reviews

Composed By: Nobuo Uematsu
Arranged By: Satoshi Henmi, Hiroyuki Nakayama
Published By: Aniplex
Recorded At: Unknown
Number of CDs: 2

The Good: The orchestral tunes make up for the overall mediocrity – The more upbeat themes are nicely composed – Some live sampled instruments liven things up a bit – It feels like Uematsu is honestly trying to do something new occasionally

The Bad: This is still Nobuo Uematsu, and at times that much is painfully obvious – The MIDI instruments are jarringly bad – Most songs are incredibly uninspired and bland – Not much has happened to Uematsu’s compositional techniques

 

Main review – A huge disappointment

Music changes.

Sure, this seems like a dumb and clichéd thing to say, but it is true. Music changes, and the composer changes with it. Sometimes a new sound is asked for. Sometimes the composer himself/herself feels the need to reinvent the wheel. The point is that music is an ever-changing thing, and it is extremely important that composers remember this. Especially when it comes to writing music for games.

That is why it is difficult not to feel let down by the Blue Dragon soundtrack, which only proves one thing: As the games have moved on, Nobuo Uematsu has resolutely stayed in the same spot, tirelessly chewing on aged chord progressions and dull harmonies.
 

Two parts make one mess

I have been trying – honestly trying – to find some great things to say about this soundtrack. It has not been easy. This much can be said, though; it does contain some good stuff. Some tracks are, in fact, not entirely skippable. Sadly enough, the Blue Dragon OST can be split into two parts: The Uematsu part (which is often so awfully bland and uninspired that it can easily be skipped) and the orchestrated part (which is, in fact, quite nice). Later on you will be able to read my opinion on each of the tracks (if you really want to know what I thought of them all), but I thought I should say some quick things about the soundtrack before you do that.

The first CD opens up with a nice, albeit completely forgettable, piano piece. It is obviously heavily influenced by impressionist composer Claude Debussy and, perhaps, the more romantic Edvard Grieg. Once that is over we are treated to an orchestrated track which is nice, although nothing special. And from there it goes on and on. A few yawn-inducing tracks by Uematsu, then an orchestrated piece which livens it up a little, and then some more yawning.

I said earlier that the soundtrack could be split into two parts. I think you will understand what I mean by that if you listen to it. The tracks that Uematsu wrote all by himself stand out like an eyesore (It starts out with track #5, which sounds like an uninspired mix between Steiner’s Theme from Final Fantasy IX and Vivi’s Theme from the same game, combined with the standard woodblocks and recorder sounds we are so used to), but then, at track #14, we get something not entirely ear-damaging (orchestrated, naturally). Once you’ve reached the middle of this soundtrack you will very likely want to throw it in the garbage bin (unless you did that when you heard the incredibly obnoxious victory theme – track #7 – because if you did I won’t blame you).

There are highlights in the muck Uematsu has thrown together. Yes, I know, I sound like there are none at all. But there are. You just have to look very hard for them.

Track #6 – the standard battle theme, called ”Dragon Fight” – is actually not bad at all. It plays around with the synchopated rhythms we’ve heard Uematsu use before, but it works perfectly as a generic fighting tune. I can imagine it would be annoying to hear it all the way through the game, but it’s worth a listen or two. It is also nice to note that not all of it is MIDI (and this applies to many other tracks, as well) – there are some live-sampled electric guitars here which really liven things up. Track #27 (”Zola’s Theme”) is actually not bad at all, even though it gets a bit boring after a while. Track #32 ("Advance! Drill Machine") isn’t bad, either, even though it sounds like something Yoko Shimomura (of Kingdom Hearts fame) could have thrown together in her sleep.

And there we have it.

Seriously. That is all. The rest is either so bad it’s nearly laughable, so bland that it will pass you by without leaving anything behind for you to remember or orchestrated music that doesn’t sound like Uematsu at all. And I believe this is a good time to throw in a little conspiracy theory I have going: I think Uematsu wrote a set of less-than-decent songs, threw them at the two arrangers and said ”make this sound good”. Every orchestral piece in this soundtrack just sounds… too polished. Not at all like the Uematsu we have all come to be very familiar with during his last endeavours. Which makes me think that the arrangers said ”hokay, at least we’ll be proud of this monstrosity” and got to work.

So, what are we left with?

For me, it was a sinking feeling of disappointment. I gave up Uematsu as a bad job when I heard the hunk o’ junk he ”composed” for Final Fantasy IX, but I actually had some small hopes for this album. I thought that he might like being away from Final Fantasy. That he would enjoy the new freedom to do whatever he wanted. Instead, all I got was a blow to my face. The same old chord progressions make their return, we have music that sounds like Final Fantasy and to add insult to injury there are ”experimental” themes that nearly make my ears bleed.

Then again, I should probably give some credit to Satoshi Henmi and Hiroyuki Nakayama for their excellent work. Without them, this soundtrack would not even be worth looking at. As it turns out, they sometimes manage to make some nice things out of the trite, boring mess that Uematsu came up with.

The bottom line is, however, that this soundtrack isn’t even worth downloading. You shouldn’t buy it even if someone gives you the money. Not unless you’re still a hardcore Uematsu fan, in which case you may derive some small pleasure from the nostalgic (read: boring) tracks that grow all over this soundtrack like parasites. Shame on you, Nobuo Uematsu. Unless you finally try something new on the next album you work on, you might as well leave it the hell alone and give the job to someone who is better suited.

Track-by-track analysis

I'm a firm believer in being fair when I review things. Therefore, with this review, I include a completely unedited track-by-track analysis that I wrote as I listened through this soundtrack. As I downloaded it, you will get the songs numbered 1 through 52 (as they were when I listened to them). No names, only numbers. And you will see some typing errors, lack of capital letters after punctuations and the like. Also, you don't have to read this at all - if you only want to know what I thought about the soundtrack, you only have to read the main review and look at the score. If you really want to delve deeper, however, you can check this out as well. Enjoy!

 

"1 - a nice, but completely forgettable piano piece

2 - suspenseful. Nicely orchestrated but jarring bell tolls.

3 - nicely orchestraded. Great horn solo at 0:50. Sounds like it could be a battle theme of some sort. shines at his best when backed by an orchestra. reminiscent of Yoko Shimomura.

4 - reminiscent of other themes, but still very nicely done. short.

5 - oh noes. FFIX all over. odd triangle hits that are standard, pizzicato, completely forgettable theme that is very similar to vivi's theme in FFIX (and something else - listen for it). 0:55 - oh crap, the ever-present woodblocks run in to try and save the song, but to no avail. long odd silences that show the lack of a fgood loop idea.

6 - standard battle? some rather obnoxious arpeggios start out. nice guitar work. learned something from his work with the black mages? unfortunately the song never quite gets away from that old tried-and-true syncopated rock feel from old. and yes, the organ makes a reappearance. quite short for a battle theme. still, nice and powerful.

7 - oh god. quite possibly the most obnoxious victory theme ever composed. sort of matches akira toriyama's (check) character design though.

8 - here we go again. no humanization. slightly out of tune instrument that's really jarring. forgettable melody line. nice ornaments in the flute line, but they don't quite cover the lack of feeling and depth. why no body and soul? empty, devoid.

9 - feels like something straight out of a NES soundtrack. uematsu has learned some new chords and plays around with odd synth noises but doesn't come close to the brilliance of Hamauzu. and the DAMN TRIANGLE is back. AGAIN! feels like a really irritating mix between lunatic pandora (argh) and gargan roo (nooo!!). has no sense of direction. and no, uematsu, that's not humanization. sounds like something from out of FFVII. true, you don't know what to expect from the next measure - but only because it is so entirely without logic.

10 - starts out the EXACT same way as the "hunt" melody from ffix - even the same key. 9/8?

11 - road to purgatory again. no feeling whatsoever in the piano. weird synth effects follow the piano like in ffix's crystal world. the arpeggios sound cool until you hear that it's just an echo of the piano. synth effects make no real sense. the song lacks soul. sort of cool when the progressive distorted rhythm comes in and lives it up. song comes out as almost hamauzu-like in its execution, which is not at all bad. overall too simplistic, however. and it simply  stops when it loops - clearly uematsu ran out of ideas.

12 - standard uematsu fare. no development from the old days. melody that suffers from too much simplicity. nice guitars here and there but they can't really save the song. in 0:55 a cool rhythm is starting out. sounds nice. cool guitars. you just wish the song WENT somewhere - it's stuck in those two chords, walking backwards and forwards. and then we loop back again. couldn't we have had some more chords? TWO CHORDS for one song...

13 - feels like "esto gaza" - random chords. here again we get those decently cool lowpass filtered drums and some odd effects. however, it feels strange: almost as if the song is a badly done remix of another song. then the song evolves into something that sounds like it's coming from underwater (not a bad thing per se). church bells make their return, as well as really excessive panning issues. and what is the deal with the chords there? they sound weird. at 2:23 we hear an organ, and by now the song is what IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT THE START - all that building up is okay, but he does it too often. here is what the song could have started out like, but instead we hear that it's about to loop. uninspired and bland, with no real soul to it. no humanization. feels jarring. and then EVERYTHING stops and we're back at the beginning again.

14 - orchestral themes are where he shines. works nicely. nothing special but nice nonetheless. feels extremely final fantasy. at 0:49 we hear something very familiar. feels like an airship theme.

15 - oh gods, this is boring. harpsichord went out of fashion a long time ago, and here we have those pizz strings again. and the occasional tube bells. the song features a nice guitar line, live recorded. nice to hear. pity that to get realism uematsu has to sample real guitars. sounds like it could have been on phantasmagoria. and the background flutes - we have heard them before. yes, this is nice. feels rather predictable, and even though its nice to hear real instruments, it still has no sense of direction and then it suddenly loops for no reason whatsoever, having accomplished nothing thatn giving you a taste of what it could have been.

16 - vocal piece. decent. has the same sleepy feeling as the rest of the things we've heard. sounds a lot like eyes on me at times. yes, this is decent. feels pretty much like we've heard it before. and here we have a harmonica and some grand strings. indeed, this is nice, but it never goes past being decent. no, entirely skippable. dull, boring, sleep-inducing. feels like it never gets off the ground.

17 - feels like a cave. nicely orchestrated. here uematsu does seem to experiment (if it isn't the arrangers doing it for him, which I suspect). feels foreboding and still beautiful, but it's probably due to the arrangers’ great way of making uematsu's dull themes worth a listen. one wonders why the entire score couldn't have been fully orchestrated. this is actually very nice but doesn't sound like it came from uematsu's pen at all. surely this is the work of the arrangers - uematsu could not compose a song this beautiful and alluring. great english horn passages. for once this really works - thank you arrangers, because I can't believe that uematsu did this.

18 - oh god no. please please please. this is probably one of the worst tracks. okay, fine with the violin, but the intro is completely awful and the use of then pan flutes are inexcusable. and it includes a part of the "troops march on" theme from FFVI. more electric guitar, paired with... an accordion? and what happens then? a really nice little interlude, in fact, and then it all ends.

19 - sounds like something you might hammer out on your piano while looking for a nice chord progression. it's actually humanized - probably not played by a human though. melody is nice - starts in a fals major feeling and then falls into minor key again. however by now you know what this song will sound like. feels like there has been a lot of copy/pasting going on. we have heard it before. feels too thick, too uninspired. stops suddenly.

20 - well, we have heard this before. but still, orchestral. yes, it sounds good. nothing special but still quite decent. (title sucks though). great orchestration. not uematsu's work, though - I can imagine what this song sounded like from the beginning. (oh come all ye faithful?!) beautiful little flute line. yes, it is very beautiful here, but also very non-uematsu-ish. in fact it feels like some other composer went in and did the work for him.

21 - hmmm. sounds like an animé ending song. completely out of place. and oh god!! what is that? are they singing? completely out of tune! horribly so! this song feels like a really bad joke that uematsu is playing in us: "I wonder if I can get them to like this." this could have been in LocoRoco, but then it would probably have been loads better (I'd take the yellow blob's voice anyday instead of those awful child wailings). well, anyway, decent, but not good at all.

22 - torippo (trip?). not the triangle again! and no humanization anywhere except the sampled guitar. uninspired and bland. really bad loop point.

23 - actually, this isn't bad. also gives the feeling that uematsu handed in some basic bad note material to the arrangers and then told them to do it good. and this is the result. sounds nothing like uematsu's over-simplified melodies anymore (even though you can find traces of eyes on me in this one). sounds decent, close to hamauzu's masterful orchestral pieces in unlimited saga. if indeed uematsu wrote this and orchestrated it I wonder why he didn't do it with the others.

24 - this is not too bad. not good either. does sound a bit like something the black mages could have written.

25 - standard fare heroic orchestral theme, but not bad at all. triumphant trumpet theme that carries well with the basses and celli. Cello melody is beautiful, tragic but still powerful. why didn't they do this to more songs on the soundtrack? sounds almost like the red wings theme at times.

26 - bland and uninspired. here we hear the santa claus bells being jangled at us to accentuate a very bland melody line that brings nothing new to the table except some slightly interesting chord changes (and some horrifying examples of things you shouldn't do when using fifths in the bass line). the drums don't save the song - it's still the same, but now we have the INFERNAL triangle back again. this sound quality is an insult to the XBOX360.

27 - quite acceptable. at least played by a human. variation on the main theme (waterside thingy)? Actually pleasant to listen to. subtle and moving piece that is unobtrusive but very nicely executed. here uematsu has been involved, that much is obvious. you just wish that he took some more risks when composing sometimes. we know where those chords will go. (god, these tracks fade out for a long time!)

28 - this is simply awful. there is a place for that type of organ but this wasn't it. but yes, very uematsu. and a bland and uninspired rhythm progression in the synth drums keeps everything uninteresting.

29 - actually starts out very nicely. a standout track? yes, possibly. the metallic ride is good. and then we have a saxophone. couldn't they have sampled it?! that would have saved the song. instead it is slightly out of tune and the melody line is incredibly uninspired. nope, no standout track. it started out nice but it quickly heads into uematsudom. fifths in the bass line again. no, this is not good. odd - simply stops.

30 - sounds like kuja and sephiroth together with a little fithos lusec wecos vinosec on top. and then we go to - oh yes, here we have a kuja battle theme. cool, we now have sample guitars playing and so it doesn't feel quite like it did in FFIX, but it's still there and the melody line even goes back to kuja every now and then. surprisingly without soul, even though it has a lot of potential. a rather laid-back song. nice with the guitars but the song is still kinda bland. when uematsu wants to loop back he uses those lowpass drums again to try to give us a sense of continuation,but he's not fooling anyone. I'm still humming the kuja battle song.

31 - lord only know what he's doing here. interesting idea but poorly executed. sounds a but like man with the machine gun but not as good. when the guitars come in everything sounds a bit better (no surprise there). why couldn't they have been there from the start? the best thing that can be said is that it sounds a little bit like ffvii advent children's less inspired moments.

32 - this is actually not too bad. sounds like something yoko shimomura might have composed during a day when she was tired. still uematsu throws these strange trippy arpeggiated sequences at us - it's okay if you don't fill songs out with them. cool that he experiments with some pitch bends (I don't think he's ever used it before in any soundtrack – feels like a moog synth). still, he could have done more with this song. feels a bit unfinished, even though it probably is one of his more complete songs on the soundtrack. a favourite. sounds VERY much like a gummi ship song from Kingdom Hearts. second parts sounds like a mix between the ffx victory theme and ”place your best” from ffvii.

33 - you're my daaaarling angelll.... hmm. reggae. well, it works. a bit uninspired, and slightly boring. ah - sounded a bit like the chocobo theme there for a second. decent carribbean imitation. good percussion.

34 - sounds a bit like KEFKA's theme. argh! nicely orchestrated. yes, this is kefka! yeargh! scary. here the harpsichord actually fits but that's only because the orchestrator(s) knew what they were doing. but this is scarily like a mix between kefka and ultros. one of those songs that stick in your mind. screw that it can't be easily hummed - at least it's not entirely forgettable.

35 - hard rock? well, it works. starts full out for once, and it's good at it. a cool song, reminiscent of the tyrano lair theme from chrono trigger (not surprisingly, since uematsu wrote it). so, orchestral music and electric guitars. and here we have the "troops march on" theme again, slightly masked but still visible. was it intentional? cool track, but a bit bland.

36 - the mandatory bland harp theme. triplets! wow, he doesn't do those often. what is it with uematsu and writing second melody lines in fifths? well, nice shift from minor to major. the horn is not too bad and sounds nice with the strings. but why couldn't he have added some more BODY to it all, say with some more strings in a lower octave? I'm filling in the blanks in my mind here! but alas, it's already looping. shame, it had potential.

37 - the OST seems to overflow with this kind of foreboding march music. it works, even though it doesn't make great music. well orchestrated however, and very heroic-sounding. takes chances I doubt uematsu would take with the underlying string chords. these orchestrated tracks could easily make a soundtrack of their own, and in that way we could give the orchestrators a bit more credit than they get as well.

38. sounds like that odd machine beat song from ffv. and then the standard sephiroth build-up. the song works, but it’s evident that uematsu found one melody line and then had problems with what to do with it, so he puts it in different key signatures and writes in threes. and then at around 1:18 it feels like Kuja again. sure, the elec guitars work but they don’t cover the song’s blandness. then we get a rather decent melody and it feels like it should be moving on from here, but nooo. then he loops.

39. starts out like a vocal song intro. decent. nothing special, but sort of tranquil and nice. unfortunately we’ve heard the chord progression before. yes, it’s nice, but still it doesn’t quite work. and the horn feels entirely static, played by a computer. and you get the feeling that uematsu is trying to move away from the chords we expect but ends up being predictable again. the song loops far too quickly.

40. oh deary me. this is, well… it starts awful, but those phasered pianos are actually sort of cool. if only they didn’t go on forever but actually moved somewhere. they do switch intervals and that’s good, but still. uematsu overdoes the phasers and synth effects in the extreme, and since the piano STILL is nowhere near humanized it still feels jarring. and then the song loops. sigh.

41. reminds me of the waterside theme at the start of CD1. the flute is a nice addition. well orchestrated. you can hear that uematsu was involved here, but at least live instruments makes it more endurable. the waterside theme is actually not too horrible. I like the orchestration a lot, which brings me to the point I brought up before – if you stripped away the awful uematsu muck from this album and left only the orchestrated parts you would get a rather decent album.

42. hmm. well, it’s not too awful. another orchestrated theme that does its job well. the clarinet melody is very uematsu but it works. the mix is a bit poor, making my state of the art headphones crackle. the looping is awful.

43. eternity is supposed to be the boss theme. well, it’s not awful. nor is it particularly good. it doesn’t even get the blood pumping a lot. it’s cool to hear vocals in a boss theme, and it could have worked better with a better vocalist and better lyrics (they sound suspiciously japanese-to-english translated to me, but they could be Ian Gillian’s own, of course). I think that if I were to fight a boss to this song I would be a bit irritated after a while. (the vocalist sounds like he can’t really speak english at times). overall cool idea but poorly excecuted. the song never really takes off, but then again maybe that’s the point.

44. awful opening that sounds like a kid might produce when trying to write music for the first time. this really feels like a uematsu airship song. of course it could be that ”mechat” has a mechanical theme to it (the other songs with it have felt like it). when the song is about to sound good it loops. sigh.

45. hmm. reminds me of something. ah, there we have. a variant of the kingdom hearts gummi ship from before, but less well done. those moogs are really irritating. syncopated rhythm and melody line is actually kind of cool. and what happens then? heavens know. the brass is surprisingly innovative for uematsu. sadly you can hear when he’s running out of ideas and has to loop the entire thing.

46. this is actually kinda cool. the piano could have been a bit more humanized though. yes, we know that electric guitars work well here, uematsu – but it feels like he couldn’t have written songs that sounded like this if he hadn’t got live instruments. the song feels nicely panicky and does its job. but then something odd happens and it sounds weird again – those downfalls don’t work at all. and then the song loops. the intro part could have been used again. at times this song feels almost sakuraba-ish, which is a good thing.

47. those guitar wails are starting to get on my nerves now. essentially this is the same song as # 17 – same theme but differently orchestrated. it is very good, but uematsu completely OD’s on synth effects, flangers, delay and distortion. the end result is that I’m longing for the old theme that was a lot better because of its orchestration. the part witha mandolin is very cool. don’t misunderstand me: I like the fact that uematsu does something different and tries to incorporate something new (man, that sounded like tyrano lair there at the time before the loop) but he doesn’t actually DO anything WITH it. the loop was really bad.

48. hmmm. strives to sound like something from the renaissance. really bad harpsichord. and what is with those irritating delays? at 0:36 the song kicks into gear and it sounds decent but nowhere near as exciting as it could have been. there are some really odd and disturbing flute interludes that actually work rather well. this could be a final battle theme. what the hell? an accordion and walz tempo? well, it’s actually not too awful. reminds me of dancing calobrena, and it probably reminded uematsu of the same thing. the overal rhythm on this song feels sort of disjointed. not too bad at all, but it still feels slightly irritating.

49. [the to arrangers wrote this, apparently] here we surely have the final battle theme. begins with a very nice choir section. and then we have the guitars again. and rock organ. and a choir part that brings the mind to liberi fatali. but hell, it works. when is the song going to actually start? ah, here we have it. well, for some reason it still feels empty in some way. here uematsu COULD have used some reverb. the choir feels a bit out of place in some places, being oddly superimposed on the rest. this track is the only one where there are two other names listed as composers. sure, the song works. but it still feels flat, soulless, for some reason. and that rock organ is really irritating. then we get a part where the choir WORKS with the piano and the guitars. it feels like the song is about to loop. and sure enough. but nice choir chords there. decent song, but kind of flat.

50. another composer listed for this. decent. more guitars and some really irritating japanese singing – slightly out of tune as always – make for a decent song, but still there is a certain lack of soul. I don’t know why, but those japanese people can’t sing. man, I just want this song to end. I’m already bored at 1:31 and I know it’s not getting better. sure, some extra guitars here and there, but no, still same boredom. UM-pa-pa, UM-pa-pa. okay, some extra voices here. they work okay. I’m just wondering why something else couldn’t have changed too. and then we get the mandatory japanese school choir rlah-rlahing the trite melody. at this point I’m crying inside, begging the song to finally end, but it goes on and on and on and on and on and on… maybe it works in the game, but please, for chrissakes… oh, good, it’s finally fading out.

51. orchestration again, and it works like a charm. this is supposed to be the main theme? well, it sounds a bit like uematsu, except he couldn’t have even begun to think of this orchestration. this is probably the staff roll song. feels like a victory march. you have to admire the orchestrators – they didn’t get too much to work with and they made an excellent work with what they had. nice and warm strings, nicely done woodwinds… the only time the song is less than good is when it’s so obviously uematsu. a fun little clarinet tune. and then drums that sound excactly like the junon shinra march song. in fact the opening and ending remind me a bit of actrasier. well, that could have been worse.

52. another remix of the waterside theme. yes, it’s nice. the theme actually works very well, and if uematsu can take full credit for it then he’s not quite as awful as he could have been. still the song tends to feel boring after a while. ah, a cello solo. it always works. a very nice song that gives the album a good ending.

Overall impression: two or three songs are amazing, one or two songs are worth listening to more than once, and the rest is either excruciatingly bad or simply bland."

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