 | Album Title: Sonic and the Secret Rings Original Soundtrack -Seven Rings in Hand- |
| Record Label: Wavemaster | |
| Catalog No.: WM-0560/1 | |
| Release Date: March 15, 2007 | |
| Purchase: Buy Used Copy |
Overview
Sonic and the Secret Rings marks the hedgehog’s first venture onto the Wii console, and rather than following the traditional Sonic scenario of running through a city or a tropical beach, this game follows an entirely new direction by being based on the classic storybook of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. Since the game takes players through a mystical journey of the fictional Arabian world, the composition behind the music for Seven Rings in Hand adopts a very loose approach to the sound and culture of the Arabian night. Gone is Jun Senoue’s musical direction and instead we get a heavy contribution of music by the group called “Runblebee”. In addition, there are compositions from Sonic veterans Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumutani, and Seiro Okamoto, as well as the Arabian music performance group Le Club Bachraf, featuring Jun Chikuma, Takako Nomiya, and Yoshiko Matsuda.
Body
When I say the music for this game is loosely based on the culture of the Arabian world, I do mean loosely. The entire soundtrack doesn’t make it a point to strongly follow any particular choice of instruments that best represent the sands of time. A few selected themes on the second disc are exceptions, in which we do get rather nice string performances from Yoshiko Matsuda’s oud as well as a couple of well-performed passages from Jun Chikuma’s wind instrument, the ney. There are also the usual echoing chants to fill in some gaps and some punctuated darbouka use. Their highlight performances include “Ali Baba & Sinbad Rescued!”, “King of King”, and “The Legendary Blue Hedgehog”, though tragically they were assigned a few short event cues too.
The authentic productions are only a small portion of the soundtrack, of course. The entire first disc, which is populated by Runblebee, consists mostly of energetic hard rock. This isn’t necessarily bad in theory, but the instrumentals are repetitive and the lyrics are so cheesy; you could be fooled into thinking you were listening to a Saturday-morning English-adapted anime that was given little to no thought whatsoever in terms of quality. Songs like “The Wicked Wild” contain lyrics such as “Dino! It’s a jungle! Dino!”. The only way I can tolerate these songs is if they come with instrumental sections. This is especially sorrowful, because some of the guitar performances are actually pretty decent. “No Way Through” starts things off with a guitar riff that is repeatedly played throughout the song, followed by a very well-performed drum fill. In fact, “No Way Through” isn’t filled with lyrics for the most part, so it was one of the few songs I actually could enjoy.
OK, so not all lyrics are that bad. However, the only lyric-heavy song I actually could enjoy was “Unawakening Float”, only because it comes in short bursts. In addition, the song doesn’t state the obvious about what’s going on, unlike “The Wicked Wild” and its dinosaurs. I believe “Unawakening Float” was one of the few songs that actually felt elaborate. It starts with an acoustic guitar, then slowly builds up with the rhythm guitar, then comes in very strong with the drums, all while the lyrics simply go on to sing “Must I float away?”. Cheesy, but kind of decent. It almost reminds me of some of Pantera’s early work. That was only two songs. I couldn’t really stand listening to the rest of the first disc, especially not the main theme, “Seven Rings in Hand”, as performed by Steven Conte. It seems that the theme song that should have received an Arabian makeover doesn’t. It’s just a very repetitive rock song all the way through, save for some small changes in the lyrics, whose words I constantly forget. An uninspiring guitar performance is the final nail in the coffin and not even the decent solo could save it.
The entire first disc covers all the stage tracks, which makes it very convenient for people like me who enjoy going straight to the real deal behind the music. However, in this case, it’s almost as if it was pointless to begin with. Had the music been memorable, I might’ve given that better consideration. Moving on, the second disc is nothing more than the leftovers. It contains all the cutscene cues, the menu tracks, and the party themes from multiplayer mode. There’s really not much I can say here given that all the tracks last around one to two minutes and are nothing more than happy-go-lucky techno dance-beat fillers. They’re cheerful songs that only help to bring up the excitement of a 30-second mini-game. I think these tracks tried to mimic the funkiness behind such SEGA classics like Jet Grind Radio, but came up way too short. Not worth a listen on its own.
Aside from the aforementioned tracks by Le Club Bachraf, the soundtrack does have one more decent song, “Worth a Chance ~Original Version~”. It’s a very peaceful and pondering piano performance worth sitting down to. The first disc has the final cut of “Worth a Chance”, and the only change between the two is that the original is a piano/acoustic guitar blend, while the final version brings in the drums and a bit of electric guitar. Both are equally wonderful, but I’ll take the original because it’s much more peaceful, and after hearing such a rough soundtrack all the way through the first disc, it’s a breath of fresh air in the end.
Summary
I really can’t see the direction Runblebee tried to accomplish on Seven Rings in Hand. The music could have done a better job representing Aladdin’s world through the eyes of Sonic, but none of that appears here. What is left is a handful of cheesy songs and a number of short themes that can mostly be thrown aside. It’s fine that Runblebee wanted to continue showing off Sonic’s side of the hard rock, but it goes way out of bounds in the quality for this soundtrack. I’m willing to believe that Tomoya Ohtani (Sonic ’06) would have done a better job keeping a worldly touch while still keeping it Sonic style. If you think Crush 40 is bad, try listening to Runblebee. Seven Rings in Hand is not an ideal soundtrack for any Sonic fan out there.
