Casino Party Playlist by Partyrama on Spotify

40. Go Down Gamblin’ - Blood Sweat and Tears

Released in 1971, Go Down Gamblin’ by Blood Sweat and Tears is a song describing a gambler who is “born a natural loser.” He never wins, no matter what game he plays, but, he doesn’t feel like a loser. As the song goes – “Cause I've been called a natural lover by that lady over there, Honey, I'm just a natural gambler but I try to do my share.”

39. Gambler - Madonna

Gambler is a song written and played by Madonna, made for the film Vision Quest. Although the song reached the top 10 in the charts of the UK, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, and Norway, Madonna performed it only once on her 1985 The Virgin Tour. It’s a catchy song, we suggest you play it as you spin the reels of some of your favourite retro online slots.

38. The House of the Rising Sun - The Animals

Our list wouldn’t be complete without the 1964 hit song - The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. Everybody knows the famous lines ”My mother, she was a tailor, sewed these new blue jeans, my father was a gamblin' man way down in New Orleans.” This single had a major success and made it to the top 10 songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the USA. Likewise, the hit was featured in the video game Guitar Hero Live.

37. The Winner Takes It All - ABBA

Whether we admit it or not, we all love at least some songs played by the very well-known Swedish pop group, ABBA. According to some sources, Bjorn Ulvaeus wrote the 1980 hit song The Winner Takes It All which was inspired by his divorce to his fellow band member, Agnetha Fältskog. The winner takes it all is a sort of a comparison to a divorce (especially the part ”I've played all my cards and that's what you've done too, nothing more to say, no more ace to play”), where one of them is the winner and the other one is left with nothing. And things are just the same when it comes to gambling, so we’ve decided to put the song on our list.

36. Shape of my Heart - Sting

We’re all aware of the fact that our gambling behaviour can be influenced by certain types of music and that's because online gambling and music go hand in hand. So, we suggest you start playing your preferred games with one of everyone’s favourite songs by Sting called The Shape of my Heart. It was released in 1993 and used for the end credits of the film Léon. In one of his interviews, Sting explained that the lyrics of the song tell the story of a card player who places bets not in order to win but to figure out something that’s been bothering him - “some kind of scientific, almost religious law.”

35. All I Wanna Do Is Play Cards - Corb Lund

“Well, I guess I really oughta be makin up songs but all I wanna do is play cards. I know it's dumb and sick and wrong but all I wanna do is play cards. Got the studio booked in Tennessee, and my record producer's callin me, the tape will roll in just three weeks and all I wanna do is play cards.” Does it sound familiar? It’s a 2005 hit by Corb Lund called All I Wanna Do Is Play Cards, once you hear it you’ll be playing it on repeat.

34. Gambling Man - The Overtones

When you’re falling in love, it’s perfectly normal to feel like you want to gamble everything just to attract that person’s attention to notice you and love you back. Well, Gambling Man is a lively 2010 song that tells a story of a guy fascinated with his love, so he places all his bets on her, as the song goes - “I played my hand, I rolled the dice, now I'm paying for my sins, I got some bad addiction.” This time, he feels that this love affair is different from any other – “Baby, it's you, yeah, yeah, that's right.” The song was released in 2010 and has been popular ever since.

33. Poker Face - Lady Gaga

Although the Poker Face song is more about the game of romance rather than the game of poker, the catchy refrain that starts with “Can't read my, no he can't read my poker face” kinda reminds us of winning at the tables, so we couldn’t skip it this time. Released in 2008, the song achieved worldwide success, topping the charts in the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and several European countries.

32. Little Queen of Spades - Robert Johnson

Moving on to the Little Queen of Spades, a song title by the American blues musician Robert Johnson who recorded the song in 1937 and first released it in 1938. The first version of this gambling-themed song has a playing time of 2:11, whereas the second one lasts 4s longer (2:15), and is considered an alternate take and first appeared on Johnson's album The Complete Recordings, in 1990.

31. Train of Consequences - Megadeth

Another great song Train of Consequences is the title created by Megadeth, released as the first single from their sixth studio album Youthanasia in 1994. The song was later included on their compilation albums and its music video was the 26th most played video on MTV. There’s this part of the song “No horse ever ran as fast as the money that you bet, I'm blowing on my cards and I play them to my chest” – which is about a person’s gambling problem, who realises something’s wrong with this lifestyle, but it still hunts him down. Could be just the thrill, but he just can’t stop playing.
​

30. Gambler - Whitesnake

Released on the album Slide It In (1984) and appearing on the compilation album Gold (2006), Gambler is the song by the British hard rock band Whitesnake. These words may sound familiar - “No fame or fortune, no luck of the draw, when I dance with the Queen of Hearts, a jack of all trades, a loser in love, it's tearing my soul apart”. And in case you’ve never heard it, we think you should give it a shot, the chances are you’re going to love it!

29. Gambling Man - Woody Guthrie

Now here’s one single from 1957 - Gamblin' Man. The song was taped live at the London Palladium and published as a double A side, with Puttin' On the Style. Reaching #1 in the UK Singles Chart in the summer 1957, it was “the last UK number 1 to be released on 78 rpm format only, as 7' vinyl had become the norm by this time.” Written by Woody Guthrie and Donegan, this gambling themed song was produced by Alan Freeman and Michael Barclay.

28. Roll of the Dice - Bruce Springsteen

According to Songfacts, Roll of the Dice was the first Springsteen’s song he didn’t write by himself. In fact, E Street Band’s pianist Roy Bittan helped with the music, while Springsteen was in charge of the lyrics, starting with – “Well I've been a losin' gambler, just throwin' snake eyes, Love ain't got me downhearted. I know up around the corner lies, My fool's paradise in just another roll of the dice.” After he broke up the E Street Band in October 1989, Springsteen wrote lyrics for the Roll of the Dice (with two other songs) and liked them to the point where he began writing and recording more songs.

27. Queen of Diamonds - Tom Odell

Here’s one song about a gambling fanatic who’s trying to satisfy his own addiction but also someone else, hoping it’s going to save him. Released in 2018, Queen of Diamonds is Tom Odell’s song from the album Jubilee Road, based on the local characters that inspired this British songwriter to include the whisky-soaked gamblers who regularly visited one betting shop.

26. The Angel and the Gambler - Iron Maiden

Now, this song may divide Iron Maiden fans and it’s most probably because of its repetitive lyrics that can be a bit annoying. The release we’re talking about is The Angel and the Gambler. Truth be told, the melody in general is very catchy and, even a bit similar to The Who in some moments. As the song was released in 1998 while Blaze Bayley was its frontmen, it’s missing the well-known high-pitch vocals from Bruce Dickinson.

25. Ramblin' Gamblin Man - Bob Seger

We’re moving on to a rock single from 1978 - Ramblin' Gamblin Man by Bob Seger. The author meets an old acquaintance, a professional gambler who happens to be a swagger. As such, he attracts people’s attention whenever he bets. Putting so much of his faith in the cards (rather than in people), he walks away every time, just before avoiding loss. Along the way, the narrator realises that, if you scratch beneath the surface, you’ll find he’s a very cynical man, who will never change.
Another gambling-themed song worth mentioning by Bob Seger is Still The Same.

24. Blow Up The Pokies - The Whitlams

Blow up the Pokies is the next song on our list, played by The Whitlams. It is the second single by the group from their 4th studio album, Love This City. Released in the year 2000, the song became a hit and made it to number 21 on the ARIA Singles Chart. According to several resources, the lyrics written by singer Tim Freedman were inspired by the destruction he saw in original Whitlams bassist Andy Lewis's life, due to his gambling addiction.

23. A Good Run of Bad Luck - Clint Black

Now here’s one 1994-song packed with gambling-related terms. As you listen to A Good Run of Bad Luck, recorded by American music artist Clint Black, you'll have a bit of fun as you try identifying what all these gambling terms mean. The song is a bit fast and is about falling in love by using gambling metaphors. The main character is willing to spend a lot of money to win his special lady over and, although he has had a period of bad luck, he is not giving up – “I've been to the table, and I've lost it all before, I'm willin' and able, always comin' back for more.”

22. When You’re Hot, You’re Hot - Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed won a Grammy for the song When You’re Hot, You’re Hot which was released in 1971. Most people remember it as it was a major hit, ranked as number 1 in the country charts, also making its way up the Pop Top 40. It’s an enjoyable novelty song about the ups and downs of the gambling life, about one’s winning streak caught in an illegal game of Crap.
Country star Jerry Reed also came up with a version The Uptown Poker Club in 1973.

21. Lawyers, Guns and Money - Warren Zevon

Next one up - Lawyers, Guns and Money is a song by Warren Zevon, the closing track on his album Excitable Boy, released in 1978. An edited version of this song was distributed as a single and found itself on the A Quiet Normal Life best of compilation on the CD and LP. The song goes like this - “I went home with a waitress the way I always do, how was I to know she was with the russians, too? I was gambling in Havana, I took a little risk Send lawyers, guns, and money Dad, get me out of this, hiyah!”
​

20. The Lottery Song - Harry Nilsson

According to the man in the 1972 pop-rock song The Lottery Song by Harry Nilsson, there's more than one way to get to Vegas. Addressing his lover, the narrator mentions a few different options for buying a ticket and going to Sin City – “We could win the lottery we could go to Vegas,” and “We could wait till summer, we could save our money” as well as “We could make a record, sell a lot of copies, we could play Las Vegas.”

19. Casino Queen - Wilco

Now here’s one black-humoured gambling-themed song, released in 1995 and titled after a casino. Featuring a dirty electric guitar, Casino Queen was composed by an American songwriter, Jeff Tweedy, who wrote this song after playing a game in a riverboat casino accompanied by his dad. Inspired by the event, the author wrote: “Casino Queen my lord you're mean, I've been gambling like a fiend on your tables so green.”

18. Have a Lucky Day - Morphine

Another song on our list that you simply must check out starts like this: “I feel lucky, I just feel that way, I'm on a bus to Atlantic City later on today. Now I'm sitting at a blackjack table and swear to God the dealer has a tag says, "Mabel." Hit me, hit me! I smile at Mabel, soon they're bringing complimentary drinks to the table.” Check it out yourself - it’s called Have a Lucky Day by Morphine.

17. Kentucky Gambler - Merle Haggard

Written by Dolly Parton and released in 1974, Merle Haggard’s Kentucky Gambler is another song on our ultimate gambling playlist that you should pay attention to. It’s about a miner from Kentucky who leaves his family to gamble, under the bright lights of Reno. Unsurprisingly, his winning streak comes to an end, and he loses all his winnings. All broke, he decided to return back home only when he arrived, he found out his wife was involved with someone else.

16. The Jack - AC/DC

The next song on our list will give you some adrenaline boost, for sure. It goes like this - “She gave me the queen, she gave me the king, she was wheelin' and dealin', just doin' her thing, she was holdin' a pair, but I had to try…” Sounds familiar? This song from the 1975s is called The Jack and is played by AC/DC and there’s no way you can skip it.

15. Blackjack - Ray Charles

Moving on to something a bit different - a melody that blackjack lovers can listen to as they play is Ray Charles’ Blackjack. Apart from being a good quality song from 1955, it carries an important message with an emphasis on how brutal the game of blackjack can be. Some sources say that Ray Charles wrote it after beating T-Bone Walker at a blackjack game session.
Yet another Ray Charles’ famous song about gambling is called a Losing Hand.

14. Ooh Las Vegas - Gram Parson

“Ooh, Las Vegas, ain't no place for a poor boy like me”... is a song-into for Ooh Las Vegas which was written by Gram Parsons and Ric Grech. It was first released by Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris in 1974. Playing this song would be perfect for the beginning of the road trip (i.e. to Las Vegas), especially if you have the energy to sing along.

13. The Stranger - Leonard Cohen

Published in 1968 and performed by Leonard Cohen, The Stranger appears in the The Ernie Game movie about a man released from a mental asylum. More appropriately, it is the perfect opening song in the 1971 Western McCabe & Mrs Miller, in which Warren Beatty plays a gambler. As you listen to this song (without watching the movie), it makes you see fascinating images of card games, smoky dreams, and concepts of risk versus safety.

12. Desperado - Eagles

Written by Glen Frey and Don Henley, Desperado song is one of The Eagles’ greatest hits from their 1973 album of the same name. The song features a classic tune while the ballad tells the story of a lone wolf imprisoned by his loneliness. As for the lyrics, they have loads of card references mentioning the queen of diamonds, the queen of hearts, and so on.

11. Huck's Tune - Bob Dylan

The next song on our list is about the risks of poker, money, and relationships, which are precisely what the movie Lucky You is all about. Does it ring a bell? That’s right, this 2007 song is called Huck’s Tune and is performed by Bob Dylan. Each of us can all relate to lines "You push it all in, and you've no chance to win, you play 'em on down to the end." Play the song and you’ll enjoy more than 4 amazing minutes of Bob Dylan.
Likewise, Bob Dylan recorded Rambling, Gambling Willie and Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, both excellent and both inspired by gambling.
​

10. Four Little Diamonds - Electric Light Orchestra

A song by the British rock band Electric Light Orchestra Four Little Diamonds was released in 1983 and found itself on the album Secret Messages. The single wasn’t so popular in the US, being only 2 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, at number 86, and number 84 in the UK. This song refers to the singer’s cheating lover who tricked him out of a ring which had 'four little diamonds' on it.

9. You Can't Beat The House - Mark Knopfler

Moving on to our next choice for the day, You Can’t Beat the House. It’s the third song on the Get Lucky studio album released in 2009 by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler. The album and the songs received favorable reviews with the album reaching the top three positions on album charts in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland. The singer’s divine voice combined with beautiful music and lyrics goes like this – “You can't bear the house, you can't bear the house, tell the man somebody, you can't beat the house.”

8. Deck of Cards - Don Williams

Deck of Cards is a recitation song that tells the story of a soldier who gets caught while playing cards in church and then faces a sentence from a superior officer. The soldier defends his case, explaining he wasn't about to deal a hand of poker, but was rather confirming his faith with the cards. Performed by T. Texas Tyler, the song managed to become a major hit in the 1940s and 1950s. Also, Wink Martindale had an even bigger hit with his 1959 cover, with a successful version by Don Williams featuring Tex Ritter and Buddy Cole.

7. Gambler’s Blues - B.B. King

First recording of the song Gambler’s Blues by B.B. King was in 1966, and it was released in 1967. The song appears on the album Back in the Alley (1970). Some say gambling and blues go hand in hand, so if you (gambling fans) haven’t heard it, listen and see for yourself.

6. Tumbling Dice - Rolling Stones

One of our favourite songs on the list is Tumbling Dice, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It tells the story of a gambler who can’t remain faithful to any woman. Being released in the 1970s and featuring a blues boogie-woogie rhythm, the song was and still is one of the greatest singles of all time.
Rolling Stones also recorded Casino Boogie, and it’s from their 1972 album, Exile on Main St.

5. Luck Be A Lady - Frank Sinatra

The next song on our list is about a gambler who hopes that he will win a bet, the outcome of which will decide whether he is able to save his relationship with the girl of his dreams. You probably know what song we’re talking about; it’s called Luck be a Lady released in 1965 and performed by one of the most popular musical artists - Frank Sinatra.

4. Deal - Grateful Dead

Next one up is the song Deal. It was first performed by the Grateful Dead in 1971, as a regular part of the repertoire through their 1970's tour. Although being less common to the fans during the 1990s, the band continued to perform it. The singer opens with the message: “Since it cost a lot to win and even more to lose you and me bound to spend some time wondering what to choose,” that later kicks off with a chorus: “Don't let your deal go down...”
Loser is another song first performed by the Grateful Dead in 1971 as well, heavily played during 1971 and 1972.

3. Ace of Spades - Motörhead

Ok, the next song is loaded with some great gambling verses like "The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say, I don't share your greed, the only card I need is the Ace of Spades" will definitely set you in the right mood for hitting some winning combinations. Released in 1980, the song was inspired by slot machines that the lead singer Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister played in London pubs.

2. Viva Las Vegas - Elvis

As soon as you start playing the second song from our playlist “Viva Las Vegas,” you’ll probably picture a huge casino and a great gaming atmosphere. Performed by the legendary Elvis Presley, the 1964-released song brings the glamour of the city, and its beat will get you in the mood for some serious gameplay. This song was written for the movie of the same name starring Elvis Presley, in which he plays a race car driver waiting tables at a hotel to pay off a debt. There’s this famous scene when he performs this song at the talent competition alongside many showgirls.

1. The Gambler - Kenny Rogers

Performed by the legendary country singer Kenny Rogers, The Gambler song is our number 1 - it's full of some betting advice that are relevant today, even though it was released more than 40 years ago, in 1978. Here’s how it goes… “If you're gonna play the game, boy you gotta learn to play it right, you've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” These classic chorus lines were told from the first-person perspective inspired by a conversation the author had with an experienced poker player on a train. Written in the form of poker metaphors, Schlitz wrote the tune in honor of his late father.
Johnny Cash is also among other musicians who recorded The Gambler in 1978, on Gone Girl.

What do you think? Which one is your favourite?

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Artist: Arctic Monkeys Album: Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino Released: May 11th, 2018 Listen: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube

THE LUNAR SURFACE (Where It All Started)

The year is 2016, Alex Turner has returned home from 30th birthday celebrations to discover a brand-new Steinway Vetregrand piano. It was a gift from his manager, and it opened a whole new world for him. “Looking back now it seems really... significant. It changed everything really.” He states about it within an interview from Mojo Magazine. He was correct. The piano sparked everything to life becoming the “centre of the universe” for the album. Guitars were just not giving him ideas anymore, but the piano was. Stored in a spare bedroom within his LA home, this became “The Lunar Surface” his almost makeshift recording studio. The name coming from the theory that Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing. Alex even stating to Radio X that, “It was amusing to say, “I’m going down to the Lunar Surface.”” The makeshift studio also helped shape the album title, it was “instrumental” to the process. But the piano wasn’t the only thing within the makeshift studio. There was a drum kit, a Vox Continental organ, and a Tascam 388 eight-track recorder. The eight-track recorder would serve as a substantial part in making the album. “I sat with all my instruments and recorded the songs into the machine. That way, I could hear everything at once, whereas in the past it was all in my imagination until I could play the songs with the band.” He also considered it “a writing tool” as much as a recording tool. Working in isolation, he recorded tapes that would later remain on the record in forms of elements such as vocals and various instrumental parts. The eight-track even served as part of the album cover with the “lobby model” of the Hotel + Casino sitting overtop of it, with an earlier version of the record as the tape on it. The model itself was constructed by Turner. The model itself was birthed from the album title and the fact that this is the 6th Arctic Monkeys album. Thus, explaining the hexagon imagery, 1 side per album. The model first started as cardboard, left over scraps from this model can be seen in a photo from inside the Lunar Surface shot by Zackery Michael. Then it was built more and more until we arrived at the model showcased on the album’s cover. The model has a rotating sign bit that was inspired by the House of Pies rotating sign.

VOX, LA FRETTE, & BRINGING IT TOGETHER (Enter the Others)

Upon assembling some of the track, Alex took them to fellow bandmate, guitarist Jamie Cook. Jamie is considered the “gatekeeper” to band, almost like the human bullshit meter. Alex almost feared that he would underwhelmed with it. But Jamie was the one told Alex, “This is definitely what we should be doing.” This led to the pair adding guitar parts to the songs. The majority of these, like the demo tape vocals, stuck with the album. From here they took the album to Vox Recording Studios on Melrose Ave. in LA, in May 2017. This is where the first full band sessions were recorded. Some of the “more interesting” keyboard sounds within the album came from these sessions. But this did not really work out for the band. So, later in September, the band went to La Frette Studios, a residential recording studio on the outskirts of Paris. This was where the album really came together. The band spent about 5-6 weeks recording here. This was Jamie’s idea. La Frette ended up seeing the band bring in an extra 9 musicians to play with them. This also led to a ‘Pet Sounds’ style of recording. This was a large ensemble recording style with these multiple musicians and the band themselves on multiple different instruments including multiple of the same type. So, 2 drum kits, 3 guitars, a couple of pianos. This did not work for every track but did work for a few. (Specifically, The Ultracheese, but I will talk about this more later) Alex stated to BBC Radio 1 that, “A lot of the energy I feel like came from that session. It was all like together in La Frette.” Some of the La Frette sessions can be seen in the Warp Speed Chic short film shot by Ben Chappell.

THE ALBUM (Natural Progression and Influences)

The album overall is 11 tracks. Many believe that the album is a concept album revolving around the Hotel + Casino, but that is not the case. Each one is a “short story” in the words of Turner. Four Out Of Five and the title tracking being the most connected of the collection. "But in other ways it does seem like a collection of short stories and we named the collection after one of the stories which is this one [Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino]. The other ones belong in the same place as this." (Radio X Track by Track interview). The title of the album itself came from a variety of things. The two most prominent being: the fact it is a “place”, and the location of the Apollo 11 moon landing. One thing should be known about the idea of the hotel and casino being a place, Turner loves to think of albums of places. “I think of some of my favorite records as places that you can go and stay for a while, and sort of spurred me on to give this record the name of a place.” (iHeart) The other part of the name itself coming from the Apollo 11 landing may be considered more interesting. This is due to the fact it may have come from cups themed with the lunar landing. The title of course is not the only interesting thing about the album. The sound itself is a departure from their last, AM. But the band all feel like this was natural progression. But the AM era was where they felt they had went a little too far. Bassist Nick O’Malley told Mojo Magazine that he felt that they had lost the “realness” in a sense with that era. “I think we'd gone as far as we could go. I had these crazy ‘80s hair metal leggings on-stag. I'd worn ‘em on Halloween, which I'd done dressed as Macho Man Randy Savage, the WWF wrestler. That was a big sign that it was time to have a break.” And with that they took a break, a five year long one. Turner himself was also aware that he could not do what he did on AM again, “I was aware of the idea that, I don’t think I could have been singing about the things I was singing about on AM anymore.” (Studio Brussels) This was not the first time the band has faced this “challenge” of switching it up. The same thing had happened with their 3rd album Humbug. Drummer Matt Helders states, “We’ve had that challenge before, after the first album success where we had to just get on and make the second, or else forever be dwelling on it. But this one didn’t feel like that. I mean, maybe there’ll be fans we gained from AM that will be a bit confused now. Like, that was their first experience of the band... ‘and now they’re going this?’” (Mojo Magazine) But the band did not want to make AM 2.0. Guitarist Jamie Cook stated to Mojo Magazine, “If we were worried about that we would never have made Humbug. And to disappear for a couple of years then come back with AM2? I think people have been, ‘Fuck off.’” But of course, this move was not met without criticism. Many fans and critics found themselves in a state of “What the fuck happened to Arctic Monkeys?” upon their new era and album due to the departure of sound from AM. But Turner himself does not see this a full-fledged departure, “There’s an idea that this album’s radically removed from where we’ve been. I can sort of see that, but I don’t think it’s as much of a move as people suggest.” (LA Times)
The album takes multiple film influences, science fiction influences, and musical influences from film scores to help make these “short stories”. Science Fiction inspired Turner to explore other worlds to create the album. Worlds he made up as he went along. Three films from Jean-Pierre Melville served as main influences on the album. The films being Un Flic, Le Cercle Rouge, and Le Samouraï. The films mostly center around a jazz club. The set interiors of these films piqued Turner’s interest. “So, when I would sit at the piano and play these types of chords, I was thinking about those Melville interiors a lot.” (Pitchfork) Overall, the sci-fi influenced led to Turner accessing sort of a “vocabulary” to say, that helped paint this picture of this hotel and casino on the moon.
The album also has this “magic” that they just could not get upon other recording sessions. This led to many of the demo tapes and early session elements making it to the file cut. They wanted to make an intimate experience but just could not get it to be as intimate as some of the early recording.
The album itself is also “autobiographical” in a sense. Turner sees it as him talking to himself all throughout the 11 tracks. But this wasn’t his first time trying to write things towards himself. “I tried to write this kind of thing before, I just didn’t know how to, really. I think I tried and recognized, thankfully, that I wasn’t ready. It's like the natural place to have gone, after that first record, was somewhere around ‘ere.”

THE TRACKS

STAR TREATMENT
Opening the album, we have Star Treatment, an almost 6-minute-long track. The track itself beings with the line “I just wanted to be one of The Strokes.” A polarizing opening line for a polarizing album. This lyric was originally meant to be replaced, but Turner kept it in. He was using the “Scrambled Eggs” method for the album. The “Scrambled Eggs” method comes from Paul McCartney where he used “scrambled eggs” as temporary lyrics while writing The Beatles’ song ‘Yesterday’. This just happened to be one of those lines. But he took a liking to it the more time went on. The Strokes of course were a big influence on the band, they were even coined “The British Strokes” upon debut. But truth is, time has passed since then. About 12 years to be exact. “But when I circled back around to it I felt like it was right where it ought to be because of how it makes me think, “Shit. The last 12 years just flashed by.” There’s an honesty and a truth to it.” (Pitchfork) The passage of time is a constant theme within this track, with references to the ‘70s, the ‘80s. This track was the first thing Turner had written for the album. It came about during the last run of The Last Shadow Puppets (Turner’s side-project with Miles Kane). But this is also the most direct Turner was with himself on the album. Specifically, about songwriting. Lines like “The golden boy’s in bad shape,” refer to the fact he was lost with his songwriting and did not know where to go. But like how the track had started before the album itself had started, there’s a particular line that had existed since 2009. “Here ain’t no place for dolls like you and me,” That was the line. He had tried giving it away to others to put in a track, but no one would take it. So, he saved it because he didn’t have “follow up” per say yet but found it within this track. Another focal point for the track is the lounge singer and his backing band. This lounge singer theme can be seen through, but this is where it starts. This is where the lounge singer gets the name for his band. “I think I like the idea that there would be a longue singer sat at a bar, overhearing somebody being cut off from having another martini and hearing them say “Who are you to cut me off? The martini police?” and then this lounge singer thinking “That would be a good name for my backing band.”” (Radio X) But this track serving as the opening track overall sets a tone for the album. Upon sharing the music with others, they decided this would be the best place to start the album, a way to get people to hear it first and foremost. The other way to do this would have been releasing it as a single. But they took what can be seen a controversial move in this era of streaming and singles being more prominent than albums to release no singles. Like how this track led to Turner writing the rest of the album, it leads you, the listener, into the rest of the album.
ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE
One Point Perspective is the shortest track on the album, but it does pack quite a bit of a punch. With the title coming from a filming style, specifically one used a lot by Stanley Kubrick, a main influence on the album, we dig a bit more into the sci-fi roots. The track itself focuses on conversations, dreams, and how they are often interrupted. “It was informed perhaps by conversations I may have heard or been involved with. Under the influence of some narcotic draft or another. And fragments of those things are appearing the lyrics on this tune.” (Radio X) The track also focuses briefly on a made-up documentary called “Singsong ‘Round the Money Tree”. “I think specifically in the case of this documentary, there was something else there. And it came from the “If I’m gonna end up singing to a quiet room, like what comes before that.” Perhaps someone had told me they’d been singing along to a score or something.” (Radio X) Of course this brings us to the quiet rooms. What exactly are the quiet rooms? Well they’re exactly what they sound like, literal quiet rooms. But they also refer to isolation experienced by Turner while recording the album. With the vocal takes, especially the early tape ones, it would just be him, alone in the Lunar Surface with his eight-track. Of course, there’s also the line “Bear with me, man, I lost my train of thought.” This one is followed by a pause in the vocals and is usually played up for the live shows, but it represents that spot in a conversation where you really do lose your train of thought. Maybe it’s your mind wandering, maybe it’s that you are being interrupted and then trying to resume what you were talking about but forgot. But, it’s a universal feeling that ties together this track.
AMERICAN SPORTS
American Sports is an interesting track. Not just musically, but lyrically. Music wise an organ plays a main part in the track. The organ though was strangely organized upon recording. With Turner doing one bar, recording it, stopping, doing another bar. Eventually in later recording sessions they attempted to play it all together but just could not get the same effect/sound as the one from the eight-track tape, so they stuck with that. The vocals were also from the eight-track tape. Lyrical wise the track was pulled together by a line given to Turner from his grandfather. “I visited me Granddad one day and he said to me, ‘You know, I often think of phrases even there that I think you might be able to do something with.’ And I sort of went ‘All right.’ He likes to watch the horse-racing, and he began to tell me that whenever there’s what’s called a ‘steward’s inquiry,’- All you ever hear back after the steward’s inquiry is the phrase ‘the trainer's explanation was accepted by the steward.’ Which, as he said it I just thought was loaded.” (iHeart) This was what sparked the rest of the track. But there’s one question left, what the fuck is Lola? Well, a Lola is his writer’s block. Seen within the chorus with the line “And I never thought, not in a million years, that I’d meet so many Lolas.” He gives the writer’s block a bit of a personification. The track also gives us more callbacks to technology, another overlapping theme within the album. The narrator describes a video call with God, and a virtual reality mask stuck on ‘Parliament Brawl’. The parliament brawl also allows this track to get a little political. This can be seen heavily within the first line of the second verse, “Breaking news, they take the truth and make it fluid,” mostly referring to the phenomena of ‘Fake News’. Overall, the track makes for an interesting take combining writer’s block, political problems, and technology.
TRANQUILITY BASE HOTEL + CASINO
The title track serves as the fourth track to the album. Opening with imagery of Jesus in a day spa. But the track itself is built upon the idea of the character Mark. Mark of course is a character in the track who answers phones, mostly stating the name of the hotel and casino while asking where he can direct your call. First Turner pictured Mark at this phone, then he pictured where the phone was after that. This led of course to the album title, but it also leads back into the track itself. This of course is played off well in the video, but we’ll get to that in a bit. As the track builds you a bit more of this world of the hotel and casino on the moon, it also leads to some interesting lines. One in particular being “Kiss me underneath the moon’s sideboob.” Question of the year being, what the fuck is the moon’s sideboob? Well, the term was coined by guitarist Jamie Cook. “There was a really thin crescent moon in the sky, which Jamie from the band described as the moon's sideboob and I thought that was like quite profound.” (Studio Brussel) Another odd line within the track is “Technological advances really bloody get me in the mood”, this is a bit of a satire. But is also a slight observation. This observation being that technology sometimes changes society, especially when advances are made. These changes can be reflected in the way we talk to others, the way we act, and many other aspects of our life that we may not fully realize at first. For the record though, technological advances do not turn him on.
Onto the video, this was the second single from the album, and the second video. The video was released on the 23rd of July. Directed by Ben Chappell and Aaron Brown, the video continues an overlapping Kubrick inspired theme. Unfortunately, Turner is the only one from the band who fully makes an appearance in the video. The others are briefly shown through footage from their BCC Maida Vale Studios session appearing on displays though out the “sets”. Throughout this video there’s sections where the track and video break a bit for some flashing red lights followed by some “doots” taking over the audio, like the Four Out of Five video. The video was filmed at the Peppermill Reno, a hotel and casino within Las Vegas, Nevada. The Peppermill Reno were nice enough to write a blog post about the video breaking down the locations of the video. The video took two days of film to shoot within the area. The first location they filmed at was the Fireside Longue. This is the first time Turner, playing out the character of Mark, is handed a phone. The phone was handed to him by a worker from the Café Milano within the hotel and casino. Two different suites are featured throughout the video. The first being the Safari Adventure Suite. This is home to many of the hot tub scenes. The other being the Roman Opulence suite, this was the all gold room. There’s also the elevator shots that came from the 17th floor elevators. The wandering around the hotel and casino shots, mostly shot within the cube bar and the island buffet. And some phone call answering with the Tuscany Tower’s courtesy phone. There’s one other particular phone scene within this video I decided to save for last due the fact that it is going to come up a bit later. The second phone call is answered within a replica of the 1966 Batmobile via the Batphone. This serves as a nice callback to one of the later tracks on the album titled, Batphone. During these shots he also is fake driving with a projected image of a tunnel in the background, this also comes up in the Four Out of Five video, but we’ll get into that on that track.
GOLDEN TRUNKS
Believe it or not this the “love song” on the album. Yeah. The track is described by Turner as being a conversation between him and an unnamed female character he is falling for. But that all gets overshadowed by the semi-titular line, “The leader of the free world, reminds you of a wrestler wearing tight golden trunks.” The line does steal the show for being out there in a sense. The beginning of the line is a bit cumbersome to say the least, but it is almost melodic in another sense via the delivery. But this overall is just another part of the conversation with this female character. It may even be part of her imagination, you know, something she’s saying. Almost giving us a retrospective into her thoughts, feelings, and sense of humor. This all leads towards the bridge of the track. “Bendable figures with a fresh new pack of lies, Summat else to publicise, I'm sure you've heard about enough.” Almost showing us how fast the conversation is moving along. But also showing that you get to a point where you don’t know what to believe in the conversation or really what to believe in the track. The bridge also brings another interesting point forward. The words in particular, ‘Bendable Figures’ was almost the track’s title. “Which was because, someone got me a toy Batmobile, and it came with bendable figures of Batman and Robin, I assume, among others possibly. I’ve made a bit of a name for me since, and I mean, I am a fan of the old Batman book. I remember looking at this box and on the box it said ‘bendable figures’ and I don’t know. The news might have been on in the background, and here we are.” (iHeart) Another interesting point of the track is how straight the narrator and this female character are with each other. They both are basically telling each other that they fantasize about each other. She says it by whispering in his ear, he says it by responding to her straightly.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE
Another track with an interesting open, this one was originally different lyric-wise. Originally the words were ‘Karaoke and raspberry beret, in imaginative ways, and I get signed right then and there by a hotshot executive / I wasn’t expecting it that easy.’ Quite a departure from the final version that appears on the track. Four Out of Five served as the first single to the album. The track describes a taqueria on the roof the Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, and more particularly how it is boasting four stars out of five. Mostly just how perfect scores are unattainable so a four of five is great enough, “Because the people that are in charge of giving the scores, they never give a perfect hundred.” (Beats 1) The taqueria itself is named “The Information-Action Ratio” this comes from Neil Postman's book ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’. “I was attracted to the idea as soon as I heard that phrase; even though it was in this book from [1985] it still seemed relevant—more relevant than it probably was when the guy made it up.” (Pitchfork) The phrase itself explains that we don’t need the vast amount of information we receive and that we don’t do much about this information. But it’s a great name for a taqueria on the roof of a hotel and casino on the moon. The track itself also gives us more of the story about the hotel itself. Mostly its location, other than the moon itself. We learn that the entire moon is getting gentrified due to an exodus. There’s also a really cool play musically where the last chorus literally is lifted up another semitone after it’s said at the end of the bridge.
Onto the video for this one, the Kubrick fantasy filming begins here. Directed by Ben Chappell and Aaron Brown, the video was released on the 13th of May. The video was filmed at the Castle Howard in Yorkshire and the Munich Marienplatz station in Munich, Germany. The video starts with Turner playing a piano but then stopping to go look at the model of the hotel and casino. Throughout this video there’s sections where the track and video break a bit for some flashing red lights followed by some “doots” taking over the audio. Then, the video sees Turner taking the role of a director for some “Video Lifestyle Packages” for the hotel and casino. But it also gives us two different Turners. One with a beard, one without. The two doing seemingly parallel tasks within different areas. The other band members are also seen within the video, mostly jamming out. Especially with the nice little jam session with beardless Turner in the end. Due to the fact there’s two seemingly different Turners this has led to fan theories surrounding the video. Some stating that maybe the hotel and casino is some cover up for a mental hospital, another stating that maybe it’s both sides of his life (regulaprofessional). Assistants are also seen throughout the video setting up sets and other things, almost as if this was a film set. There’s also one scene in particular I’d like to touch on, the car scenes. This one is a bit important because it almost calls back the “haunt you via the rear-view mirror” line from Star Treatment. This scene was originally intended to be used in a video for Star Treatment, but they used it here instead. Overall, the video a bit of a visual treat with its cues from Stanley Kubrick and was more than a fitting visual return for Arctic Monkeys going into this era.
THE WORLD’S FIRST EVER MONSTER TRUCK FRONT FLIP
Yeah that’s a title to get your attention. The title comes from the actual event of the world’s first ever monster truck front flip. This was something that had caught Turner’s interest and will probably catch yours too upon just reading it. Sure, he may have only watched the video once, but the headline itself was what caught his attention. Later on, he used it create the base for what he was imagining with the track. “I think I imagined a sort of old presidents’ men style news room with just enough men in there. And sorta trying to get the editors attention like “You'll never believe it, somebody's done it forwards” and I think going off in my mind, perhaps and I thought, I don't know... It seems like that's where were at now innit, that sort of things are happening." (Radio X) The track itself lyrically describes TECHNOLOGY. More specifically, how people love their devices. “You push the button and we’ll do the rest” a repeating line that refers to how we’ve gotten so far that you can just push a button, and something will happen. Whether it be something within an app or data storage. Data storage is another important theme within the track. Our data is being stored everywhere. The track uses the data storage as a metaphor in many ways, with things like someone trying to breach into it. But overall the track itself just shows us how technology is changing us, references to technology changing us lie throughout. But we also see a bit of a jab at how no one wants to explain what the technology is exactly doing, “There are things that I just cannot explain to you, and those that I hope I don’t ever have to.” This wraps everything back around because it ties into the theme of just pushing a button and having everything done for us. We don’t see the background process, we don’t know what exactly they do, we just know that we can push a button and it will be done.
SCIENCE FICTION
True to the title, the track explores the themes of Science Fiction. Science Fiction is the “lobby model” of the album, as in it brings it all together. The track started with the idea of exploring Sci-Fi further and exploring worlds created from this, same with the album. One of the things in particular that sparked this was the Fassbinder film ‘World on a Wire’. Sci-Fi takes these themes and attempts to connect them to the real world and even Tranquility Base. Continuing the overarching theme of technology, this one takes the focus on how we’re viewing society due to technology, again. Making light touches on religion, we can see how in this “area” per say, science has won. But we also see how it feels like Sci-Fi is taking over in the form of a reality that feels strange and almost fictional at points. Technology keeps becoming a bigger part of our lives to the point where it almost disconnects us in a way. The narrator in this track wants to avoid that, he wants to stay within the life of his love. But it’s hard with things changing so much and society also changing. He states that he wants to make a “simple point” about peace and love but not too obviously. And this track almost feels like that point. But then it takes a bit of a turn at the end. We see the narrator take this back a bit and Turner begin to doubt if he’s wandering on too much with the track itself. “So, I tried to write a song to make you blush. But I’ve a feeling that the whole thing, may well just end up too clever for its own good.” Describing it as too clever shows that he feels like he’s overthinking it all. With a track with an almost double meaning like this it is a bit easy to understand why it may be “too clever”.
SHE LOOKS LIKE FUN
Ah yes, the rock and roll song of the record. Or well, the rock and roll without the roll. IT’S ALL ROCK MUSIC TO ALEX TURNER DAMMIT. This track has been described as frenzy but controlled. The structure of the track itself reflects that, “It goes like 3 verses in this tune before anything else changes. And I think like by that third one you get this sense of like you shouldn't be doing it again, it's time to move somewhere else. And eventually it does happen.” (Radio X) The main idea for this track came from the fact we almost create these “characters” within the virtual world. You know, your online presence through social media. The title itself is refrained throughout the track as the chorus and refers to how we just look a photo and decide what people are like. In this case the female titular character of the track is described to look like “fun”. Furthermore, this is joined but what may seem to be a non-sensical string of words. But, it’s meant to represent scrolling through a social feed like Instagram. “As far as the “cheeseburger” line, I was actually watching an episode of the show “High Maintenance,” and there’s a part where the person’s taking their picture with a cheeseburger and posting it and all this.” (Pitchfork) The verses focus more on the internet culture and the behavior of those within. Whether this behavior be something like a VR experience of New Year’s Eve at Bruce Wayne’s Manor or being a dickhead to someone. It’s about how we can almost do whatever we want with almost no restrictions in this virtual landscape. The bridge brings it to a point where we realize, it almost feels like everything is online nowadays. This follows by some lines of Turner criticizing himself for constantly talking about marital arts to people in bars. This mostly draws from Turner’s frequent kickboxing sessions. “Maybe sometimes I put stuff into a song to stop myself from doing it - I think I’m just realising that’s true. Like there’s a line in the middle of She Looks Like Fun about waffling on to strangers about martial arts in bars, and that was definitely something I was doing a lot of and was aware I needed to stop doing.” (Mojo Magazine) Also this marks the second time within the album where he says something regarding the music and it happens. This time being in the form of a key change. The last chorus features a key change that is in time with him stating it in the track.
BATPHONE
The all mighty Batman comes into a focus theme upon this track! Okay... Barely. A “Batphone” in the sense of this track is a direct line to Turner via his phone. The track deals with analysis and criticism of technology all at once. Opening on Turner realizing that he can just use a search engine to find a more interesting word to describe what he’s trying to say. Which, it wasn’t always like this, there was a time where you’d have to go through whole thesauruses to find this interesting words or phrases. Now they’re just a click/tap/touch away. Moving along we see that the narrator in the track specifically is of high class, stating that there’s much to discuss over a game of golf. Of course, that is phrased better within the track itself but for simplicities sake I’m just going to leave it at that. Then he gets into the fact life is a “spectator sport”. Through social media we sit and watch other people’s lives unfold like watching a sport almost. Then we get to a line that may seem more polarizing that it is. “I launch my fragrance called ‘Integrity’ I sell the fact that I can’t be bought.” Upon hearing this line for the first time you may think “What the fuck kind of pretentious bullshit is this trying to be?” Well, that’s exactly where you’re wrong. The idea of a fragrance called ‘Integrity’ is literally just that. “With something like that, I can’t sit here and tell you I wanted to make some comment about integrity and my relationship to it, and then make a fucking perfume out of it and write a smart-ass line like that. It’s more like I see the shape of the letters of “integrity” on the perfume bottle in my mind’s eye—once you know what that font looks like, then it writes itself after that.” (Pitchfork) Yeah, the line came from the visualization of perfume literally called ‘Integrity’. (Which, hilariously, there is one now called that.) Back to the lyrics, we see Turner talk about how he got “sucked into a hole” through a handheld device, this means his phone. Of course, we do all get a bit sucked into our phones now and again. It happens. And now it’s easier than ever. This being due to things like updates to make it easier to access things. The glow of the low beams within this track may be the car lights of your lover. But we do know that he will be by the Batphone if you need to get a hold of him at all. With our phones so close to us at all times, it’s almost like we all have personal Batphones. Then we get into how phones have changed over time. Coining them as “re-decorated” with new lights and sidebars upon them changing. Back the chorus again we see Turner sitting in his living room, with blinds closed, watching the lights of cars going by, but knowing that he'd know those of the car of his lover. Ending upon the panoramic windows again. These are said to be “looking out across your soul”, this is simply just our phone screens. They’re glass, windows are glass. But we look and see things on display including our souls, you know, our lives. Thus, making your soul being put on display through these “windows”. Sure, it’s not just your own soul, there are other people in this world, but it’s important you know that it is yours first and foremost on display. Always remember, whatever you put online, others will see.
THE ULTRACHEESE
Our closing track is a something that could be called Turner’s “Default Position” at this rate. But that does not mean it’s a bad thing. This track in particular is one where we see the Pet Sounds influenced recording style come to life, with multiple drum kits, multiple guitars, and pianos within the recording. The track sees Turner reflect on his past and how things have changed overtime. The title comes from the fact that the track may be a bit too “Cheesy” for everyone except himself. Songwriting of course has changed over time the most for him, upon talking about old tracks he stated, “It feels like we’re doing a cover or something when we play the first album, really, but that’s fine. I don’t hate doing that. It’s just come to the point where I play ‘Mardy Bum’ or something like that and it doesn’t even feel like mine anymore.” (BeatRoute) He feels disconnected from his old lyrics, which is sad but true statement. Of course, this track also touches quickly upon the themes of technology and politics throughout the track. But overall, it’s more just a personal reflection upon everything. Turner even describes himself as not being deep in thought, even if it looks like he was. He’s just living his life, good or bad, it’s just how everything is going down. The track ends the album on the line “I’ve done some things that I shouldn’t have done, but I haven’t stopped loving you once.” We all have things we regret in our lives. Sometimes that shit gets us out of nowhere and ends up on our minds. But we also see Turner telling his lover that he just loves them throughout it. Throughout all the good, the bad, the dirty bullshit, he still loves them.

THE B-SIDE (Anyways)

Yeah I was not finishing this without talking about the B-Side that was released with the title track on the 7” single. The B-side is titled ‘Anyways’ and was cut from the album. “I had a song that didn’t make this record with lyrics that mentioned both Bing Crosby and Randy Newman. And I just thought, You can’t do that. You can have one or the other. Just fucking calm down! You don’t want to make a song too lumpy.” (Vulture) Anyways here means the topic of a conversation and trying to change it. The narrator keeps trying to change the conversation. This can be seen throughout the track with a change in subject seemingly every few lines. One minute talking about toga parties, the next asking about if Mum and Dad are doing well. It’s just topic after topic in this “race” to Anyways. Technology appears again, with a quick mention of oversharing, something that is prevalent throughout the world of social media. Going back the Four Out of Five video from earlier we have a quick mention of a double life. This of course being the public/personal personas or home/professional personas. Much of the rest of the track just shows Turner bearing his all out there for everyone to see and making light of this. “You sort of reveal a piece of something as you’re writing and recording it. Then you find what you’re attracted to, scribble away a bit more of the dust and discover a bit more of the picture. Gradually, it becomes what it is. Each time you reveal another bit of it, it commits you to take the next step.” (BeatRoute) Some argue that this would have made a more “fitting” close for the album than The Ultracheese, other argue that it could have fit in literally anywhere on the album. Overall, I’m just glad it did get released it in the end.

REFLECTIONS IN THE SILVER SCREEN (An Outro)

I first listened to the album when it leaked. Shit on me all you want but I was just so curious. The whole no singles thing intrigued me alongside the sci-fi theme. I was looking for something different and I found it with this album. At the time did I know this was going to be my album of the year? No. Fuck, I barely knew anything about AM at the time apart from Do I Wanna Know?. I coined it as something along the lines of “What Death of A Bachelor could should been.” Turner constantly describes this album as one where he wanted to take people to a place, to this imaginary hotel and casino, and I was taken there upon first listen. I felt like I was sitting, watching a longue singer belt out tunes about his life. Of course, now on the right night I can recreate that feeling, but not always. But the album has just stuck me. Sure, many upon first hearing it found it off putting, but I loved it since first listen. If anything, this album was what made me a fan. This is what me look at AM and go “There’s something here I was missing.” Sure, it did take me months to act upon that, but I’m glad I did. Do I know where AM are going to go next? No. I don’t think any of us really do anymore. This album proved how unpredictable it is to calculate Arctic Monkeys in a way. Maybe the next record will be guitar based again, maybe not. We’ll only know when it comes, no matter how far away that is.

GOLDEN BOY’S NOT IN SUCH BAD SHAPE (Nominations)

Album:

• 2018 Mercury Prize Nomination
• Best Alternative Music Album (Grammy Awards)

Four Of Five:

• Best Rock Performance (Grammy Awards)

First things first - photos!
We got married last month on May 13th and it was the best day ever! We had exactly 80 guests fly out for our black tie wedding in Las Vegas. My husband and I love gambling, excellent food, and fancy cocktails and our wedding featured all three of those. Our wedding was 100% "us" and I wouldn't have done it any other way!
Our ceremony was held at the ultra intimate Sayers Club at the SLS Las Vegas - the lighting in the venue was absolutely gorgeous, walking down the aisle felt like walking into sunshine! We wrote our own vows, and I can't wait to get the video back!
We made playlists featuring Fallout classics, as well as 'Today was a Good Day' and 'Whatta Man' for our reception/cocktail hour, and our reception featured funny money gambling in a smaller private casino at the SLS. The DJ very quickly figured out that a mix of cocktails and 80s dance music kept us out on the floor- so much fun! I was on the dance floor with my bridesmaids and husband all night long.
Our food was the best! I get hungry looking at the photos. Bazaar Meats at the SLS catered it, and they absolutely crushed it. We had jamon iberico de bellota, cotton candy foie gras, cowboy ribeyes, suckling pigs, and all sorts of delicious side items. The crazy, modern craft cocktails and wine flowed all night - check the photos for the Cotton Candy Magic Mojito.
Ladies and gents- thank you so much for your support while planning our wedding! This community is absolutely amazing. If any of you have questions about planning bigger Vegas weddings I'm here to help!

An exhaustive list of the songs and ambient music heard in Twin Peaks: The Return.

Twin Peaks (Limited Event Series Soundtrack)
Twin Peaks (Music From The Limited Event Series)
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 1: △△
Full playlist in a chronological order

- PART 1 - My log has a message for you.
Dean Hurley - Intro Cymbal Wind

Opening of Part 1, and the drone sound we hear just before each opening credits sequence

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Main Theme (Edit)

Opening credits

David Lynch & Dean Hurley - Sub Dream

to be confirmed

Thought Gang - Frank 2000

to be confirmed

Muddy Magnolias - American Woman (David Lynch Remix)

Mr C drives a car at night and enters Buella's place

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch – Solo Percussion 1

Short drum sequence on a Las Vegas view

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Dark Mood Woods / The Red Room

Hawk walks through the woods and we enter the Red Room

- PART 2 - The stars turn and a time presents itself.
Dean Hurley– Tube Wind Dream

Cooper enters the Glass Box

Chromatics – Shadow

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 3 - Call for help.
David Lynch & Dean Hurley – Dream Recall

to be confirmed

Dean Hurley– Electricity I

Cooper meets with American Girl and escapes the Mauve Zone

The Cactus Blossoms – Mississippi

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 4 - ...brings back some memories.
Angelo Badalamenti – Laura Palmer’s Theme (Love Theme From Twin Peaks)

Bobby cries when he sees Laura’s picture

Dave Burbeck – Take Five

Sonny Jim helps Cooper eat breakfast

Au Revoir Simone – Lark

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 5 - Case files.
Johnny Jewel – The Flame

Opening on Las Vegas shots

BluntedBeatz – I Am (Old School Hip Hop Beat)

Heard in the room of the woman called by the hitman

Uniform – Habit

Bad guys in the black car approach Dougie’s car for the first time

Angelo Badalamenti – Grady Groove (feat. Grady Tate)

Dougie in the elevator going to work and drinking coffee, to be confirmed

Uniform – Tabloid

Bad guys in the black car approach Dougie’s car for the second time and die

Unkown artist– Unknown title, '119 music'

'119 mother' wakes up at the sound of flames

The Paris Sisters – I Love How You Love Me

Becky gets high in her boyfriend’s car

The U.S. Army Concert Band – The Stars & Stripes Forever

Dr Amp/Jacoby broadcasts his infomercial

Dean Hurley – Angel Choir Reveal

Dr Amp/Jacoby broadcasts his infomercial

Trouble – Snake Eyes

Performed at the Roadhouse

Johnny Jewel – Windswept

Dougie Jones stays outside of Lucky7 Insurance

- PART 6 - Don't die.
Johnny Jewel – Windswept

Dougie Jones stays outside of Lucky7 Insurance

Dean Hurley – Electricity I

Shot on traffic lights

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

"Don't die"

Johnny Jewel – Windswept

Dougie Jones solves case files

Dean Hurley - Slow One Chord Blues (Interior)

Albert looks for Diane in a pub

Dean Hurley – Tone / Slow Speed Prison / Low Mood

"Heads I win, tails you lose"

Angelo Badalamenti - Accident / Farewell Theme

Carl Rodd witnesses the death of a young boy

BluntedBeatz – I Am (Old School Hip Hop Beat)

Ike the Spike receives orders

Johnny Jewel – Windswept

Bushnell Mullins reviews Dougie's case files

BluntedBeatz – I Am (Old School Hip Hop Beat)

Ike the Spike kills Lorraine

Dean Hurley– Electricity II

Richard Horne parks near the trees, which reflects as electric wires on his windshield

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Hawk founds a secret behind the bathroom door

Sharon Van Etten – Tarifa (Roadhouse Mix)

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 7 - There's a body all right.
Booker T. & The M.G.’s – Green Onions

In the Roadhouse, we are introduced to Jean-Michel Renault

Santo & Johnny Farina – Sleep Walk

Played in the RR Diner

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Half Speed Orchestra 3 (Windom Earle's Motif)

Played in the RR Diner at the very end of the credits, mixed with Sleep Walk

- PART 8 - Gotta light?
Ludwig Van Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 14, Moonlight Sonata (David Lynch Remix)

Strange ghosts appear when Mr C gets shot

“The” Nine Inch Nails - She’s Gone Away

Performed at the Roadhouse

Witold Rowicki – Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (with Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra)

1945, the Trinity bomb explodes in New Mexico

David Lynch & Dean Hurley – Slow 30’s Room

In the room with ??????? and Senorita Dido. The music comes from David Lynch's The Air is on Fire.

Angelo Badalamenti – The Fireman

Laura Palmer is sent on Earth

The Platters – My Prayer

The Woodsman enters the radio station

- PART 9 - This is the chair.
U.S. Air Force Band - America, The Beautiful

Dougie looks at the American flag

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Deer Meadow Shuffle

The Fusco brothers talk in the office and arrest Ike

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Abstract Mood

Shot on the sherif's station in Twin Peaks

Angelo Badalamenti – The Chair

Betty Briggs reveal her husband’s secret

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Half Speed Orchestra 2 (Dark Forces)

Diane receives a text message on her phone

Hudson Mohawke – Human

Performed at the Roadhouse while the two drugged girls are talking

Au Revoir Simone - A Violent Yet Flammable World

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 10 - Laura is the one.
Harry Dean Stanton – Red River Valley

Performed on guitar by Carl Rodd in the Fat Trout Trailer Park

Johnny Jewel – Slow Dreams

After Dougie and Janey-E sex scene

Mantovani and His Orchestra – Charmaine

Richard Horne robs his grand-mother Sylvia

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Slow Speed Orchestra 2 (Unease Motif / The Woods)

The Mitchum brothers watch Candy on surveillance camera - to be confirmed

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch – Half Speed Orchestra 1 (Stair Music / Danger Theme)

The Mitchum brothers watch Candy on surveillance camera

Thought Gang – Headless Chicken

The Mitchum brothers debrief the complex situation they are facing

Rebekah Del Rio – No Stars

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 11 - There's fire where you are going.
Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Slow Speed Orchestra 2 (Unease Motif / The Woods)

The young boys playing ball see a dying Miriam looking for help - to be confirmed

Thought Gang - Frank 2000

Becky takes a gun and steals her mother's car to go to Steven's - to be confirmed

Witold Rowicki – Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (with Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra)

Diane sees a Woodsman approaching the car - to be confirmed

Shawn Colvin - Viva Las Vegas

Cooper in a white limousine, leaving Las Vegas to meet the Mitchum brothers

Angelo Badalamenti - Heartbreaking

Played in the restaurant where Cooper and the Mitchum brothers share a drink

- PART 12 - Let's rock.
Angelo Badalamenti – Night

Tammy joins the Blue Rose task force

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Back to Fat Trout (Unease Motif / The Woods)

The short reverse sound we hear when Diane says "Let's rock!"

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch – Teresa's Autopsy

Sarah Palmer in the grocery store

Angelo Badalamenti – Laura Palmer’s Theme

Hawk visits Sarah Palmer

Angelo Badalamenti – Unknown track

Hawk talks with Sarah Palmer, to be confirmed

The U.S. Army Concert Band – The Stars & Stripes Forever

Dr Amp/Jacoby broadcasts his infomercial (again)

Dean Hurley – Angel Choir Reveal

Dr Amp/Jacoby broadcasts his infomercial (again)

Chromatics – Saturday (Instrumental)

Performed at the Roadhouse - original song by Desire on Johnny Jewel's "Windswept LP"

- PART 13 - What story is that, Charlie?
Angelo Badalementi & David Lynch – Solo Percussion 2 (remix)

The crazy casino music that plays when Dougie dances with the Mitchum brothers, based on Solo Percussion 2 from The Twin Peaks Archive

Unknown artist – Unknown track

Anthony Sinclair calls Duncan Todd

Dean Hurley – Seven Heaven

The gym set is being set up in the Jones' backyard

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Dance of the Swans - From Swan Lake

Sonny Jim plays in the backyard. The music is played on a music box. The sample used could be this one

Dean Hurley – Eastern European Symphonic Mood No. 1

Mister C confronts with Renzo's gang

Dean Hurley – Tone / Slow Speed Prison / Low Mood

The 'Tone' part is the sound we hear when the ring returns in the Red Room

James Marshall – Just You

Performed at the Roadhouse by James Hurley and two female singers

- PART 14 - We are like the dreamer.
Unknown artist– Unknown track

Gordon tells about his dream

Dean Hurley– Forest / Interior

The Truman team investigates in Jack Rabbit's Palace and Andy meets the Fireman

Gregorio Allegri– Miserere mei, Deus

430% slower, when the vortex appears (thank you Lassig)

Dean Hurley– Electricity II

Sarah opens her face at the bar

Dean Hurley– Low Sustained Mystery

At the Roadhouse, two women talk about Billy and Tina

Lissie – Wild West (Roadhouse Mix)

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 15 - There's some fear in letting go.
Otis Redding – I've Been Loving You Too Long (Live From Monterey Pop)

The Big Ed and Norma story

Dean Hurley – Electricity II

Mister C approaches the convenience store (shot on electric wires)

Witold Rowicki – Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (with Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra)

Some parts are played outside the convenience store

Dean Hurley – Forest / Interior

Mister C walks in the convenience store

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch – Phillip Jeffries

Mister C wants to talk about Judy

Dean Hurley – Black Box

Jeffries gives numbers

Dean Hurley – Electricity II

The convenience store disappears

Thought Gang – Summer Night

Steven and Gersten in the woods (to be confirmed)

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch – Distant Train

Mark Frost's character talks to Carl Rodd

Dean Hurley – Weighted Room / Choral Swarm

Mark Frost's character talks to Carl Rodd

ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man

Played at max volume in the Roadhouse during the fight

Dean Hurley – Electricity I

Cooper watches Sunset Boulevard and tries to enter the film

Angelo Badalamenti - Accident / Farewell Theme

Margaret Lanterman

The Veils – Axolotl (Roadhouse Mix)

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 16 - No knock, no doorbell.
Dean Hurley – Night Electricity Theme

Mister C and Richard Horne approach the rock

Muddy Magnolias - American Woman (David Lynch remix)

Diane walks in the hotel's corridor

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Theme

Cooper is back

Angelo Badalamenti - Accident / Farewell Theme

Cooper says goodbye to the Jones family

Eddie Vedder – Out Of Sand

Performed at the Roadhouse

Angelo Badalamenti – Audrey's Dance

Performed at the Roadhouse

Angelo Badalamenti – Audrey's Dance (reversed)

Performed at the Roadhouse during the credits

- PART 17 - The past dictates the future.
David Lynch & Dean Hurley – Sub Dream

Mister C walks to Jack Rabbit Palace

Dean Hurley – Interior Home by the Sea

Mister C is sent to the Sheriff's station

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Dark mood in the Sheriff's station

Ludwig Van Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 14, Moonlight Sonata (David Lynch Remix)

Another Woodsmen ritual around Mister C

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Freddie versus Bob

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Naido Diane

Angelo Badalamenti – Night

To be confirmed

Dean Hurley – Tone / Slow Speed Prison / Low Mood

Cooper, Diane and Cole walk in the Great Northern basement

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Cooper follows Mike above the convenience store

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Cooper talks with Philip Jeffries

Dean Hurley – Black Box

Cooper is taken back to a souvenir of Laura Palmer

Angelo Badalamenti – Laura Palmer’s Theme (Love Theme From Twin Peaks)

Copper and Laura meet in the woods

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Stabby Sarah

Julee Cruise – The World Spins

Performed at the Roadhouse

- PART 18 - What is your name?
Angelo Badalamenti - Accident / Farewell Theme

Dougie Jones is back

Dean Hurley – Unknown track

Laura tells another secret to Cooper

The Platters – My Prayer

Diane and Cooper at the motel

Angelo Badalementi – Dark Space Low

End credits

This is posted a lot but I can't share this anywhere else so...
I picked up two doses of L one for my friend and I. I had the reckless plan of staying up all night and coming down at summer school then go to football practice the next day I popped one (sweetart) at 11pm with my parents home (age 16) but I told them I needed privacy in my room tonight. Had my phone playlist ready with Tame Impala and shit, and the movie Interstellar loaded on my laptop. So I took it and I didn't feel anything for the next 3 hrs so I thought I got ripped off or something. I then started to hit my wax vape pen to see if it would help the trip start but I waited 30 min after a few hits and still didn't feel anything. So I then decided to take my friends tab, 2am knowing that I would need to buy him another. Then in five minutes I already began tripping...
(2am) I went to get a drink then looked at my kitchen rug and I then understood why people online always say that scene of the moving casino carpet in the film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was one of the most accurate depictions of LSD ever in a film. I kept saying to myself "wtf". I took the weirdest shit of my life. Then went to my room and started to listen to music and tried watching Interstellar but turned it off in ten minutes because I did not understand anything and everything seemed blurry. After watching the movie I began to feel very uncomfortable and itchy because I think the fractals I saw triggered my trypophobia (felt this uncomfortable itchiness and for the whole trip). I then decided to go outside and look at nature at 530 am before I take the public bus and head off to summer school. Outside was pretty cool seeing the trees breathing was awesome but the sharpness of the grass was triggering my trypophobia. Outside I kept pacing back and forth thinking if I should go back inside my house, until I finally did but it was know time to leave for school.
I then went to wake my sleeping mother and she asked me why I needed privacy and I told her straight up that I was "tripping on a drug" then my she got up and asked "why?" I told her perhaps this experience could help me combat this feeling of fear that I've felt for the past few years. Then I broke down crying, and she comforted me and it felt amazing!!! she said put all of your stresses and problems on God (Christian family) then she told me that you don't need to prove anything to the world because my parents were proud of me and proceeded to say that many people around are in awe of me and the way a carry myself. She's tried to comfort me like this before but this time I listened well and I was in shock, it was a huge realization to know that I am a special person just like everyone in this world. She then prayed for me as I rested on her shoulder crying and as my eyes were closed I felt like I was able to see her emotion and my negative energy as well. Then as she was praying I saw love coming down from the sky and entering her and my heart, I was amazed and truly believed in God 100% no doubt. After that episode I went to my little brothers room still crying and decided to truly apologize to him for being mean to him all the time, it was actually sincere this time so it almost made him cry. After all this I missed my bus to go to summer school so my dad ended up giving me a ride.
As I arrived to summer school I admitted to him that I was going to fail my summer school Alg2 course but I am still not going to give up. As I entered the school I was jogging around campus with joy and enjoyed talking to people, I don't really socialized and then I told a friend I was tripping and he told me not to go to class because I was shaking (trypophobia). I listened to him and went to my school stadium to relax and comedown but I believe I was peaking at the time because as I lied on my school football field I believe I experienced ego death, everything was blank for 5 min then I felt a surge of energy and decided to run it off on the track. After running a mile of fartleks on LSD, lol! I then went to class after cleaning up because I was sweaty af. In class my head seemed seemed so clear I did not feel any social anxiety and decided to talk with people in my class. But then I felt uncomfortable (trypophobia) and kept walking in and out of my summer school class, saying that I was sick and had the runs. Then it was lunch time and I actually socialized with people about trivial things. Then for my second period of summer school I slept for almost the whole three hours but got photos of the other students notes by talking to them. Then Summer School ended and it was time for football practice.
In football I got a great lift in and workout and was actually very explosive and doing lifts with great form. Working out took my mind off the trip. After the lift we went to go run a hill for conditioning instead of practicing and on the walk there the grass of the park we walked to was shifting. But I ran it very well even after that hard run I did in the morning. After that I workout I nearly threw up. I then need to sit down for thirty minutes before walking to the bus stop to get myself together after that tough workout. I finally took the bus home took a shower, ate, then knocked out from 5pm to 5am and wokeup for a morning football practice.
TL;DR- Took acid: cried with mom, went to summer school tripping balls, then had one of the best football practices of my life.
I know this is kinda long but tell me what you guys think, because I have no one to talk to about my trip. Thanks.

Here's a link to part 1, please read it for context of what this is. Short version is a complete deconstruction of every problem within Destiny (as I see it) and some suggestions of how to fix them.
http://www.reddit.com/DestinyTheGame/comments/2kv57y/a_complete_destiny_deconstruction_part_1/

RNG Loot

This is a big one. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with random number generated loot and rewards. It forms the cornerstone of why games like Diablo, Borderlands, and many other dungeon crawler or RPG style games work. Destiny’s implementation however does just enough with the RNG system to trigger the addicting nature of such games but does not come with the satisfaction that those other games bring.
You see, there’s a general expectation, an unwritten rule one could say, that in loot games you should be given loot every 10-15 minutes of gameplay and bosses should net better or larger quantities of loot. The idea behind that is that much like a Las Vegas slot machine you want to draw your player base in with constant, often small “wins”, with occasional big pay out, so they spend more time doing the activity. When the player encounters a boss, it is usually a much more time consuming process with an increase in difficulty or game skill associated with taking it down. Therefore the expectation is that upon completion of what is generally the hardest part of a mission/dungeon/quest whatever the player get rewarded for their effort. Even if that is just a higher chance of getting better loot to help their character. Destiny does not follow this principle and treats bosses just like any other enemy in the game. Every enemy in destiny has a chance at dropping 1 engram. With green being the most common (for higher leveled people), followed by blue (rare), and then extremely rarely purple (legendary). Never have seen an exotic engram drop so I’m not sure it’s in the code for that to happen. From my experience playing an engram (above the green rarity) usually drops once every 30 minutes or after 100 or so enemies have been killed, but of course this is all probability based so those rates will be different for everyone. Since bosses have the same likelihood of dropping an engram as any normal enemy, and there is only 1 boss, the chances of getting a drop are extremely small, and even if something does the chances that it would be anything useful is even smaller. This just “feels” wrong to gamers.
Another thing to remember is that even in other RNG based loot system games, they are actually not completely random. Diablo has a system in which if the player goes about an hour without finding a legendary, the game significantly increases the drop percentage for legendaries until one is found which resets the timer. Borderlands’ legendary weapons are for the most part actually locked to the bosses based on a drop rate. So while there is still farming and still a random chance of getting stuff, players know for certain the gun they want will eventually drop if they keep at it. This gives players a direction and a certainty that if they keep playing they will get what they want, even if that chance is low. Destiny’s system is completely random. Meaning there is no guarantee the player will get something they want whether they play for 1 hour or 10 years.
I like to look at loot based games like this. If the ratio of time spent doing the activity, whether it be farming enemies, doing quests/missions, etc, is directly proportional to the amount of rewards given, then you have a good game. If I spend 10 minutes doing something, I expect that time to be rewarded just a little bit. If I spend an hour doing something, I expect my rewards to either be more plentiful or of greater quality equaling the effort it took to get them. Destiny’s ratio is still far too low and if the drop percentage was significantly increased it would lead to an increase in the enjoyment of the game.
The only guaranteed rewards Destiny offers is after a mission is complete the player is presented a “rewards” UI screen with a lottery like animation. Any activity the player has already finished usually doesn’t result in any reward, which defeats much of the point of playing a lot of the game. The activities that always result in a reward are the strike playlist strikes. Going back to the bad UI for moment, the UI only has room for 2 reward slots. However, players can sometimes get 3 or even 4 rewards which show up as 2 extra squares outside the UI spots for them. This is another big UI no no. First that’s confusing and sloppy looking. Second, players can’t see what the items are until after the rewards UI goes away stripping them of any initial excitement. Rewards shouldn’t be relegated to a “congrats, you win” screen. They should be displayed when the action happens like when the boss goes down. The pre-release material for Destiny showed at one point beating a boss resulted in a chest which spit out loot, I’m not sure why this kind of system was removed.
On release, another problem with Destiny’s loot system was the engrams themselves. As I said before, their probability of dropping from enemies is already fairly low (especially higher rarity ones), but Bungie made an odd design decision to make the engrams have a second lottery system in place for them. Every engram had the chance of decrypting into an item of lower rarity, the same rarity, or a better rarity item. This idea infuriated players since the odds were further stacked against them getting anything meaningful for the time they spent obtaining the engrams. Bungie stated that they originally did not have this lottery system in place but felt the Cryptarch needed “more personality” and changed it to the system we had on release. For future information Bungie, bad game design that infuriates players in a game where little fun is to be had, does not add “personality” to your NPC, unless that personality was supposed to be an asshole.
The prevalence of farming “loot caves” among Destiny players became as popular as it did due to this problem in the RNG system. For those that don’t know, there were areas within the 4 PVE worlds where enemies would continually spawn in very easy to trigger conditions. Once players realized these locations offered a far more time effective way of obtaining loot, because again, all enemies have a low chance of dropping an engram, and the loot caves simply increased the amount of enemies players were killing thus increasing the probability for an engram drop, it was no surprise that this became as popular and as widespread as it did. This prompted near immediate action from Bungie which removed the most used ways, however players continue to find new areas.

Elemental Damage

There is little point to it. The elemental damage types in the game are kinetic (normal damage), arc (ninja throwing star looking icon), solar (fire icon), and void (purple icon). The only time in the game when these effects seem to matter is against the shields of specific enemies in PVE play. Those enemies will have a specific color of shield which is weak against the matching color elemental weapon. Also when certain modifiers are active in say a nightfall strike it will increase the damage of elemental weapons. However there is no visual gratification that comes with using these weapons. Solar guns do not seem to burn enemies. Arc damage does not chain to other enemies or appear to shock enemies, and void damage doesn’t appear to warp or ...purple enemies to death. The few primary weapons in the game that have elemental damage aspects to them give off the impression that elemental modifiers are a big deal but it just never seems that way when playing, which is a big problem in design if a major feature of your gameplay doesn’t seem to be doing much.

Customization

One of the talking points of Destiny pre-release was about player customization. Unfortunately, customization took a steep nose dive in the actual design of Destiny. The problem is after level 20 (which is a ridiculously small soft level cap reached by the majority of gamers within days) experience no longer levels up your character. To get to the actual level cap of 30 players must equip armor with higher amounts of “light”. This is probably one of the worst design decisions in all of Destiny as it makes player customization no longer about what the player thinks looks better but about which piece of armor has higher light, regardless of un-aesthetically pleasing the piece is to the player. Secondly it makes the last 10 levels completely luck based which pisses off any player who puts time into a game and expects progress as a result.
Further compounding this problem is to actually get to 30 players need a very specific set of armor only obtainable from the 1 raid (which didn’t launch with the game). This means that all players you see at level 30 have the same gear, the only thing differentiating them is a shader and a single class specific aesthetic item. Good game design should not punish your most devoted players, it should encourage your less devoted or “casual” players to become more invested.

Exotic Limit

It’s stupid. What’s the point of getting these “badass” pieces of armor or weapons if we can only have 1 of each equipped. I get that Bungie felt it was needed to balance out PVP (again, lazy solution to complicated problem) but there is no reason for such a restriction in PVE. Good game design should make players feel as powerful as possible for finding the best gear in the game. Another reason Bungie implemented such a limit for armor is because they wanted to limit the amount of light a person can get on armor outside of the raid (artificially creating an impetus to play the Raid even though it was unnecessary. Players will play new content in a game starved of content, they don’t need their progression to be held captive too).

Shared World Experience

More than any other thing within Destiny, the idea that the game was a “shared world experience” was marketed the most. To the point where myself and many other gamers were a little concerned that the game wouldn’t be very fun to play solo if Bungie was going to keep talking about how much better it was with other people in your world. After release, it’s amazing how lonely an experience it is.
The most players I have ever seen around my general area while playing the game is in the tower, and even then it’s only a dozen or so players (probably due to server limitations). The second most players I’ve seen “out in the wild” is when the Old Russia loot cave was in full popularity and I would see 5-6 other people in the area.
The usual scenario is that I’ll see 1 to 2 other players occasionally wandering around the world in select “open” areas. Though more often I won’t see anyone and I’ll be by myself for large quantities of time before seeing another person. This fact becomes all the more apparent when public events happen.
Public events are scheduled moments in the 4 PVE worlds that occur in the “open” areas of maps which allow multiple people to participate. There are a grand total of 4 types of public events; Defeat a spider walker (an actually well designed mini-boss), defeat the target (a pain in the ass elite enemy with a ton of health and a really fast to recover shield, that moves through a number of checkpoints before disappearing), defend the warsat (that triggers a horde like mode in which players defeat increasingly stronger waves of enemies for a fair amount of time), and defeat the extraction crews (an easier horde mode where the player just has to beat a few waves of enemies). I can’t speak for everybody’s experience, but in my own experience, most of the public events I have been in have been by myself.
Part of the problem which might explain why few people show up for public events is that when a public event happens only players in the open area the public event will happen in get alerted that a public event is about to start. This means players in other parts of the playing area have no idea a public event is going to happen or has happened. Further there is usually a timer associated with public events and if people don’t show up in the designated time, the public event just ends. This amount of time in this timer is usually very little, even making it to the public event when you are in the area difficult at times.
The times when I do meet other players out in the world or in the tower there is very little interaction. If I want to form a fireteam with a person I just met, I need to make some sort of gesture toward that person using the D-Pad controls so that their name shows up. Then I need to open the main UI, go to “Roster”, then look up that person under “People”, select them, then invite them to a fireteam. It’s a needlessly long process since there is no opt-in voice chat in the game, which is a very strange design decision for a game that was so heavily marketed to be “social”. Bungie’s reasoning for this is that in their previous games (Halo), the kind of things people would say over voice chat would not be appropriate for Destiny. The problem with this logic is that bad eggs should not dictate game design. Game design should figure out how best to work around bad eggs. Which is why “opt-in” voice chat would have been the best solution. If players are in your area you should be able to press a button to activate your mic which would send out a message like “Player X would like to voice chat with you” which would prompt the other players in the area to press a button allowing it. If that player says inappropriate things they can simply be muted or banned from voice chat in the future.
Every player class has 4 “interaction” options. A dance, a point, a wave, and sitting down. That’s it. While having a dance party with a bunch of strangers you meet in the tower is a fun experience when you first play the game, that experience becomes increasingly boring when you realize that’s the only animation you can do. There is no way of letting other people know you don’t want to be disturbed, or that you want to go on a raid, or do some strikes which would be the most useful forms of interaction.
A better system would be to give a number of animation options for “dances”, “pointing”, “waving”, and sitting. Perhaps much like shaders they could be winnable loot or sold by a vendor.

PVE Matchmaking

It exists for individual strikes one can pick from the Orbit map on each world and for playlist strikes and that is it. The strange design decision is that the weekly heroic strike and the weekly nightfall strike do not have matchmaking. This makes no sense. Due to the limited amount of strikes all Destiny players who have played the strikes in matchmaking should have no problem knowing what to do or what is expected of them in a heroic strike or a nightfall strike.
A lot of people have suggested matchmaking for the raid, the only other team based PVE activity. The way the initial raid, the Vault of Glass, is designed would not really fit matchmaking under Destiny’s current state, since the raid does require constant team coordination and communication. Having said that, the raid could have matchmaking if voice chat was enabled and the game verified all participants had a working microphone.

The Crucible

This will be more about how multiplayer works instead of the amount of modes and maps which I mention in the content section of this deconstruction. Bungie made a strange design decision in that matches are not grouped by level or ranking (like in previous Bungie, Halo games). Often there will be low level opponents in matches with higher level opponents. How Bungie chose to even the playing field is to normalize damage and health of every player.
The problem with this is that it immediately depowers players that spent a lot of time acquiring the gear they have leading to a feeling of dissatisfaction when a far lower level player with a common gun does just as much damage as your exotic weapon. If matches were grouped by levels this kind of scenario would not happen as often since players would be playing against similar stat and weapon builds.
Next is the question of balance. Bungie insisted that Destiny’s multiplayer be about bringing your cool toys in with you that you got in the single player but the end result is a far more difficult game to balance. The lazy solution, normalizing damage and health, doesn’t address weapon balance and has led to several nerfs of weapons already. The issue is some weapons have abilities that make them inherently better than other weapons. Whether that is a faster fire rate, or recharging ammunition, or faster charge/reload speeds, or whatever the case may be the various primary, secondary, and heavy weapon combinations are near impossible to balance. This problem will only become more complex with the more weapons Bungie adds.
A better designed system would have been an entirely separate set of weapons specific to the crucible that would be carefully vetted for balance. This essentially brings back the “level playing field” that people love so much in competitive games. Let’s be honest with ourselves Bungie, the crucible was not designed to be a PVP area like in an MMO, it was designed to be a separate multiplayer aspect of Destiny (because that’s what your studio knows) so it should be treated like one.
I’d also like the “super” ability each class has to be a thing that can only be triggered when something on the map is collected that has a real long timer. This would reduce the amount of “1 hit kills” that annoy many people. This would reintroduce map control and strategy to the multiplayer. Another idea would be the super can only be triggered after so many player kills or deaths (sort of like a kill streak award in Call of Duty). I’m not too big a fan of this idea but again it would cut down on the amount of times supers are used in a match.

Trading

As I mentioned earlier, there is no in-game economy to speak of. One of the most frustrating experiences all Destiny players go through is when they are given an item that is not for their class. Diablo 3 went through similar complaints but at least that game had an auction house for players to obtain what they wanted and sell what they didn’t (not that this was a good idea, just saying Destiny has nothing of the sort). Once Diablo 3 removed the auction house they reinstated trading but only for players that were in a group together. Destiny needs a similar system. It is absolutely painful to get an exotic armor piece that is not for your class when in a fireteam with a person of that class who would need it and they get something for your class. The end result is both of you either dismantle what you got thus wasting both your times, or both people bank the item for another character they probably won’t create.

Factions

They have little point. They seem to be in the game simply because Bungie ran out of time to take them fully out, since it is heavily implied through dialogue and gameplay that factions were once a much more important aspect of the game. Now they exist as vendors each with reputation acting as another boring way to grind to get weapons or armor.

Ships

They have no point. Picking your loading screen eye candy is not what most players would consider a satisfying experience. Especially since it gives the impression that the loading screens were purposely made to be longer just so players would see their ship. I get Destiny is a “large” game and to reduce load screens during the PVE action (even though they still happen when going from area to area really fast) they need to have longer load screens elsewhere, but making the ships the sole point of load screens just annoys people. It further annoys people when they get a ship as a reward from a strike or raid instead of something actually useful.

Sparrows

They are fun to use but there is little point to them having stats like durability and speed. The player’s body covers up a large portion of the sparrow model when on it so the aesthetics of it are negligible and never is there a time when sparrow durability or speed really matters. Some people have suggested sparrow races as a thing and I agree it would add some degree of purpose to them as well as a fun activity in a game sorely lacking stuff to do.

No End Game To Speak Of

Destiny after level 20 turns into an endless grind without anything to really do. Once a player has all the weapons and armor they want and have upgraded them to a comfortable degree there is nothing left for players to do other than multiplayer. Where other games usually offer modes or options that give players some sort of unlimited gameplay, Destiny does not. There is no horde mode, custom games, map creation, or anything that might extend the life of the game outside of replaying strikes, story missions, or the raid endlessly. The raid is only beneficial to players once a week, same with other weekly challenges. It is bad game design to make aspects of your game only meaningful once for a long time.

Xur

This one is going to be a bit controversial, but he should not be in the game. The argument for him is that people who don’t have the time to endlessly farm for loot or do exotic bounties like to be able to still obtain an exotic because they feel like it’s the only way they’ll get one. This is more of a condemnation of the RNG loot system and horrible exotic bounties (that I talked in length about earlier) then an argument for why Xur should exist. The reason he is bad is because there is just not enough exotic weapons or armor in the game. Not a lot of time has to pass for Xur to end up selling every single exotic in the game (if there are no repeats) and if that is the case it leads to exotics not being very exotic. In Diablo there are hundreds of legendary items and dozens of complete set legendaries. The sheer number of them makes any 1 piece still pretty rare to find. In Destiny out of a pool of 20 weapons and 20 armor pieces the likelihood that a large percentage of the game population will have most of these items in a few months is extremely high. Like the saying from Incredibles goes, “if everybody is special, nobody is”.

Bugs

No modern day game is complete without its fair share of bugs and glitches. Destiny is no exception though its bugs are far more frustrating than other games. Destiny is a persistent world, which means it is always online. The problem with this is that unlike offline games which only require a working disc or uncorrupted installation, Destiny relies on servers that the player has no control over to function properly and a stable internet connection which not all people have. Nothing is more frustrating to a player to hear that a game they paid X amount for won’t start due to a problem they have no control over. These server bugs are known in Destiny as the “zoo” since most of them are named after animals. Personally, I don’t like this since it gives the player little context as to what went wrong and seems more condescending than reassuring. It’s like when Youtube experiences problems it would display the message, “a team of trained monkeys has been dispatched to the location”. While people get the humor, they would still appreciate the service working and an explanation of why it isn’t.
Other bugs include but are not limited to; the audio cuts off when kicked to the title screen. Spawning your sparrow close to a wall will often allow the player to go through the map geometry (this is how many players were able to get into DLC areas). The audio during the raid cuts off during the Templer fight. Rewards sometimes are not awarded at the end of the raid. During the Atheon fight sometimes an incorrect number of players are teleported or a portal doesn’t allow a person through correctly. One common bug is sometimes enemies have their health go up as if shots did not register correctly. Each new hotfix Bungie adds to the game seems to introduce more zoo like error codes which signals a struggling QA department (which happens when a game releases and begins the post-release ramp down of jobs).

Post Release Coverage

One of the biggest things with MMO type games (which Destiny aspires to be) is fairly regularly added content to keep people interested in the world and coming back to try new experiences. Since Destiny is starved for content this expectation is all the more important to satisfy but it doesn’t seem like Bungie thought this part of process out well. There have been 2 “events” in Destiny since it launched (not counting the raid which came a week or so after release), both of which were poorly executed and marketed.
The first event was “The Queen’s Wrath”. Where people might have expected new areas of the world to explore or more story fleshing out the Queen character players meet briefly in the story, the event instead just added more bounties similar to the existing bounties (just asking for more of stuff), queen “missions” were just higher level, more difficult, story missions that players had played a hundred times already. The event also added a special vendor to the tower which came with yet another reputation grinding system. The vendors items were a couple of rare weapons which were not as good as the legendary gear most players had or the gear that would be given at the end of the queen’s missions. In the beginning of the event players could dismantle queen’s wrath gear for ascendent shards which were a crafting material needed to upgrade armor. This was later patched out making queen’s missions pointless for any player who already had the gear or didn’t need it.
The second event was known as “The Iron Banner” which was heavily marketed as a crucible mode in which your weapon, level, and armor mattered, the message being “power matters”. This event also came with a special vendor which much like the queen’s event vendor had a reputation meter and gear that few people cared about. Once people started doing it however it quickly found itself in hot water as the mode played very similarly to the Crucible modes already available and that players with low leveled characters were doing just as well, seemingly, as higher level players, in stark contrast to what many people expected and what was advertised to them. Bungie in a recent weekly update claimed this was by design as to give all players a chance in the event and that it was just poorly communicated to everyone. As I mentioned earlier, this would not have been a problem if Crucible matches were grouped by levels since it would allow lower levels to fight amongst each other without normalized damage and health and higher leveled players to fight without normalized damage and health making everybody happy (well...happier).
In the most recent weekly Update Bungie claims they have listened to feedback regarding the Iron Banner and ensures that it will play more like players expected it to the next time, however this remains to be seen.
Bungie has announced 2 “expansions”, one coming out in December which has been detailed and the other coming out next year. The price for the first one, “The Dark Below” is $20 and will include a few story missions, 1 strike (2 for Playstation further cutting content from a game starved of it), a few new multiplayer maps, and 1 raid (which like the first raid will not actually come out at the time of the DLC but a little later). Now, this is completely subjective, but I find that price rather outrageous for the specified content.
Bungie has spent much of its weekly updates apologizing to fans, explaining their logic behind poor decisions (often in a way that thinks little of the player base’s intelligence), and taking away things players enjoyed because they did not fit into how Bungie “imagined” the game being played. Apart from the cryptarch update there has been no other update that has improved the quality of life for players in destiny, instead making it more frustrating. Changes like removing loot caves (essentially fixing a symptom of the problem instead of its cause), changing the established mechanics of Atheon to randomly teleport people (despite such a decision being heavily criticized by players), and nerfing weapons in the name of “balance” for PVP while again missing the root cause of the problem. Players have been promised buffs to exotic weapons, limited voice chat capabilities for strikes, and reduced difficulty of strike bosses to make them less grindy without having any information to follow up on these promises as none of them have been implemented.
The way Destiny has been designed and how it is being supported post-release all seems very business like with little soul behind it. There are flashes of one in the musical score, the beautiful environments and sky boxes, and the excellent gunplay mechanics, but apart from these few saving graces the entire Destiny experience has been poorly handled. Maybe Destiny 2 will start from the drawing board and tackle many of these issues head on, improving them all in major ways, but Destiny 1 is dead in the water. There are just too many problems and not enough development time to fix it.

Common Counter Arguments

I’m putting this here so I can have something to easily refer to when people eventually start arguing with what I’m saying, so I’ll try to address the most common arguments I see in defense of Destiny.
“Stop complaining” / “I hate whiners, stop bitching/whining” / “I’m tired of seeing complaining”
No. Constructive criticism is how you will end up with a better game eventually. If enough people don’t complain then Bungie will not know what areas of their game most need work. It’s one thing if 1 person doesn’t like something. It’s another matter entirely if 5,000 people don’t like that same thing. We’re not talking about comments like “this game sux” here, we’re talking about reasonable, well explained, feedback based on time spent playing the game.
“You’ve spent X days/hours playing Destiny. You obviously must enjoy it”
This one I see a lot and even the damn president of Bungie used this logic. While there is the kernel of truth that few people would continue to play a game they hate, it’s still a poor argument to make. Do people enjoy spending all day at a casino on a slot machine? No, they do it because it is addicting. That’s the nature of loot games like Destiny.
Destiny was designed in such a way that players have to spend a lot of time playing it to actually get somewhere in it. No player is getting to level 30 in the game without spending a massive amount of time playing it unless that player is also extremely lucky. The reputation systems, the light leveling, the armor and gun upgrade system. All of it is designed to take a long time. That doesn’t make these systems fun or enjoyable.
A lot of people treat Destiny like a chore. They log on, do daily or weekly activities, attempt to upgrade weapons or armor, then log off (or play some crucible). The game acts as a great way to mindlessly waste time which is never a positive thing to say about a game.
“Destiny was bought by X number of players” / “Destiny is played by X number players a day, so people must be enjoying it”
When Bungie released those statistics, Destiny was really the only new game out. It was also heavily advertised so much of the initial player base is the people that were swept up in the pre-release hype and pre-ordered the game.
Also, much like my answer to the other argument, just because people are playing the game does not mean they are enjoying the game. Destiny takes a lot of time to get anything accomplished. I would love to see these metrics released after the holiday season to see how much retention Destiny has. My guess is pretty low. There is only so much a person can replay the same handful of things before the addictive nature of the game wears off and a new game steps in with enjoyable and addicting gameplay.
“But game X also has grinding. Destiny is just like those games so why do you have a problem with it?”
As I described earlier, Destiny takes inspiration from RNG loot based games but does not implement it correctly. Let’s be clear here, nobody likes grinding. The act of it is a necessity to lead to character progression in either gear or story. So whatever games can do to lessen the frustration and repetitive nature of grinding the better the system is. Borderlands gives a drop rate to bosses giving the RNG system a goal for players. They know their time will eventually net them the exact thing they want. Diablo implements a legendary timer and has hundreds of legendary items to potentially get meaning players feel satisfied for the work they put in. Most RPG games with grinding tend to have hundreds of missions or things worth unlocking to give reason to spend the time doing repetitive things. Destiny does not have any of that. There is just not enough content in Destiny to make the grinding worth it or enjoyable.
Thank you all for your time and patience. For anyone who stuck with this novel all the way, major props to you. I view Destiny as an interesting case study in what can go wrong in a game, so that is why I went into as much detail as I could about design decisions and my own opinions about how things could have been made better (some guided by community suggestions).
Link to Bungie.net post if people feel more comfortable discussing this there.
http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/76191424