D01 Great Gianna Sisters/Glow Worm Jim/Let the Wind Flow/Power of the Music

Please choose one of the following:

181 - No Album - The Great Gianna Sisters
184 - The American Album - Glow Worm Jim
205 - No Album - Let the Wind Flow
223 - Sound Paradise - Power of the Music Force Your Way

Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 181 The Great Gianna Sisters
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 184 The American Album - Glow Worm Jim
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 205 No Album - Let the Wind Flow
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: 223 Sound Paradise - Power of the Music Force Your Way

This one is really hard. i like The Great Gianna Sisters and let the wind flow...

"Let the Wind Flow" is a little dated, with the sequenced piano not holding up well. BrainCells has only improved since that one, which is still a solid, gritty arrangement from Ninja Gaiden II that has few flaws. He could probably make even harder-hitting nowadays.

"Force Your Way" is a pretty good theme from FF8, though I always thought that soundtrack was comparatively weaker to FF7 and FF9. Pretty solid stuff here, with a few lower-quality sounds excluding a pretty bad, Protricity-grade slap bass sample. If you don't use it as well as Prot, it shows. Otherwise, a minor complaint relative to pretty solid execution on the arrangement. Definitely gave its own flavor on the source tune. The soloing though was pretty weak.

If MaSu had ended it strongly instead of petering out, I would have given it to them. Theirs is a legendary arrangement in the doujin scene, deservedly so.

That being said, "Glow Worm Jim" is some of Mazedude's absolute best from The American Album. Creative processing and awesome sounds creating great textures, along with his pro-level production quality. It's tougher than it looks to make a near-7min arrangement; props to Mazedude on using the time well, something that stands up to active listening that you can also veg out to.

It was these 2 tracks:
181 - No Album - The Great Gianna Sisters
184 - The American Album - Glow Worm Jim
Glow Worm Jim would be considered a long track, but I like its development and sound. The Great Gianna Sisters had some real energy, some nice sounds mixed in sometimes.
The two others were more or less standard metal cover. I like the original Force the Way better, because I think the slightly muffled elec guitar doesn't do as much justice to the melody as the bright synth does.

: 181 - No Album - The Great Gianna Sisters
: 205 - No Album - Let the Wind Flow
: 184 - The American Album - Glow Worm Jim
: 223 - Sound Paradise - Power of the Music Force Your Way

Force Your Way felt too flat for much too long. Low quality sounds certainly didn't help, but it's more of an energy level problem. Solo helped a little bit, but not a whole lot.

Glow Worm Jim isn't one of my favorite tracks from The American Album, but just about every track is great. I feel like it could stand to be shorter, but it does evolve very nicely over seven minutes. There are some rather nice sounds; I especially like the squeaky noise that enters with the percussion loop starting at 4:02.

The piano in Let the Wind Flow is definitely the weakest part of the song, but the rest is pretty good, if a bit too lethargic at times. The energy level doesn't really pick up until halfway through. Nice material from BrainCells.

I have a major soft spot for Machinae Supremacy, and their The Great Giana Sisters arrangement is one of their best. Excellent rock with nice SID usage to accent the arrangement. I didn't really like the turn at 3:30 on the first few listens, but now it just works for me.

181 - No Album - The Great Gianna Sisters
Never really got the hype over the original music, but this arrangement is energetic enough (if rather noodly).

184 - The American Album - Glow Worm Jim
Very languid techno-groove. It's a little dull at first, but the melody's nice and it grew on me.

205 - No Album - Let the Wind Flow
Aside from the tinny piano, pretty standard stuff, and kinda dull.

223 - Sound Paradise - Power of the Music Force Your Way
The original song and melody are strong, but the muddy guitar chords and synth in this version don't do it any favors.

Glow Worm Jim actually grew on me quite a bit over repeated listens, and I think that's worth a point here.

No Album - The Great Gianna Sisters
The opening imbued some strong doubts within me, but after getting past those very strange opening seconds, there is some very nice rocking happening.

The American Album - Glow Worm Jim
Takes a while to build, but overall it's decent ambience without being too dry for its length.

No Album - Let the Wind Flow
I actually like the guitar in this song, but perhaps not as much as the Gianna Sisters. I like the melody here more though, and don't mind the fake piano too much which probably explains why I can compare the two equally.

Sound Paradise - Power of the Music Force Your Way
I thought I'd absolutely love it because it was Force your Way and it's metal, but the pacing is weird, especially given the hyper opening. Perhaps this song was trying to do too many things at once and ends up with an odd mix of tempo. Why was a part of FF V's last battle music mixed in at the end?


Gianna Sisters or Let the Wind Flow tie for me.