First of all, the interpretation of the theme and the story you've gone with for this soundtrack is great. It works really well for the theme and is perfect for the soundtrack you've written. The opening track is super relaxing and intriguing, absolutely love the subtle complexities in the drum track like the fast hits on that ride cymbal. Familiar Faces is pretty great as a homely village kinda song, big Animal Crossing vibes. Lovely guitar composition.
That organ on A Lively Catch is so smoov. It all sounds really professional, just some excellent songwriting. Like the way the guitar turns back with some intricate picking at the end of some phrases gets me GOIN'. Really cool. The switch up to the creepy tones of Run It Back feels right here as well. Great little soundscape on this one.
Then we have some very effective electronics on the next track, that crescendo in the bassy synth rules...as does the descending chords sequence towards the end (love that this kind of thing comes back throughout the soundtrack too). Then acid bass on Of all the Buttons to Press?! This is going places...extremely well produced. I legit can't imagine doing all this in 10 days.
The underwater, spacey spookiness of There's Nothing in the Water works great, love the panning of the hats and other percussive elements. The way this one then leads into A Really Big Shadow is kinda masterful as well...I think this is my fave soundtrack that I've listened to in this Jam. It all just sounds great and the songwriting is at a very high level. A lot going on, but never too much and, while the genres keep switching it up, there's a consistency that I can't quite articulate that seems to keep it all together. It's weirdly cohesive considering how different it all is and I can feel a story playing out through the music even without the (highly entertaining) story you've come up with.
Holy wow, the drums on The Benthic Hour. Such a cool climax. Especially once the piano melodies weave their way in closing out back to the pastoral feeling of the acoustic guitar. Great stuff.
I've been trying to put little bits of constructive criticism in all the reviews I've done so far, but I genuinely can't think of much to say here. At a stretch there were maybe a couple of times where I thought an instrument sounded a little bit "stock" or rigid, but, it's extremely rare and, considering the breadth of ideas and genres here put together over just 10 days, not exactly surprising. Oh, the one other tiny thing I didn't personally love was the way the acoustic guitar faded out at the end. I think it should've played a bit longer before fading or maybe played out a nice little final melody to really bring it home, but that's just me (this is also an extremely tiny critique).
The whole thing is really just awesome. My highest rating for sure.