Pillow Fort Releases an Emo Album on Game Boy Advance, Complete With a Rhythm Game

Nottingham emo outfit Pillow Fort releases debut album Indefinite, but not Forever as a physical Game Boy Advance cartridge featuring a bespoke rhythm game.

Nottingham emo band Pillow Fort has chosen a wonderfully impractical physical format for its debut album Indefinite, but not Forever: a Game Boy Advance cartridge. The album releases October 2 through the band's own Cushion Castle label, with all ten tracks included on the GBA edition alongside a rhythm game developed by the band and described as surprisingly difficult. Only thirty physical GBA copies are planned, making this less an attempt to replace Spotify than an extremely targeted attack on the overlap between emo collectors and people who keep an SP charged in 2026.

The cartridge project will also receive a digital release, while conventional editions include download, cassette and blue-and-white vinyl. Music on game cartridges is not entirely unprecedented — retro hardware has become an increasingly popular canvas for chiptune releases, demos and interactive albums — but bundling a complete contemporary record with a bespoke game makes the object more interesting than a novelty ROM with a playlist attached.

The GBA's audio hardware was never designed to become Bandcamp's next physical-media standard, which is precisely why projects like this are fun. Vinyl asks listeners to turn the record over. Game Boy Advance albums apparently ask them to beat the high score.