The Amateur’s Soundtrack: Westfall

Following Godmother’s Challenge earlier this year, I promised I would start posting playlists on occasion. With Mog Madness, Mists news, and everything else going on there has just been so much to talk about that I’ve not had the chance. There’s always something to talk about. The good news is that today I finally have a chance, and the first one I wanted to share was inspired by the Cataclysm version of Westfall.

Best Game Wallpapers does some snazzy work.

Westfall used to be a land of farming and agriculture, and of course the Defias Brotherhood.  These were the humans that basically gave the Stormwind kingdom the finger after they helped rebuild the city…only to not get paid for it as promised.  So, following Edwin Van Cleef they set out and made a decent go of it.  Despite that, Stormwind does claim Westfall as under its rule but really doesn’t do anything to help.  As such, vagrancy runs rampant in the region now, to say nothing of other problems.  It’s a zone of poverty and despair and that’s the approach I took with the soundtrack.

1. Phil Collins – Another Day In Paradise (4:52)
Have you quested through Westfall? As a hero, what did you really do? Solve a murder, stop someone’s quest for vengeance. But in reality, you never really solved the bigger problem.

2. John Mellencamp – Rain On The Scarecrow (3:49)
With the look and feel of the zone, plus the Harvesters causing havoc, I always felt this song fit. It feels like a bit of a draught zone and that the government (Stormwind) is still doing little to help.

3. Scorpions – Winds of Change (4:44)
This is how I think I would feel were I a citizen of Westfall. Between the buildup of Sentinel Hill and the hero(es) trying to make things right, I would think it’s going to get better. Eventually it might, too, and deep down I would hope to see it come to fruition during my generation.

4. Bon Jovi – Dry County (9:53)
Not only does this also capture the feel of the zone in a way that Mellencamp’s song does, it does an immaculate job of illustrating what the former citizens of Stormwind have endured since following Van Cleef to Westfall years ago. It sounded good, and turned out to be too good to be true.

5. Kansas – Dust In The Wind (3:39)
If things don’t get better in Westfall, this is exactly what many people will become. Years from now the dust and wind will have eroded the land, and the people on it, unless things improve.

6. The Police – Message In A Bottle (4:06)
This speaks more to the desperation I have no doubt some people are experiencing. With such a vast coastline (even places that are Murloc free), you have to think that someone scratched a note and tossed the bottle into the sea if for no other reason than it can’t make their situation any worse.

7. Metallica – The Day That Never Comes (8:25)
Sure, Sentinel Hill has been built up over the years, but Stormwind has done next to nothing to help Westfall. I’m sure the representatives on Sentinel Hill have tried to promise change, and they might believe it deep down, but they have no support from the city. The day of hope and change isn’t coming any time soon.

8. The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again (8:33)
I loathe David Caruso and CSI: Miami, and the tribute was outdated. But still, Horatio Laine has his place in the new Westfall and if you remove him from the chain (mentally) then it’s actually a pretty decent mystery. However, because he’s in it, at some point the theme song should be played once.

9. Alice Cooper – I Am Made Of You (5:33)
This one’s for Vanessa Van Cleef. If you don’t know her story, I really recommend you do the quest chain (yes, it’s worth suffering through the Horatio stuff for). If you do know her story, then it’s pretty much ’nuff said.

10. Iron Maiden – The Evil That Men Do (4:36)
I wanted to select a song that gave a feel for the Deadmines but couldn’t really find exactly what I wanted. So instead, I thought I’d pay a little tribute to the original version of the instance and Edwin Van Cleef himself. As the line says, “the evil that men do lives on and on” and that’s clearly the case with Van Cleef.

Total Run Time: 58.10