Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty was a dry DLC pack for Borderlands 2 – dry in that it featured a desert landscape and oceans of sand. Fortunately, the music that accompanied the various locales and shootouts is anything but dry.
“Wurmwater Ambience” and “Oasis Ambience,” both Raison Varner contributions, are moody and bassy, hinting at the conflict that lay hidden in the sand dunes. They’re also some of the strongest environmental ambience pieces to be found in the Borderlands 2 canon, with somber guitar plucks, rattling western sounds, and and foreboding synths rounding each out. “Oasis Ambience” in particular is foot-tappingly catchy, with heavy emphasis an instrument that reminds me of the shamisen.
This mini-album also bears the distinction of having one of my all-time series favorite battle themes, “Hyperious the Invincible.” This super-boss battle was one of the toughest in all of Pandora, and the deep, heavy percussion is backgrounded by muddy, threatening bass thrums that really get the blood pumping. I can’t imagine how drastically different the hopping, shooting, and dodging during the battle with the titular Hyperious would be without this song, and even after tens of hours hearing it in-game (and a few more outside of it, thanks to this album), I’m still hooked on it.
The tunes in Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Album could be called “more of the same” only in that they’re similar in style to what can be found in the vanilla game. They’re perhaps not as distinctive when compared to Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep’s OST, but they’re absolutely some of the catchiest to be found in a Borderlands game. I’d heartily recommend checking this one, especially if you’re a fan of the game.
