Who knew a well-written tune would be on the soundtrack for a cutesy Wii game? It’s got a carefree bounciness that one would associate with tropical islands, at least as a tourist. Native island life is not as serene as pictured in the brochures.
There’s plenty of movement in the melody: it’s bright and dynamic, and you can spot a trickiness in the rhythm in some spots, where the up- and downbeats are juggled around a bit while the measure is kept steady. It’s in all 4/4 but the subtle rhythmic duplicity makes me think it could be 8/8.
Maybe it’s the result of yet another translation ambiguity, but I’ve seen two other titles for the same track: “Welcome to Dog Island” and “Puroro Town”. I chose “A Piece of Home” because it seemed to fit the best.
The song plays right at the beginning of the game, with the first cinematic scene and as you select and customize your character, which to me is a good thing because you get to have a good hear of it. Here’s a playthrough of the game…it starts at 3:27ish.