Final Fantasy VIII: Eyes on Me – Faye Wong

	Album Title: Final Fantasy VIII: Eyes on Me – Faye Wong
	Record Label: Toshiba EMI
	Catalog No.: TODT-5271
	Release Date: February 24, 1999
	Purchase: Buy at CDJapan

Overview

Ahhhhh Rinoa; how I hate you. How such a pretty theme could ever be associated with you I’ll never know. Before you think I’m about to trash this album, stay with me for a few minutes. “Eyes on Me” is the vocal rendition of the piece “Julia” that plays for Laguna at the bar in Galbadia. It is their theme; we’re told in the game that Julia wrote it for Laguna. It really makes you think, doesn’t it? This wonderful theme which expresses the relationship between Julia and Laguna, and it becomes the “song” on which Squall and Rinoa build their love for one another. In all honesty, it makes me gag. But for the sake of this review, let’s pretend we’re talking about Julia and Laguna.

Body

OK, so we all know this theme. “Eyes on Me” was the first vocal piece to appear in a Final Fantasy game, and it is the ultimate example of the traditional romantic ballad. It’s got everything: the sappy lyrics, the slow deliberate bass line, the soaring strings, the empathic guitar, and the beautiful female voice. ‘How could anyone ever write a bad review about it’ you ask yourself. The simple fact is, this song can’t get a bad review unless the person listening to the song can’t stand ballads. Luckily, I’m not one of those people.

But, let’s get serious for a bit. The instrumentation of this track is simply beautiful. It’s understandable that the traditional instrumentation for a ballad was used, and that’s because it’s been proven to work. The Rhodes organ is light where it needs to be, while the guitars are just heavy enough to provide the needed support for the vocals. Faye Wong does a fantastic job at really bringing through the longing and the distance we see in the game between Julia and Laguna. Wong’s voice is of the higher variety, and sometimes this causes the lyrics to become slightly merged together, but that can be overlooked. Her voice is just strong enough to contrast well with the instrumentation, without being overly powerful or dominant.

We’re also given an instrumental version of the track on this album, and through that you can really hear how strong the instrumentation is. Of course, like most albums from Japan, the instrumentation is there for karaoke purposes, but unless you can pull off the song, I wouldn’t recommend it *wink*.

Also included on this album is an extra track called “Red Bean.” The title may be a little odd, but this track is quite beautiful. We get to hear Wong sing in her native Chinese, rather than English, which allows us to really hear the power that her voice is capable of. Her lower octave especially is a fantastic contrast to the higher, more airy octave we hear in “Eyes on Me.” While this track sounds great, it’s nothing special. Great to listen to once or twice, but I imagine most people will pass by it after that. There just isn’t enough in the track to warrant a repeat on your CD player.

Summary

This is “Eyes on Me,” pure and simple. We all know the theme, and we all know the significance it has in the game. We know what to expect from it, and most likely many of us at one point or another have memorized the lyrics. The basic fact with this album is you either like the vocal theme, or you don’t. Because of that, it’s hard to really justify the true strengths or weaknesses of the tracks without compromising what this track means to the series, and to the fans of the games.

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