CoN 25th Anniversary: 1997-2022
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R1: #5 New Bodhum (13-2) v. #12 JENOVA (FF7)

 
Which song is your favorite?
New Bodhum [ 5 ]  [35.71%]
J-E-N-O-V-A [ 9 ]  [64.29%]
Total Votes: 14
  
Posted: 7th November 2017 16:44

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New Bodhum is a great example of the difference in tone that the 13 series takes in its soundtrack; a combination of piano, guitar, and synthesized electronic beats with a vocal track creates a unique and possibly divisive whole. Unfortunately, the featured vocalist for this track and game, Origa, passed away a couple years back.

J-E-N-O-V-A suffered a fall from grace in this edition of our competition. It came in as a #1 seed last time, before falling all the way to #12 for 2017. The track won two matchups then before falling at the hands of the Final Fantasy Prelude. This track plays when you first fight Jenova, and you know from the first beat that you're in for it.
Post #213628
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Posted: 7th November 2017 16:47

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Listen Here!
New Bodhum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPEzumonJv4
J-E-N-O-V-A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6GrZYE2il0

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Posted: 11th November 2017 16:44

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I think this is an extremely difficult matchup for me. I'm not crazy about this FFXIII-2 track (in fact I'm pretty shocked this made it in to the tournament), but the more I listen to it, the more I'm amazed that they were able to combine all of these different elements into one coherent song. "New Bodhum" has every single reason to be a mess of sounds, yet it comes off decently pleasant and relaxing.

On the other hand, I think "J-E-N-O-V-A" is one of the best themes in FFVII, a game whose soundtrack I'm not very into.

I'm still unsure of the way I'm voting.

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Posted: 11th November 2017 21:18

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J-E-N-O-V-A has the distinct problem being really awesome and then completely screwing up the loop. The loop is really exciting and going somewhere, with chords going Fmaj, Gmaj, Abmaj, Bbmaj, then abruptly stops at a C major chord (with added flat sixth, making it C E G Ab). Then it just jumps right back to the beginning of the loop, in D minor, without much rhyme or reason.

I've actually come up with a "second half-loop" that basically extends the little sequence at the end, changing it to Fmaj, Gmaj, Abmaj, Bbmaj, Cbmaj, Dbmaj, and end on an E-flat major chord (with added flat sixth, or Eb G Bb Cb), which serves as a dominant chord to A-flat minor. Then we segue much more seamlessly into restarting the loop in the most distant key from D minor - A-flat minor. The loop is just transposed up/down a tritone for most of it, but the ending sequence this time becomes Emaj F#maj Gmaj Amaj Bbmaj Cmaj ending on a D major chord to which we add a flat sixth (D F# A Bb).

Now we return to the original intro's instrumentation and play this in that instrumentation...then lower the third to go straight back into literally the intro itself (D F A Bb), and we loop the entire track from there.

Absent this "correction", I find J-E-N-O-V-A frustrating as a music track.

Still, though...I'm not really feeling it from "New Bodhum". It's got jazz-inspired stylings, rich harmonies, and a vocalist, and that bouncing between F minor and F dorian/B-flat mixolydian, and the poppy rhythm, but...going beyond the moment-to-moment impression of this track I'm not really feeling much direction to the track. In fact the tonality-switching makes me feel like it sorta just wanders back and forth a bit aimlessly.

In a noticeable change from, say, "Dust to Dust" or "The Gapra Whitewood" (other tracks from the same game, the FF13 trilogy), I'm actually waiting for the track to end, rather than wanting to keep on listening to it.

At least J-E-N-O-V-A made me feel more of an emotional impact. Even though it only feels like half of a track, it still feels like a really great half a track!

(Sorry to hear that Origa passed away. However, I don't think this is a relevant factor for making a judgement on how much I enjoy the music. She definitely did at least a decent job with this track, but it doesn't blow me away.)

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 11th November 2017 21:20

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Posted: 13th November 2017 09:29

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Hmm, J-E-N-O-V-A, like Don of the Slums, for me is one of those tracks that comes off as atmospheric. Works very well where it's used in the game but gets on my nerves if I hear it standalone. New Bodhum... yeah, I;ll go with could have been a mess but somehow works out. It's unobtrusive. Voting for the one more likely to make it onto my personal playlist.
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