Should Crush 40 Return for Sonic Lost World?

Excuse me?

According to the Vivid Sound x Hybrid Colors track and credits listing on Retro's own wiki, Jun Senoue only had involvement as coordinator on the vocal tracks--nowhere is he mentioned as a composer. If anything, Colors' soundtrack was mainly the work of Tomoya Ohtani and Kenichi Tokoi.

 

Split these off from the SLW topic to keep it less glutty.

 

I honestly think the first part of Perfect Chaos should have played the "Revival theme" and the second half should have played the mix of "Open Your Heart" used in the first half. For me, the music in the second part makes the boss fight more of a struggle because the music is much slower and kinda fucks with my pace a little. And sadly, it's the harder part of the fight too. Then again, when I think of it, the Revival theme actually does work in the second part of the fight and it's meant to fuck up your pace. I guess to increase the tension. And yes, I changed my mind in midpost.

Regarding my standing on the Orchestrated music, I can say that I enjoy it though I think the final battle should have a rock theme, if at least at only one part of the fight.

That being said, I'm totally open to there being an orchestrated theme instead just as long as it's catchy enough for me to hum.

 

While I love Crush 40, I don't think their style fit much with this game. I would like to see some electro thing, but different from Cash Cash, that's too cheesy for my tastes. I would like something more similar to Space Queens from Sonic X-Treme ( no, not because this game has some similarities with Xtreme. I just think that sort of oniric dance fits here)

Also, I highly dislike orchestral in final bosses. They are totally anticlimactic to me...not epic at all, just flamboyant. Sonic doesn't fit with Orchestra in my opinion.

 

Crush 40 shouldn't have been a feature in any Sonic game. Japanese speakers attempting to write English songs (with a tedious late-90s American rock vibe no less) - it doesn't work out well.

Sonic games are better when nobody opens their mouths.

 

That depends on who penned the lyrics, though. Senoue has pretty decent English, but I was always under the impression it was Johnny Gioeli that wrote them, and anyone who's met him knows he's pretty damn Italian American. Even owns his own pizza joint.

 

The only Crush 40 songs I actually liked were Live and Learn and the main theme/final boss songs from Heroes. I guess Shadow the Hedgehog's theme song was tolerable.

I think we really don't need them anymore. Their lyrics were bad and while their songs may have been fitting for the Adventure games I can't really see them fitting into any of the newer games in the series.

 

But Didn't Jun Senoue do a lot of the Remixes for Generations? I know that a lot of the Classic ones were done by Cash Cash. Honestly, when I hear music like Green Hill Modern (If that is Jun Senoue, please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm new here ) I think that Crush 40 could possibly tone down the "Hard Rock" in some of their music compositions. Sure, I do love Live and Learn, but really, the only time I could think that a "Hard Rock" Piece of music would fit in Lost World would probably be in the Lava world that is most likely a real thing from looking at the picture of the Lost Hex.



Also, first post..

 

Maybe for one level where it would fit the theme.

But rock music by default in a Sonic game? Never again, please.

 

Sonic 3D Blast on the Saturn ran the gamut as far as genres go. Jazz, Orchestral, Techno, Christmassy, New Age... and all of it just kinda worked. Later games like the Adventure games or Unleashed similarly had varied genres, and their soundtracks are better off for it. Proves that the series could work with almost anything. So, I'll probably be okay with whatever the series goes with for Lost World, really.

 

Music in Sonic games should always vary depending on the level themes. Ice levels should have Christmas-y music, desert levels should have either Egyptian or wild west music, ruins should have tribal music, and so on. The Genesis Sonic games did what they could to make the music accommodate each zone theme despite working with such a limited sound chip. It's kinda strange Sonic CD didn't so that for either region, except for Tidal Tempest JP if you prefer ambient music for water ruins.

 

Should Crush 40 make any vocal tracks for Lost World? ... Maybe. Depends on how serious the game wants to take itself.

Don't get me wrong, I love Crush 40. From Adventure to Sonic Heroes, especially with the Sonic Heroes theme song, they knew how Sonic vocal music should sound. They were the definition of it! However, it's one thing to make SONIC music, and another thing to make your OWN music.
After the Shadow game, I believe Crush 40 said they wanted to take their music in more of a serious direction. A direction so serious, it just wouldn't fit right for Sonic anymore. Thankfully, that's not the case, but Crush 40 clearly wasn't making the same kind of music we might remember them for.
Their version of His World was just too dark and heavy even for that game. Might be why they were more fitting making a cover of "All Hail Shadow" instead.
Their music fit the atmosphere of Black Knight, but it was kind of a one-off title anyways, so it was practically like giving them a throw-away roll anyways (if that makes sense).
I liked their cover of Un-gravitify, but it really didn't get me in the energetic mood that Sonic Riders is suppose to put me in.
Other than being a little better organizing in song progression, their cover of Free was almost the same as the original. You'd have to be paying attention to notice their changes.
Reach for the Stars, with its autotune and everything, fit the atmosphere of Colors perfectly. I honestly could never see Crush 40 making anything similar to music like that on their own at this point. I welcome a cover of it, but I know it just won't have the same feel to it.

There are other examples of Crush 40's covers, but I think I made my point. Please don't think I'm some guy who hates covers of songs. I'm almost 30 and I've been listening to covers and song sampling for decades now. At this point, you can call it picky, but I prefer when covers/samples really go out of their way to outdo themselves.

Overall, I think Crush 40 is losing their identity. They haven't gone full dark and heavy with their music, like the pieces they made for the Shadow game, but it's hard to tell what they want to do. Do they want to break away and stand on their own as a legitimate rock band? Do they want to just be tied to Sonic forever? With all due respect, if Crush 40 were to make an original track for this game, they'd have to step things up and remember that they are trying to make a song that matches the game, not make a song that matches their style.

 

Y'all need to respect them classical musics.

As a musician, it's hard not to appreciate orchestration in any video game, and it's much harder to see people dis it. Composing this stuff isn't easy. I think Gusty Garden Galaxy is THE orchestral video game song. Don't get the idea that I think this works for everything, though. Obviously, it doesn't. I think the Genesis games (and the Advance games) and Colors are the defining examples of music in a Sonic game. If an area has rolling green hills (no pun intended) with water and trees, the music's happy and tropical-sounding. A volcano is ablaze with deep, low tones, exciting "set pieces" in the music and agressive instruments. A winter wonderland stays true to its name with Christmas-like music, complete with a (presumably celebrating) city in the background. Meanwhile, over in 3D space, the carnival is alive with funky guitars. The water world has psychedelic synthesis that really shines underwater. The lush world home to nonviolent aliens being turned into an amusement park features nice, joyful strings accompanied with a kick-ass bass line.

I could go on, but I think you get the gist. Sonic's music should be varied. Too much rock or too many Celtic tunes is never the best option, but please, don't take them for granted.

 

Speaking of genres the series hasn't tapped a whole lot into: Country music. Closest I can think of is Hill Top Zone, with its harmonica.

It'd need a sufficiently "Dust Hill"-esque stage, however.

 

YES. YES.

This is about as close to how I envision Sonic -- not really punk so much as a sort of alternative street-inspired funk, which I'd say is much more consistent with the music of the series as a whole, not just the modern games (dunno if I've ever mentioned this but there is some real Herbie Hancock shit going on in Sonic 3, especially in Marble Garden).

 

I am going to be frank. It is hard for SEGA to fuck up music. I would say yes, if they feel Jun knows what's best, then sure. Heck, Sonic 4 had genuinely well composed music, it was the samples that dragged it down. It really doesn't matter who does it, SEGA has a great track record for great music, especially with sonic and I'd be willing to be on those odds that whatever they go with for Lost World will be great.

 

I'd like to hear Crush 40 again, but isn't their music too brutal for Lost World setting? Their tracks for Sonic Heroes were a little too sugarsweet already.

 

I'm probably the only person in the Sonic community who doesn't like Crush 40. I mean, Jun is a ok musician. Not great nor terrible, but my real issue is with that Johnny guy who sings like he is taking a giantic dump while he does it. Cash Cash isn't great either, but it is way less "MOM, I WANNA BE HARDCORE" so it doesn't make it as terrible as Crush 40.




Oh yeah, almost forgot... Orchestral stuff are awesome. I love rock music, really do, but I love orchestras even more. It makes everything sound epic and set the tone so you can feel however you're suposed to feel, I mean just take a look at Assassin's Creed Revelations ending, if they had replaced the orchestral song that were playing in the back for some girl singing some light sad-rock, I'd probably wouldn't have shed a tear in that scene.

I know that Sonic games aren't supose to make you feel anything major, it's a light adventure with cool music, graphics, attitude and whatever and it's nice feeling like a badass in the final boss battle and shit. But the only thing that I really feel when I have Crush 40 in the back is turning the volume down.

 

I want the genre-meshing music of the old days, when they mixed everything together (hip hop, rock, electronic, etc.)

Just some, good music.