RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Music Reviews > Phantasmagoria
Reviewed by: Ersatz Sobriquet
This has got to be one of the worst albums I've heard with one of the best musical score. Now, before you click the "Back" button on your browser, allow me to explain my little paradox. But first, I must confess something. I'm not really sure if this is ever was a game or not. While trying to search under keywords for "Phantasmagoria" I received a host of poems and this Windows game. Most likely, this was a side project Nobuo Uematsu did during his rising success.
This whole album screams emotion in terms of the musical style presented here. A wonderful score Nobuo Uematsu produced, each song is filled with relaxing melodies that can place anyone into a nightly slumber easily, with acoustic guitars tagging along some of the songs that are filled with violas and violins alike.
With an album like this, you better make sure your speakers can handle Treble, because mostly all the songs range in that area. Dogs on the Beach is a nice example of this. A playful synth tags the melody along while various quips from the piano and conga are heard here and there. The bass line that is rarely heard, plays soft enough to enjoy the soulfulness of the song while at the same time helping pull the song along.
Often, a soft chant in the background will make a song seem more heavenly than the soft music has already tried to do. Revival Of A Tender Experience is a good example of this. The already astounding violin section placed you in incredibly relaxed state, but the soft chants here and there make it seems even more wonderful than you could probably handle.
Mirrors is their pure piano piece which is a great change of pace after the rather upbeat People Of Maya. It's nothing as astounding as any of the Piano albums that are released in the Final Fantasy saga, but it is still a wonderful little piece nonetheless.
On a side note about the song, People of Maya, Nobuo gives a nod to one of his other works in the intro to this song that the Spanish Guitar is playing, and builds around it afterwards. After listening through most of the Final Fantasy's before VI, I've come to a conclusion that the musically similarity is from Final Fantasy I. I at first thought it to be a small sample from Terra from Final Fantasy VI, but I believe it to be I. I'm not sure if the song is from the Cornelia Castle or just various towns, but I think I can clearly hear it on the Symphonic Suite album, Scene III. A very subtle acknowledgement tying in Nobuo's love of the Final Fantasy series even more so.
And now, the reason I simply cannot fully love the album is because Nobuo felt compelled to include voices, nay, rather speech into various songs. Really, the most beautiful songs, musically.
Lots Of Little, Rainy Day, Children and Deep Ocean Blue is great examples of this fact. Why they decided on doing such a thing to these three songs is beyond my comprehension. On Deep Ocean, the man's voice really throws off the powerful effect the brass section had in the intro and diminishes the beauty of such a song.
The final song, appropriately named Final Fantasy, is the theme song of Final Fantasy (the intro song in the very first game and other incarnations in the rest of the series). To place it very bluntly, the song isn't good at all. The one "voice" song to have singing in it doesn't do it very well. I'm not really sure what language the lady present is singing in, (possibly French or Italian) but she can hardly hold a note and tears the, for the first time, rather dull music down even more. Not an appropriate end for such a fine album, musically of course.
To give the mood of being at a Phantasmagoria show. (By the way, the word "phantasmagoria" means an early optical illusion magic show where objects interjected with one another and merged, giving the famed magical show the illusion it strived to achieve.) Many of the synthed sounds teeter off the Treble scale, especially on the track entitled Phantasmagoria, but the awful singing of the last track and the other aforementioned tracks where spoken dialogue was issued hampered this otherwise fine album from receiving my full praise.
For the odd six songs that are outstanding listens to, I recommend this album for those only. The other ones are worth forgetting, and worth losing. For Nobuo Uematsu fans, please hear this, or those who would like to relax to some quiet music, take a stab at this. You won't regret it while at the same time, hate it.
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| Album Information | Reviewer Rank |
|---|---|
|
Phantasmagoria Published by: NTT Publishing Release Date: October 26th 1994 Composed by: Nobuo Uematsu Arranged by: Nobuo Uematsu, Chinatsu Kuzuu 1 Disc, 11 Tracks Catalog: PSCN-5010 |
74 |
Reviewed by: Ersatz Sobriquet
This has got to be one of the worst albums I've heard with one of the best musical score. Now, before you click the "Back" button on your browser, allow me to explain my little paradox. But first, I must confess something. I'm not really sure if this is ever was a game or not. While trying to search under keywords for "Phantasmagoria" I received a host of poems and this Windows game. Most likely, this was a side project Nobuo Uematsu did during his rising success.
This whole album screams emotion in terms of the musical style presented here. A wonderful score Nobuo Uematsu produced, each song is filled with relaxing melodies that can place anyone into a nightly slumber easily, with acoustic guitars tagging along some of the songs that are filled with violas and violins alike.
With an album like this, you better make sure your speakers can handle Treble, because mostly all the songs range in that area. Dogs on the Beach is a nice example of this. A playful synth tags the melody along while various quips from the piano and conga are heard here and there. The bass line that is rarely heard, plays soft enough to enjoy the soulfulness of the song while at the same time helping pull the song along.
Often, a soft chant in the background will make a song seem more heavenly than the soft music has already tried to do. Revival Of A Tender Experience is a good example of this. The already astounding violin section placed you in incredibly relaxed state, but the soft chants here and there make it seems even more wonderful than you could probably handle.
Mirrors is their pure piano piece which is a great change of pace after the rather upbeat People Of Maya. It's nothing as astounding as any of the Piano albums that are released in the Final Fantasy saga, but it is still a wonderful little piece nonetheless.
On a side note about the song, People of Maya, Nobuo gives a nod to one of his other works in the intro to this song that the Spanish Guitar is playing, and builds around it afterwards. After listening through most of the Final Fantasy's before VI, I've come to a conclusion that the musically similarity is from Final Fantasy I. I at first thought it to be a small sample from Terra from Final Fantasy VI, but I believe it to be I. I'm not sure if the song is from the Cornelia Castle or just various towns, but I think I can clearly hear it on the Symphonic Suite album, Scene III. A very subtle acknowledgement tying in Nobuo's love of the Final Fantasy series even more so.
And now, the reason I simply cannot fully love the album is because Nobuo felt compelled to include voices, nay, rather speech into various songs. Really, the most beautiful songs, musically.
Lots Of Little, Rainy Day, Children and Deep Ocean Blue is great examples of this fact. Why they decided on doing such a thing to these three songs is beyond my comprehension. On Deep Ocean, the man's voice really throws off the powerful effect the brass section had in the intro and diminishes the beauty of such a song.
The final song, appropriately named Final Fantasy, is the theme song of Final Fantasy (the intro song in the very first game and other incarnations in the rest of the series). To place it very bluntly, the song isn't good at all. The one "voice" song to have singing in it doesn't do it very well. I'm not really sure what language the lady present is singing in, (possibly French or Italian) but she can hardly hold a note and tears the, for the first time, rather dull music down even more. Not an appropriate end for such a fine album, musically of course.
To give the mood of being at a Phantasmagoria show. (By the way, the word "phantasmagoria" means an early optical illusion magic show where objects interjected with one another and merged, giving the famed magical show the illusion it strived to achieve.) Many of the synthed sounds teeter off the Treble scale, especially on the track entitled Phantasmagoria, but the awful singing of the last track and the other aforementioned tracks where spoken dialogue was issued hampered this otherwise fine album from receiving my full praise.
For the odd six songs that are outstanding listens to, I recommend this album for those only. The other ones are worth forgetting, and worth losing. For Nobuo Uematsu fans, please hear this, or those who would like to relax to some quiet music, take a stab at this. You won't regret it while at the same time, hate it.
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