 | Album Title: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog -True Blue- |
| Record Label: Wavemaster | |
| Catalog No.: WWCE-31175 | |
| Release Date: January 23, 2008 | |
| Purchase: Buy at CDJapan |
Overview
Sonic the Hedgehog. No one is as true and blue as he is, bringing in a lot of memorable adventures and music along the way. To commemorate his (arguably) popular songs, True Blue is Sonic’s second compilation album. The first was the Sonic the Hedgehog 10th Anniversary Golden Disc, which focused more on Sonic’s chronological venture from the first game all the way to his 10th anniversary with the release of Sonic Adventure 2. True Blue: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog focuses more on some of the vocal performances and theme songs pertaining to Sonic himself that we’ve heard, ranging from Sonic CD to his then-latest outing Sonic Rush Adventure. True Blue was specially designed not just for fans to listen to their favorite songs again, but also to make it easier for fans to have some favorites housed in one easy package. So, are the songs that grace this album really true and blue as Sonic, or did it miss out on what fans really enjoyed?
Body
First thing’s first. This album features various appearances by Crush 40, so it’s geared more toward Crush 40 fans or fans who loved the vocal songs heard over the years when Sonic traveled into the 3D era, starting with Sonic Adventure. However, there are some really great song choices that represent Sonic during the SEGA CD and SEGA Saturn era as well. There are also two songs that received a very nice remastering treatment, as well as four brand-new songs that can only be heard on this album.
“Live and Learn” and “What I’m Made Of…” are the songs that got a really nice remastering treatment, thanks to Masahiro Fukuhara. Both songs received an entirely new percussion sound, sounding much more in-studio, especially “Live and Learn”, in which the drum performance in the original version sounded very out of focus, as though it were being performed live in a concert. The audio behind the guitar has been increased slightly during the guitar solo and given a bit of an echo. “Live and Learn” has a slightly better treatment of the two, since the audio behind the bass track has also been increased and the lead guitar during the entire track has been given a diverse echo.
All the other songs didn’t get this remastering treatment, unfortunately. However, some of the audio quality on other tracks has been improved for maximum enjoyment, especially when listening with headphones. A great example would be both songs that appear on Sonic CD, Japan’s “Sonic – You Can Do Anything” and USA’s “Sonic Boom”. Both these songs are the intros to Sonic CD, depending on what region you watch it in. The vocals for both songs have been greatly improved, and the instruments come in much clearer than ever before compared to the Redbook audio from the game disc. As a bonus, we even get to hear the full version of “Sonic Boom”, which is very rare to find and listen to.
Crush 40’s song choices on this album have been left completely intact. They are pretty much the same as you’ve come to hear (and enjoy) elsewhere, whether “Open Your Heart” from Sonic Adventure or “Sonic Heroes” from, well, Sonic Heroes. So, aside from all of that, there are also Sonic’s own theme songs within the same game, such as both versions of “It Doesn’t Matter”, each appearing in their respective Adventure title, SA1 or SA2. I personally prefer SA1’s version of “It Doesn’t Matter” since it’s more hair metal and the rhythm guitar is very progressive and deep. SA2’s version is much more light-hearted and cheerful. To each his own, as the CD allows fans to hear both once again.
Even Sonic ’06 gets representation with two versions of “His World”: the original one by Ali and Matty, and the other version performed by Zebrahead. Great choices, and those who didn’t pick up Several Wills may finally be able to hear the exclusive cover performance by Zebrahead. I kind of wish that they included “Dreams of an Absolution (LB vs. JS Remix)” while they were exploring Sonic ’06, as that continues to be my favorite song, so that was a very disappointing omission for me.
Even the handheld games are faithfully represented on this album. Sonic Rivals 2 gets “Race to Win”, by Ted Poley, whose last performance for the console games was way back in SA2. “Race to Win” is a relatively short song, clocking just barely under a minute. It was composed to be a looped song, but is nevertheless a very frantic and fast hard rock track reminiscent of “Escape from the City”, also on this CD. It’s very catchy, but fails only because it’s short. Another song, “Right There, Ride On”, was composed by the famed Jet Set Radio composer, Hideki Naganuma. The version we get is the remastered version originally heard on the Sonic Rush album, Groove Rush. It’s pretty much the ultimate fan-favorite track, with its retro-style music, complete with a nice funky bass that pushes the boundaries of the DS’s sound.
We also get some very strange choices of music on the album that I could do without. A strange choice is “Sonic X Theme”. When I first read this, I thought they meant the Japanese theme “Sonic Drive”, but when I heard it, I was actually pretty surprised to find it was the 4Kids version of the Sonic X intro theme. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very bouncy and catchy song, but it’s pretty weird seeing an American-composed children’s song appear on an exclusive Japan-released album. Maybe it was to let the Japanese audience hear what we in the USA have to deal with, but I think this song had no necessity in appearing here.
Likewise, we get the rather uninspiring song “Seven Rings in Hand”, as heard in Sonic and the Secret Rings. Those who played that game will know how hauntingly repetitive this song was on the menu screen, and it’s another song I could have done without. There’s also “Super Sonic Racing”, a techno vocal from Sonic R that suggests there is some sort of dance craze going on that I’m not aware of in which you supposedly have to do the “Super Sonic Racing”. No thank you.
There’s not much else to say about the rest of the songs contributed, so let’s get on with the four special songs on this album. First off is “A New Venture (Surfin’ S.R.A. Remix)”. There isn’t much elaborate in this remix; it feels more like a completed song for one that originally lasted 30 seconds. It did receive a remaster treatment that improved stereo quality, unlike the original version as heard on the DS for Sonic Rush Adventure.
“Angel Island (SSBB Remix)” is the best exclusive track on this album. Composed by Jun Senoue, this track was remixed for Sonic’s stage on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Jun Senoue was best known for doing some hard rock covers of existing Sonic themes from the Genesis days, such as Green Grove Zone in the form of “Windy Valley”. Angel Island was one of my favorite pieces on the Genesis’ Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and to see Jun give it an epic guitar treatment left me very joyous. It wasn’t enough just to see Sonic appear on Brawl; we also got a track that allowed Nintendo players to see how awesome Sonic’s music can really be. For some reason, the lead guitar reminds me of the Justice League Unlimited intro. Maybe that’s why I feel “Angel Island (SSBB Remix)” sounds so epic in my head.
Next up is “Seven Rings in Hand (Crush 40 version)”. Yes, Crush 40 covers yet another song. It’s not really one of my favorites, since the guitar sounds so incredibly sporadic in the lead section, especially in the intro, and the vocal performance by Johnny sounds pretty uninspiring and very low. It comes complete with a guitar solo that the original didn’t have, and there are some sections around the remix that, in comparison to the original, don’t feel so repetitive. A better performance than the original, but that’s not really saying much, unfortunately.
And finally, “Open Your Heart (Crush 40 vs. Bentley Jones Remix)”. A great way to end the album, this remix keeps the original version intact; only now the guitar has been given a static effect, and an entirely new drum performance comes in, loud and full of power, with a few new rap lyrics performed by Bentley Jones himself. It’s kind of cheesy, but you just can’t help but sing along with him once you get the lyrics down. An entirely new experience behind “Open Your Heart”, and I’m glad to see this song get an awesome remix.
Summary
True Blue is not a bad compilation album for Sonic the Hedgehog. I wouldn’t really say it is the best of Sonic the Hedgehog, only because not a lot of fans may appreciate Crush 40 in one way or another, but for what it’s worth, this album serves as a great way for fans to catch up on Sonic music if they weren’t already able to collect previous vocal albums or are having a hard time finding some of the rarer, hard-to-locate songs. The bonus tracks and the remasters are also a great reason not to miss out on True Blue — while this album includes some rather strange or bad song choices and omits some better performances, I highly recommend it only to the fans who missed out on many Sonic albums that carry the songs they enjoyed listening to as they played various Sonic the Hedgehog games.
