To listen to the full Celeste original soundtrack (base game, B-sides, and Farewell DLC), composed by Lena Raine, one can find it through various means such as Youtube for free and Bandcamp for a $9 purchase which has some extra tracks in it.
Music is an integral part to any video game, no matter the type of game genre it may be: fighting, FPS, sports, puzzles, RPGs, adventure, and many more genres. They can be playing in the background while a player does mundane or simple tasks, intended to be background noise so that the player isn’t accompanied by silence… or they can be used to develop a story by tones, notes, and various forms of instruments alone.
There are many songs that gamers are familiar with, such as the upbeat track of the Overworld theme in Stage 1-1 of the original Super Mario Bros, the triumphant victory fanfare of Final Fantasy VII, the endlessly looping track of Tetris’ A-Theme, and even the adventurous tones of Legend of Zelda’s Main Theme on the NES.
But have you ever dared to question what’s the “story” behind such tracks, beyond just having it occupy your ears? And especially what makes them so memorable that you can’t help but repeat them multiple times until you get sick of it? Read along, and we’ll be discussing the best songs from the 2018 hit platforming game Celeste.
#10 Track 19, Exhale
The ending credits theme after completing Chapter 7, The Summit.
The track itself is calming, with lightly triumphant piano playing in the background followed by some instances of synth, meant to show association to Mr. Oshiro, where the player discovers them within Chapter 3, the Celestial Resort.
You’ve done it; you’ve scaled the mountain and reached the top. Despite all the hardships, drawbacks, and falls you’ve dealt with, you’ve finally completed your journey to the top with enough motivation, determination, and hope. What can you do now? There’s nothing more than to feel proud of yourself, but maybe even to reminisce on the arduous journey you’ve set yourself up for.
And what’s the best way to reminisce? Take a stroll back down through the mountain you’ve conquered, and return home to share a strawberry pie with all the friends you’ve met through this journey.
Madeline and Badeline, jumping on clouds on the game's credits scene.
Exhale, you've done it.
#9 Track 08, Scattered and Lost
The primary track of Chapter 3, Celestial Resort.
Entering the resort itself is very… unnerving, for when you think of a “resort,” you can only think of luxury, cleanliness, and something beautiful awaiting you. Meanwhile, this resort doesn’t give off those vibes at all, for it’s incredibly disheveled, messy, cluttered, and filled with red-eyed creatures that could kill you at a moment’s notice.
Even then, the head of the Resort, Mr. Oshiro, tries to advertise to the player that this place IS beautiful, only to realize that it’s useless in the end, and asks heavily for the player’s help to clean up the place and make it the tidy resort it once was.
Madeline helping out Mr. Oshiro in one of the Chapter's primary quests: cleaning up the hotel
The music displays well to the player how it changes as the player progresses; as the player progresses, they clean up 3 sections related to dirty laundry, messy books, and large amounts of out-of-place boxes. As that happens, the once-quiet background music gets louder and features more instruments and tones, specifically stronger forms of catchy synth.
The player can only believe that they’re at home stretch to leave the hotel… until they realize that they’re being chased out of the hotel by Mr. Oshiro himself. The cause? The player’s doppelganger from Chapter 2, named Badeline choosing to call Mr. Oshiro’s resort terrible and unable to see the light of day again, leading Oshiro into a frenzy and chasing the player out.
As the track reaches its peak with much more tense synth, the player finds themselves desperately traversing through deadly terrain to run away from the once-happy resort head, never looking back out of fear for your own life.
The final cutscene of Chapter 3, with Mr. Oshiro in a fit of rage pushing Madeline away from the hotel.
#8 Track 17, Little Goth
The end track of Chapter 6, Reflection
After a tense battle with Badeline, the player finds themselves in a bright blue-stone room, filled with flowing water, and Badeline sitting on the ground, defeated and accepting of what’s to come next. For much of the story, the player believes that said doppelganger should be rid of, never to return… only to realize that really isn’t the solution in the end.
As much as the player is afraid of the journey ahead, so too is Badeline as they’re the embodiment of the player’s fear, doubt, and anxiety. Badeline is the player character, but with just a new color scheme.
What does the player character do? They hug Badeline, and console her to tell her that everything is AND will be okay, and that together they can get anything done. What once was believed to be to the player’s detriment now becomes the player’s brand new strength, providing the player with a 2nd aerial dash which will be absolutely necessary to scale the rest of the mountain ahead.
The music portrays this concept well: it’s very light piano, but it’s quiet due to how much of a truly emotionally moving moment this is. As the track progresses, the piano gradually gets louder, symbolizing the player’s newfound strength and confidence after confronting the once-was villain, now turning into their ally. It’s no longer “I can do this,” but “we can do this.”
Madeline hugs Badeline after a battle they've had together, comforting each other after having a deep conversation of fears awaiting them.
After the hug shown above, Madeline levels up, gaining new abilities such as an extra dash that allows the player to traverse through the air with ease.
With one final push from Badeline out of the crystal ruins, the player is able to begin once again to their journey to the top of the mountain after such a huge fall. It’s okay to be scared and filled with anxiety, but what matters in the end is to push through it and see it until the end.
Madeline and Badeline hug once again, but in preparation for an ability that pushes them out of the bottom of the mountain.
Get back up. You always will.
#7 Track 02, First Steps
The track for Chapter 1, Forsaken City
This is where the player’s journey begins, taking place within a ruined frozen-over city, with few remains of what feels like a long-lost society: broken down cars, traffic blocks and traffic lights constantly, tons of road signs and now-abandoned coffee shops. What awaits the player ahead? They don’t know… all they’d know is to avoid the copious amounts of spikes that lay around the city while collecting strawberries of all sorts.
A glimpse of the first room of Chapter 1, already showing off treacherous grounds filled with spikes and signs (that sometimes display warnings).
The track itself is very simple, as per usual including both piano and synth, but it never progresses or changes all that much in comparison to other tracks found in this list. It stays consistently simple, but it gives off a whimsical vibe of a player who’s completely new to the journey ahead; filled with hope and confidence, and knowing full well that they’ll make it to the end.
What awaits the player ahead is unknown, but the unknown is enough motivation for one to begin the climb, leaving the player filled with excitement to see what’s ahead.
#6 Track 18, Reach for the Summit
After a huge drawback of falling to the bottom of the mountain in Chapter 6, the player character begins their journey once again to reach the top of the mountain, now with the help of their doppelganger Badeline as physical support, along with the emotional support of friends made along the way like Theo and Granny.
The track itself is a medley of all leitmotifs from previous levels in the game, consisting of themes from Chapters 1-5 that the player should be very well familiar with. Not only that, as the player continuously climbs the mountain, the level reminds them of the journey they’ve experienced through previous levels by revisiting them: Forsaken City, Old Ruins, Celestial Resort, Golden Ridge, and the Mirror Temple.
While every section of the track maintains the general “mountain” leitmotif, the track changes to include the whimsical leitmotif of the City, the wondrous leitmotif of the Ruins, the eerie leitmotif of the Resort, the hopeful leitmotif of the Ridge, and the somber leitmotif of the Temple. None of the leitmotifs occur all at once as it changes as the player progresses (500m for City, 1000m for Ruins, etc).
After the reminder of past levels and mechanics, the player finally reaches 3000m which is purely the journey to the Summit, with the music pushing the player to reach the end of it all. It’s like it’s telling the player: “keep moving, you WILL get this,” and the player pushes on once again.
The end screen for Chapter 7, having Madeline sit on the top of the mountain, triumphant over her accomplishment and choosing to enjoy the scenery.
Once the player reaches the end, they take a seat at the top of the mountain, and admire the grandeur view along with their doppelganger Badeline, reveling in their fantastic achievement that few would ever dare to do. A break is well-deserved for such a journey, and the music complements this feeling well: “you’ve completed the journey, so why not take a break?”
#5 Farewell Track 6, Beyond the Heart
Farewell is a DLC chapter that, when simply put, is another journey with undertones of coping with the death of a loved one, with the player character Madeline refusing to accept it and only wishing to push forward.
This track is meant to represent the midway point at which the player BELIEVES that the chapter is over, for which Madeline is refusing to accept this end, continuing to push on to see Granny once again, even if it means traveling blindly further into the unknown.
It’s a highly motivating song with great synth, but there’s a hint of sadness hidden within through its uses of violin, for as mentioned already that Madeline doesn’t wish for this journey to end just yet. She keeps moving ahead, rather desperately, even
A spike-filled room within Chapter 9, filled with double dash crystals that require the player to time their dashes just right to avoid all the spikes on the ceiling and floor.
There’s more beyond the heart, but she continues to push on greatly despite the hardships waiting ahead, only to see her Granny just one more time before she fully passes on.
#4 Farewell Track 10, Farewell
The final track for DLC Chapter 9, Farewell
This is the final push to escape from the player character’s dream, which was a journey created as a coping mechanism to find her now-dead Granny while wishing for just a bit more time to spend with her. As it sets in that she can’t be around forever, Madeline makes one final push to escape from her dream, and to wake up and enter reality once again.
The song itself has a total of 4 loops, containing instruments such as light drums and bass, synth, piano, violin, and even some vocal undertones. Within the 1st loop, piano, drums, and vocal undertones are very apparent, while the 2nd loop begins to include more of the synth and piano that the player is very used to. Within the 3rd loop, the chapter’s leitmotif, including lots of violin, kicks in along with all the previously mentioned instruments.
Within the 4th and final loop, all instruments come together by the end in perfect harmony, signifying that this truly is the end of the level for the player. By this point of the song, no longer will it continue to progress or gain more instruments or sounds, for it will constantly keep looping the 4th loop and continually remind the player that this is it.
Madeline's final push from Badeline that helps her to escape her dreams, also being accompanied by the bird she's been following this entire dream
Such a song in the background is followed by very technically-demanding screens and gameplay that the player must conquer in order to escape the dream that they’ve created for themselves. You’ve already climbed the mountain once, who’s to say you can’t say Farewell to yet another journey?
#3: Track 03, Resurrections
The track for Chapter 2, Old Site
Within the Old Site, the player uncovers old ruins, seemingly filled with glass blocks that are faded out, and all gray. Such blocks won’t remain gray and glass forever as the player will eventually progress to “activate” the blocks: as such, they eventually become liquidy, traversable, and filled with lots of colors, reminiscent of stars in a bright night sky.
Sections 1 and 2 give off vibes of discovery and wonder, traversing through the gray faded ruins, only to brighten it up eventually to make it all the more wondrous.
A room within Chapter 2, filled with dream blocks which allow the player to dash through the length of said dream block.
Progressing through the level, the player comes across a doppelganger that looks incredibly similar to them, soon having to chat to understand just what “they” are. As the chat progresses, the player wants to escape from the ruins… but at the same time, they’ll be continuously followed by their doppelganger who only wishes to see the player fail.
Sections 3 and 4 give off vibes that there’s something evil waiting for the player, only to lead into an incredibly tense chase scene for the player, that they MUST escape at all costs.
By the end of the chase scene, the player will come across an old phone station, talking with their mother… only for it to turn into a nightmare by the absolute end of it. Section 5 is where the tensity of the chapter reaches its peak, making the player’s dream become a terrifying nightmare. Only then will the player realize that the version of the ruins that they’ve been running and dashing through was but a figment of their imagination.
#2 B-Sides Track 03, Celestial Resort
The track for Chapter 3, Celestial Resort’s B-Side remix
In comparison to the quiet, yet slightly ominous, tracks for Chapter 3, this Chapter 3 B-side remix turns it into an incredibly groovy track, including lots more upbeat synth in an incredibly dangerously upgraded level of the Celestial Resort. The track itself features little to no piano, but it contains a large amount of synth and drums to make up for it.
A room within Chapter 3B, filled with dangerous amounts of red enemies and very tense platforming, requiring the utmost precision of the player.
The remixer, Christa Lee, is known for being an electronic composer that infuses a lot of jazz into her own music… but this song doesn’t exactly include much jazz into it. Not to say that that aspect is a bad thing though, this song is a banger than just about anybody can get into, even if it’s very much different from the usual vibes one would find in the main Celeste soundtrack.
To discover more of Christa Lee’s discography, you can primarily check out their Bandcamp with the following link https://ohpoorpup.bandcamp.com
#1 B-Sides Track 05, Mirror Temple
The track for Chapter 5, Mirror Temple’s B-Side remix
In comparison to the sorrow-feeling tracks of Mirror Temple, this song aims to be its jazzy, polar opposite: upbeat, and keeping the player on their toes through a remixed version (both platforming-wise and music-wise) of the Mirror Temple level. Of course, the track maintains its piano-focused leitmotif from the original, but it also includes great synth to which the artist, Lena Raine, includes a lot of in the entirety of the Celeste soundtrack.
A room within Chapter 5B, filled with spikes on just about every wall, and even more spikes that move up and down, blocking the players' path which requires a lot of precision from the player.
The remixer, 2 Mello, is a hip-hop composer that also infuses music with rap, similar to how Christa Lee (the previous composer) infuses electronic music with jazz. Incredibly well-known in the Jet Set Radio community for his popular tracks and remixes.
To discover more of 2 Mello’s discography, you can check out his official website that shows off his music, contacts, what he’s all about, as well as links to his Bandcamp if you wish to purchase his music https://2mello.net
Closing Words
Well that’s about all I have for the top 10 songs for Celeste, one of my favorite games to have ever come out in the past few years. I hope you, the reader, will also spare some time to listen to the songs of this list, as well as supporting the composers that were also a part of making this beautiful soundtrack.
