Pandaria is one of my favorite Warcraft expansions, probably only second to Legion. So, I had to make a panda album to go with all the others. To get the right sound for most of these tracks, I added the flavor word “cozy.”
If you’re doing an album about an off-brand Pandaria, you’ve got to have a song about how the whole place is sailing around on the back of a giant turtle.
“I’m a Roly Poly Panda Warrior” is basically the thesis statement of the album. Our hero in this album may be a warrior… but they’re also a big ol’ panda.
Roly poly to the core.
“Cozy Quests” is a song about focusing on the cozy quests. Pandaria has a lot of cozy quests.
I invested the time to actually earn the farm from the old Pandaren farmer. I still feel like that farm is where I live in Warcraft.
I have multiple songs about not reading quest text. And that’s much more accurate to how I actually play video games.
But that isn’t the right tone for a Pandaria-inspired album. Here, we needed the exact opposite.
I love the Jade Witch’s cottage in Pandaria. It’s so much like the White Witch’s castle in Narnia… except green. And a panda. So, better on both counts.
Anyway, “The Jade Witch” is a song inspired by all that immense awesomeness.
I like to include a companion for our hero in each of these Warcraft inspired albums. For the panda hero, that companion is a wishing fish in a floating bubble.
I spent SOOOOO many hours fishing in Pandaria.
There’s always a big boss battle in my Warcraft inspired albums, but for the Pandaria one, the big boss is a little different — it’s basically depression, but in the form of a big, black, stifling cloud.
Different boss battle, different fighting tactic…
For the Pandaria-inspired album, the big boss is basically depression, so the winning move is basically an anti-depressant, in the form of an heirloom-recipe tea.
Yes, my Pandaria-inspired album ends with a giant tea party for all the pandas. A giant teddy bear picnic. It was inevitable.
Pandaria is the kind of place you want to retire and stay forever. So, that’s the final note of the album — an invitation to stay.
It wraps really nicely into just starting the album over and listening to it on loop.