The Legend of Korra: Original Music from Book One
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This is the score to the first season of the animated series The Legend of Korra. It was composed by Jeremy Zuckerman. It was released in 2013, and I bought it the same year. I was super excited to get it, because for years I had wished there would be a soundtrack for the previous series, "Avatar: The Last Airbender", but there wasn't. (In 2023 such a soundtrack was released on vinyl and mp3, so maybe someday I'll buy the mp3 version and burn it to disc.)

1. "Prologue": This is soaring and majestic, sort of classical music.

2. "Air Tight": This is a sort of old-fashioned jazz, I want to say maybe Dixieland? It's fun.

3. "In a Box": This one sounds like traditional Japanese or Chinese music.

4. "An Impossible Crime": This feels sort of dark and foreboding, and eventually gets scary.

5. "Being Patient/Beifong's Sacrifice": This is Asian-tinged classical music. The mood shifts a lot, from scary to heroic to tragic.

6. "Asami and Mako Dine": This sounds sweet and romantic.

7. "On the Lam": This is some hot jazz, very frantic and cool.

8. "Hittin' on All Sixes": More Dixieland or whatever. It's fun.

9. "Good Ol' Days": This is sort of ethereal and wistful.

10. "Before": This is by far the longest track, at 7:38. It's more classical. It's kind of sad. Then it gets a bit ominous. Then sad again. And eventually a bit scary. Then sad again.

11. "Fresh Air": More Asian-tinged classical or traditional music.

12. "Korra Confronts Tarrlok": This is kind of ominous.

13. "Squeaky rags": Dixieland again. Always fun.

14. "Amon": Now this is ominous. There's some real danger, here.

15. "Chi Blockers": The early part of it kind of reminds me of Chinese dancing dragon music, but scary. Then it transitions to some dark classical music.

16. "A Peaceful Place": Yup, it's peaceful alright. Sounds like some traditional Japanese or Chinese music.

17. "Left My Heart in Republic City": Wish I could think what you call this genre. It reminds me of something. But anyway, it's soft and breezy, sort of like a lazy river.

18. "Firebending Training": Well, this is fast-paced and kind of exciting.

19. "Wheels": I'm not sure what this makes me feel, other than nervous.

20. "Republic City Under Attack": This is subtly foreboding. Then it gets less subtle about it.

21. "Hardboiled...Afraid (Separate Ways)": This one sounds just sort of melancholy.

22. "War": This starts out surprisingly quiet, given its title. But it builds to something more alarming.

23. "Asami and Hiroshi/Korra Airbends": This sounds more ominous to me than I would have expected.

24. "Greatest Change": This sounds sad. But after a few minutes it changes to something more grandiose, like "Prologue".

25. "The Legend of Korra End Credits": This is just 31 seconds, but it's good.

26. "The Legend of Korra Main Title": This is just 28 seconds. I'm not sure why it's not at the beginning of the album, but maybe "Prologue" makes a better opening, I don't know. Still, I would at least have put this before "End Credits". Anyway, it's good.

So yeah, the whole album is really good. Nice mix of styles, which is true of the feel of the series itself. Most of it obviously has a traditional Asian influence, which put me in mind of the Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack. But there's some roaring 20s in there, as well.