Tales with Misono Best

	Album Title: Tales with Misono Best
	Record Label: Avex Trax
	Catalog No.: AVCD-23879
	Release Date: June 10, 2009
	Purchase: Buy at CDJapan

Overview

Tales with Misono -Best- is a compilation of theme songs from the the Tales series. It features music from singer Misono Koda, both when she was a member of Day After Tomorrow and when she became a solo artist. It features the singles for Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Tempest, and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, as well as a bonus track simply entitled “Tales…” Time to take a closer look at what made Misono the Tales series’ more prolific artist.

Body

We begin this mini-album with a Day After Tomorrow track, “Starry Heavens”, which was used as the theme song for Tales of Symphonia‘s GameCube version. Despite its popularity, I continue to find nothing special about this song. However, I guess since it is the band’s most well-known track, so it must be for a reason. Misono does sound pretty good overall and I quite like the fact that she shows some restraint here. The instrumentals are also decent with their mesh of thrashing guitar work, piano passages, and pop beats. Moving on, “Soshite Boku ni Dekiru Koto” was oddly enough the first song that I ever heard from Day After Tomorrow and Misono, so I’ve easily fell in love with it. Misono is just right for the song and I love the guitar riffs in the verses and the after chorus. It surprises me it was never an A-side, but I guess it was only used as the theme song for Symphonia’s PlayStation 2 port.

With “VS”, we leave behind Day After Tomorrow for Misono’s solo works. “VS” was a pretty nice debut single for Misono and tied in effectively with the Tales of the Tempest opening and the PV. However, I disagree with those who state that there hasn’t been anything quite this good in Misono’s career since this song, since there’s been others. “Lovely Cat’s Eye” comes next and also somehow became integrated into Tempest. Like “VS”, this track has some very exciting moments. In particular, I love the chorus to death since it’s very loud and even features some catty moments. Overall, these two songs are among the biggest highlights of the mini-album.

The only song to actually have Tales in the PV, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World‘s “Ninin Sankyaku” was a breath of fresh air in the second era because it was just so epic. I really love the after-chorus where Misono backs away from the microphone and the overall feel is so effective to represent the games. Finally, “Tales…” is a new track from Misono that actually sounds more like an unreleased Day After Tomorrow track. It sounds like a mix of the generic qualities of “Starry Heavens” with the guitar moments of “Soshite Boku ni Dekiru Koto”. That’s not good thing either, since the track ends up being pretty boring. Oh well…

Summary

Misono’s first best-of doesn’t exactly scream must-buy, but it’s a good collection of songs from the Tales series for those who don’t already own the singles or The Best of Tales. I do think Misono’s solo work outshines the Day After Tomorrow songs and that demonstrates that Misono is doing better as a solo artist rather than being in a group. The new track was different, but not really worthwhile if you already own the other songs on the collection.

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