Steven Universe is a critically acclaimed show that premiered on November 4th, 2013. The show airs on Cartoon Network, and over the years it has been airing, the show and the people who have worked on it have been nominated for many different awards, including two Emmy award nominations and five Annie Award nominations. It's also Cartoon Network's first animated series to be solely created by a woman: Rebecca Sugar. The show focuses on Steven Universe and his life in Beach City while living with three magical humanoid aliens: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl.
One of the most acclaimed aspects of the show is its music. Music is utilized in many different ways in the show. Background music and leitmotifs for the different characters are present throughout each episode of the show, and the characters themselves sing in various episodes. While not every episode of the show features songs that are sung by the characters, the ones that have been featured have been met with a great deal of praise. This shouldn't come as a surprise, considering the amount of talented cast members, including Grammy Award winning singer, Estelle (of "American Boy" fame). Since the songs are so beloved by the fandom, people have been asking for an official album to be released for years. And on June 2nd, 2017, our dreams came true.
Steven Universe, Vol. 1 (Original Soundtrack) was announced on various social media platforms on April 12th, 2017. Over the next few weeks, some of the tracks that were going to be on the album were revealed on the show's Facebook page, including "Giant Woman," "Comet," and "It's Over Isn't It," which were some fan favorite songs. On May 17th, 2017, each of the 37 tracks on the album were revealed in a livestream with composers Aivi and Surasshu. Pre-orders for the album on iTunes and the Google Play Store were made available on May 18th, 2017, the day after all of the tracks were revealed. Different videos were released on the show's Facebook page to promote the album over the two weeks between the track reveal livestream and the album's release.
Now that the album has been released, thousands of fans have posted their praises for the album across social media, and hundreds have left positive reviews on the album's pages on iTunes and on the Google Play Store. As soon as I heard the news, I was so excited that I wanted to pre-order it immediately. However, being unable to do so, all I could do was watch the track reveal videos and livestreams and allow my excitement to build. Thankfully I was able to get the album, and I have barely stopped listening to it since I got it. You can get the album for yourself either on iTunes here, on the Google Play Store here, or you can listen to it on Spotify here.
The day the album was released, it reached #3 on the iTunes charts, only falling behind Luke Combs' This One's for You and Halsey's hopeless fountain kingdom (Deluxe).