Celeste "Leave Me Behind" 3:57

The Lena Raine Birthday Bash continues with an off-kilter, bold and theatrical Celeste arrangement, courtesy of Navi! Although this is certainly not our first submission from Celeste to date, it is the first one of this particular source tune, and Navi found inspiration in the lesser-known "Starjump" theme that accompanies a particularly iconic moment in the game's narrative. Navi first broke down the credits and history behind the submission:

"Here's a remix of "Starjump" from Celeste, which was originally created for and featured on GameGrooves' G-Sides: A Nerdcore Tribute to Celeste! I produced it & wrote and performed the vocals, and all vibraphone parts were played by SQORE!"

The artist then got into more detail, describing personal connections to the game and its themes and how they inspired the ReMix:

"The thematic heart of Celeste is the struggle of self - coming to terms with all aspects of you in order to grow as a person. In the game, our hero Madeline has her darkest and most intrusive thoughts made flesh - taunting, mocking, and sabotaging her journey up the mountain. This track remixes "Starjump", which happens during the Chapter 6 intro cutscene. There, Madeline meets with her antagonist Badeline overlooking the Northern Lights & calmly (and misguidedly) expresses the need to move on from this side of herself. This enrages Badeline, who even breaks through the game's dialogue window to sneeringly mock her, saying: "You think you can just leave me behind?"

This track was built out entirely from the themes of this cutscene. It takes the POV of Badeline - the bad habits, the intrusive thoughts, the addictions (whatever part of you that you wish could just vanish from the equation) - in that moment where you THINK you've overcome them. You haven't.

It's a bit of a dark song - and the parallels to toxic, abusive relationships are intentional. It's also a bit of a silly song, theatrical and evolving, and hopefully fun to listen to. Enjoy!"

Navi mentioned "theatrical" in his comments, which supported my first impression that this was intended to feel like a song written for a musical - not necessarily capitulating to the rigid standards of popular music but instead focusing on expressiveness and storytelling as a driving factor. Some of the lyrics appear to be adapted directly from the in-game dialog, which is really challenging to pull off in any sort of coherent way. Afterward, reading that this was featured on a nerdcore compilation added extra dimension to the listening experience.

The Judges Panel had a lot of internal debate, mainly due to the significant changes in presentation from the source material that caused it to feel detached from the original source, but the connection is undeniably there. I'd encourage the academics in the room who throw around 75-cent words like "sprechstimme" to read the judges decision thread on this, there's a lot of interesting commentary there from our musically-literate judges that I feel wholly unqualified to distill down here.

Discourse aside, though, whether this resonates with you as a Celeste ReMix, "like it was an original work, divorced from "Starjump"", as Liontamer put it, or as a conceptual performance piece focused on raw expression, there are a lot of different ways to dissect and engage with this. Gario described it well: "Not everyone is gonna "get it", especially at first, but give it a few listens. It'll grow on you, I promise."

It feels extra special to be honoring Lena's birthday two years in a row and also getting to share that stage with Navi once more. :) Even without the submission comments in mind, it is abundantly clear that we both share a mutual love for not just Celeste's music, but the in-game context and emotional weight that it carries with it. It's an endless well of inspiration and catharsis. That said, hearing what Navi did with this source even caught me off-guard with its vulnerability and rawness. This is not an "easy" song to listen to, but it is immensely rewarding on repeat listens as you discover new ways to engage with the piece.