The full tracklist:

Akira Yamaoka (Shadows of the Damned) | “Ex Animo”
Arthur Inasi (Harmonix) | “We Are One”
Bear McCreary (SOCOM 4) | “Maverick Regeneration”
Chance Thomas (Lord of the Rings Online) | “Rise Up”
Hip Tanaka.β (Mother) | “HVC-1384″
Inon Zur feat. The Lyris Quartet (Dragon Age) | “Remember”
Jason Graves (Dead Space) | “Necromancer”
Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros.) | “Super Mario Medley On Two Pianos”
Laura Karpman (Everquest II) w/Lisbeth Scott | “Pine Wind Sound”
Laura Shigihara (Plants vs. Zombies) | “Jump”
Mitsuto Suzuki (The 3rd Birthday) | “Play for You”
Nobuko Toda (Metal Gear Solid 4) | “Reminiscence”
Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) | “Every New Morning”
Penka Kouneva (Prince of Persia) | “White Cloud”
Sean Murray (Call of Duty) | “The Temple Stone”
Tommy Tallarico (Advent Rising) | “Greater Lights”
Woody Jackson (Red Dead Redemption) | “Moshi Moshi”
Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger) | “Dimension Break”

“Play for Japan: The Album” will be released on iTunes in June, and I’ll make sure to tell you the exact date as soon as we know. 100% of the profits will be donated to the relief efforts in Japan

The album opens with the epic “Melkaba” which starts off with hypnotic harps and piano before breaking out into a majestic guitar, fiddle and choral song that lets nothing slip from its grasp. From each chord and build up to the next finale-like set piece, you’ll be hooked and mesmerised. Add to that some fantastic Eastern European (think Bulgarian) vocal ab-libs and you’re in even. 7 and a half minutes later, you’ll be hit with “Two Wings” which is a new vocal version of Joanne Hogg’s outtake song. Although the songs not changed, new lyrics in Japanese make it feel fresh. The song is just as captivating and uplifting.

“Balto” starts off very ethereal before showing its pure beauty and swiftness. This being an instrumental, the instruments take centre stage and really show off. Then half way through, the loving tempo, and the songs origin changes from Eastern to French, as the accordion kicks in and the song up tempos and the chirpy version of the song begins. It’s a great way to finish the song with the end result sounding like a River Dance song!

“Creid” is a beautiful, soft Celtic song, which is very spiritual and warm and wouldn’t be out-of-place in a church. Half way through once again, the song changes and instruments begin to make it into an epic adventure with echoing drum rhythms and sweet singing. “Dajil” is an absolute stonker of a song. It rocks out the electronic Sitar from start to end in a mass crescendo of music that will send your pulse racing. The diversity on the album hits home between the complete opposites of the last two tunes. “Stairs of Light” is pleasant and happy ditty that goes through various cultured stages in the song and still has time to have a lovely grandstand finish. The way in which each song is thought out really shines through on this album.

“June Mermaid”, perhaps one of the most loved songs from Xenogears, is given a very sensitive and heartfelt rendition with harps, fiddles, whistles and wind chimes. The end result is a tear jerking effort that would be perfect for any sad scene for any game. “Spring Lullaby” is possibly the least immediate song on the album, but that still puts it miles above the best of a lot of other albums. The song is a  grower as it does have its own hooks, it just takes a few listens to bed them in.

“Lahan” is a fast paced, light fun song that gives you a buzzing smile that then turns to anthem singing with a fantastic build up to great finish that has you cheering along with the fair at the end of it. “Mebius” is a classic song to finish on. As loving as it is beautiful, this is a Japanese vocal of “Small two of Piece’s”. The song captures all the drama and feeling and ends the album perfectly.

“Xenogears: Creid” is the kind of CD you can’t help but love. It’s a class above the rest with real emotion in the performances and extremely enchanting themes. Put simply…one of the best. Buy it now.

While arranger Katsumi Kameoka stays very much to the original source on that track, “Chrono Trigger Medley” is more a tour de force, cycling through all the different tracks with effortless transitional slips between various moods, themes and key moments in the game, complete with big grande finale finish that only an orchestra can produce.

If you can find it, track it down. There’s only two tracks and it only clocks in six minutes but most people will leave it laying around as a freebie I’d imagine. Nice to see Chrono Trigger get the orchestra treatement, as I never really warmed completely to the pseudo-jazz arrangements of Brink of Time and I’ve sat and waited since for the full works. This will have to do!

01) Lisa Gerrard

02) Brendan Perry

03) Jesper Kyd

04) Musashi Hamauzu

05) Imogen Heap

06) Utada

07) Mike Reagan / Cris Velasco

08) Akira Yamaoka

09) Yasunori Mitsuda

10) Sarah Slean

—

Games

—

01) Battle Tanks (PS3)

02) Winter Sports 2010 (PS3)

03) Vancouver 2010 (PS3)

04) Hyperballoid (Ps3)

05) .detuned (PS3)

01) Lisa Gerrard (^)

02) Christopher Tin (v)

03) Winifred Phillips (RE)

04) Anonymous 4 (NE)

05) Brendan Perry (-)

06) Imogen Heap (v)

07) Tori Amos (RE)

08) Hiroki Kikuta (v)

09) OverClocked Remix (v)

10) Yasunori Mitsuda (RE)

————————————–

Game Reviews

01) Battle Tanks (PS3)

02) Shatter (PS3)

03) .detuned (PS3)

04) Trash Panic (PS3)

05) Numblast (PS3)

01) Imogen Heap (1 Month)

02) Patrick Wolf (RE)

03) Dead Can Dance (RE)

04) Vienna Teng (-)

05) Akira Yamaoka (^)

06) Utada (v)

07) Brendan Perry (-)

08) Sarah Slean (v)

09) Lisa Germano (NE)

10) Yasunori Mitsuda (RE)

01) OverClocked Remix (NE)

02) Utada (NE)

03) Tori Amos (^)

04) Vienna Teng (v)

05) Akira Yamaoka (v)

06) PJ Harvey & John Parish (NE)

07) Sarah Slean (<>)

08) Brendan Perry (v)

09) Hiroki Kikuta (v)

10) Yasunori Mitsuda (RE)

Hiroshi Hata & Kalta Ohtsuki give each track on the arranged album a jazz flavour which immediately unsettles me as I’m not a fan of the genre. However I have sat and let this CD flow over me time and time again before I wrote this review so as not to be biased.

“Chrono Trigger” is an interesting jazzed up piece using brass instruments, funky keyboards and bashing basses to up the ante with a lovely string section in the middle. Overall the track met my expectations and went beyond them for a jazz arrangement.

“Secret of Forest” however slows things down for a cool laid back approach and while there’s no denying the guitar work on the piece is sublime it just doesn’t do wonders for me. “Zeal Palace” just confuses however with sparse arrangements and thick bass lines and just never really gets going for me at all.

“Warlock Battle” gives us synthesized electric guitars, computerised basslines but seemingly live drums for the opening bizarre section. Once the main song gets started things improve greatly and it reminds me a bit of a lost Gitarooman track which is fine to me! “Chrono Corridor” is another strange blend of synth and live instrumentation however I enjoyed this track greatly as its jazz fusion and dance elements combine well.

“Undersea Palace” gains extra help from Gizaemon de Furuta for a beautiful electric acoustic guitar solo which is simply beautiful before the keyboard driven background adds excellent tension to a fantastic track. “World Revolution” continues on the same wavelength of pace and desire with a riot of a track which comes across like a jazz/arcade freak out – like something from an arcade shoot-em-up.

“Brink of Time” gets out the double bass for an interesting track which is not entirely successful in its slinky aim but is far from offensive – another track that doesn’t grab me.

“Guardia Millenial Fair” however does grab me with its old style musings and slightly off tone and kilter tunings of the instruments. However towards the end steel drums join in and they just don’t go with the surrounding instruments and it becomes slightly messy. The CD closes with Latin jazz fusion “Outskirts of Time” which is a well accomplished piece that has direction, pace and skill involved.

Despite all this time I’ve owned the CD (several years now) I’m still so very open juried over it. It has skill, class and a feel that’s relatively original and yes, it certainly does arrange the originals! Yet I still have yet to really connect with it in a way that means I look forward to coming back to the CD as soon as possible – and that annoys me because it’s technically well accomplished. A CD very much down to personal taste – a love or hate arrangement.

“Pain” has a quiet verse and a huge stomping chorus. The piano is present throughout and holds the main tune, while Joanne’s voice soars especially in the chorus’ and they really show off her tremendous vocal talent. The song has an epic feel to it, that’s very present in the instrumental verse played by a solitary whistle. It’s a complex but very satisfying listen.

“Kokoro”, the ending theme for Xenosaga is the second vocal track on the single. Opening in acoustic guitar arpeggios, instruments are layered constantly on top of each other to make listening out for them so enjoyable. Upon each listen, you’ll find a new part of the song that you hadn’t noticed last time. The way in which the different duel vocal arrangements (as in “Pain” too) are done sets Joanne Hogg’s vocals apart from the crowd. The whole song is a classic from start to finish, and I guarantee that you’ll be pressing the repeat button when it’s done.

Track 3 is a piano version of Kokoro. The version is slow and heartfelt, preferring to use sparse arrangement to make more emphasis on the emotions than make a powerful finger-numbing piece. It works very well indeed. Tracks 4 and 5 are instrumental versions of “Pain” and “Kokoro” which are faultless and have lyrics provided to sing along with too!

Unless you are after the Karaoke versions of the songs, the single is kind of redundant as there’s nothing new from the full soundtrack however these songs are particularly great so I wanted to give special attention to them.