Portal 2: Songs to Test By - Collectors Edition [Original Soundtrack]

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All Music Guide - Heather Phares
Since Portal 2's sprawling, award-winning soundtrack was made available as a free download on the game's official website soon after its April 2011 release, a version that fans had to pay for had to be something special. The four-disc Collector's Edition of Songs to Test By definitely caters to the kind of Portal fan who loves to have souvenirs of the game -- official and unofficial Portal-related merchandise runs the gamut from mugs and T-shirts to socks and jewelry -- by including "Turret Lullaby," a mini-comic in which the game's fatally precise turret bots are tested for nursery duty; album artwork featuring Portal's protagonist Chell and her electronic frenemies ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - Heather Phares
Since Portal 2's sprawling, award-winning soundtrack was made available as a free download on the game's official website soon after its April 2011 release, a version that fans had to pay for had to be something special. The four-disc Collector's Edition of Songs to Test By definitely caters to the kind of Portal fan who loves to have souvenirs of the game -- official and unofficial Portal-related merchandise runs the gamut from mugs and T-shirts to socks and jewelry -- by including "Turret Lullaby," a mini-comic in which the game's fatally precise turret bots are tested for nursery duty; album artwork featuring Portal's protagonist Chell and her electronic frenemies GlaDOS and Wheatley; download keys for two other Valve games, Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2; and perhaps most notably, the soundtrack for the first Portal game, which features not one but two versions of Jonathan Coulton's cult favorite song "Still Alive." That song and its Portal 2 sequel, GlaDOS' farewell "Want You Gone," are two of Songs to Test By's standouts, but they're far from the only ones. Appropriate to the game's many levels and layers, Valve composer Mike Morasky's music ranges from subtle audio backdrops for puzzle-solving ("15 Acres of Broken Glass") to tense action cues ("The Part Where He Kills You") to eerie mood pieces ("Robot Ghost Story") to tracks that hint at the game's surprisingly emotional back-story ("Ghost of Rattman," "Caroline Deleted"). Other tracks, such as "Machiavellian Bach," are noteworthy for how seamlessly they blend flowing classical and stiff electronic motifs, or for how well they express the game's retro-futuristic vibe, like the sprightly "Halls of Science 4." As on "Still Alive" and "Want You Gone," former opera singer Ellen McLain's vocals grace some of the soundtrack's most evocative and emotive moments, whether as GlaDOS on the beautifully eerie "PotatOS' Lament" or as a chorus of turrets on "Turret Wife Serenade" and "Cara Mia Addio." Indeed, every aspect of both Portal games has so much personality that it's something of a shame that Songs to Test By doesn't include some of the more hilarious excerpts of the games' consistently witty dialogue as another bonus. Nevertheless, this set delivers as an extra-special, extra-geeky presentation of one of the game's most vital elements.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 10/30/2012
  • Label: Ipecac Recordings
  • UPC: 689230013426
  • Catalog Number: 134
  • Sales rank: 731

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 Science Is Fun (2:36)
  2. 2 Concentration Enhancing Menu Initialiser (2:19)
  3. 3 9999999 (3:12)
  4. 4 The Courtesy Call (3:37)
  5. 5 Technical Difficulties (3:23)
  6. 6 Overgrowth (2:51)
  7. 7 Ghost of Rattman (4:05)
  8. 8 Haunted Panels (1:37)
  9. 9 The Future Starts with You (3:20)
  10. 10 There She Is (4:21)
  11. 11 You Know Her? (3:12)
  12. 12 The Friendly Faith Plate (2:59)
  13. 13 15 Acres of Broken Glass (5:01)
  14. 14 Love as a Construct (4:59)
  15. 15 I Saw a Deer Today (3:15)
  16. 16 Hard Sunshine (2:47)
  17. 17 I'm Different (4:27)
  18. 18 Adrenal Vapor (2:38)
  19. 19 Turret Wife Serenade (1:39)
  20. 20 I Made It All Up (6:20)
  21. 21 Comedy = Tragedy + Time (3:30)
  22. 22 Triple Laser Phase (4:18)
Disc 2
  1. 1 You Will Be Perfect (2:41)
  2. 2 Halls of Science 4 (4:36)
  3. 3 (defun botsbuildbots () (botsbuildbots)) (4:09)
  4. 4 An Accent Beyond (2:59)
  5. 5 Robot Ghost Story (3:09)
  6. 6 Die Cut Laser Dance (2:01)
  7. 7 Turret Redemption Line (3:21)
  8. 8 Bring Your Daughter to Work Day (2:41)
  9. 9 Almost at Fifty Percent (2:00)
  10. 10 Don't Do It (5:18)
  11. 11 I AM NOT A MORON! (3:48)
  12. 12 Vitrification Order (6:31)
  13. 13 Music of the Spheres (3:39)
  14. 14 You Are Not Part of the Control Group (3:25)
  15. 15 Forwarding the Cause of Science (3:38)
  16. 16 PotatOS Lament (2:00)
  17. 17 The Reunion (3:45)
  18. 18 Music of the Spheres 2 (Incendiary Lemons) (2:45)
Disc 3
  1. 1 Reconstructing More Science (2:38)
  2. 2 Wheatley Science (2:30)
  3. 3 Franken Turrets (4:08)
  4. 4 Machiavellian Bach (4:02)
  5. 5 Excursion Funnel (4:31)
  6. 6 TEST (6:13)
  7. 7 The Part Where He Kills You (3:24)
  8. 8 OMG, What Has He Done? (2:26)
  9. 9 Bombs for Throwing at You (5:49)
  10. 10 Your Precious Moon (1:57)
  11. 11 Caroline Deleted (1:52)
  12. 12 Cara Mia Addio (2:35)
  13. 13 Want You Gone (2:23)
  14. 14 Spaaaaace (0:47)
  15. 15 Space Phase (1:34)
  16. 16 Some Assembly Required (1:52)
  17. 17 Robot Waiting Room #1 (2:16)
  18. 18 Robot Waiting Room #2 (2:16)
  19. 19 Robot Waiting Room #3 (2:16)
  20. 20 Robot Waiting Room #4 (2:16)
  21. 21 Robot Waiting Room #5 (2:16)
  22. 22 Robot Waiting Room #6 (2:07)
  23. 23 You Saved Science (0:47)
  24. 24 Robots FTW (3:39)
Disc 4
  1. 1 Subject Name Here (1:47)
  2. 2 Taste of Blood (3:07)
  3. 3 Android Hell (3:47)
  4. 4 Self Esteem Fund (3:30)
  5. 5 Precedural Jiggle Bone (4:33)
  6. 6 No Cake for You (3:55)
  7. 7 4000 Degrees Kelvin (1:03)
  8. 8 Stop What You Are Doing (4:04)
  9. 9 Party Escort (4:11)
  10. 10 You're Not a Good Person (1:26)
  11. 11 You Can't Escape You Know (6:16)
  12. 12 Still Alive (2:57)
  13. 13 Still Alive (2:57)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Mike Morasky Primary Artist
Jonathan Coulton Vocals
Ellen McLain Vocals
Technical Credits
Mike Morasky Composer
Jonathan Coulton Composer, Engineering
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