EA has unveiled FC 27’s soundtrack, bringing 120 tracks from 36 nations to the game behind that elaborate football-culture cover artwork. The Strokes, Interpol and Nia Archives are among the names. But a new tracklist has to compete with something an annual release can’t refresh on demand: the memories attached to an old one.
For the strongest complete soundtrack, our choice is FIFA 15. Avicii’s “The Nights” supplies the huge pop moment. Even without it, Jungle’s “Busy Earnin’,” Catfish and the Bottlemen’s “Cocoon” and Saint Motel’s “My Type” would make a convincing collection. The distance between those songs is the attraction: dance music, funk and guitar pop share the same space without becoming interchangeable.
John Newman’s “Love Me Again” makes FIFA 14’s case immediately. Reducing that edition to one song does it a disservice. Smallpools’ “Dreaming,” Empire of the Sun’s “Alive” and The Royal Concept’s “On Our Way” keep the momentum going. FIFA 15 gets our vote for range; FIFA 14 answers with one bright, insistent song after another.
EA revisited that territory in 2022, assembling an Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack with Spotify after inviting fan nominations. Forty songs were selected to return in FIFA 23’s World Cup update. The list included all four of those FIFA 15 highlights, plus “Love Me Again” and “Dreaming.” The new game’s menus made room for music associated with its predecessors.
Popularity and the best complete soundtrack aren’t interchangeable, though. In EA’s November 2022 Spotify snapshot, Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” led the ranking of individual FIFA songs. Those figures counted listening since each track reached Spotify, not streams caused by the games. One enormous hit can’t settle an argument about an entire selection.
The discoveries mattered as much as the hits
FIFA 12 supplies the strongest challenge to the FIFA 14–15 pairing. The Strokes’ “Machu Picchu” and Foster the People’s “Call It What You Want” establish its direction. The Naked and Famous’s “Punching in a Dream” and Crystal Castles with Robert Smith’s “Not in Love” complete an indie-and-electronic compilation worth playing without a controller nearby.
FIFA 13 belongs beside it rather than underneath it. Imagine Dragons’ “On Top of the World,” Two Door Cinema Club’s “Sleep Alone” and Madeon’s “Finale” move between guitar pop and electronic music without making either feel like a detour. Taken together, those four editions make a strong case for the early 2010s. They don’t have exclusive rights to the discussion.
Blur’s “Song 2” gives FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 an earlier reference point. FIFA Football 2004 pairs Caesars’ “Jerk It Out” with Tribalistas’ “Já Sei Namorar,” while FIFA 06 puts Bloc Party’s “Helicopter” alongside Damian Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock.” There was room for reggae and Brazilian pop as well as guitars.
FIFA 09 provides another useful test of whether a collection can survive outside its original setting. MGMT’s “Kids,” Sam Sparro’s “Black & Gold” and Cut Copy’s “Lights and Music” make it easy to recommend without asking anyone to reinstall the game. The football gives those songs an extra association, not their only reason to exist.
Nor did EA own the idea. PES 2011 included The Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition” and Phoenix’s “Armistice.” Passion Pit’s “The Reeling” and Vampire Weekend’s “Cousins” completed the selection. That’s a serious alternative for listeners drawn to the indie selections in FIFA. A football soundtrack retrospective that leaves PES out has narrowed the contest before the music starts.
The games could turn discovery into memory
Football already has songs tied to particular clubs. The menu offers a different sort of introduction: an unfamiliar artist can accompany the ordinary business of choosing teams and adjusting a formation. A song doesn’t need to mention football to become attached to someone’s experience of it.
Good Neighbours’ Oli Fox didn’t stop at listening. After encountering MGMT’s “Kids” in FIFA, he put a synthesizer on his Christmas wish list, he told NME. Artists discovered through the games later helped connect him with bandmate Scott Verrill. By FC 26, their own “People Need People” was on the soundtrack.
FC 27 has its own version of that story. Kyan appears alongside Enzo from the Block and Mu540 on “Garage,” fulfilling a wish formed while playing the series as a child. “I always had this dream of one day turning on the game and hearing my own song,” he told Spotify.
FIFA 15 remains our pick, with FIFA 14 close behind and FIFA 12 the alternative for a more concentrated indie-and-electronic selection. But those older games didn’t arrive carrying anybody’s childhood memories. They accumulated them. FC 27 doesn’t need another “The Nights” to justify its soundtrack. It needs a song that sends someone looking for an artist, an album or, in Fox’s case, an instrument.
