Style: VGM
Primary Emotions/Themes: A fun soundtrack to ride a broom on
Thoughts: I'm going to be upfront here, the first time I heard this I did not like it. For whatever reason the instruments from the soundtrack and the melodies did not sit right with me. The owner of the label that put this out is one of my closet friends and I want to support him with every album he puts out so I still got it.
I was afraid that it would be a slog fest going through this for my collection, but coming back to it a few months later has actually been a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure what happened between the initial listen and now but the music is much less offensive to my ears, even to the point of me enjoying quite a bit of this album.
Cotton does not offer much in the way of variety. Almost all of the soundtrack is the same tempo: up beat, guitar driven video game music. The synths here are ooze PC Engine and immediately give it the old school VGM feel, even with only a few notes played. The guitar interacting with the old school synths is the heart and soul of this soundtrack and I'm not sure how I missed that the first time listening.
I've never played Cotton Fantastic Night Dreams, but watching some game play on Youtube shows me that this would be a game that I would enjoy. I love side scrolling shmups, and in that context all of the music, tempo and arrangement choices make sense. This is perfect shmup music.
Sometimes after I initially dislike an album I'll shelve it for some time. When I come back to it I'll sometimes have the same opinion, but other times I'm able to see a different side. I'm glad I did that with Cotton Fantastic Night Dreams. I would have missed out on a fantastic soundtrack otherwise.
Written June 30th 2024
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