The Music of Ooo

The Music of Ooo is the name of a vinyl release by label Spacelab9. This record collects 38 songs culled from the first seven seasons of the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time.

Background and release

On November 20, 2015, Spacelab9 released the Marceline The Vampire Queen – Rock The Nightosphere picture disc 12-inch Mini-LP, containing the songs "The Fry Song" (from the second season episode "It Came from the Nightosphere"), "I'm Just Your Problem" (from the third season episode "What Was Missing"), "Journal Song" (from the third season episode "Marceline's Closet"), "Nuts" (from the fourth season episode "I Remember You"), "Remember You" (also from "I Remember You"), "Housing Hunting Song" (from the first season episode "Evicted!"), and "Not Just Your Little Girl" (from the fourth-season episode "Daddy's Little Monster"); this vinyl release was exclusive to the music and clothing retailer Hot Topic.^[1] Regardless, this made it the first time that songs from Adventure Time had been commercially released.^[2]

Several months later, on July 19, 2016, it was announced that Spacelab9 would once again be issuing a vinyl record containing songs from Adventure Time. However, instead of a limited 12" release, this record would feature over 38 tracks from the show, and would come packaged as a traditional record album.^[3]

Music

The record opens with the theme to Adventure Time, as performed by Ward, who is accompanied by a ukulele.^[4] The finalized version of the theme song was originally supposed to be a temporary version. Ward said, "I recorded the lyrics for the opening title in the animatics room where we have this little crummy microphone just so that we could add it to the titles and submit it to the network. Later, we tried re-recording it and I didn't like it ... I only liked the temp one!"^[4] Because the series' finalized theme song was originally recorded as a temp track, ambient noises can be hard throughout. For instance, the sound of Derek Drymon typing can be heard while Jake is walking through the Ice Kingdom.^[4]

The record contains only two first season songs. The first of these is "The Jiggler", taken from the episode of the same name. The song was produced by Casey James Basichis and makes heavy use of auto-tune.^[5] The final first season song, "The Home Song" (which has also been released as the "House Hunting Song") was the first musical piece produced for "Adventure Time". The song, which plays over a montage of Finn and Jake looking for a new home, was sung by Ward and Olivia Olson and features lyrics written by Ward and music by Patrick McHale. When it came time to record for the show, Ward recorded both a "high intensity" version of the song and a more subdued variant. However, Ward was dissatisfied with his version, and urged the crew to use McHale's recording in the final episode. Derek Drymon, a producer on the first season, however, urged Ward to use his own.^[6] In a 2016 Tumblr post, McHale explained:

When I was working on Season 1 of Adventure Time (2009? 2008?) we had to write a montage song for the episode "Evicted!" while Finn and Jake are looking for a new house. Pen wrote a bunch of lyrics, so I brought them home and fine tuned them and put them to music. I recorded a demo that was too long, so I just digitally sped it up to be the right length (which is the recording above). [The song] was supposed to sound sort of... lame... like sort of… like a lame singer songwriter guy who’s into Dave Matthews but isn’t nearly as talented. That was, like, a thing in the early 2000s… a lot of people played this certain acoustic guitar style, but I don’t know the name for it. Maybe it has tinges of what was called "Emo"? Or… what does Hoobastank sound like? Uhh, I don’t know. Who cares. I’m old now and I don’t remember anything. [...] In the end I didn’t want to sing the final version, so Pen did the singing in the show. He did more of a Blink 182 style thing. Blink 182? Is that right?^[7]

Only two songs represent the show's second season: "Susan Strong" and "Friends". "Friends", sung by BMO (voiced by Niki Yang), was taken from the episode "Video Makers", and its lyrics were written by former series storyboard revisionist David C. Smith whereas its music was composed by Tim Kiefer.^[8]

Eight songs on this record were taken from the show's third season, including: "All Gummed Up Inside", "All Warmed Up Inside", "As a Tropical Island / On a Tropical Island", "Extremities Song (Balloon Music)", "Melons (I Was Wrong)", "My Best Friends in the World", "Oh Fionna", and "Sleepy Puppies". "My Best Friends in the World", from the episode "What Was Missing", was written by Sugar as a celebration of the friendship she shared with her coworkers, especially her storyboarding partner, Muto.^[9]

Three of the songs of the record were culled from the show's fourth season: "Dream of Love", "Let Me Show You Something Special", and "Oh Bubblegum". The first, "Dream of Love", which is a duet between Tree Trunks (voiced by Polly Lou Livingston) and Mr. Pig (voiced by Ron Lynch), was taken from the eponymous episode and was written by McHale; when he was writing and recording the demo version, he envisioned Tree Trunks' part to sound like Dolly Parton, and for Mr. Pig's part to be reminiscent of Meat Loaf.^[6] "Let Me Show You Something Special" is a duet between the Ice King (voiced by Tom Kenny) and his monstrous creation, Princess Monster Wife (voiced in tandem by Ward, Hynden Walch, and Steve Little). The song, which was taken from the episode "Princess Monster Wife", was also written by McHale, and was inspired by the 1992 song "A Whole New World", from the animated feature film Aladdin.^[10] McHale recorded a demo track of the song, featuring himself accompanied on guitar; during the recording of this demo, however, his cat kept meowing loudly. The crew found this funny, and so, in the finished episode, Gunter's cat can be heard meowing several times.^[6] Originally, it was planned for Princess Monster Wife to join in with the Ice King and sing the song as a duet. Hynden Walch actually recorded her part, and the production staff intended for Ward and Little to record their lines as well. However, in the end, the crew decided it was funnier for the Ice King to sing both parts.^[11] "Oh Bubblegum" is taken from the penultimate season four episode "I Remember You"; its lyrics were written by Cole Sanchez and Sugar, whereas its music was written solely by Sugar.^[12]

Seven songs were selected from the show's fifth season, including: "Bad Little Boy", "Good Little Girl", "I Just Can't Get Over You", "Have You Ever Had a Friend", "Lemonhope's Got Feet", "Lemonhope's Song", and "Rap Bear & Finn's Rap".

Eleven songs were selected from the show's sixth season, making it the most-represented season on the record. These songs include: "A Kingdom from a Spark", "Baby's Building a Tower into Space", "Everything's Falling into Place", "Food Chain Song", "Little Brothers", "Lost in the Darkness", "Money", "Prismo's Ritual", "That's All I Need", "We're Plants", and "Yeah, Girl It Stinks". The song "A Kingdom from a Spark", which was written by Andy Ristaino, is meant to explain the mythological origin of the Fire Kingdom via its lyrics.^[13] The original version of the song was meant to sound more like "an ancient dwarven war song", but it was rewritten into "a more folksong-y version".^[14] "Baby's Building a Tower into Space" was once again written by Leslie Wolfhard.^[15] "Little Brothers" was written by guest storyboard artist Madéleine Flores and her fiancé J. Smith. According to Flores, "[Writing the song] was super fun because we both have little brothers, so we used them as inspiration!"^[16] "Everything's Falling into Place", "Prismo's Ritual", and "Yeah, Girl It Stinks" were all written by Jesse Moynihan.^[17][18][19] The original lyrics for "Yeah, Girl It Stinks" featured the line "hot boxing up the palace", but because Cartoon Network thought it could be construed as a drug reference, the line was changed to "Dutch boxing".^[19] "Lost in the Darkness", on the other hand, was written by Jesse's brother, Justin.^[20]

The record closes with the only songs taken from the show's seventh season: two versions of "Everything Stays", both written by Sugar. The song, which was penned several years after Sugar's departure from the series, was used prominently in the miniseries Stakes. Series storyboard artist Hanna K. Nyström revealed on Tumblr that, during the storyboarding of the episode "Everything Stays" (the second installment in the Stakes miniseries), she found herself unable to write a lullaby for the scene between Marceline and her mother. She relayed her issue to Muto, who contacted Sugar and asked if she would be willing to pen the song. Sugar agreed and based the song on an incident that occurred in her childhood. According to her, she once lost a stuffed animal in a garden. A year later, she found it; the sun had bleached the exposed surfaces, but the underside was still the same. She explained, "[The stuffed animal] wasn’t better, or worse, just different. It was the first time I realized that things will change no matter what, even if they’re left alone, and stay completely still."^[21] Muto was excited to have Sugar return to work on the show, and noted at the 2015 Adventure Time San Diego Comic-Con International panel that "because [Stakes] was a Marceline miniseries, it wouldn't really feel complete unless Rebecca Sugar wrote a song for it."^[22] The first version of the song on the record is a duet between Marceline and her mother, and features Sugar's vocals (as Sugar voiced Marceline's mother in the miniseries).^[23]

Artwork

The vinyl itself came in three variants, which were themed after Adventure Time characters: green ("Tree Trunks"), white & blue ("Finn"), or tan ("Me-Mow").^[24][25] The album cover is a picture of Finn and Jake that was designed by former lead character designer and storyboard artist Andy Ristaino for the title card of the third season episode "Hitman".^[26] Likewise, the album's gatefold image is take from the title card of the first-season episode "Tree Trunks", which was designed by Nick Jennings.^[27] The sleeve of the record contains notes about the songs "Let Me Show You Something Special", "Dream of Love", and "Bacon Pancakes", courtesy of Patrick McHale and Rebecca Sugar.^[24][25]

In addition, a rainbow vinyl variant (themed after the character Lady Rainicorn) and a red variant (themed after Peppermint Butler) were released as New York Comic Con exclusives.^[28][29] These both feature different front and back covers, with the former being taken from the title card of the fourth season episode "Who Would Win?", and the latter being from the title card of the third season episode "No One Can Hear You", both designed by Ristaino.^[26][30] The gatefold image on these variants is also different, being taken from the title card of the third season episode "Wizard Battle".^[26][29][31] A Gunter variant has also been pressed exclusively for distribution via Hot Topic.^[32]

Track listing

References