Crash Fever Original Soundtrack
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Album Title: Crash Fever Original Soundtrack |
| Record Label: noisycroak Records |
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| Catalog No.: NCRI-0020 |
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| Release Date: May 16, 2016 |
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| Purchase: Buy at Amazon Japan |
Overview
Crash Fever is a mobile game blending puzzle and RPG elements together and features compositions from noisycroak’s Hiroyoshi Kato. The style of music is mostly frenetic electronic music. How does the soundtrack turn out for a standalone listen?
Body
The album starts off with “Follow the White Rabbit,” a tune that definitively sets the tone for the remainder of the soundtrack. Bright piano passages with a memorable melody pepper a fast-paced trance sound that also incorporates some dubstep elements as a bridge to help break up the energy. Although the choice is rather odd and sounds misplaced, it is strangely needed. I say this because much of the album to follow doesn’t necessarily offer any respite to the high energy that follows, making for a somewhat homogeneous listen, despite each track’s defining characteristics that attempt to differentiate it from the other tunes on the album. Whether it is “DreamScanner,” with its crystalline synth and brief moments with a more dreamy synth without the constant droning of the accompaniment or “Airflow,” that is more reminiscent melodically of something, at times, one might here in a modern Megaman game, the end result is still the same frenetic music used to match the gameplay onscreen where the underlying culprit is the bass line that defines it.
Some tunes attempt to change things up from the overall tone, despite the same general style, by making things a bit more ominous sounding (“Ghosts”), tense (“Administrative Division”), or including vocals (“I will never let you go,” “Downfall”), but only provide negligible respite to the similarities between the tracks. One tune, however, “Alice in the ALICE” offers the only true break from the constant barrage of high energy tunes. The slower tempo with its bright synths, excellent melody, and catchy rhythms is by far the highlight of the entire release and is not only a welcome addition, but a shining beacon in a sea of sameness.
Summary
Despite reasonably high production values, Crash Fever Original Soundtrack suffers from a general lack of stylistic variety. While this may suit the gameplay at hand, on a standalone listen, the end result is just tiring, monotonous, and generally forgotten after listening to it. I’d recommend previewing the tunes on Amazon prior to purchase and only purchase any tunes that may resonate with you.
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
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Posted on October 19, 2017 by Don Kotowski. Last modified on October 19, 2017.
About the Author
Don Kotowski Currently residing in Philadelphia. I spend my days working in vaccine characterization and dedicate some of my spare time in the evening to the vast world of video game music, both reviewing soundtracks as well as maintaining relationships with composers overseas in Europe and in Japan.
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