M: Worlds Apart

 Worlds Apart

A few days ago Overclocked Remixes released their newest project on their site that's an homage to my personal favorite game of all time, Final Fantasy IX. This is a remix compilation album of 48 tracks from the aforementioned video game. The album is composed of about twenty-five different producers which one would think would amount to some great range in sounds, but most of this album sounds to be composed by one artist.
There's an overwhelming amount of rock and metal mixes in this game, but most of them suffer from guitar riffs that may be at a bit of an octave that is too high which makes it a bit unpleasant to listen to as it feels like my ear drums are being attacked and it leaves a slight ring in my ears. The melodies and compositions on these tracks are pretty by the books and fail to differentiate themselves from the massive number of other rock remixes out there on the internet.
The tracks that move away from that range from being bad, to tolerable to decent, and great for a couple tracks.  The techno and chiptune mixes I found seem to suffer from the same problems as the rock and metal mixes. The quality of sound is so sub par that it makes it hard to listen to for a while. I'm not sure if it was due to whatever program the producer used, but it would be a lot better if the notes were just toned down a bit. "Terraforming Gaia" I have to point out sounds nothing like the track from the game and it's presence is weird because of it. The first track I found myself moderately enjoying was "Lunar Rebellion" which is a remix of "Jesters of the Moon". The track is more serene and has a slight Latin vibe to its guitars. "In the Hall of the Gangster King" and "Miles and Miles Away" are the stand out tracks to me in this album. The former is a piano piece that sounds like it's straight from the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy IX album and the latter is a jazz mix that has a really delicate and soothing sound to it. It makes me want to hear a jazz album of the game actually.
There are also a few vocal tracks in this project and they are some of the more intolerable tracks in the game. The vocalists on these tracks are pretty average and probably bordering on bad as their vocal range is relatively weak. They are all relatively soft, not a strong soulful voice that guts your insides among them. Katethegreat is relatively popular in the Final Fantasy fanbase, but I find her voice to be very forgettable.
Out of the 48 tracks I ended up keeping 30 of the tracks, but will probably only end up listening to "In the Hall of the Gangster King", "Miles and Miles Away", and "A Rose in the Storm" multiple times. My verdict is that you should at least give this a listen. It's available for free and I posted a link to the SoundCloud stream above for your convenience.

5/10