Persona 5’s incredible soundtrack gets the tribute it deserves in a new EP

theverge.com:

If there’s one thing fans of Atlus’ RPG series Persona always want, it’s more Persona. Thankfully for them, Arizona-based musician and video game music producer Sean Scharfianski is today releasing a five-song EP of Persona 5 songs to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the game’s worldwide launch.

The collection of songs from Shoji Meguro’s soundtrack is titled The Mementos Sessions: Music from Persona 5, and it features around 19 minutes of 1970s-inspired funk arrangements performed by a variety of session players and vocalists. The tracklist is bookended by “Last Surprise” and “Beneath the Mask,” some of the most beloved songs from the game. Scharfianski also chose some lesser-known tracks that he felt could use more attention and had the cool album art done by artist Stephanie Sybydlo. You can listen to the entire EP right now on a variety of streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube, and more.

While Persona 5 is now five years old, it has seen further releases in the form of its definitive version, Persona 5 Royal, as well as a more action-oriented spinoff in Persona 5 Strikers. All along the way, the music has built up its own notoriety among fans, heralding celebration when it came to Spotify in early 2021. And there has been no shortage of physical releases as well, with the iam8bit releasing multiple Persona 5 soundtrack editions on vinyl — including a 4xLP still up for preorder for $100 and older records fetching hundreds of dollars now on the secondhand market.

Any opportunity to enjoy these excellent songs is a treasure, and The Mementos Sessions gives it a fresh spin through the creativity and instruments of independent artists who just really love Persona 5.