My initial reaction upon wrapping my head around the idea of FIVE discs worth of character vocal themes from Tokimeki Memorial 4 was, “Wow, this game sure has a lot of girls to date in it!” Sure, the album cover itself features portraits of ten girls, but it was the realization that there are five discs of music that really nailed the point home for me. All of this aural candy made my fanboyish head spin, including the “sugar free” karaoke versions of the songs sans vocals and the brief drama tracks with background music preceding some of the main themes.
Because I did not want to go into aural “sugar shock” from listening to 5 discs of character vocal themes all in one go, I listened to one disc per day. Trust me, that is probably the most judicious approach to enjoying this soundtrack. Thus, the following paragraphs will be my thoughts on each disc.
Disc 1: Smiling was a sweet and breezy song that I loved right away and really set the tone for this soundtrack. All the song’s components complemented each other and the instrumental version was lovely to listen to as well. Romance Gate had a solid sounding vocal, but the melody and some instrumentation choices were a bit cloying. What Am I… -Miyako Okura was a nice catchy piece of syrupy J-Pop but not the most memorable song on this soundtrack, save for the cool guitar outro. It is no secret that my favorite song on disc 1 was Smiling, and if I am to judge a dating sim girl based solely on her music, then Maki Hoshikawa is the one whose path I want to pursue.
Disc 2: Jewel in the Storm is a rather pretty ballad with a relaxed and dreamy feel. Love’s Poppin’ Beat was a very bouncy, helium-voiced track that placed a silly grin on my face for its entirety. What was odd, though, was that the monologue track preceding it did not have any spoken word, just music. My favorite song on this disc is easily In Science. It is a more unconventional feeling piece compared to the other music on this soundtrack, but in a good way. It felt and sounded like a happy medium between Tokimeki Memorial and Infinity music. It was a great track and the prologue preceding it was neat as well; I loved the interplay between the spoken voice and the “science-y” feeling music. I felt that disc 2 was stronger as a whole than disc 1, but disc 1 still has my favorite song on it.
Disc 3: Frigid and Complication were my two favorite tracks on disc 3, though I liked Complication far more because it had bolder layers. Frigid had some nice use of synthesized wooden flute and traditional melodies and felt like something I would hear in a Gust game like Atelier Iris. The vocals in those two songs were lovely to listen to without any high-pitched helium voices. The women sounded like women and not squeaky little girls. The melodies presented here had variations on classic J-Pop melodies and were still quite catchy. Winding Road was a very catchy, very bouncy piece of archetypical J-Pop with a slightly high-pitched vocal. It was an enjoyable track to listen to, and had a cool little bridge section, but was not as strong as the other songs. Still, disc 3 was a pretty strong disc.
Disc 4: Rainbow-Colored Notes quickly established itself as my second favorite song on this entire collection. The piano driven instrumental and lilting vocal were simply beautiful. I cannot say more other than, “Pretty song” to quote Gau from Final Fantasy VI. Shubitobi Be My Baby, by contrast, was a very whimsical track. Shubitobi’s vocal was a unique blend of breathy and helium-y, and the song as a whole felt like one of those colorful oversized lollipops you get at the amusement park. Sweet Exchange mostly had a boardwalk feel, like a subdued sunset beach party with the lights and sounds of the ferris wheel way in the background. The whimsy was there, but in the background.
Disc 5: Disc 5 was unique in that it had no monologue drama tracks. Although those were short, yet enjoyable with some neat music in them, they were still drama tracks that only the most ardent Japanophiles would not gloss over. The Radiance of Spring Breeze was a delightful pop track with some snippets of nice guitar work and a very happy vocal. Our Future was a very pretty ballad, but was not as strong or memorable as Rainbow-Colored Notes. Husk was a unique track in that it had a duet of male vocalists rather than a single female vocalist. One gentleman had a decent voice, but the other had a very nasal voice and that nasal-ness was rather overpowering. Maybe if the nasal singer’s vocal level had been lowered a little in the mix, the duet would have sounded more even.
As far as I’m concerned, the soundtrack served its ultimate goal in making me further want Tokimeki Memorial 4 (preferably in English) in the worst possible way just so I could meet all these virtual girls. Heck, “Battle 1” from the fantastic Tokimeki Memorial 4 OST is my cell phone ringtone, but I digress. Anyway, the music is generally good if you enjoy this kind of J-Poppy goodness. Sure there may be a tad too much bouncy J-Pop for the average listener’s tastes and some tracks are noticeably weaker than others, but if you’re reading this review you pretty much know what you’re getting into and are probably not the average listener.
