30 Days of Sonic DAY 6 - Music Track of the Week 1: Vocal Themes [30DOS22]

[NegaMix]

Hmm... this is a tough one. There's been so many great vocal tracks over the decades, that it's kinda hard to just narrow it down to one. Luckily, most of the ones I'd have picked have already been picked by others, so I'm gonna go with...

Of all the team vocal tracks in this game, Team Chaotix just has my favourite mix of instruments and lyrics. It served as a great introductory track for the group's return/rebooting into the world of Sonic imo. I'd love to try and explain why I enjoy it in more detail... if I had any idea how to actually criticise music beyond "I like it" or "I don't like it".

But yeah, I really like this one.

[Blusolyn]

This Machine by Julien-K is one of my favorite themes. Hearing this theme for the first time in the game was awesome. I played it over and over in my CD player and it just never got old for me.  I think someone also mentioned Supporting Me which is one I love as well.

[Solister]

It's posts like these that make me reflect how much Sonic has influenced my life without I even notice.

And I still can't decide which track I'll choose.

I think my honorable mentions are:

6. Jun Senoue with Ted Poley & Tony Harnell - Escape from The City

A classic, one of the most memorable level themes and, as per this list, the best vocal tune from a level.
5. Crush 40 - Open Your Heart

Pretty much the first song I associate with Sonic. Think about Sonic music, I think about Open Your Heart
4. Julien-K - This Machine
3. Julien-K - Waking Up

These two are a great favorite of mines. Because of these two tunes, I even bought their albums (which is a shame none of them are featured there), and still remain two of their best songs.
2. T.J. Davis - Back in Time

Sonic R soundtrack does seem a love or hate kind of thing, I'm definitely on the love side of things. I almost took this one, it's Sonic in one of my favorite music styles, Trance and Back in Time really manages to equilibrate cheesiness with a great melody (Although cheesiness is already very common in Vocal Trance), but yeah, if you compare with some of the best in the genre, it does end looking like a very weak track.

...

 

1. Spencer Nilsen & Pastiche - Sonic Boom

How hasn't this one chose yet? I know some will say that You Can Do Anything is Better (It pretty much closes my Top 10), but as someone who grew with the US version of Sonic CD, there's no way to not love this tune. Pretty much the countdown is a timeline of my musical tastes: Going from a Hard Rock/Rock & Roll kid, to an Alt-Rock/Synth-Rock pre-teenage, to a Trance kid in my late teenage and now, more into ambient/easy listening in my early adulthood.

And not for that, Sonic Boom pretty much encapsulate lots of these genres with a mostly rock driven melody on the first part, to some background synths and some may say this is cheating, that beautiful instrumental breakdown at 1:27 which is the reason I chose this one.

[Muscles Maximum]

This has got to be my pick:

I fucking love this theme. The energy this track exudes is just off the charts for me. It's a perfect fit for Jet, it perfectly captures his confidence, attitude, his raw talent, and his speed. Most people I've encountered tend to prefer the Zero Gravity mix of this song, and that one's alright. But THIS ONE, this is THE theme of Jet and the Babylon Rogues to me and probably my favorite vocal theme for a character period. 

Spoiler

Honorary mention to the Team Chaotix theme, just perfection.

 

[Celestia]

So I enjoy a lot of the final boss vocal themes--I obsessively listened to Open Your Heart, Live & Learn, etc. as a kid--but I always found stage themes to be really cool. This is especially true of the ones in Secret Rings, at least beyond rocking the place memes and even that died out. But yeah SR's soundtrack is just really cool to me.

I gotta shout out Shadow's stage themes in SA2 too, I like the really subtle vocals compared to later takes on it (and former I guess considering R). I'd love to see them do something in that particular style again.

Oh also With Me from Black Knight is massively underappreciated, I considered that as my answer briefly lol.

[Johnny Boy]

 

Definitely endless possibility. It’s upbeat nature just perfectly captures everything about Sonic’s adventurous personality for me and how he’ll always look for the next chapter in his life even after just completing a world altering journey. And the remix for the symphony was just incredible.

 

[Sean]

Can't think of one that affects me quite the same way Sonic Boom does. I love both versions and the first one's a lot more hype, but the ending theme is my favorite overall for its melancholic "after the storm" vibe. It leaves you reminiscing of your adventures in this strange world unlike any you've encountered in your life.

[Multikaris]

This one here’s a decent enough novelty song from the Genesis days, but you’d be hard pressed for Sega or even Headcanon to acknowledge any non-Japanese albums these days . Sonic CD’s JP soundtrack option added a track from a Japanese album:

 

But no such luck for the US and other albums at the time. 
I also wanna give a mention to this here:

 

 

Ever since I heard their Sonic Boom cover, I wanted to hear them tackle this one, and they sorta did.

[Sonictrainer]

For this week, I'm going with Endless Possibility

From the time Sonic Unleashed leaked onto the internet till the time I actually played it, hearing it brings me to back to the day we got the E3 Trailer, heard the main theme for the first time, and raising my hype for the game to a new level.

[Ducktor Naldush]

It's so weird no one has brought up this gem / jam so far.

I think it perfectly encapsulates what or who Sonic is, and for that alone, I think it deserves all the praise it can get. It's very sad to me that "Reach for the Stars" seems to have become Sonic's character theme in the latest games (especially because I really don't like "Reach for the Stars" both musically and thematically) but it was fun while it lasted. When they reused this version in Black Knight I was totally taken by surprise, but in a positive way that hasn't been repeated with this series ever since.

The SA2 remix is great too, but the original Adventure 1 version can't be beaten.

[FReaK]

Yes. the one with extra cheese.

Well, this reminds me a lot of good times I spent with my GF. And I like that..90's feel, it simply brings back a ton of memories. Hard to believe that this song is 25 years old already, if my math is correct. And I still remember getting Sonic R on day 1 on the Saturn when I was like 6 or 7 years old. Good times.

[Tornado]

I can't really describe how much it caught me off guard that City Escape had vocals. As part of the whole package that was Adventure 2's opening (the opening cutscene and how it segues perfectly into the first stage like something from Sonic 3) it's just cool thing after cool thing after cool thing to have City Escape be fully vocalized; and while I find the instrumentation in the original version of the song to be pretty interesting it loses out *huge* by not having the vocal tracks (whether they just weren't included yet or if they hadn't originally been intended to exist).

[RealmDragoSA]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EYW7-hNXZlM

I'm not sure if I am doing this right, but my favorite song would be "Sonic Boom" from Sonic CD. My explanation is probably not going to be as detailed when compared to the other posts on here.  Anyways, the reason I like this song is that I love the lyrics, rhythm, and the fact that it pairs well with Sonic CD's opening animation. When I first played the game in the Sonic Gems Collection back in 2013, my attention was completely captiviated by both the animation and song that I often rewatched it for fun. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5hGNAsTz0uU

I wanted to mention my other favorite song just for fun and that would be my favorite character Amy's theme "My Sweet Passion" from Sonic Adventure.  While I know the lyrics have those rather interesting double entendres, I enjoyed the jazzy tones of the music as well as the vocals done by Nikki Gregoroff. Plus the other reason I like the song was that it along with other musical pieces in the overall Sonic Adventure soundtrack possessed quite a bit of variety in its musical influences and genres. As a general aside, I do still have the Amy Rose theme along with the BGM version of this song as my main theme on my Nintendo 3DS that was sold in Nintendo's theme shop. If themes were reintroduced into the Nintendo ecosystem through its Switch devices, I would probably use this theme on my Switch as well.

Edited June 8, 2022 by RealmDragoSA
Tried to Embed the Videos

[Piko]

I know it’s a bit cliché, but…

In my defense, it’s a fan favourite for a reason. Not only is it a banger, but it’s also the quintessential Crush 40 song: Jun going ham on the guitar, powerful vocals from Johnny and moving lyrics to top it off. I believe Live and Learn was the first C40 song where Johnny lent a hand in the writing process, and you can tell; he pretty much tailor-made the lyrics to fit his strengths and vocal range, and it really paid off.

Oddly enough, what cements Live and Learn as my favourite vocal theme isn’t the song itself, but how it’s used. The opening riff is the first thing you hear when you boot up the game, and almost all of the menu themes are based on L&L in some way. The player hears these snippets the whole game, until the final boss, when they finally get to hear the song in its entirety. It’s like a reward.

Edited June 8, 2022 by Piko
muchos typos

[RealmDragoSA]

45 minutes ago, Piko said:

I know it’s a bit cliché, but…

In my defense, it’s a fan favourite for a reason. Not only is it a banger, but it’s also the quintessential Crush 40 song: Jun going ham on the guitar, powerful vocals from Johnny and moving lyrics to top it off. I believe Live and Learn was the first C40 song where Johnny lent a hand in the writing process, and you can tell; he pretty much tailor-made the lyrics to fit his strengths and vocal range, and it really paid off.

Oddly enough, what cements Live and Learn as my favourite vocal theme isn’t the song itself, but how it’s used. The opening riff is the first thing you hear when you boot up the game, and almost all of the menu themes are based on L&L in some way. The player hears these snippets the whole game, until the final boss, when they finally get to hear the song in its entirety. It’s like a reward.

That's a great song too.

[Silvereyes]

I always loved Tails theme from Sonic Adventure. Yes, it is perhaps a bit corny, but at the same it is pretty sincere I think. There is something very magical about Sonic Adventure's OST especially, like it couldn't of been made at any other point of time than 1999.

 

[Sega DogTagz]

Good to see so much love for Ungravityfy. That would be my #1 pick as well.

 

For the sake of diversity, let me throw this one out there.

 

 

I particularly like this remix'd version, but the original is nice too.

 

I actually keep this one on my driving playlist. There is very little that can go wrong with the world when you pull into the fast lane and lean into the gas petal with this beat fueling your eardrums.

 

I'm going to have to try really hard to not just go back to TSR for all of these music threads lol

[NikoS]

Vocal songs, thre's so many I'd give a shout-out to, With me, Escape from the city, Number one, You are my hero, Team Chaotix, and so many others,

But, I'll narrow down to two songs, my all time favorite is definetely Open your heart

 

this is the song that made me appreciate rock (and metal) in general, the opening riff is still one of my favorite ever.

 

And, second-but-almost-tied-to-first is

The symphony version of endless possibility is amazing, the original was already one of the best sonic songs, but the brass, strings and everything else improved it a lot, and the reworked song in general, makes it almost first place, really one of the highlights of the symphony. 10/10

[DaBigJ]

Say what you want about Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), it has a lot of issues, but the music absolutely isn't one of them. Pretty much every single track and theme bang hard...and His World?

His World is the best Sonic the Hedgehog theme song ever produced. 

I know that this'll be a potentially controversial opinion, but I'm sticking my guns. Everything about it is just perfect, from the composition to the lyrics. This, more than any other, really feels like a Sonic the Hedgehog theme song, and it's something I wish stuck with the brand more.

[Spin Slasher]

I loved all the vocal themes of Crush 40 and it slaps hard, and my Crush-40 favourite must be Sonic Heroes from Sonic Heroes (2003) and my second favourite must be Live & Learn from SA2 (2001).

[Teoskaven]

Gonna go with Supporting Me:

To me this is de facto theme for Shadow (which Forces seem to acknowledge) and the lyrics perfectly talk about his feelings at the moment of the game it is played plus foreshadowing the end of the game ("I'll be losing you before long").

[Polkadi~☆]

As well as being a groovy track that says what Sonic CD is all about, this is a cruising Sonic track that feels very much like 90s anime ending song, to contrast You Can Do Anything as the opening song! Naofumi Hataya tends to be really good at invoking that sort of feel in his compositions and arrangements, it seems like; His music for Burning Rangers is based on that talent.