FF-AC soundtrack

Thanks to a friend from college I got a listen at this.

It's a very disjointed soundtrack, mostly instrumental, and I believe anyone who has "not" watched the movie will completely not understand this soundtrack. A lot of random tracks in there which I would not have put in, some of them sounding like mere ambient background sound rather than proper arrangements.

Of course there are some gems. There are a few piano solo pieces, which are as good as any of the compositions coming from an FF series. Character themes, and in particular the Tifa battle scene song is quite mind boggling. = )

There's a fair amount of J-Rock compositions. Some are obviously meant to be listened to in sequence, as they were played in the movie. Chase of Highway is a hard driving rock beat, with a repeating guiter riff that verges on being repetetive, but imo saved by the overall excellence of the composition. =p The frenetic pace continues on into their edgy and manic rendition of Jenova, done mostly in the minor key - then a vaguely chaotic yet harmonic guitar lead emerges at the end, transitioning to a major key. Gives a very nice imagery, like suddenly hearing a clear voice cutting through the babble of a hundred lesser voices. Ends on a resounding chord, fades, then transitions into the iconic song, "one winged angel : sephiroth".

This song is best described as a rock song with full orchestral and choir backup. Turns out very rich sounding, it's quite amazing actually that it doesn't sound muddied with so much at the composer's fingertips. There's still a clearness and clarity to it, and the interesting chorus of sounds is very memorable. Compare this to some of Yuki Kajiura's compositions which tend to at times get over-heavy, like a painter splashing on too much paint on a painting, so that listening to it becomes heavy and burdensome. Very convincing ending to this song.

The track immediately after this is the resolution to this series of songs, "cloud smiles". A clean, clear and simple theme, orchetral, a nice contrast and resolution to the rock themes earlier. Forgive me if I am wrong, it's been awhile since I've sat through one of these performances, but I think the lead is played by a clarinet.