I shall check this out when I get home, but I think it's very unfairly dismissive to act like Skyrim's multi-hour soundtrack had no significant work done on it. I have listened to it, possibly even multiple times in its entirety, and I feel some of the ambient tracks are excellent even if the theme is an homage to past Elder Scrolls games. Unless, of course, all of the tracks are reworks and I'm not aware of it. As far as I am aware it was a significant and somewhat outstanding effort from the composer.
Soule writes Soule music. In my ears, when I hear the music from Skyrim I hear some sort of vague fantasy music. It worked tremendously well in Morrowind, which itself is a wierd, vague and hazy world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-MfsbYRETQ
Listen to that, for example. One of my favorite works of his. It also works perfectly in the world it is set in. Listen to how the melodies emerge, take their place a while, but are soon obscured by the surrounding sound scape. To me it encapsulates the feeling of Morrowind, the place, perfectly.
His music in Skyrim, however, did no such thing for me. It didn't mesh with the world I was traveling in. If you look at the architecture, the landscape, the people it's all very harsh and utilitarian, very open plains mixed with dense pine forests with huge mountains as a constant backdrop. It's also very, very cold. I hear none of that in the music.
To me, Soule missed a huge opportunity to write music that feels "northern". An opportunity much better seized by the Riot composers.
Also - Fuck Yi in ARAM
