rainwaterspark: Image of Jim Hawkins solar surfing from Disney's Treasure Planet (treasure planet jim hawkins solar surfin)
There's a TMNT AU that I've been playing with on and off over the last week or so. I keep telling myself to stop working on it and get back to my comic script and/or original writing...

And then I listened to Linkin Park's "Burning in the Skies."

I'm swimming in the smoke
Of bridges I have burned
So don't apologize
I'm losing what I don't deserve

It's in the blackened bones
Of bridges I have burned

So don't apologize
I'm losing what I don't deserve


The pain is mine alone
Of bridges I have burned

So don't apologize
I'm losing what I don't deserve

What I don't deserve.

The song just fits the AU so perfectly that I end up working on it every time I hear the song (okay, so I probably shouldn't be playing it on loop all the time...).

Because apparently, I love writing ENDLESS ANGST ALL THE TIME, so I just keep adding to this unorganized AU drabble collection thing. I dunno, I guess hurt/comfort/trauma recovery fics are just...cathartic for me to write. *hides under pillow*

Oh well. Hopefully I'll get back on track...at some point...

Music

Sep. 6th, 2013 05:10 pm
rainwaterspark: Image of Jim Hawkins solar surfing from Disney's Treasure Planet (treasure planet jim hawkins solar surfin)
I do have a playlist for my comic script, but lately I've been trying to pull together a playlist of the most energetic, GET WORK DONE NOW music I have in my library, in preparation for the long slog this month.

Funnily enough, one of the songs that ended up there was the Gym Leader battle theme from Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen. I don't know why, but every time I hear that song I feel a sense of urgent GOTTA DO SOMETHING NOW. Maybe it's because I played both Yellow and LeafGreen, so the song is seared into my memory. Or maybe it's because I battled the Elite Four in LeafGreen so many times that I associated it with heart-pounding, stressful, GOTTA WIN GOTTA WIN GOTTA WIN feelings. XD

It is a pretty intense song, though. I love the Gym Leader battle theme from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, too, but it's a lot more chill (like, "Don't worry, just a Gym Leader battle, nothing to stress about").
rainwaterspark: Moon Knight from Moon Knight (2021) title page, drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio (Default)
Gustav Holst's The Planets.

Oh my God.

Why have I never heard of it until now????

Mars, the Bringer of War

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
rainwaterspark: Moon Knight from Moon Knight (2021) title page, drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio (Default)
My sister is somehow a genius at finding random Youtube videos.

One Man Disney Movie
rainwaterspark: Moon Knight from Moon Knight (2021) title page, drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio (Default)
First, I have to say: I love LJ's new header.

Secondly: Yay, a snow day today! Just what I needed...to catch up on all my work...

Okay, so The Last Story's soundtrack. I'm listening to the Premium Soundtrack (dunno why it's called that, it only has seven tracks) and typing my impressions as we go.

Overall: I'm really torn on this soundtrack. I love Nobuo Uematsu (meeting him at Anime Boston last year was totally wild), but this soundtrack has a downscaled feel to it in terms of quality--the instruments don't really sound orchestrated, more artificial/synth-like, which is disappointing. In terms of composition, I feel that a lot of the composition is nice to listen to, but also kind of bland and uninteresting. (By the way, I should mention that I haven't really listened to Uematsu's latest work. I tried listening to Lost Odyssey's soundtrack, but I really didn't like it.)

Track 1: Theme of The Last Story - Whoa, this song is all over the place. There's very little compositional unity; it feels very jerky and kind of random.

Track 5: Bonds - I thought this piece was kind of boring. It's more or less the same strain of violin repeating over and over again for the first half of the song, before finally changing a little bit. (I also have to confess, though, that I'm not very fond of overtly "happy" songs that are really cheerful and calm and never change mood.)

Track 7: The Flying One - Funny, this song is up on Youtube, but titled "Kanan's Theme." The beginning sounds almost exactly like the theme song on the website after a certain point, but the flute (...is that a flute?) is painfully artificial-sounding. Oh, wait--after the halfway point, it IS the song from the website. My bad. (At least the violin playing the melody sounds better than the flute at the beginning....) The melody is quite nice to listen to, I must say.

Battle songs (Tracks 2 & 6: Order and Chaos & Evil Beasts, respectively) - Quite intense and dynamic, pretty mood-setting. I think they work well as battle songs, though I can't see myself listening to these for fun.

On Youtube, I liked "Ariel's Tavern," an ambient piece (like the city theme), and "Seiren's Theme," which is funky jazz--a nice change of pace.

...I'm still hoping The Last Story gets localized. T_T (And what the heck happened to Xenoblade?? TT____TT)
rainwaterspark: Moon Knight from Moon Knight (2021) title page, drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio (Default)
Maybe this will come up as a Writer's Block prompt on LJ within the next few weeks...

So, best music this year? Well, since I listen to mostly video game soundtracks, I'll first talk about the best video game music of the year. And for me, there's no question about that...

It's a tie between the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers soundtrack and the Nier soundtrack.

Some tracks from FFCC: The Crystal Bearers:
~ Veo Lu Sluice: www.youtube.com/watch
~ Alfitaria Capital: www.youtube.com/watch
~ Kuule tää Unelmain: www.youtube.com/watch

Some tracks from Nier:
~ Song of the Ancients / Fate: www.youtube.com/watch
~ Hills of Radiant Winds: www.youtube.com/watch

I like these two soundtracks for very different reasons. The FFCC: CB soundtrack is incredibly diverse and contains very high-quality compositions. (I'm still disappointed about the fact that very few people like the soundtrack, though...) The Nier soundtrack is amazingly beautiful.

Second, I'd like to mention the Trauma Team soundtrack, which I also really liked. Honorary mentions go to Super Mario Galaxy 2--not that it's so far down the list because it's bad, but it did have somewhat less of an impact on me after the first SMG. It's still an awesome soundtrack, though. And finally, a word for Xenoblade--I'm actually pretty iffy on most of the compositions, but Colony 9 (www.youtube.com/watch) almost makes up for the rest of the soundtrack on its own.

Not a video game soundtrack, per se, but the Symphonic Legends concert was really awesome. My favorite is the Encore: www.youtube.com/watch


In terms of non-video game music, I have to say I really love Time, from the Inception OST (www.youtube.com/watch) and Päikese Poole, by Urban Symphony (www.youtube.com/watch).


I could go on and on about music that didn't come out this year, but that I heard for the first time this year, but I think I'll just say the Year in Review: Music is now done. I'll probably talk about movies and video games later on in the month.
rainwaterspark: Icon of Layle wearing a tuxedo from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (ffcc crystal bearers layle party)
Because I spent half my life some time listening to it. OTL

So, the music quality is absolutely a treat. How many other video game OSTs out there are over 90% orchestrated? The instruments make the songs sound incredibly rich and vibrant, and the Chopin piano pieces are also amazing.

That being said, the one major drawback of the OST is in terms of composition. Many of the songs don't have a clear, strong melody throughout, instead having the different instruments interweaving. Which works very well in some pieces, but some of the others blend together and are rather forgettable.

Even so, I have a handful of tracks that I just absolutely love:
- "Pyroxene of the Heart"
- All of the Chopin piano pieces (I've now become a Chopin fan, haha)
- Most of the battle themes
- "Dive into the vast expanse of plains"
- "Breeze the conductor"
- "Scrap and build ourselves -from Revolution-" (a totally awesome epic remix of Chopin's Revolutionary Étude)
- "Kyoutenka/Heaven's Mirror" (the Italian version--yes, I prefer it to the Japanese)


Random trivia: The Eternal Sonata OST has some funky track titles. After checking out the official (?) English track titles, I realized that it was a case of strange Engrish. For example, "Breeze the conductor" is actually "Conduct the Breeze," which makes a lot more semantic sense. I do, however, like some of the more poetic Japanese title translations; "Pyroxene of the heart" is a lot more attention-catching than "Jewel of the Heart" (even if no one knows what the heck pyroxene is).
rainwaterspark: Icon of Layle wearing a tuxedo from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (ffcc crystal bearers layle party)
I just decided a few minutes ago that, this summer, I'm going to listen to as many video game soundtracks as I can.

For some reason, this decision was triggered by my discovery that FFXIII's battle theme (Blinded By Light), the only FFXIII song I've listened to and liked so far, was composed by Ryo Yamazaki, who was also partly responsible for the awesomeness that is the Crystal Bearers soundtrack. Now I'm in a more lenient mood toward the FFXIII soundtrack as a whole.

It also occurs to me that I know very little about the music of Final Fantasy (aside from FFVII: Advent Children and FFCC: The Crystal Bearers) as a whole, despite how famous the music is, how big Uematsu's name is, etc. I've heard that the music of the Chrono series, Blue Dragon, and Lost Odyssey is good, too.

Currently, though, I'm still on my Nier Replicant/Gestalt OST high.

Unwritten

Apr. 16th, 2009 07:06 pm
rainwaterspark: Moon Knight from Moon Knight (2021) title page, drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio (Sonic and the Black Knight fairytale)
It occurred to me recently that "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield is the greatest writer's song ever (even though I know that it's probably supposed to be a metaphor for life in general).

Follow the cut if you're interested... )

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rainwaterspark: Moon Knight from Moon Knight (2021) title page, drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio (Default)
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