Tag Archives: fifa 2004 soundtrack

#1105: Kings of Leon – Red Morning Light

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Every once in a while I’ll write about a song on here that I have to owe to a video game for cluing me in to its existence. The majority of the time it’s been through the FIFA series, which between 2002 to about 2013 introduced me to so many artists and genres from the West to the East that really shaped my musical interests in my childhood/adolescence. FIFA 2004 was a big, big game in that regard. Heck, I have a tag dedicated to it. And today brings yet another song included in the game’s soundtrack. Before booting up the game, I know for a fact I had no idea who Kings of Leon were. But then the opening chords to ‘Red Morning Light’ started blasting out the speakers during its introduction, and that was it. A brand new song in the head of a nine-year-old kid.

Well, I don’t think it was as instant as that. I was probably marvelling more at the skill moves of Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho. But through playing the game, probably almost every weekend in 2004 (at the max, any moment I had free time), I got accustomed to hearing the track at random points when I was navigating my way through the menus. The little tag would pop up showing the song information when it started playing. “Red Morning Light” by “Kings of Leon” on the album Youth & Young Manhood. Ah, so that was the band’s name. One to remember. Like the songs from the game I’ve written about before, I eventually got to singing along to it. I at least tried. Not that I got every word correct because Caleb Followill kinda blends one word into the next and slurs and mumbles his words throughout. But the chorus was always the best part, “And I say na-na hey, hey, you’re giving all your cinnamon away-hey.” I didn’t know what it meant. Still don’t now, really. But it was good, good stuff.

So, to keep things short, ‘Red Morning Light’ was the first song by Kings of Leon that I’d ever heard, and it’s thanks to FIFA 2004. When I finally received the game as a gift, 2004 had been a thing for four months. I got it as a birthday gift, you see, even though I really wanted it the Christmas that had gone. The band had gained their big following over here in the UK, and they were probably well on their way to working on their second album. As a result, the Aha Shake Heartbreak era of the band is the one that properly introduced me to their music. The video for ‘The Bucket’ came on TV one day, and it was like, “Oh, Kings of Leon, it’s those guys.” Then they never really disappeared from that point onward. I’ve been able to listen to Manhood, and it’s not my favourite album of the band’s, I have to admit. Not that it’s bad. There are at least two of the band’s that I think are better. But for the band it all began there and with ‘Red Morning Light’ as the opening track, so I have to give it props just for that.

#1065: The Cooper Temple Clause – Promises, Promises

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Just like Duels’ ‘Potential Futures’ from a couple weeks back, ‘Promises, Promises’, a track by The Cooper Temple Clause is one that I came to know via its inclusion on a FIFA video game soundtrack. This time it was the series’ 2004 edition that introduced me to the song, a game that also opened my nine-year-old mind to Kasabian, The Stone Roses, Radiohead and, uh, lostprophets… (yeesh). I owe a debt of gratitude to all the FIFA games I owned growing up. A lot of the music you read about on this blog wouldn’t be on here if it weren’t for those soundtracks from 2003 up to about 2012. From the latter year onward, it truly dawned on me that EA Sports weren’t really changing the game up all that much, and I took myself out of that cycle of wanting the new issue every year. But man, some of the happiest times of my life were playing those earlier releases and just singing along to all this cool music that played in the menus.

However, unlike that whole story with ‘Potential Futures’ where I had to get the same game again to appreciate how good it was, ‘Promises, Promises’ was one that I grew to really enjoy through repeated listens on that first FIFA 2004 disc that I want to say I got for my ninth birthday. And through those repeated listens, I was able to absorb every element of the track inside-out, from those little guitar noises that open up the track before its killer riff to that screeching feedback that closes it out after it comes to an abrupt end. Looking up the lyrics in order to prepare myself for writing, I telling you that I was able to sing almost exactly what vocalist Ben Gautrey was delivering. What he was singing about, I had no idea and didn’t care about too much. I was having a good time playing games and being a dumb child. Family probably wondered what I was going on about though. To this day, I’m not even sure what this song’s deal is about other than the narrator’s disappointed that promises made to them by another party are usually broken. There must be something more to it. I haven’t made any large attempt to figure what it is. It’s the sinister tone of the music that keeps me returning to it after all these years.

Though this song is where my interest started with the Cooper Temple Clause, it’s always where it sort of ended too. FIFA 2005 was released the next year and, while I never forgot about the song, life in general just carried on – going from nine to 10 years old, starting a new year in primary school and all that jazz. The next time I would hear anything else by the band was in 2007 with a new single ‘Waiting Game’. Few things arose when I saw the music video for that song. I realised that it was the first time I’d actually seen what the band looked like. The person singing here definitely wasn’t the same as the one who sang ‘Promises…’, and I had no clue who else it would have been ’cause of the preceding statement I just made. I also didn’t like the song very much either. It turned out to be their last ever single, as the band broke up a few months after its release. Don’t want to end the note on such a disregarding note though. Am very thankful that they made this song and that it still resonates within me almost 20 years later. It’s not even a nostalgia thing when it comes to this one, it’s just a massive tune. I’ll give a Temple Clause album a listen one of these days.

#896: Radiohead – Myxomatosis. (Judge, Jury & Executioner.)

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‘Myxomatosis’ may very well be the very first Radiohead song I ever heard. You may think, “Why that one?” Out of all of the tracks that the band have ever made, that’s a bit out there. Well, it’s because it was on the soundtrack of FIFA 2004, a game that I played almost every weekend when I was nine years old. EA Sports were on another level with their soundtrack picks back in the day. Have to say this song stood out from the many others that accompanied it in the the game’s background music. The child that I was, I had never heard a song like it before. The riff was nasty/strange, I thought it had a bit of a swing to it (which it doesn’t – it’s in 4/4, but I had no idea what time signatures were), and the singer had this low, relaxing delivery. It was sort of hypnotizing. And after enough times I was singing along to it whenever it popped up.

Obviously, there’s a huge irony about a nine-year-old happily grooving to a track that references a fatal disease that affected rabbits, but the music sounded too good. I remember the times of trying to find this song online, but music streaming definitely wasn’t a thing (at least not to the extent it is now), so all I could ever find were lyrics. Through finding those I then discovered that FIFA had actually censored some parts of the song and had cut a large chunk of it out. It was years until I listened to the full thing, I guess when I got Hail to the Thief as a present in 2010. Six darn years later. But by that point, my appreciation for Radiohead had grown immensely. In 2021, this song still stomps. It’s intense, it pummels, gives off such a menacing aura. I don’t know what it’s about, I can’t lie. I’ve had some thoughts, and my interpretation is that it’s a very, very dark take on touring and the media. The fans are the people twitching and salivating, the narrator talks about sleeping with whoever they like and how one woman in particular ‘ate him up for breakfast’. But at the end of it all, he ends up feeling confused and like a piece of meat. These are all just guesses on my part. In recent live performances, there are some extra lyrics that Thom Yorke sings that weren’t included in the album version. A particular appearance of these are in the band’s live take of the song in their From the Basement set in 2008. Sometimes, I even prefer that to the original. I’ll link it all below.

And that is it. That’s the ‘M’ section done. The calendar for this shows that I started posting for the M’s exactly seven months ago. I actually started on January 10th, and wrote each following post almost a month in advance. As I type to you, it’s the 7th August, and I’ve just had my second COVID vaccine. Hello from the somewhat distant past. Thanks for joining on this ‘journey’. Thanks to whoever’s been reading and liking and following. Makes all of these posts worthwhile; I’m glad it’s reaching people out there. The N’s will definitely arrive. But for now… a break’s needed. Bye, bye, now, Take care of yourselves.

My iPod #146: Lostprophets – Burn Burn

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I owe a lot to EA Sports and their FIFA series. Not only because they made me more of a football (soccer…) fan, but because the music they had on their soundtracks was amazing! If I wasn’t playing FIFA, I don’t know what music I’d be listening to now. I definitely wouldn’t have my diverse taste that I have in music, if I do say so myself.

It’s going to be ten years since I’ve started listening to Lostprophets, and it’s all because this song was in FIFA 2004. Oh wow. Remember those times when the whole year was in the title instead of the last two numbers? Yep, I have been playing FIFA for that long.

“Burn Burn” was released as the first single from the band’s second album “Start Something”, which is my personal favourite and what I consider to be their best. It was one of the songs on that particular FIFA game that I learned the words to and would sing-along to whenever it came on, just because it was so energy-inducing.

It’s all about rebellion, which ties in with the theme of “getting up and doing something” which is present throughout the album. There’s plenty of “gang vocals” too, and is a good song to yell to whilst on a drunken night out with your mates. I’m not speaking from experience, I’m just saying you may want to do that if you’re into those activities.

Jamie.