October’s premiere of Steven Universe: The Movie turned out to be one of animation’s strongest revelations of 2019, as the continuation of the popular Cartoon Network series extended the story of Steven and the Crystal Gems, garnering 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the largest viewership for the series in three years. One of the film’s standout aspects was its music, written and produced by series creator Rebecca Sugar (with some help from collaborators like Chance The Rapper) to not only be integral to the plot, but also just flat out beautiful music on its own.
Now, to honor the release of the film’s deluxe soundtrack on vinyl this Friday, December 6, the good folks behind the show have shared the concept version of the film’s “Finale,” sung by Gallant, who recently released his own sophomore album, Sweet Insomnia, in October. Stripping back the cheery instrumental and employing a simple, straightforward vocal approach, Gallant transforms the sweeping closer from the film into an optimistic lullaby well-suited to the overall message of facing the future with determination and the support of your friends. Check it out above. Written by Gallant and Sugar, it’s easy to see how the concept version eventually evolved into the joyful one from the film, which is sung by the characters’ respective voice actors and is pretty good in its own right.
The deluxe version of the soundtrack includes all 37 of the original tracks from the film, with contributions from Chance, Aimee Mann, Estelle, Gallant, James Fauntleroy, Patti LuPone, Sarah Stiles, and Ted Leo, as well as seven demos of the soundtrack’s highlight songs (no spoilers here!) and a radio edit of “Other Friends.” It comes out Friday via WaterTower Music.
Gallant is a Warner Music artist. .
