Kirby and the Forgotten Land "World of Pink" 5:26

Happy Valentine's Day, VGM lovers! Apropos for today, we're proud to present TheManPF's pink puffball rock ballad tackling the ending theme of Kirby and the Forgotten Land! Send for TheMan and his crew:

• TheManPF: arrangement, sequencing, mix, electric guitar, backing vocals
• Zach Chapman: bass
• Connor Engstrom: acoustic guitar
• colorado weeks: lead vocals

TheMan walks us through how the lineup and concept took the shape of a cute, round, twinkly Popo:

"We're back with another DoD tune, this time from HAL Laboratory Month (otherwise known as Kirby Month, because duh), I was in the mood for a cheesy pop rock ballad after listening to this song from the Spy x Family soundtrack (it's actually the THIRD time this anime inspires me to make a song, first with my little Smash Bros. rap, and second time with [REDACTED]). I was also looking for something with vocals and, as far as my research went, this is the only vocal track in any Kirby game that I could find. Worked well enough though. I did the arrangement, mix, electric guitars, yadda yadda, y'know the usual.

The chord progressions in this arrangement are completely reharmonized. I usually don't reharmonize much on my VGM arrangements, because I like keeping things faithful and recognizable, but I didn't love the chord progression of the original, and it didn't really fit the cheesy pop ballad mood that I was going for, so I tried rearranging the chords in a way where it brings a more cheerful and hopeful mood rather than an eccentric rock-y one the original had. The vocal melodies are untouched (except for a very slight change in the pre-chorus), and some core melodies from the original also remain intact to keep the identity of the source recognizable. In the bridge where the guitar solos happen, however, I made use of the chord progressions of the original song because I think it brought a good contrast. The lyrics in the original are gibberish, but the ending credits provide a very nice "translation" of the lyrics which are already structured to be sung along to, which made the job of fitting the lyrics in the arrangement a lot easier, neat!

My concept of this arrangement, "World of Pink", is a rose-tinted world, a happy place you can go to in your mind whenever you feel exhausted from the outside world. You go there, and you have a happy time, you can relax and enjoy, everything is perfect, and you don't have to worry about anything. Of course, this is more of a fantasy for us, and eventually it vanishes and we have to go back, which is what I try to express with the ending being slowly bitcrushed. I've been in a bit of a funk lately and I've found myself doing a lot of feel-good-y music for the sake of trying to fill a little bit of a void, and having music like this to listen to helps me relax and feel a little bit better.

Zach is once again playing the bass for me. He's always been a super-talented bassist, but I feel he has been improving a lot since he's started. He improvises and sticks his own basslines, he brings me stems faster than anybody else, and his recordings are always squeaky clean. I'm incredibly lucky to be able to work alongside someone like him.

I invited Connor Engstrom to play acoustic guitar in this track, who you might know as one of the guitarists from The Tiberian Sons (!). I left my acoustic guitar back in Argentina years ago, and I haven't been able to get another one to record, so I'm in the need to get someone else to do it for me. It also happens that the person I got for it is a lot more talented than me, and not only is his rhythm playing extremely tight, I also took the opportunity to stick a solo section for him because I knew he would be able to pull it off with flying colors. I haven't collabed with him before and that's a big mistake, he's one of the best collab partners I've ever had.

colorado weeks did me the favor of singing this one. I love vocals, I love lyrics, I love music with vocals and lyrics, and almost every time I do a VGM cover, I find myself finding excuses to put vocals on everything, and when I do, I usually like trying to experiment with different singers. I've met colorado weeks in the OCR Discord first but also noticed them hanging around DoD from time to time. I noticed they had a "vocals" role, and checked out their music. WOW. Angelic voice, I need this in a track of mine ASAP. It was really fun to collab with them and they did a fantastic job at nailing the exact kind of vibe I was going for with this song, even if I think this was very challenging for them to pull off, so kudos to them!

This entry ended up placing 4th out of 22 tracks in HAL Laboratory Month, which I think is pretty decent considering I actually struggled to finish this one very close to the deadline, even with a non-ideal mix. This version is improved a bit from the DoD version, and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as the DoD community did. (:"

As always, TheManPF's gracious and copious when it comes to crediting his collaborators, an admirable trait we love. Meanwhile, we also love judge Chimpazilla and she loves this:

"Lush soundscape right away, acoustic guitar sounds great. The vocal sounds great too. Very interesting approach to this remix, it fits the original very well, while holding its own as a remix. [...] All the instrumentation sounds great, drums and guitars are very well performed, the soloing is amazing. [...] The little bell outro is very sweet!

Arrangement overall is terrific, full of energy and with nice dynamics. Nice work."

Fellow VGM arrangement lover prophetik music got to the heart of what worked here via his play-by-play:

"opens with some john mayer-esque acoustic chord progressions and some light strings and keys. acoustic sounds super crisp. melodic material is immediately recognizable. the new chords are a neat concept. the backing elements are super lush which sounds great. there's a bit of a break right away (which is a technique i really like). [...] the chorus at 1:31 has a fun bit right before it and then sounds great when it's all firing. [...]

CW's voice overall sounds really solid. [...] your straight tone is pretty consistent which is great, so just cleaning up the edges will make a big difference.

tom groove at 1:58 is great. the bass work in here too is great and helps keep it moving forward without being too in front of the beat. the phrase at the end of 2:32 is probably the best vocal part of the song thus far - great support and tone. the second chorus is solid and then we get the requisite guitar solo. i love the arp in the background of this - it's so kirby! acoustic guitar solo sounds excellent too. clearly you need more acoustic solos in your songs. we get another electric solo (which is honestly so wild considering the style of the song, it's almost too much! but i love it).

there's a hard fall-off after this in terms of energy - it's a hard cut. the words fit that pretty well. the transition into the chorus again has a ton of energy and then we're into the last part of the song. there's some outro with bells and it's done.

this is a great example of how to take a melody-centric approach and totally rewrite the backing elements. it's clear what the original is and does a great job of making a fun, clear, new interpretation of it. excellent work all around."

As someone who'd heard of John Mayer in my Emory college days, he's come a long way from Dooley's Den, for sure. :-D (Connor's Copy Ability? Kidding!) Definitely a fun style comparison there, and that cheery opening forecasted a fun energy that we hope you'll connect with, much like fellow judge Hemophiliac did:

"A track that's full of joy and wonder. Feels like something that would be sung to a child in a musical before sending them off on a journey for the first time. Both guitars, acoustic and electric; are performed wonderfully. The acoustic especially has such a richness to it that sets the stage so tastefully when accompanied by the tremolo strings in the intro."

It's for the youth, the olds, and the everyone in between! As TheManPF said, it's a rare treat to have vocal themes in the Kirby series, and PF, Zach, Connor, and especially colorado have joined together to fashion their distinct yet still welcoming rendition of a new VGM classic. I'm in love, you're in love, spread the love, be the love! :-)