Exploring the Melodies of Kingdom Hearts: A Tribute to Yoko Shimomura

Joshua Noel: 00:00:52

Foreign. Have you ever wondered why Kingdom Hearts music is so good? Welcome to some Joyful Noises.

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That's awesome. It helps a whole lot. Real quick. Anything else? I just want to talk about some of the stuff I'm listening to. Mainly I'm into Lumiere's new album.

It is, in my humble opinion, fantastic. The other thing I'm listening to is, weirdly enough, I'm getting back into the rend collective thanks to Brandon Knight.

He, in one of his podcasts, mentioned how they're getting back in their old folk roots. And I was like, I like the folk stuff. So let me check that out. And yeah, some of the newer stuff's really good. The prayer of St. Patrick is fantastic.

So that's what I'm into right now. And that Lumineers album, it's called Automatic, which is kind of funny because it ties into the last Kingdom Hearts episode I did on this. Right.

Like I talked about one of my crushes growing up and the person, person behind the regular Kingdom Hearts songs that, you know, simple and clean. And all the other ones I discussed last time. Hikaru Utada, I loved her. Love her music. She's. They're a fantastic artist.

If you remember, she goes by both she and they, them. Pronouns. Something a little tongue tied because, you know, growing up, before she came out, it was just she.

I'M just trying to be respectful of her decision there.

But you know, one of the albums she's famous for is her own Automatic and I think they do kind of a reference to that in one of the Lumineer songs, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. They do the whole it's Automatic and I was like, oh, oh, fun. So I've been enjoying that a lot.

But today I want to talk about the other side of Kingdom Hearts music. So we have the songs that everybody knows, simple and Clean, Sanctuary, all that stuff from Hikaru.

But there's also a lot of just really good compositions in these games that the fans immediately know the tune and you're like oh yeah, I have several as alarms in the morning because I recognize them so like deeply within me that even if they're quiet, I'll wake up. Whereas like a really loud alarm that like my brain doesn't know anything about. It's like, yeah, whatever.

But like really quietly I hear that like Kairi thing and I'm like, yep. What? What's going on? I'm ready to go. Even my ringtone is one of her compositions.

So I'm actually really excited to talk about some of the music pieces within the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise today.

So let's talk about first why I actually think it is important that we talk about Kingdom Hearts music other than just like I really like Kingdom Hearts and think the music's fantastic. There's a whole community out there that this game is like integral to their lives.

So it's not just me being the freak who writes the Kingdom Key substack. I am that. But it's more than that as well.

You will see if you're on Instagram, there's like all kinds of memes and stuff that posted and it's like, like when you first hear that theme in Traverse Town, it's like someone with rockets shooting up in the air cuz it's like like some of these themes you like or like, like it'll just be like a video, someone just jamming in the room and it's like that first time you heard that jam, Deep Jungle on the Tarzan level. And I'm like, yeah, he ain't wrong though.

He ain't wrong because these compositions are fantastic and it's integral part of this community that's formed around this franchise.

If you also if you go to the IGN website and you look up the top soundtrack video game soundtracks of all time, within the top four RPG title soundtracks is the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack It's at number four. She, Yoko Shimomura, the one who wrote this, also has another one. I forget which one it is, but she has at least two.

I think it's the Super Mario rpg. And the top ten list of soundtracks are from her. She's true, she's. I cannot overstate how fantastic she is. The Kingdom Hearts music.

mphony's Fantasies concert in: 2009

So like, you cannot understate the importance of Yoko Shimomura to video games and you cannot understate how the Kingdom Hearts music has actually so become such a phenomenon. You know, you saw earlier, if you're on YouTube, I have those vinyls out, like they sell vinyls of the music from these games.

Because so many, so many people are just passionate about the music from the few years back they finally released all the songs on Spotify.

And, and Yoko Shimomura was my number one artist that year because like, while I'm working, I just have these things going on in the back, like in my earbuds and I'm just listening like background music and something in my soul connects deeply with what she has wrote in these compositions. And the same thing's true for so many other people. So I really believe it's important that we think about, understand this music.

I feel a lot of times that Kingdom Hearts music expresses my words, my emotions better than my words do I undiagnosed. But I'm pretty sure that I'm on the spectrum somewhere.

And a lot of times I have problems expressing myself to other people when I'm telling them, like, here's how I'm feeling, who I'm going on right now. I don't do this because I know how weird it would be.

But a lot of the times, like someone's asking how I'm feeling and I'm at work and I'm stressed, but I'm also excited because like, we have a big crowd coming in, it's about to be busy, it's about to be difficult, but I'm like, oh, this is going to be good. And I kind of want you to be like, no, you know, right now what I'm feeling is Sunset Showdown by Yoko Shimomura. That doesn't make sense to anybody.

So I'm just like, yeah, you know, I'm a little stressed, a little whatever. But I'm like, my words don't quite capture what it is. I'm feeling. But that's all that music the composition really does.

You know, a lot of times when I'm feeling like, it's like, nostalgic but sleepy again. My words just don't quite get me there. And I'm like, I'm feeling nostalgic, but a little sleepy.

And I'm reflecting on my life, and I'm like, there's just so much stuff that's almost, like, magical to me when I look back at my life, and I'm like, wow, I. I got to live this. I got to experience this. And I'm like, I'm feeling Kairi 2 by Yoko Shimomura.

And everyone's like, I don't say that again, because I know that makes me crazy. But, like, a lot of the times, these compositions really encapsulates my feelings better than anything I can conjure up with my words.

And for that, I'm really grateful for Yoko Shimomura's work. You know, a lot of times today, you know, when you think of compositions, people don't really.

In our world, no one sits, really sits down in the living room with a vinyl of Beethoven's Fifth and just sits and listens to composition. We might listen to vinyls of, like, music with words to it, but a lot of times we don't just listen to compositions anymore.

What I have noticed, though, is a lot of people around my age, millennials, who are nerds, might listen to video game soundtracks, right?

Like, I know friends, and I've gone camping with friends, and we will listen to, like, the Jurassic park theme or, like, Assassin's Creed Foot, where I think it is the pirate one. We'll listen to some of those themes while we're out camping and while we're, like, hiking on an island, that kind of stuff.

And we have these themes because, like, we like that music connects with us, and it's good background music. Again, like I mentioned, I did that at work.

A lot of people while they're working, you know, you don't want something that's too distracting, but you want something soothing on. So they'll have, like, video game compositions tend to get listened to pretty frequently.

time Achievement award at the: 2024

And that should mean, like, her life is such an achievement for everyone who loves video games, who loves video game music or just love compositions. In General, her work is just so integral to so many people and to so many works of art in the video game industry that we all love and cherish.

Wouldn't be the same without her contribution. So just such a cool person. She graduated from Osaka College of Music, I believe in the 80s. She immediately got hired by Capcom.

So if you know Street Fighter 2, that soundtrack is also Yoko Shimomura, then she gets picked up by Square. She does Legend of Mana, she does some of the Final Fantasy stuff. And then of course, Kingdom Hearts is what she is most well known for.

Now she is independent, but she still goes back to do some of the Kingdom Hearts stuff. Whenever they make a new game, they reach out to her and she's like, heck yeah, I'm gonna do that.

Because, you know, she talks about how special the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks have been to her. So she's independent now, but she still does do stuff for Square. Mostly is for role playing games, specifically fantasy role playing games.

It's kind of the music she's most well known for.

So Yoko Shimomura has stated before that the soundtrack that is most personal to her, the one that expresses her own self, who she is actually isn't Kingdom Hearts. It is the one she did for Legend of Mana. So I actually want to show some of that on for you guys.

I'm just gonna play about 30 seconds of this so you guys can kind of get a taste of what she said was the most, the song that best expressed herself as who she. Yeah, and it just kind of crescendos there until the end.

And it really just kind of pops off about like a minute 30 seconds and it just really builds with intensity. So if you haven't heard it, I do recommend everybody going to check that one out if they can.

So the other one I do want to play for you guys, of course is going to be the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack. Here is actually the version of Kingdom Hearts that they played at the award ceremony mentioned earlier. For me, this was such a moving moment.

You actually see if you watch the full thing, you can see Yokushimomura's reaction to having this orchestra play her music at the award ceremony. And it was such a beautiful moment. Moment. But yeah, I'm going to play about 30 seconds.

I think most people know Dearly Beloved, but if you don't, it's so moving. And for me, it's like part of my soul, part of who I am, like my identity is probably wrapped up a little bit in this song.

So if you attack it, please do so gently. And I. I'll say I could listen to that probably for hours. And I'm not exaggerating because I have definitely have listened to that for hours.

So, yeah, it's a moving piece ever from that very first game. And it's just there. It's the menu screen. That's what plays. And I'm like, I remember as a kid just leaving it up, even the other day.

This is kind of weird. Now that I have a Steam deck, I can get the original version of some of these games.

So for those of you who are familiar with Kingdom Hearts, you know they remade them a million times. We got Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Remix Re this, re that.

I got the old Game Boy advance, the original copy of Chain of Memories downloaded on my Steam deck, which I'm pretty sure is legal, because I own Chain of Memories. I have a shelf up here just like, nerd stuff.

And one of my prized possessions is that Game Boy advance, the little cartridge that's Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. Maybe I'll put it in a shadow box or something one day. Because to me, it's just. It's a special. I remember. This is weird.

I remember so many times getting expelled from school, being suspended because I was, like, under my desk playing Kingdom Chain of Memories on that thing and losing to Riku five million times and Axel, and I'm like, ah, this sucks. But also, I loved it. And at school you had to have the music off, which sucked.

But I remember at home playing it, and just sometimes I remember even, like, I was too tired to keep playing, so I would pause it and just fall asleep to the little Game Boy advance music. I was doing finals the other day, writing my papers, and I had the Steam deck, and I pulled up the menu screen of Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.

Because the Game Boy advance, they had to do something different. So Yoko Shimura was amazing for this too, because she also did the music for this game.

The Gameboy didn't have the same range of music that you can get on, like, TV speakers or other stuff, right? So she had to kind of redo the composition with that limitation.

So it sounds a little bit different, a little more pixelized, and I don't know something about it. It's nostalgic. And the actual song itself is still just so mystical. It just soothes me. So I'm over here stressing on finals. Literally.

, got it in at, like,: 11:30

It's special to a lot of people. And, you know, I try to be as aware of that as I can in the games.

Other than just the title music, there are a few other compositions that Kingdom Hearts is known for, and I'm not going to necessarily play my favorites. I'm just going to play some of the ones I really think show kind of the range of Yoko Shimomura's work in these video games.

So I'm going to start with playing a little bit of the. I don't think it's actually one of the songs from Hail Bastion. I actually think that this is from 358. Over two days in one of their final fights.

Not 100% sure, but it kind of shows how. It's a little weird, I guess, but it shows how this music, borderline, is religious.

So for those of you who grew up with more church music kind of stuff, maybe hearing this will kind of be like, okay, I understand why this invokes kind of a spiritual feeling for some people. So this one, I'm going to butcher the pronunciation, but I'm going to attempt anyway. Gardando nel buen boyo.

And because of the final boss battle, like the anxiety in it, but the excitement in it, I actually have this as my final alarm in the morning. If I don't wake up to any other alarm, I will wake up to this one. Yeah.

The way that that crescendos and builds and just becomes this, like, moment of just pure excitement and thrill and anxiety. Honestly, I just. I can't understate how just phenomenal some of these musics are moving. They are. And even anxiety inducing.

And it's funny because religious music can also do that. Right? Like church music.

Sometimes you hear that organ and then you get one of those hymns that's about, like, Lent or like death, and you're like, oh, if you're really trying to feel it, you're like, there's a little bit of anxiety here. Right. And that happened in these games. And I don't know, it's a lot of fun. That's not one I suggest listening to while camping.

It is good if you want to just pump yourself up for a busy workday or something, though. All right. The other one I want to play. We played this on the show before, but it's just. It's one of those legendary pieces.

I think anybody, even if you don't play Kingdom Hearts, most video game knowledgeable Video game people know about this particular piece. It's just called Kairi. So if you don't know, Kairi is like the love interest of the game. Sora and Kairi keep trying to get together.

They keep frustrating me ever since I was 12 with them not getting together. But the piece itself is more than just, you know, teenage love angst.

I feel like it speaks more to the mystique around who is Kairi and her character and just kind of the mystery of the game itself, you know, this game deals a lot with identity. And I think this composition also deals well, kind of making. It's good when you're contemplating identity.

The spiritual things of God, the mystic things of the world. I don't know, all this, this music helps me. I don't know, maybe it won't help you and you think I'm crazy, but here it is, here it is.

Another one I can say confidently that I can listen to for a long time. I've actually had to find loops before because I'm like, the song just isn't long enough.

And I just need a loop of hearing the same thing over and over and over. Because that is one of those things that I don't know, no matter how stressed I am, what's going on in the world.

I've gone through some stuff, if you guys follow my other shows. I've had a shooting outside my house with my dog and my wife. I've had a tragic accident where I've almost died before. I've had stuff with.

I won't get into everything. I've had a lot of stuff in my life.

And that song, that particular piece of music, it doesn't make things go away, but it makes me calm enough that I feel like I can handle things. So for me, I find God in this music. And I know that I don't think Yoko Shimomura, I think she's non religious from what I know.

And yet this music allows me to feel God.

And I think that if you can find God in something, do it, you know, like, I think sometimes we overthink things of like, oh, does the person who made it have to be Christian? Does it have to be about God? Does it have to say God in the title or something? No, sometimes just let it be.

Although I will say, and we're going to come back to this, it's not for naught that the title piece, the menu music for all of these, like the Kingdom Hearts composition is Dearly Beloved. It's titled Dearly Beloved. I'm actually not sure, that Yoko Shimomura titled it.

She doesn't speak English, but from everything we can tell the word for beloved there, it's like friendship. It's like chosen relationship kind of thing.

And for those of you who know me, recently, I've gotten to a lot of Whitehead, a lot of Levinas, and I believe we are defined by our relationships. Right? I'm not just this thing you see on YouTube.

This person, all the little cells, how they relate to each other makes up me and these cells were different 10 years ago at all different cells. But the relationship between them is what makes me me physically. The relationship to my other friends, my family, my wife.

That's what makes me me spiritually.

So I think the song called Dearly Beloved and being like that chosen relationship in a game about identity, where throughout the game, especially in Chain of Memories, I've been replaying the game Advance a lot now that I have it on Steam Deck. And I'm like the original. So good. It really stresses how we're not just our minds, our memories. We're not just this physical body.

We are our relationships.

These video games stress this deep philosophy I'm learning by Levinas and Whitehead has always been in my life because this video game's taught that the whole time I just wasn't paying attention.

And now that I am, it's just so evident and it just makes so much sense that that title song called Dearly Beloved and it's going to get into some Bible stuff that I love later on and how God looks at us as dearly beloved. And that relationship God has to us is what defines God. So in a video game, we're learning that we are defined by relationships.

I think we can learn a lot about God from there.

And I think it makes perfect sense that when I hear Kairi, I feel God in this music because I don't think the composition was done without any awareness of what the games are about. I think Yoko Shimomura was aware what the games were about. She might not be Christian. She might not have been doing it because that's what God is.

But she's doing it with an awareness that these games are about relationship. You can feel how spiritual relationships are in the music. Other cool things that she does there, though.

I know this is going to be kind of like a little bit of a sidebar, a little bit of like a. Like a left field. But that's what Kingdom Hearts is, right? It's a video game about, like Final Fantasy spirituality, identity.

But it's also like, here's some Disney fun. So while you're, like, trying to figure out, like, oh, am I my body, am I my memories or am I a soul, Am I in my relationships? Then, boom.

By the way, remember your good friend Hercules or Aladdin. And that's just part of the game. It's part of the fun.

And that's why I love it so much, is like, we could wrestle with deep, hard things and still have fun with it with all these, like, cool Disney characters and stuff that also play a part into the story.

Usually we have some questions about some of the worlds I chose for Kingdom Hearts 3 and how it played a part, but that's maybe for my substack for now, though, I do want to talk some about. She also did a lot of the composition, most of the compositions for the different Disney worlds.

So, you know, in the game, you visit different worlds and each world has like, it's the Hercules World, the Aladdin world, Halloweentown World, etc. What's really cool that she's able to do is she doesn't just, like. They don't just take the music from, like the main song.

So it's not just like Zero to Hero playing in the background the whole time you're at Hercules, just without the words. She actually creates new music that fits those original songs.

So, like, that little nostalgia part of your brain that's like, oh, yeah, I know the Hercules music. It fits well enough that you're like, oh, yeah, this feels like Hercules, but it's not the exact same thing.

And sometimes she creates stuff that's wholly new that's not based on those songs at all. But, like, something in your brain just still knows to associate this with what it's supposed to be. And I think it's incredible how she does that.

And even still, that's why the music works in the background for me, because, like, it's both bringing that Disney nostalgia also with this new, like, deeper thing and also has that, like, relaxing stuff and has the hype, like, there's such a wide range. It's crazy.

But I do want to play some of these themes from the Disney to kind of show you what she did with some of the Disney stuff that I thought was really cool. First is from the first Kingdom Hearts game. This is actually the 1.5 version, so it might be remixed lately, I'm not sure.

This is called Spooks of Halloween Town. Not surprisingly, this was what was played when you were playing Halloween Town.

In that first game, you're with Jack Skeleton and you can hear this number. And I think you can kind of tell how that's able to loop where it goes exciting. And then it jumps back down to like normal, that kind of thing. I am.

I'm gonna be a little bit of a loser here because I forgot one of the songs I meant to play. So this is actually my fill in ringtone. And this is the most hyped up music from the game for me. So this is from Kingdom Hearts 2.

It plays when you're in Twilight Town. So this is one of those that you get a lot of the memes about of like when you first hear this jam. So I have to play it. It's my ringtone.

It's one of those songs that just really hypes me up and it's a lot of fun. So this is not the Disney related. I'm going back because I missed something and maybe I'm a bad podcaster, but you guys have to hear this. Yeah.

And that's called Sinister Showdown. It's fantastic. I have it as Marine tone for a reason because it hypes me up, makes me aware and I'm like, yeah.

But also doesn't stress me out and make me feel like I need to immediately play Kingdom Hearts because some of the songs do that. I had to ringtone once. Like every time it played I was like, I have to play Kingdom Hearts right now. And it wrecked my life. So can't do that.

All right, anyway, back to the Disney stuff.

So you saw like with the Halloween Town one we we sampled there that it does a really good job of kind of like, okay, I can tell this is similar to the whole this is Halloween, this is Halloween. But it's not that song. It's something different. But you can feel that this is from that world.

And the way she's able to capture the feeling of the film, make something new for herself that still allows us to have nostalgia and engage with that world so deeply. It's phenomenal.

The other two I'm going to play from the Disney stuff are actually from Kingdom Hearts 3, which a lot of the times I'll say it doesn't get the love I think it deserves. But I think the music From Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the things that really stands out from it.

So for me, Kingdom Hearts 3, the dialogue kind of dropped off from the other games. It's not as good with that. But the music I think actually stepped up somehow because the music was already fantastic.

For those who don't know, Hercules is my favorite Disney film, like all time. I know every single word, every single song. This isn't like any of that.

And yet somehow it feels like Hercules and Kingdom Hearts 3, for me, was the first time you felt like you were actually engaging in Hercules world and not just stopping in a little part of it, a little corner of it. So I love what they did with it, and I especially love what Yoko Shimomura did with the music. So here's Mount Olympus by Yoko Shimomura. Yeah.

So you're going around, you know, leaving Greece, going up Mount Olympus, and you hear this, like, epic crescendo. And then you kind of see, like, where it slows down. You're going through some of the valleys as you go up the mountain there. And it's like, holy cow.

It's just so freaking good. And, you know, that's. That doesn't sound anything like the Hercules songs.

And yet it just feels so right, and it lets you engage with this world in such a deep level. Yeah, this is just like, gonna be like 45 minutes of me just gushing about how good Yoko Shimomura is. But that song was incredible.

The other one, they introduced Pixar games in Kingdom Hearts 3, which. The thing with Pixar, it's notorious for having less music than the Disney musicals. Right. But here's from Monsters, Inc.

Level, another one that I just. I thought was phenomenal. How well, she made it feel like Monsters, Inc. Is called Metropolis now. It. Yeah.

So you can tell, like, that nothing about that is from Monsters, Inc. And yet doesn't that feel. Monsters, Inc. Can't you tell, like, when you're going through the factory, like, oh, this is. This is it.

And man, running around with Sully and Mike and just fighting. Heartless and engaging with some of the organization. 13 from the games and have these epic boss fights. And I'm like, yeah, three.

There's a lot to criticize from it.

Like, for me, one of the big things is, like, it wasn't as difficult some of the other games, and maybe it's because I got older and they're trying to make it for a younger audience. I don't know. But that what they did with that world and the Toy Story world is phenomenal. I would play that for you too, the Toy Story one.

But I don't want everyone to be like, hey, all you did was just play music the whole time. That's basically what I'm doing. It is some joyful noises. And these for me, are some noises that make me feel joy. My CS Lewis plug for the day.

CS Lewis Talks about how these moments of joy are what brought him to God. Right. For a long time he was an atheist, but here and there he would have these. He was surprised by. Joy is the name of his autobiography.

That's not an autobiography, but where he had these moments where he would walk by a field and he would smell something, like read a certain book, and he just felt something and that joy. And he's like, it's different from happiness. It's something spiritual deep within him.

Calling out some of this music does that for people like me who are little nerd freaks, right? Like, we're playing monsters, Inca.

We're running around and you can see, like, they even make Sora, Donald and Goofy look like monsters for the level. And it looks so good and the music's so good and you're engaging. And it's like this combination of nostalgia and excitement and newness all together.

And it makes me feel that joy. And someone who's already a Christian. It just reminds me how much I love God.

He made a world where he can have these feelings and these things that God wants us to be happy and wants us to have these feelings. It's part of what he made us for. That's so moving to me. And that's not what it's about. It's about just having fun.

But sometimes it's important to reflect. Like, the reason we're able to have fun, the reason we're able to have joy, happiness, any of it.

It's because God made the world and made humans capable of creating such good music and such good art and humor is from God himself. And all of these things. They're all blessings to me. It just gets me so excited and I just love it so much.

And I would love to share the Toy Story one with you too, but I can't just sit here and share music the whole time. I'm pretty sure that's just me being a dj. No one wants that. A Kingdom Hearts DJ at that. Nobody wants that. But yeah, it's exciting. It's touching me.

And I just wanted to show you guys some of the wide range of what Yoko Shimura does in these games as far as, like, connecting us to these worlds. Pulling from some of the music. Like the Halloween Town, you can tell she pulled some from this Is Halloween.

But the other ones, you can tell it's a whole new piece, but it still connects with the world, still feels right. She's able to do it wonderfully, and it still connects back to her original pieces with the Kairi.

Dearly Beloved, Sinister Sunrise, like all those are like original pieces not having anything to do with Disney. And yet all this music kind of goes together. You can see the flow here. So it's amazing how she was able to do some of that. Dearly Beloved.

There's sheet music, there's vinyls, there's all this stuff for people to see this song and to play it for themselves, to experience it, to hear it, to just have it in their life. Because this song, this music piece, this composition has spoken to so many people. And yeah, I'm going back to Dearly Beloved.

We'd already talked about it earlier. I know that. I understand. But I'm going back to it anyway because it's just so important to me.

I didn't mention it last time, but it's important to note the music in Kingdom Hearts spoke to so many people, not just the memes and stuff. There's an entire video game.

The company realized there was so much money in this that they made a music related video game where you can just play through all of the Kingdom Hearts music on the Nintendo Switch, the Melody of Memory, and as you play through it gives you different parts of the story because they know, like, people want to recap the story and that people love the music. So they made a game that's literally just those two things because the music is such an integral part to the story.

And I think you see the same thing in movies, certain scores, you just. The movie's not the same without the score. The story isn't the same without the composition piece. And that's not something that I have words for.

Maybe a psychologist does, but I don't have words for that. I just know that, like Star wars isn't Star wars without the composition. Jaws is boring without the composition.

Kingdom Hearts isn't Kingdom Hearts without Yoko Shimomura. It's because the music moves us and the music says something that our words can't.

And it's not for naught that the title or song, the titular song for all Kingdom Hearts soundtracks is Dearly Beloved. That dearly chosen relationship, that something special chosen relationship. And again, you know, I mentioned God calls us dearly beloved.

And I can't help but make that connection, even though I know, again, Yoko Shimomura is not a Christian. These are not Christian video games. It's not why they put this in the game.

But when we're thinking about how we're defined by relationship, what that means, what it means to be dearly beloved, that there are people out there that I would Say are dearly beloved. For me, that someone would look at me, you know, my pastor, my wife, my friend would look at me and say, you're dearly beloved. That means something.

And for me, it means so much more to think that God too looks at us and says, you're dearly beloved.

And for me, the fact that God loves us in that kind of way, to use this kind of language, that this composition can speak to the heart of God, tells me something about God. Because God, too, is defined by relationship. Father, spirit, son. The Trinity is a relationship God to the world. He sent his only Son for us.

Anytime you hear someone try to explain who God is, they're always like, well, he wouldn't have created the world. Okay, so immediately you're talking about his relationship to the world. You can't define God without his relationships either.

Dearly beloved to me is an integral part of understanding who I am as a person. It helps me understand who God is. This composition does so much for me, more than most words. But I am going to read a part of the Bible.

I try not to just shoehorn Bible verses. And here. And again, this is not a Christian game, not a Christian song, but I want you to see what I'm talking about.

I want to talk about how God looks at us and says, we're dearly beloved. So this is Colossians 3, verses 5 through 15. So it's a huge chunk of scripture. Hang in there with me, please.

This is out of the New American Standard Bible. Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. And in them you also once walked when you were living in them. But now you also rid yourselves of all of them.

Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Since you stripped off the old self with its evil practices, who you once were, you were defined by these.

These relationships that were toxic. You're no longer defined by that. Right, okay, so this verse 10. And have put on the new self. How are you defined now?

Being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. You're now defined with your relationship with the one who created God.

A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free. But Christ is all. And in All Christ is all in all. We're no longer defined by these toxic relationships. Racial, you know, racism.

We're not defined by prejudice. We're not defined by those kind of toxic relationships with one another. But rather, everyone is in Christ. We're all related to one another.

Our relationship is in Christ. Christ defines our relationships. Christ is how we define ourselves. Verse 12. Sorry for the commentary.

So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, God looks at you and calls you holy and dearly beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, impatience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another.

Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so must you do also, in addition to all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. But the peace of Christ, to which you are indeed called in one body. Rule in your hearts and be thankful.

We were once defined by these relationships where we were prejudiced towards others. We thought that this race, this ethnic group was worse than me or people who weren't Christian.

You know, I grew up this way, thinking like, oh, you don't go to church, You're a bad person. I was once defined by that kind of relationship where I looked down on others, where I treated others as less than I can look in my country.

See a lot of people doing this today, thinking about the immigrants, the refugees, they're talking about the gays. And I'm like, you're defined by your relationships. Do you want to be defined by that kind of hate? Do you want to be defined by that exclusion?

Or do you want to be defined by radical love that wants to bring in everyone? Look at an old self and a new self. I'm going to read some of this again.

This is what it looked like before Christ, before you accept salvation in Jesus Christ. And I truly think you become a new person when you're in relationship with Jesus. We're defined by our relationships, right?

That's the most important relationship, is your relationship to Jesus.

Here's what Paul is saying in the Bible, what you're like before that relationship and how you're a new person after that relationship, what that new person is. So again, we're defined by our relationship.

So before and after our relationship to Jesus, he says, you could be, before you might be a person who has sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene speech. I can't help. For me, the perfect example of what you're like before Christ. I think of Donald Trump, like the president of the United States.

He's very angry, right? He slanders everybody. He has nicknames for everyone, calling Sleepy Joe, whatever, right? Like, like Obscene's Beach. That's who he is.

To align yourself with that. That's who you are. If you align yourself with that, that's your relationship. And I'm not just talking politics. I just mean in general.

If you treat people the way that he treats people or you're in relationship with other people who treat others like that, you know, I know a lot of pastors who talk about the immigrants and stuff in a similar way. That's who you are before Christ. That tells me you're not in relationship with Jesus. You're defined by your relationships, not by your words.

I'm sorry. And let's look like what you are after Christ. Here are the words he says.

Here's what someone who's in relationship with Christ, here's what they look like. They have a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love and unity. They want to include more people.

They want to show love to everyone. They're kind to everyone. They don't think they have all the answers. They don't think they're always right.

They're humble, they're gentle in how they treat others. We are defined by relationships. I question, are you really in relationship with Christ? This verse explains perfectly what it looks like when you are.

We are all dearly beloved by God. That's his relationship to us. The question is, what is our relationship to him? If we are truly in relationship with Him?

You'll have this kindness, this love, this unity, this peace. If we're not in relationship with him, this anger, this slander, that's going to be how we talk. This wasn't meant to be a call to salvation.

But hey, if this convicts you, you should pray. I think it is important that we think back. Like, what does it mean to be dearly beloved by God?

And if I'm in relationship with God and I love others, what does it mean that I look at other people, maybe people I don't even know, and I feel like I want to show mercy first, not anger. I love first, not, you know, question their motives. You know, like, love first, peace first, kindness first.

What does it look like if I'm in a relationship with Christ and that changes my relationship to everyone else? Am I really looking at people and calling them dearly beloved? Is God really looking at me saying that I am dearly beloved? Do I feel dearly beloved?

Do I treat others as though they are dearly Beloved. That's the most important question I think any of us can ask because that tells us what our relationship is to Christ.

And we can look at our relationship to one another as a litmus test to see if we're really there. I played earlier the version of Dearly Beloved they did for the award show. I want to play the Dearly Beloved from Kingdom Hearts 2 clip here.

Again, I think this composition does better than my words can. So listen to this as you reflect. Do you understand yourself as dearly beloved? Do you look at others and say that they are dearly beloved?

I wish I could keep playing if you want to reflect more. Like, if you were like, I just. I need a little bit more time with that. YouTube has all kinds of different versions. I like the original.

That's The Kingdom Hearts 2. 1. I think this song Dearly Beloved really is moving for a reason.

There's a reason a whole community is formed around the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise. And it's not because it's just a lot of fun. It's because there's something moving and spiritual and meaningful in these video games.

Again, I'm sorry that turned into are you saved? Pray now, confess your sin to Christ and accept him as savior kind of message.

I didn't intend for it to be, but for me, I can't help but think about salvation when I think about what it means to be dearly beloved, to call someone else dearly beloved.

If my wife didn't think I was a freak, next time I see her today when she comes home from work, I'd look at her, hug her, and say, you are dearly beloved. Because I think it's important for people to know that.

And I don't think we can truly feel it fully without accepting Christ and having a good relationship with Jesus. I think we can get close, but I think that relationship is necessary to feely full that.

So I hope Yoko Shimomura one day enters into a relationship with Jesus. I think she will eventually because, you know, I'm a universalist, so maybe in the next life. Something.

I don't know, but I think she definitely captured the heart of God in this composition. And everything she does is just such an incredible work. She's so talented.

And I'm so thankful for the work of Yoko Shimomura and the Kingdom Hearts franchise as well as the other stuff she's done. You know, I mentioned Super Mario rpg, Final Fantasy Street Fighter ii. Like, there's so many games she's done that she's just.

Just a brilliant artist. And just. She's just incredible. And the Kingdom Hearts one, so she's most well known for. For good reason. That's why she said it was special to her.

Some of the other ones she's sort of special, though, to her was Street Fighter 2, Super Mario RPGs, so check those out. She did a lot with that. She's done so much good work.

So don't just listen to the Kingdom of Heart stuff, but I definitely think you should listen to Dearly Beloved all the way through if you haven't.

Because again, it's spiritual, it's moving, and it says something about who we are, the eyes of God, and who we should be to one another when we see one another through God's lens. Anyway, coming soon, I'm gonna have Brandon Knight on and me and him are gonna talk a little bit about the state of Christian music.

We're gonna do like a state of Christian music address just to talk about, like how Christian music used to be used as hymns and how we use it now in worship settings a little bit differently and why that is and what we think about some of the current movements in both the Christian contemporary Christian music as well as some of the other modern Christian music that's been being put out. You know, I mentioned collective earlier. I'm sure that'll get brought up. John Mark McMillan is definitely getting brought up.

We have some good stuff out there that we want to talk about. So it'll be coming soon. Not sure exactly when because again, there's no schedule to this. It's a music podcast with no rhyme, rhythm or reason.

But guys, if you will do us a favor, rate and review wherever you're listening or, you know, good pods podcaster, those are great places to rate and review as well. That helps the show out a lot. Please share this with a friend on your socials, wherever.

Honestly, just texting to someone and sharing it and talking personally one on one with someone that you would call Dearly Beloved, I think it'd be more meaningful for you and people are more listen likely to listen if you're giving a personal recommendation anyway, so try that out again.

We would really appreciate it and I hope you guys can join us soon and continuing to find more music to sing along to, to make some joyful noises together. And remember, you guys also can host your own episode. So just hit us up, let us know.

Thank you all so much and make sure you remember to just, you know, stay noisy until next time.