ReMix: Final Fantasy VII 'Sweeter Than Honey'

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Question: is anyone else finding that they randomly and without provocation can't stop humming the chorus to that Asterix mix, still? Right, so it's been an awfully busy week for moi and not so much has been posted. Frankly, this entire semester is going to be one of the busiest times for me to date, as job+college+OCR is exacerbated by my taking courses this go around that are a bit more time-consuming. At any rate, the weekend is almost here, and I'm using my lunch break today to post this FF7 mix from newcomer Will Buck, who had a rather flamboyant message to go with it:

"Once upon a time, there was a boy. One fateful summer, he was spending a dreary day of his summer vacation in his beach house with NOTHING TO DO. Such horror! Fortunately, he brought along his extensive collection of FF CDs for such occasions. He chose to listen to an album he hadn't heard in a while: FFVII Reunion Tracks. As he listened to one of the...more ill-chosen *cough* of the tracks, he found himself thinking, to his surprise, "You know, there's a LOT of musical material in this track! I bet I could remix it!" The result is what you have here, this utterly perverse arrangement of "Honeybee Manor" from FFVII. Furthermore, this is my firstest ever submission to the site. Go me. w00t, and so forth."

I wish I had a summer vacation in a beach house, with nothing to do. Hell, I wish I had a summer vacation period. At any rate, the ReMixer's spare time proved productive as this orchestral mix takes what many consider to be a lackluster (or at least mediocre) original and makes it both palatable and fresh. Though the samples aren't amazing and the arrangement is at times basic, the true allure lies in that Will Buck's significantly altered the original to a pleasant and varied track. Strong use of pizzicato, sentimental solo strings, good tempo fluctuation, and an evolving use of the main motifs in new contexts keep the piece interesting. There are also great swells in dynamics and quite a bit of melodrama or "symphonic cheese" (in a positive sense) with some of the primary statements of the refrain. "Sweeter than Honey" in that sense is a title that completely fits. Judge Israfel had a mixed list of technical insights that were both positive and negative but constructive in either case that bear repeating:

"-a bit on the quiet side/ muffled and distant quality to the sound
--samples do have a sort of "general midi" sound, but they're serviceable
--within the genre of symphonic music, this is perhaps a bit too straightforward and the arranging tends to be on the sparse side
--form seems lack a certain sort of logic- what I mean is that arrangement comes off as a bit sectionalistic. Rather than a logical sequence of ideas designed to build tension and maintain interest, the piece seems to be made up of fairly independent sections, and as such there's a lack of focus and forward momentum to the work
--I do appreciate the significant change in style and overall feel between the original and your arrangement
A nice mix that tilts to the better side of average "

Ari, who was familiar enough with the original to express a... strong dislike for it, had the most positive angle:

"Oh man. The original of this song sucked SOOOOOOO MUCH. HA! This is so cool! ...Really impressed here."

Indeed. Always subtle. At any rate, I think those familiar with the original might appreciate more what Will Buck's been able to do, but fans of orchestral/FF stuffs should find this an enjoyable ReMix regardless. Cool.

― djpretzel