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Old May 15, 2021, 08:51 PM
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Aifread Aifread is offline
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Fresh 2: Too Fresh

My favorite album of 2020 by a very large margin. I've listened to this at least once every couple of weeks since it came out in January. I'm very picky about arrange albums--if it doesn't do anything to significantly build on the originals, I'm not interested. Don't let the goofy cover art fool you; I would place this on the highest shelf alongside the best from Kukeiha Club, SST Band, Zuntata, and King Records-era Falcom. The level of musicianship here is insane. Check the guitar riffs from Genocide 2 or the bass solo on Xak. All the tracks lead into each other seamlessly and the whole album is one massive 90s-tastic reference to Konami's X-Men arcade soundtrack. Did I mention how bonkers the track selection is? Every single one is a mega deep cut, truly VGM arrangements for hard-core VGM fans. You won't find Aquatic Ambience or Mega Man 2 here. It's the antithesis of every other fan arrange album out there, using the pay-what-you-want model not to dodge the lawyers of the big game companies, but as an opportunity to tread where no one else would dare. My first time listening I found myself shouting "Who does this?!" at my computer screen, shocked by the amount of effort put into tracks that very few people know or care about. It's a labor of love and I urge you to throw them something for it. It made me discover a lot of great music I'd never heard or looked into before, shaping my tastes and pushing me to expand my music library, which I think is one of the best things a quality arrange album can do (I've since sought out and purchased the albums for X-Men, Genocide 2, Syvalion, and Xak). This is not only my favorite of 2020 but one of my favorites period; it soared straight to the top of my playlist and I'm sure it will stay there for years to come.

If you dig it and want more, I highly recommend Robby Vocke's other project, Stupid Idiot, which covers such games as Bubble Ghost, Mole Mania, Panic Restaurant, Ai Senshi Nicol, and Mecarobot Golf.

Most of my other picks from this past year are long-awaited releases of older music:
DEVIL'S CRUSH & ALIEN CRUSH
Technosoft Music Collection - HERZOG & HERZOG ZWEI -
METAL SIGHT X68000 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK -30th Anniversary Complete Edition-
ORIGINAL 16BIT SOUND COLLECTION I - MAD STALKER for TRUE MEGA DRIVERS
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Original Soundtrack

...and some reprinted material that I missed out on the first time
Hessian The Original Game Soundtrack
SNK ARCADE SOUND DIGITAL COLLECTION VOL.15 (bought for Magician Lord)

Last edited by Aifread; May 15, 2021 at 11:00 PM.
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