drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura
I wanted this album only for the Kingdom Hearts stuff. Since that’s the only game I played from this entire compilation album. I was never a MANA player, and I had never even heard of LIVE A LIVE. Although the FFXIII bonus was nice. I might be a tad biased…just a tad. But anyways, I figured if Shimomura’s compositions for KH was good, the others would be too. And it was an arranged album, so how could I not pass up?
I’ll start off by saying though that I did not appreciate the recording/mastering quality of this album that much. It’s more than bearable, but it feels a tad fuzzy and some instruments sound far off. I guess it sounded more like a live concert recording than a CD recording. If that makes sense for this type of album.
Starting off the album is the title theme for Legend of Mana. Appropriately enough I guess. It’s got a great, soft and mysterious opening, and then the rest of the strings come in to add majesty to the mix. And then the rest of the orchestra comes crashing in, the the result is quite epic. It’s a bit short, but its a fine opener to the album.
“Take The Offensive” is our first full battle theme, and it’s fairly epic sounding, but I will have to say that there’s not a lot separating it from any of the other battle tracks here. Marching drums, lots of strings, etc. Maybe it’s because I don’t know the source material, but I can never name these tracks when they come on, I just know that it’s from this album. At least it’s short.
“Destati” has a lot more going for it, though. It was more or less an epic cutscene+boss theme, and wow. The choir makes a grand opening for the song before softening things up a bit. Which of course builds up again spectacularly. The arrangement is essentially the original (just not in a loop), and that’s just fine. It’s a very epic song, and the really choir does an outstanding job.
“Hometown Domina” is a relaxer song, but I’m not too big a fan. It’s got a sweet sound to it, but it’s got an…oldschool sounding influence that I can’t really get into. I think that’s just me though since so many other people I know love the song.
That long name thing is rather the same as the last one. It’s got that same old influence that I don’t really enjoy, majestic as it sounds.
But back to the battle tracks then. “To The Heroes Of Old” stands out a bit more to me than some of the other ones, probably because of that soft opening and such. Probably because it seems a bit more emotive too. The ending is a bit long too; it just kinda fades out. And the fact that there’s such a long ending for a short track is kind of a put off, but it’s not too bad.
“Twinkle Twinkle Holidays” is such a happy song. It’s got a great Christmas-time-going-sledding-with-Santa-and-the-reindeer thing going on, and it’s hard not to like (until you overplay it). It’s just really playful, and I love the arrangement. I mean, c’mon, is that a cello solo? In a happy song? That’s hard to pull off. (No seriously, is it? I’m no good with these musical aspects). It’s also short though, but that might be what keeps it from being repetitive.
“Tango Appassionata” is another battle theme, although I can tell this one apart because of that…accordion? Whatever it is. Anyways, it’s definitely one of the more interesting tracks, having great solos from the orchestra. I’ll admit, sometimes I just skip the track once I hear the accordion, but once I get past the opening, I really like the song. It’s got character. It’s one an average sized track too, where the last few were definitely pretty short.
“Earth Painting” is one of those marchy-battle themes that I can’t distinguish from the other marchy-battle songs (which so far, we’ve only had “Take The Offensive”, and this). So I don’t really have much to say about it.
Toning things down massively is “Forgotten Wings”, and while I’m biased for the Kingdom Hearts stuff, I can’t deny the beauty of this piece. The opening bell, those impressive piano runs, the soothing cello…it’s got that old influence though that I talked about before, but it’s such an amazing song that I don’t really care that much. And that piano run really is impressive. Oh and it’s our first really full track (almost 6 minutes).
Speaking of really full tracks, “The 13th Anthology” comes in. It’s essentially a medley of the Organization XIII tracks (since there are so many), and it’s well executed. That brooding opening is of course the only way to start (and end) a XIII medley, and the rest of the tracks are done so well that they almost sound like new songs to me.I was really impressed with the track, and I was so glad that they did it.
But then we get “Manifold Irons” and that’s one of the songs that sound similar to the others (even though it doesn’t really have that marching band thing going on. Hmmm…) Anyways, I can’t say much about this one either. Meh.
The album lets down for good this time (well, from those battle tracks). “Ruined Sparkling City” is of course, ridiculously depressing, and so I love it. It gets a tad on the repetitive side though by the end of the song, but I don’t mind it too much. You more or less take the time to appreciate the background instruments, and step away from the foreground (which would be those same two notes on the piano over and over for over half the song). But er, yes. Sad, sad, sad song.
I know I said the battle themes were over, but that’s because I don’t consider this arrangement of “The Other Promise” to be a battle theme. Not like it ever really sounded like one anyways. Rather like the last song, it’s ridiculously depressing, but a little more epically depressing. Much better after the disappointment of the piano collections version of the song (even though this was released beforehand…). Anyways, the strings sound very grand, and the piano goes with them very well. Yeah.
The last track of the album is of course an ending theme. It’s a bit short for an ending theme, but I rather like it. It’s got a great uplifting sound to it, and the arrangement is of course great. It’s a very nice and suitable track to end the album.
As a bonus track, we have a preview of “Somnus” from Final Fantasy Versus XIII. I really liked it at first (save for that awkward transition in the middle), and it’s a pretty short track. But the vocalist does a great job, as does the orchestra. I just got tired of it after a while.
So the CD was pretty good. A handful of tracks stood out, but some of the battle themes were a bit…generic. I would’ve liked to see more Kingdom Hearts (but that’s just me) like “Dearly Beloved” (although the later soundtrack versions sound pretty orchestrated anyways). And a lot of the tracks were only 2-3 minutes long, but I guess it was ok (since I didn’t really notice that until now) and it allowed for a higher number of tracks.
Interesting theme for the packaging of the album too. The CD Cover is actually a close up of a shopping bag with that logo, and on the back we see some of the contents of the bag (wine, bread, flowers, and a glimpse of the score for “Forgotten Wings”. Inside the is pretty basic, but there’s some nice shots of the orchestra and stage, and of course the massive organ. More than I had expected to see, so that’s a bonus.
All in all,
8.3/10
The Marion(ette) 
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