GTA 6's Original Score Is a Separate Justice Album, Out 11 December With 30 Tracks

Rockstar dated the score album for 11 December

Rockstar published the announcement on its Newswire on 29 October, and its music page now carries a score block above the radio and soundtrack sections.[1][2] The record is called Grand Theft Auto VI: Original Score, it runs to 30 tracks with additional digital bonus tracks included in every format, and it lands on 11 December on streaming services, CD and vinyl.[1][3]

Two titles are public. "Flower in a Hurricane", the Justice track with Tame Impala, SZA and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard that carried the 15 October launch trailer, sits on the album, and "Pusher", a collaboration with Gesaffelstein, went out as a single on the day of the announcement.[1]

This is the score, not The Album

Rockstar's music page separates the two projects, which is the distinction the announcement rests on. The Album is the 34-track various-artists soundtrack due with the game on 19 November; the score is Justice's own body of work for the world, released just over three weeks afterwards.[2] Both sit on the same page with different release dates and their own pre-save and pre-order controls, so the split is Rockstar's own framing.[2]

The label credit is public: the score album comes out through Because Music, Ed Banger and Rockstar Games.[3]

Three hours of music that reacts to play

Because Music describes the package as 30 tracks plus a set of bonus digital tracks that together make up a three-hour suite of material from the game.[3] The label's account of how the music behaves matches Rockstar's: it is tuned to events as they unfold rather than played as a fixed sequence, and it responds to the ways players move through Leonida.[1][3]

Justice's Xavier de Rosnay framed the brief around scale. He said the game's size, geographically and thematically, made it obvious the music would have to range widely across emotions, genres and textures, and that the duo were given room to explore.[3] That is a composer's description of the commission rather than a report on the finished soundtrack.[3]

What the two singles are doing

The released tracks are not the same kind of thing. Because Music calls "Pusher" a preview of the instrumental side of the score and the pair's first collaboration with Gesaffelstein, while "Flower in a Hurricane" is the vocal track that has been out since the trailer.[3] The label says that song became Justice's first non-feature track to reach the Billboard Hot 100, at 62, and that it debuted at 34 on the US alternative radio chart.[3]

Both play in full on Rockstar's music page, beside previews of six in-game radio stations.[2]

Formats and prices

Rockstar's shop lists a limited Triple Crystal Clear vinyl and a double CD, and the Newswire describes the vinyl as a special limited pressing.[1][2] Rough Trade's listings, as reported by Vice, put the crystal-clear triple LP at $59.99, the black triple LP at $54.99 and the double CD at $21.99, with the clear edition sold as an independent-retail exclusive and dispatch timed around 11 December.[4]

What the announcement leaves open

Rockstar has not published the full tracklist, and it does not say how many bonus tracks there are, so the distance between 30 tracks and a three-hour suite cannot be worked out from the announcement alone.[1][3] Nor does either source describe how the adaptive score behaves inside a particular mission, which is the kind of detail only hands-on play would settle.[1]

On timing: Grand Theft Auto VI launches on 19 November for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S at $79.99, with digital pre-loading from 12 November, which puts the score 22 days behind the game it accompanies.[5]