A lighthearted, gamey OST with abundant acoustic instrumentation and a bit of a funky edge.
Editor's review by Adam Corn (updated 2021-04-26)
This second soundtrack in the Yooka-Laylee series again features the work of ex-Rare composers David Wise and Grant Kirkhope, along with equally impressive themes by new contributors Matt Griffin and Dan Murdoch. Even with an abundance of acoustic instrumentation, it's at its heart a traditional light-hearted, gamey platformer OST, with just a bit of a funky edge thanks to a healthy helping of bass guitar. It doesn't have any single tracks that grabbed me at the start at the level of this year's other game synth standouts Astro Bot and Etrian Odyssey Nexus (though "Windmill Way - Windy" and "Conveyor Chaos - Crosswire" come close), but the best hour of the album I've found myself coming back to more than any other VGM album of the year, especially as background music for coding or otherwise focusing, for which it is surprisingly excellent.