Hey uh, I shitted out this review of the album for Rateyourmusic, and it wound up on the front page! I'm pretty proud of myself and W.A.C. told me to post it here, so here it is if anyone cares. I know it's not totally accurate at some points, but I wrote it in a hurry and it's written for people who haven't played the Sonic games as obsessively as we all have. So yeah.
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Okay, so as a standalone album this is not that great. It's dated more in 20 years than many albums did in 40, being as intrinsically tied to the early '90s aesthetic of COOL as one can possibly be (often to an embarrassing, painful extent) But in the context of its originating game, it not only works as a perfect snapshot of the era (in silly dance music, kid culture and video games) but as an absolutely genius soundtrack to the game's events and areas. I feel a great deal of nostalgia for it myself, as I consider Sonic CD a wonderful, surreal masterpiece of video gaming, but this is honestly quite good stuff that at least beats out most of the game soundtracks of its day, if not many of today's ones as well. It fits the game beautifully. Even if you aren't a fan of the game or the style of music (I sure ain't), it'll function as some of the better cheesy shitty '90s dance crap you'll ever hear.
The biggest problem with it is the instrumentation. There are cheesy orchestra hits, annoying Eurodance cheese synths, all the hallmarks of '90s dance music. You know that pseudo-jazz minor-key piano sound? The one that early '90s dance loved using? Screamadelica used it a lot, and so did everyone else. This album uses the shit out of it. Though I like that piano sound a lot (it's a guilty pleasure of mine), it's quite jarring to hear it used together with the aforementioned cheese synths (best exemplified in “Quartz Quadrant”, a good tune tragically full of dumb orchestra hits). It puts a real damper on the quality of some of the core compositions and the creativity that went into some of them.
See, the songs here have some real moments of interest in them. Sonic Team's composers have always been masters of being able to convey a level's atmosphere absolutely perfectly, even when faced with a limited number of channels and instruments to work with. They would think about the level and make the music fit it in every aspect down to the core, including even stuff like time signature; in straightforward fast areas that require constant speedy motion, a pseudo-motorik beat would be employed that drives the level along, and in complex maze levels they would use a waltz rhythm creating an air of endless circular motion, or an odd, syncopated beat that makes the listener's brain hurt a bit. I've always admired and adored this composition style of knowing exactly what you want your song to sound like and working from there, and Sonic CD obviously uses it heavily. Every second of these songs seem basically tailor-made for the levels they are based on to an amazing extent while still being immensely catchy. Then the synths throw a nice retro feel onto the whole thing in hindsight.
But as I was trying to say before, what makes the whole album really cool I think is how the core composition (the “present” song) of each zone is remixed and twisted into each of the “time periods”. See, each zone of Sonic CD has four stages of time – past, present, good future and bad future, and this structure allows for some really cool moments of the composers tinkering with the structure and core of the songs to create new atmospheres. Using “Palmtree Panic” as an example; the core composition is one of the most frightfully catchy and fun songs ever placed in a video game, a synth/drums piece that builds up and explodes into a gleeful rainbow explosion of screaming children, jazz piano and the cheeriest rainfall you will ever hear. Its “good future” version ups the happy ante further, giving it a faster, dancier and even more cheerful and inviting vibe. The past version is considerably more lo-fi and sparse, sounding like a bedroom recording from the '80s with homely instrumentation and more primitive, rocky percussion. It's quite different from the present track in feel, but its composition is actually very similar (it shares chord progressions and basic melody), reflecting the differences between the present and the past of the levels in the game. The bad future is the best as the the whole track is suddenly subverted into a dark techno song. The children's cheering is heavily lowered in tone and becomes ominous, and the main hook is tinkered with and chaotically layered to become dissonant and claustrophobic. Every zone has its theme variated on like this, and it's really interesting to see the way they change arrangements slightly to convey varying emotions and atmospheres.
Yes, Sonic CD has a brilliant soundtrack. Very few soundtracks work this hard to elaborately yet subtly construct such a fitting atmosphere to their movie/game without losing its sense of catchy melody or resorting to forgettable orchestral music. Occasionally it accidentally dives into dumbness because of its instrumentation (the final boss theme should be sinister but really doesn't come across that way), and you have to have some tolerance for kitsch if you're going to listen to it singularly without the aid of the game. It also really only works if you've played the game or happen to be very interested in video game soundtracks or '90s video game culture, making it hard to recommend. Still, this is definitely one of the greatest video game soundtracks of all time, and it was nice of SEGA to finally release it on its own.
But whatever you do, skip “Metallic Madness”. It has a rap in the middle of it, and it's seriously embarrassing.
3.5 stars
Namo 
W.A.C. 
