Kara Dennison
November 20, 2020 
The Persona 5 soundtrack is full of memorable songs, perfect for raiding a Palace or having a chill cup of coffee. The mix of jazz and soul music is as iconic as the art style, and you’ll be humming the songs for days. Or longer.
It doesn’t seem fair to try and pick favorites, since every track in Persona 5 is top notch. But, for the sake of an article, we’re gonna try! Here are three selections from Persona 5 soundtrack that we could (and do) listen to over and over again.
“Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There”
Shoji Meguro’s Persona 5 soundtrack makes a strong start with “Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There.” The tune is somehow simultaneously chill and energetic, getting us immersed in the game’s super-cool world of phantom thievery. It’s also the first time — but not nearly the last — that you’ll hear the vocals of Lyn Inaizuma.
The lyrics also introduce us to the game’s themes. People looked down upon, rising up to strike down injustice and lies… sounds like the Phantom Thieves to me! And there’s the call to “Take the mask off and be free”: which you will, of course, do during the course of the game.
“Last Surprise”
If you play Persona 5 enough, you’ll get really used to this song in particular. The flutter of strings in “Last Surprise” signals the beginning of a battle, turning into the familiar jazzy tone of the rest of the sountrack. We’ve also got more cool vocals to back us up as we fight the monsters guarding our enemies’ various Palaces.
The best part? This song is basically taunting your enemy. The “Last Surprise” refers to your attack on them, and how you’re basically going to drag them across the Palace. It’s an especially satisfying tune if you ambushed your opponent. “Seems like it crept up out of nowhere,” indeed. The Persona 5 soundtrack knows what we like to hear.
“Beneath the Mask”
Rounding out our list are some lo-fi chill beats to make coffee and impress your guardian to. “Beneath the Mask” is a nice rainy-day song, in the same vein as “The Fragrance of Dark Coffee” from Ace Attorney. It’s an especially popular one from the Persona 5 soundtrack, making it on to a lot of study session playlists.
Literary fans will like the lyrics for this one, too. The song, about someone trying to hide behind a “mask” or persona (get it?), tips its hat to Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death. “I’m a shapeshifter at Poe’s masquerade” and a reference to a “cage of bones” harken back to the horror story.
What are your favorite tunes from the Persona 5 soundtrack? (It’s totally fine to say “all of them” — that’s our real answer.)
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