Ah, so at last we hear Chrono Symphonic! Hmm. Not bad. I wish I could say it's a masterpiece, and even though it's not...it's certainly not bad. So, without further ado, let's have Cheers & Jeers, by Lord J Esquire:
CHEERS to the first 56 seconds of Red Omen's "Hymn of Valor," especially the clarinet intro. The song goes downhill from there, but that first minute is a highlight of the whole soundtrack. Can we get an autograph?
CHEERS to mv's flowing piano in "Darkest Omen," especially at 0'16" - 0'26". That is a good interpretation. And the background orchestra is just right at that moment, before launching into an overblown and uninteresting symphonic statement of the "Black Omen" theme.
JEERS to Claado Shou's "The Third Guru." Shou deserves commendation for overseeing this whole project, but he definitely belongs outside of the orchestra pit. This song is easily the worst on the whole soundtrack, leading us on a fruitless two-minute goose chase.
CHEERS to Sleepy Emp. His two songs stand out for their remarkable quality both in terms of music samples and technique. "The New Beginning" cheered me up after a string of letdowns--I beg ye, Emp, turn that Frozen Flame segment at the end into its own full-length song! And you have also shown me the wisdom of "People Seized with Life" as a bold piece rather than a melancholy one. Very good form! However, a JEER within a CHEER for that horrid mangling of "Guardia Millennial Fair," my favorite Chrono Trigger song. The tempo was right on the money, but the composition is a travesty and trips all over itself.
JEERS to Frog Trigger. With 25 songs on the table, Chrono Symphonic focuses waaay too much on a few songs in particular, like "Frog's Theme," "Wind Scene," and "Battle with Magus." The end result is that less than a third of the original Chrono Trigger soundtrack gets any real attention, and many fine songs get no coverage at all, including the subtle "Robo's Theme" and the audacious "Silent Light," two outstanding tracks that deserved a few measures in somebody's book.
CHEERS to DarkSworde's "Blue Skies over Guardia." I first heard this one a long time ago, and I didn't care for it much then, but it grew on me over time after I realized it was written in the relatively uncommon 7/8 time signature.
JEERS to tiring out the orchestra. Chrono Symphonic on the whole pays little attention to the soft, passionately felt pieces that balance out the energetic songs. I also notice that even the softer songs feel compelled to end with ostentatiously powerful codas, which only serves to spoil the mood.
JEERS to disappointment personified. With claims of nearly all of Chrono Trigger's battle themes as source music, RoeTaKa's underwhelming "The Last Stand" promises to be one of the most forceful songs in the soundtrack--and, given the Lavos battle subject matter it deals with, it rightly ought to be. But Roe obviously bit off too much to chew, because while Crono & Co. may have succeeded against all odds in their fight against Lavos, "The Last Stand" is completely unsuited for the task--it even finds time around 3'00" to pause during the climactic showdown, destroy all the built-up tension, and then shift the mood entirely to the sweet major chords of the Chrono main theme. Lord J doesn't like to go overboard with the jeering, but golly! This one needs to be reworked.
CHEERS and JEERS to Blake Perdue. Blake takes some of the soundtrack's biggest risks with his "Door to the End of Time," but unfortunately he fails with every one of them. Lord J can see what the composer is trying to do, and Lord J approves, but Blake's execution is simply not up to the challenge. For instance, that fiddle is a great idea, but it just doesn't fit in the way Blake wants it to fit. However, speaking of fiddles, the high quality of some of the lead sound samples at least makes the song interesting to contemplate. Nice oboe!
CHEERS for chilling my spine. Zas knows how to put it together at the end of "Lucca's Arrival," with a heavy statement of "Lavos' Theme" that comes out of nowhere and knocked my socks straight back into the dark ages. Never mind what it did to my underwear.
JEERS to sticking to the script. With notable exceptions, Chrono Symphonic as a whole plays a pretty safe ballgame. There aren't enough risks. There isn't enough original material. The instrumentations and expressions are too predictable, even mundane in some cases. The music itself isn't much of a challenge in the technical sense. The orchestra doesn't play off its own synergy as well as it could; voices clash and melodies clatter. I know that critics get paid to say stuff like that, but Lord J should have liked to see some more heartfelt retellings of the original. Maybe next symphony, eh? =)
CHEERS to broadening the mind. If you'd asked me, I would not have said that the original "To Far Away Times" could be successfully converted into a traditional anime-style movie closing song. But I was wrong, and Reu's dazzling piano together with pixietricks' decent voice accomplished just that. And even though Claado Shou's lyrics for this remaking were clunky and awkward, not to mention ill-suited for pixie's voice, the lovestruck, hugging embrace that this song was reaching for is plainly clear. From close up the song needs work, but from a distance it sounds great.
And finally...
CHEERS to the whole Chrono Symphonic project, and its directors and composers. Hit or miss, you folks put a lot of work into this and, on behalf of Compendiumites everywhere, this is a stirring testament to the lasting appeal of the Chrono series and the dedication of its fans. Oh, and the music isn't bad either. =)
