EA's Mirror's Edge looks to be a pretty epic game. Your name is Faith, and you live in a city that appears to be a utopia. You are a Runner, a highly skilled courier who delivers sensitive documents so they don't fall into the wrong hands. And in this secretly decaying society, you've just been framed for murder. Check out the trailer at the bottom of the post for some sweet gameplay footage.

On November 11, coinciding with the launch of the game, EA will release an album comprised of the Mirror's Edge theme song, "Still Alive," and five remixes from various artists. The original song is performed by Lisa Miskovsky, a Swedish singer who, apparently, has been pretty successful in her home country. Her untouched version of the song is featured first. Following that are remixes from Paul Oakenfold, Benny Benassi, Paul van Dyk, and others.

The original song is by no means a terrible song, but not one you'd expect to be presented as the anthem of a game that could be as ground-breaking as EA says it is. My first thought was that it reminded me of the song "The Call" by Regina Spektor (featured at the end of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian), although I am not sure whether I was reminded of it because both of these songs sound similar or because they both felt rather out of place. The song is rather soothing and somewhat slow-paced, both of which are characteristics you think wouldn't be associated with an action set in an unhappy society. The sound is very polished and produced, so much so that you can see the sugar slowly dripping off of it. A slow piano background, a soothing electronic-sounding chorus, multiple layers of lyrics: it's all there to add up to an adequate Lite Adult Contemporary hit ("Your concrete heart isn't beating / And I've tried to make it come alive"). Listening to the song out of the blue, you'd have no idea it would be featured in a game (other than the fact that the name of the song is the same as the one that ended Portal), but knowing that it will be in Mirror's Edge prompts the image of an epic cutscene, perhaps depicting the downfall of Faith's city or the story of the hardships she has faced in her life. Certainly this will not be playing while you're disarming any snipers.

Benny Benassi's remix is up next, and it kicks off with a techno beat that gets you ready for the rest of the album. This first remix isn't spectacular or particularly unique. It sounds like many techno songs I've heard before. But it is pretty catchy, and much more upbeat than the original song. The techno-tastic bleeps, boops, and zwangs are happening for a full two and a half minutes before any pieces of the original song start to poke through. Of all the songs on this album, this is certainly the one that you can see in a movie dancing scene, with epileptic seizure-inducing lights flashing and tons of cute people all enjoying themselves. But this song also sounds more like someone gave Benny Benassi the song and said, "here, do something with this and make it cool."

Junkie XL's mix follows, which starts out sounding like a children's lullaby but turns into a slower-paced, more mellow techno-y song than the previous one. This version plays off of the song's own melodies and feels more natural than the Benny Benassi remix. This version is also only 20 seconds longer than the original song (at 4:40), so it doesn't begin to feel too repetitive. The image that comes to mind when listening to this remix is of a long, somewhat sad ending scene of a movie where, perhaps, two characters are realizing they are better off without each other. So, while it is a sad occasion, it is offering closure to both of them. Okay, way too specific, I know. But you can get an idea of the pace of this song. It really play's off the lyrics of the original rather than focusing on inserted electronic beats, which makes it feel more real.

Paul Van Dyk plays with the song on track 4, which, to be honest, is the only name on this album I immediately recognized. And the song is easily recognizible too -- it sounds very much like many of Paul Van Dyk's songs. But it feels like something is off for parts of this song. The underlying beats and currents of the song don't bend to reflect Lisa Miskovsky's lyrics and inflections. But this is most certainly a classic techno song; slow buildup as the beats get louder and more intense, to a break in the intensity when the lyrics kick in, then building back up again. The mood of this song definitely feels darker and more "metallic" than the others so far, and feels like it could be used in a battle scene inside a place such as a warehouse.

The Teddybears' remix follows Paul Van Dyk's, and from the first 5 seconds I could tell that this was my favorite so far. It has a deep bass beat that reminded me of K-Os' Sunday Morning. Out of all these 5 remixes, this did turn out to be my favorite upon repeat listenings. It's the most original and, like the Junkie XL mix, feels more natural than the others. It's also not overwhelmically technical sounding -- there's more than just electronic noises repeating over and over. If you have a subwoofer or some quality speakers, you're going to want to turn the bass up for this song. The Teddybears mix could almost fit into a playlist of hip hop songs and sound like it fits right in.

I've never heard of Armand Van Helden, but he gets his hands on Still Alive next. And the results are pretty enjoyable here as well. He really plays around with Lisa Miskovsky's voice, which also differentiates this song. There's a solid bass base (ha ha...) throughout this song, which doesn't seem at first like it would fit with the lofty piano that's in the original song, but the contrast works well. If this song were just a tad more intense I could see it being featured in some bad ass Matrix-type gunfight scene. But it's not quite there.

It may sound like I'm being pretty harsh on the individual songs here, but this is an enjoyable collection of songs. I can't say that I would be likely to listen to Lisa Miskovsky's original song on a regular basis, but the remixes could well make their way into party playlists in the foreseeable future. The last two songs are especially fun. The album will be available November 11 on all the major music download services with "standard Amazon and iTunes pricing in effect," says Dana Sissons, Senior Publicist at EA, which we're assuming means 99 cents per song. If you feel like you need to add to your techno and/or remixed-song collection, I would probably recommend at least checking out these songs. Especially the Teddybears mix.

8.4

/ 10

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