Life is Strange — Max Caulfield OST by Jonathan Morali

Jonathan Morali wrote most of these songs while he was still fronting Syd Matters in France, and it shows. Same hushed fingerpicking, same voice that sits low in the mix like he's half-talking to himself. "Obstacles" and "To All Of You" were lifted from older Syd Matters records and slotted into the game, and now I can't really hear them outside of that context. Max with her camera, the diner booths, the tornado clouds nobody wanted to look at.

I played Life is Strange in tenth grade and finished it twice in a week. The soundtrack is the part that stayed. I made a playlist of every track and listened to it on the bus, before photography class, when I couldn't sleep. Some songs I still skip because they hit too hard.

It's not really background music. The lyrics are too good to tune out, and it's obviously not party music. I put it on when I want to actually feel something instead of scrolling. Good for editing photos. Sometimes good for crying if that's what's happening that day.