Valve Studio Orchestra - Fight Songs: The Music of Team Fortress 2 [2LP]

Fight Songs: The Music of Team Fortress 2 gathers the swaggering, spy-movie score of Valve's cult shooter onto a double LP in a gatefold jacket.

When Team Fortress 2 arrived in 2007, its cartoonish mercenaries and sixties-styled art came wrapped in music that sounded like a lost caper film, all jazzy brass and mischief. Composer Mike Morasky kept that sound growing through a decade of updates, and Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings released this collection in 2017, credited to the Valve Studio Orchestra.

Cues such as "Medic!," "Intruder Alert," "The Calm" and "Dapper Cadaver" run from tense to playful, packing plenty of personality into short running times. Across the set the music borrows from spy thrillers, big-band swing and spooky seasonal themes, often within the space of a couple of minutes.

Players will hear their own memories in every cue, from frantic last-second captures to the sillier corners of the game's seasonal events, yet the music holds up as a listen in its own right, a witty, jazz-flavoured score with more character than most.

Spread across two discs in a gatefold, it makes a fine trophy for anyone who has spent far too many hours on 2Fort, and a cracking listen for those who never have.