Song of the Week - WEEK 86 Voting/WEEK 87 Nominating

Week 86 Voting is closed.
Week 87 Nominating is restricted.

Week 86 Voting
The rules for voting can be found here.

Results:
1). [25] Suikoden - The Divine Oath - Dreams Come True Someday (Orchestra Version)
2). [15/11.5] Ar tonelico ~The Girl Who Sings at the End of the World~ ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - What My World Is Wishing For
3). [15/10.5] The Legend of Xanadu SUPER ARRANGE VERSION - A Bird Crossing the Desert
4). [13/8.5] Great Maho Daisakusen Original Soundtrack - THUNDER STORM ~ Stage 5
5). [13/8] ATP Tour Championship Tennis (Game Rip) - Title Screen
6). [13/7.5] Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Tokyo Conception
7). [11] DARIUS II -G.S.M.TAITO 4- - BURNING ROAD (underground theme) ~ BOSS 6
8). [9] Saiyuki Original Soundtrack - Fierce God (Battle BGM 7)

Tracks:
Ar tonelico ~The Girl Who Sings at the End of the World~ ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - What My World Is Wishing For
ATP Tour Championship Tennis (Game Rip) - Title Screen
DARIUS II -G.S.M.TAITO 4- - BURNING ROAD (underground theme) ~ BOSS 6
Great Maho Daisakusen Original Soundtrack - THUNDER STORM ~ Stage 5
Saiyuki Original Soundtrack - Fierce God (Battle BGM 7)
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Tokyo Conception
Suikoden - The Divine Oath - Dreams Come True Someday (Orchestra Version)
The Legend of Xanadu SUPER ARRANGE VERSION - A Bird Crossing the Desert

Week 87 Nominating
The Nominations Queue can be found here.
The rules for nominating can be found here.
A list of previous nominations can be found here.

Here is the link to the corresponding thread at the other forum:
- Soundtrack Central

Pimpage
The "Best Chiptune Contest" has begun! Round two now open for voting!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Ar tonelico ~The Girl Who Sings at the End of the World~ ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - What My World Is Wishing For The latest inductee into the Unneccessarily Long Name Club. It's got Japanese singing, which I hate, but done in a slightly more classical and less J-Pop style, which I hate somewhat less, and the instrumental backing is quite good.

ATP Tour Championship Tennis (Game Rip) - Title Screen I know I've thrown the label around lately in the BCC, but I can't think of a better descriptor. This song is painfully generic, and doesn't really bring anything memorable to the table in terms of melody, rhythm, atmosphere, or instrumentation.

DARIUS II -G.S.M.TAITO 4- - BURNING ROAD (underground theme) ~ BOSS 6 Darius II, originally called Ochus and often surnamed Nothus (from Greek νοθος, meaning 'bastard'), was emperor of Persia from 423 BC to 404 BC. The preceeding factoid was more interesting than the song it's attached to, which is servicable but bland shmup muzak.

Great Maho Daisakusen Original Soundtrack - THUNDER STORM ~ Stage 5 Hmm, Stage 5. Wonder who nominated this one? The melody's quite nice here, though I don't much care for the intentionally out of tune interlude which follows. If the melody had been allowed to flower and grow without the out of tune bit, it would have been great; as is, it's pretty much a wash.

Saiyuki Original Soundtrack - Fierce God (Battle BGM 7) More like Wussy Pansy Kitten God. Why do these tracks with grand names like "FINAL BATTLE WITH LORD OF ALL CREATION" tend to be so bland?

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Original Soundtrack - Tokyo Conception I never really know what to expect with these SMT tracks and their digital devilry. This piece has an interesting progression from a standard piano rhapsody to something more menacing and electroinic. I generally love the organ, and organs combined with electronics often equal sonic sex. But the song had a jarring break between the ominous buildup and the organ, and another between organ and electronics, and finally ended just as it felt like the music was finding its footing.

Suikoden - The Divine Oath - Dreams Come True Someday (Orchestra Version) Not a proper Suikotune, according to the nomination information. A very lush and almost Golden Age piece that avoids some, if not all, of the terrible orchestration problems that so regularly plague Japanese orchestral arrangements. It's very consistent without being too bland, which is refreshing this week.

The Legend of Xanadu SUPER ARRANGE VERSION - A Bird Crossing the Desert I always picture Olivia Newton-John as a neon Bluthimation when I see Xanadu tracks, which makes them far more disturbing than they ought to be. I was hoping that this track would offer some energy and creativity, but was surprised to find it so low-key and, well, limp.

A simply dreadful week, especially in comparison to the quality we've been enjoying in SoTW of late. Points were hard to award, since none of these will be entering the 'ol playlist. It's a dark day when a track with Japanese singing makes it into the spread, but here we are.

The Point Spread
Counterfeit Suikoden - 3 pts.
Thunder Schizophrenia Storm - 2 pts.
Ar tonelico ~ That Girl Who Sings Beautiful Songs at the End of the World ~ ORIGINAL SOUND VERSION LIMITED EDITION SOUNDTRACK VOLUME 1 - What My Precious World Should Be Wishing For At This Moment In Time: Heroine's Theme (Arranged Version Remix Track) - 1 pt.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

'Grats to the winner; even better that it was my personal favorite this week

Originally Posted by CHz

I noticed we've been a little low on votes the past few weeks (although we had more this time than the last two weeks). Would it be more convenient if we opened and closed voting at different times? For example, maybe pushing everything ahead a day and going from Tuesday->Monday instead of Monday->Sunday.

No, I don't think that would help much, given what I've seen over the last few weeks. Let's not forget the flood of people who posted about not having time to vote after our two week long SoTW's ended. It seems to me that people get confused whenever we screw with the timeline too much.

My guess for the diminished participation of late is that midterms are just around the corner. If things get really desperate, we can always resort to more advertising and PM's.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.