*waggles hand* Sorta'? Problem is when "cool and relaxing" translates into "completely forgettable". It's like... Morrowind and stuff. I could still remember some of the general travel themes and whatnot a few days later. Terraria's tunes actually stuck in my head -- I play that for a while and a few days later I'll still be getting the underground theme or whatev' intruding from time to time. Legend of Zelda's travel music stuff was pretty good about that, too, for certain areas. Just as examples.
Most of the stuff on the starbound soundtrack, even after listening through it a few times sequentially... I could remember basically nothing. Like, I'd go back to the start and, despite having listened to the track not very long before, I literally could not remember listening to it. That's an
extreme anomaly for me -- I'm fairly capable of recognizing at least having
listened to most of OCRemix's music, even the stuff I've only listened through once, just as an example.
... beyond that, I'd kinda' disagree. While exploring, I want music that
emphasizes that exploration. If cool and relaxing is
what's appropriate for that, then... good. Sometimes it's not.
Personally, at least, oftentimes it's not. I want music that engages on some level or no music at all, m'self, and instead a strong portfolio of atmospheric sounds. Wind, water, rain, movement, dirt/rock shifting, etc. Basically, if I'm not
feeling any different with or without the music playing, then... why is it playing, y'know?
Sound
just for sound's sake -- which, t'me, is what unengaging background noise
is -- is, hrm. Call it aesthetically unpleasing, yeah? It's an odd man out. Doesn't
fit with the rest of the experience. And... often, m'self, that actually causes me to
disengage somewhat from the
game itself, because it's, like. Not
integrated. It doesn't surround the other aspects, thread through them and
enhance. So it
grates. There's reasons I play most games muted, really