Gustavo Santaolalla strips The Last of Us down to almost nothing on this second volume and it hits even harder. That acoustic guitar is basically a character at this point. "All Gone (Seasons)" opens with this fragile plucking that just sits in empty space, and every variation of that theme across the album lands differently.
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"Left Behind (Together)" brings in warmer tones, almost hopeful, before "No Mercy" pulls you right back into tension with these low rumbling textures. The way "Fleeting" and "Fleeting (Affection)" mirror each other. Just devastating.
"The Path (Vacant)" is pure ambient dread done with like three notes. If you played the Left Behind DLC and forgot to go back to the soundtrack, fix that tonight.