NLA Blues by Shiryu

"We took our planet for granted. We believed tomorrow was a certainty thus we grew arrogant and weak. And one day they came. In a flash of light, the Earth was gone. Millions of lives erased in a single, unstoppable moment. We sacrificed those millions to save a few thousand in generation ships we launched into space as our last resort to avoid the complete annihilation of Mankind.

An we ran, we ran scared and we ran into the depths of the unknow. The White Whale was one among dozens of ships and in it's cargo hold, the habitat that we filled with the most precious cargo of all: Our Future. But they pursued and founds us. We fought them off time after time until eventually the White Whale was sunk and disintegrated on the fortuitous breathable atmosphere of a small planet we now call Mira. Fortune kept smiling on us because the habitat crash landed mostly intact on the surface and it became Humanity's sole shining beacon of light, all alone in the night.

Welcome to the last city of Mankind. Welcome to New Los Angeles."

Sometimes a video game comes that completely grips my imagination. It happened to me several times very the course of my three decades as a gamer: "Speedball 2", "Dune", "Secret of Mana", "Star Fox", "Super Metroid", "Fire Emblem", "Xenoblade Chronicles", "Mass Effect 3" and... well, what can I say, I love to dream away from reality. The last of this very extensive list is non other then "Xenoblade Chronicles X" for the Wii U, a game that despite the name is not a direct sequel at all of the Wii (and now New 3DS) original RPG from Monolith Software. The soundtrack is rather varied for a JRPG, including hip hop , rock , jazz and some other genres mixed together that very well portray a New Los Angeles, the last know city of Mankind that crash landed on Planet Mira after a somewhat disastrous evacuation of Earth. I pretty much played this game from release non stop for over 3 months with my current save data clocking at over 640 hours (so far!) and although I finished the main story mode in around 120, I just kept coming back for more because it truly is a wonderful planet to further explore. Very much like my previous tribute album "Mass Effectively" came to be in 2013 after I completed "Mass Effect 3", "NLA Blues" is a tribute to "Xenoblade Chronicles X", with a mix of various styles spread across 26 tracks, each track representing a place in New Los Angeles. Even if you've never played the game, I hope you enjoy these. It took way longer to produce then my usual albums because there is so much great stuff going on in my life, I am really glad I managed to pull this off. It will always remind me of the time I spend playing this game and the pleasant stuff going on, but Life taught me never to take anything for granted. So cherish every moment, you never know when some ancient alien civilizations decides to use the Earth as a battlefield. and we have to migrate into outer space.

Tracklist

1.	BLADE Tower	5:44

2.	BLADE Barracks	2:32

3.	BLADE Concourse	4:08

4.	Division Drive	6:12

5.	Armory Alley	4:36

6.	Hangar	4:00

7.	Restricted Hangar Entrance	4:24

8.	Yardley's Hideaway	3:46

9.	Mimeosome Maintenance Center	4:19

10.	East Gate	4:54

11.	Barista Court	3:12

12.	Melville Street	4:00

13.	North Founders Street	5:04

14.	Central Industrial Disctrict	4:58

15.	Integrated Production Plant	3:41

16.	Repenta Dinner	4:12

17.	Outfiters Test Hangar	7:17

18.	West Gate	6:06

19.	Water Purification Plant	5:36

20.	Deliverance Park	5:18

21.	Cathedral	3:57

22.	Ismael Hills	4:43

23.	Sports Complex	5:46

24.	Port Side	5:15

25.	Deck	5:03

26.	Starboard	6:00

Credits

released April 8, 2016

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