Plus 5 project, where I decided to re-record all of my first-year Song Fight! entries on the fifth anniversary of their original due dates. I LOVE YOU and Repair My Heart both came out reasonably well (and those new versions were the conceptual basis for the versions on this album), but Shipwreck still came out pretty badly, and I started to think that the song itself was cursed.

For this album, I originally started out trying to do a better job of the Plus 5 version, but it still just plain wasn’t working. I was starting to wonder if I even wanted this song on this album to begin with, and like it was just irredeemably bad and not worth trying to save.

But then I had a realization: there’s nothing that says I had to stick to my plan from 2006. It’s my song, and my choice for how to do things, right?

So I changed the arrangement significantly, and decided to lean fully into the idea that it’s a song about desperate isolation.

I think it works.

Lyrics: Shipwreck

It was a three-hour tour Looks like it’s gonna be more Now I’m stranded far from you And it looks like there’s nothing to do

I need someone to come Doesn’t matter where they are from I see a ship on the edge of my view And I’m hoping that it is you

Come on and rescue me I’m drowning, can’t you see that I Really need you all of the time so come Come on and rescue me

I am alone with nobody around It feels like I’ll never be found I have to hold on one more day To see if someone is coming my way

It was a three-hour tour Looks like it’s gonna be more Now I’m stranded far from you And I’m hoping that it is you

Come on and rescue me I’m drowning, can’t you see that I Really need you all of the time, so come Come on and rescue me

Come on and rescue me I’m begging for you to find me, and I Really need you all of the time, so come Come on and rescue me

Lyrics: Sunny Again [Song Fight!, 2003]

Oh, it’s just another sunny day Why did someone have to chase the clouds away I just don’t want to come outside and play I just want the rain to wash my tears away

Don’t want you coming here, try to change my mind You don’t know just how I feel, I feel I’m feeling fine You don’t know what it’s like, living in my brain It’s not the things you think that keep me in this pain

Today is just another sunny day Why don’t you go and chase some fucking clouds away I don’t want to come outside and play today I just want the rain to wash my tears away

I’m being eaten at from every fucking side They smack me down, want me to drown, and take me for a ride You want to make me think it isn’t them it’s me It will not work you fucking jerk, I know how it should be

Oh it’s just another sunny day I wish the clouds could come and stay, for that I pray Please just leave me alone and go away Don’t want to see you now, just leave me alone today

I know I seem I’m on the edge of something bad You scream and shout I’m “flipping out,” you’re just making me mad I’m the one who’s fine, it’s everyone else who’s insane But people suck, I’m out of luck, I just can’t play this game

Oh, it’s just another sunny day Please let me be, don’t bother me today I’m sick of you trying to chase my clouds away I just want you to go the fuck away

Oh, it’s just another sunny day Why did someone have to chase my clouds away I just don’t want to come outside and play I just want you to stay

Paige’s character theme song from Full Course.

The request for Paige’s theme from the game’s creator was that it should be “That Distant Shore” from Steven Universe, which I took to mean being a nice gentle bossa nova tune where you can relax while swaying in the breeze.

Game: ASS-TROIDS

Podcast: Ship Full of Jerks

Ship Full of Jerks is a podcast exploring the farthest reaches of science fiction and pop culture in a casual conversation between old friends.

Writer/Artist Mark Farinas is the creator of the Star Trek Webcomic, a fan comic based on Roddenberry’s space odyssey. Ryan Thomas Riddle is an award-winning journalist and Trekkie who works with Fact Trek to bust the myths surrounding the making of the original Star Trek.

Used in the game Currying Flavors (https://chinniedraws.itch.io/currying-flavors)

Game: Currying Flavors

Written on the night of the 2020 US Presidential election

Lyrics: Gonna Be All Right

We just don’t know If it’s gonna be all right We cannot know When it’ll be all right We gotta know That it’ll be alright I just don’t know When it’ll be all right

When it’ll be all right

We’re gonna know When it’ll be all right We’re gonna show When everything’s alright Don’t know where to go When everything’s alright But we’re gonna know That it’ll be alright

It’ll be all right

This is from a visual novel where you’re supposed to date various bugs or something. I wasn’t quite clear on it and unfortunately the project never got very far. Oh well.

Game: A Lice’s Day Off