Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! Soundtrack

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! Soundtrack, Jonathan Geer, 2020

What do you do after delivering two successful instalments in a cooking simulation series and wondering where to take it next? If you are developer Vertigo Gaming, the answer is: do not tamper too much with a winning formula, but have some fun with the premise. In other words, the core loop of selecting the right ingredients at the right time while juggling multiple orders remained largely unchanged. Reviewers did point to issues with the game’s UI and occasionally punishing difficulty, but by and large they enjoyed Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! and its appetising art style. The real left turn came in the narrative. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States, the game finds your restaurant empire in ruins, forcing you onto the road with a pair of helpful robots who have converted their van into a food truck.

Less surprising was the choice of composer. Jonathan Geer returned after providing solid work on the previous two Cook, Serve, Delicious! titles. This, however, was easily his most ambitious entry in the series to date, with significantly longer compositions than before and a soundtrack running to a remarkable 102 minutes. Nor is it merely the scale of the Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! soundtrack that impresses. Arguably the most creative work yet in Geer’s already eclectic discography, it resists any quick summary or tidy genre label. If one absolutely had to reach for an easy descriptor, it might be called game music’s most ingenious easy-listening score.

What holds this astonishing profusion of ideas together is the breezy, summery mood of these laid-back compositions, though their apparent ease only disguises how inventive Geer’s writing really is. Faced with a game whose sci-fi premise is this odd, his solution is to bring together a wide range of genres, all suffused with a hazy nostalgia and made amiably surreal by their unusual combinations of sound. Geer’s concoction is equally apt on another level. Superficially relaxed though the music may be, it maintains a constant light rhythmic motion that gently presses each cue forward, complementing the game’s busy play without dulling its capacity to raise the pulse.

Right from the outset, the Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! soundtrack announces its ability to charm and wrong-foot the listener. “A la Idavay” opens a run of bossa nova-inflected pieces whose tropical lounge atmosphere blends seamlessly with Geer’s well-established jazz instincts. The result may initially seem easy-going and uncomplicated, yet the cue’s carefully shaped melodies and insouciant instrumentation quickly reveal Geer’s compositional craft. A more superficial hearing might unfairly suggest that the score flirts with elevator music territory, but that would overlook how rarely Geer sits with one idea for long before introducing another.

And if there is one thing the Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! soundtrack excels at, it is delighting the listener with a constant stream of fresh ideas. When the bossa nova influence returns in “Huauzontles”, it does so through curiously watery-sounding synths before a piano solo introduces greater tonal clarity in understated but effective fashion. The kooky percussion of “Is That From CSD?” suggests Rain Dogs-era Tom Waits on a Caribbean cruise: delightfully eccentric, but never merely showy. The combination of fleet-footed piano soloing and vintage synthesiser in “The Sizzling Future” evokes 1960s prog rock. “The Poutine Prince” foregrounds contemporary electronics and sizeable melodic hooks while still folding in retro synth timbres and jazz piano. “Dosa and Drive” pursues a similarly quirky fusion, though in a more dissonant and overtly sci-fi direction. And the list could continue for quite some time.

That still leaves out what may be the soundtrack’s single most distinctive trademark: Geer’s own feathery vocals. Few game scores feature so much singing, yet once again Geer finds an idiosyncratic way of putting his stamp on the music. More often than not, he treats his voice as simply another instrument, using wordless scat lines to complement the score’s nonchalant flow. Wisely, he eases the listener into this unusual stylistic choice. On the opening bossa nova-inspired pieces, the vocals feel like an entirely natural part of the palette. Things become truly interesting when Geer applies the same technique to other genres, taking the score’s light-footed inventiveness to another level without ever seeming to strain for effect.

The result is a string of wonderful surprises. “King Potato”, for instance, features the album’s fastest, almost polka-like scatting atop lively jazz, vintage game synths and anthemic rock drums. “Chakalaka” offers the clearest proof that Geer’s vocals are anything but a novelty: its intricate layered arrangement suggests the Beach Boys performing a cappella at a Brazilian carnival.

And when Geer’s delivery slows down, as on “Mufuchofo Gufustofo!”, his smooth tenor proves perfectly suited to the music’s neo-soul leanings in the soundtrack’s dreamier passages. As it turns out, Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! can do lushly arranged soul-pop too. Given Geer’s vocal gifts, it is hardly surprising that he also excels on the few tracks with actual lyrics. “It’s Dangerous to Go Alone” builds towards a glistening synth-pop chorus with a huge hook, while “Apocalypse View” arrives as a genuinely lovely acoustic guitar-and-piano ballad.

Despite its genial surface, the soundtrack can also tighten the screws when required, though it never loses its enviably light touch. “Ayam Goreng with Soto Ayam” is the first cue to adopt a more expansive sonority, now broad enough to accommodate overdriven guitar riffs. In tandem with colder, percolating electronics, it comes closest to a more conventional form of sci-fi game scoring. “Seafood Boil” shows that Geer’s formula also leaves room for music of more overt dramatic thrust, as big drum patterns and insistent organ ostinati broaden the soundtrack’s expressive scope.

Things come to a head in “Iron Cook Speedway Action”, where Geer’s exhilarating scatting competes with a densely layered bed of electronic rhythms. Remove the vocals and one is left with an excellent action cue overflowing with ideas; add Geer’s voice, and the music becomes something genuinely unique and inspired. Those are fitting words for the Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! soundtrack as a whole.