Highlights:
As I said above, there are many styles of music on this CD, so I'll just go through each and discuss the efforts in each.

First the funk. There are two tracks on the CD I think of as funk, "Boogie for an Afternoon" and "'Bee' Jam Blues", the latter being funk despite the word "Blues" in it's title. "Boogie for an Afternoon" is not one of the combat tracks, so it just meanders along at a nice pace with bass and synth elements. You could think of it as psychedelic funk, and I like it. "'Bee' Jam Blues" is a combat song between Trumpet and Electric Guitar with some chorus work mixed in. It reminds me of the song "Brickhouse". It's a fair attempt at that style of music.

Moving on to Reggae, we have "Nuff Respect" featuring "NAHKI". There are three parts to the song: the bass and drums, the lyrics, and the synth elements from the combat. The first element matches the other two, but the latter two don't match each other. The lyrics march along with little consideration for the music playing in the background giving an odd disjointed feeling.

The techno track on the CD, "Flyin' To Your Heart", actually does a good job of combining the combat with lyrics. Then again, I think the lyrics were part of the combat in this song, while in the Reggae song they are merely decoration. The track is high energy techno with Japanese lyrics and decent guitar work, making it one of the better tracks on the CD.

The only truly soft songs on the CD are "The Legendary Theme (Acoustic Version)" and its remix. The song is performed by two acoustic guitars with some soft background flutes and violins coming in towards the end. A nice change of pace and very pleasant to listen to.

Maybe I'm just partial to Salsa, but in my opinion, "Born To Be Bone" is the best track on the CD. With percussion and trumpet versus an acoustic guitar, this track is one of the most energetic ones on the CD. Of all the combat tracks in the album, this one gives the best sense of conflict and resolution. Frankly, the game is worth a purchase just for this level.

Both the Jpop tracks, are decent. Neither "Soft Machine" nor "21st Century Boy" do anything for me, but I'm not very big into Jpop. They aren't annoying.

Now, at last, we get to the rock. Honestly, a game called "Gitarooman" without any rock would be unbelievably lame. Anyway, "Tainted Lovers" is a functional goth song. Plenty of organ and chorus fighting with guitar makes for a decent song. "Twisted Reality" is from the first combat section and as such is a little slow. The training wheels are still on. The version from the game is lame, with the lame ramblings of a demon in the background. The remix is equally lame, but thankfully without the demon. I usually skip these tracks. Any song with the title "The Legendary Theme (Album Version)" has to totally rock. However, the legends about this theme seem to have grown far too large for the song. While you may like this song, I simply cannot defend it or its remix. The acoustic version was nice, the album version is certainly not going to save anyone. Lastly, we have "Resurrection" and its remix. If "Dueling Banjos" was a battle between two electric guitars instead of a banjo and a guitar, this is what it would sound like. The game version is a little more raw and shrill (in a good way) than the remix, but both are excellent.

Other Misc: Why didn't people buy this game? It had cool music, an interesting control system and a cheesy story about a boy saving the universe. Despite the fact that many of the tracks rub me the wrong way, when this album shines, it shines very brightly. I feel compelled to give this CD a good grade because I certainly listen to it frequently. I guess the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts.

Final Rating: B+