Soundtrack Name: Jet Set Radio Future Sound
Track
U.S. Game Name: Jet Set Radio Future
Musical
Genre: Various
Original Game System:
Xbox
Publisher: Scitron Digital Content
Inc.
Copyright Holder: Sega/Smilebit, and
others
Number of CD's: 1
Number of Tracks:
22
CD Length: 72 min 29 sec
Track List:
English
Composers and Performers:
Hideki Naganuma
(Comp.) Various (Comp./Perf.)
Review:
Intro: Anyone who's played the
original Jet Set Radio knows that the series has set a fairly high
bar for its musical content. In fact, this is my second most
anticipated soundtrack of the year (Xenosaga being the most
anticipated). The soundtrack can be divided into three kinds of
tracks:
1. Those written by Sega for the game (or the Hideki
Naganuma tracks)
2. Those written/remixed by other artists for
the game
3. Those written by other artists and inserted into the
game
I may be wrong, but by my count, in the game, there are 16
of type 1, 8 of type 2, and 7 of type 3. If you do the math, you'll
notice that not all of the tracks from the game are on the
soundtrack. Basically, none of the type 2 and only about half of the
type 3 are on the CD, so before you run out and buy it, check the
track list and make sure the song you love from the game is on
there.
Music: As I said earlier, I had some pretty lofty
expectations for this soundtrack, and, on most levels, it doesn't
disappoint. All of the tracks carry the same techno grove of the
original, and a number of the new songs are really good. I
particularly like the organ work on track 6, Oldies but
Goddies, and the lyrics to track 3, Funky Dealer, are
really neat. Makes me feel like I'm in a shady casino. But you may
have noticed that I said "new songs" earlier in this section. 7 of
the tracks on the CD are remixes of songs from the original, which
while cool, could have been new compositions. While it is certainly
easier and quicker to remix old songs, I hope Sega did it to add
additional connections between JSRF and the original, and to
introduce those who never played the first game to its better
tracks. I know it was probably just a money/time thing, but I want
to believe that they had better reasons.
Other Misc: The packaging on this CD is really pretty. It
has some cool artwork and screenshots from the game. The CD itself
sports a sweet picture of Gum. I've got no complaints about the
length, just beware that the last 3 tracks are 5-15 second sound
clips from the game and not real songs. This is a great soundtrack,
and a must buy if you liked the music in the game, but I just don't
think it reached the level of the original.
Final Rating: B+
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