[Album] Final Fantasy IX (SSCX-10043)

Mmm...an interesting one, this soundtrack. Uematsu apparently was in Hawaii when he composed this soundtrack; this gave him some freedom and this is shown by the number of tracks he composed...not so much the quality of those tracks. Some are rather mediocre to me, however some remain classics in my mind.

A much more light-hearted feeling is embodied in the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack, and I'm quite fond of that theme. This is exemplified by tracks such as "Vivi's Theme", "Cleyra Settlement", "Mogri's Theme", "Zidane's Theme" and "At The South Gate Border". There are also several darker tunes which prove to contrast the light-hearted ones excellently, such as "Immoral Melody", "Burmecian Kingdom" and "Iifa Tree".

The soundtrack isn't without it's faults, though. The battle themes seem to be fairly below average, save a few. Also, there are some tracks which seem to go almost nowhere, such as "Cleyra Trunk" and "Oeilvert". However to balance these unfavourable tracks, there is the vocal performance "Melodies of Life", which is one of the best Final Fantasy vocal themes to date. The English version even has the singer sing tolerably, a rarity in many J-Pop artists.

Overall a diverse soundtracks with it's many ups and downs. Just for the record my favourite tracks are "Slew of Love Letters", "One Danger put Behind us...", "Theme of the Tantalus", "Secret Library Daguerreo" and "You're not Alone!"

Well, Nobuo Uematsu...a 3.5/5 for this.

Jam it back in, in the dark.