So I pretty much finished my retrospective of my favorite music from my favorite video game series, but when I was reviewing the Touhou soundtracks, I noticed that I was excluding some of their best scores, those from the Music CDs. Touhou's Music CDs are super underrated and boast some of the strongest music ZUN has ever composed. They can be dark, experimental, and downright exhausting to listen to (in a good way!), so I wanted to rank all of them as well:
1. Changeability Of Strange Dream (#3)
Man, where do I even start with this one? When I said the CDs can be exhausting to listen to, this is the one I was talking about. CoSD's music is intense, every single song amps up the drama, melancholy, and eerieness with melodramatic piano solos and hard-hitting techno. But even more than that, CoSD's music is good, like really good. Every single song knocks it out of the park, to the point where sometimes I just get exhausted by how good it all is. The album grabs you with the ode to ZUN himself and never lets you go for all of its eleven songs. The ratio of remixes to original music is perfect, and both halves absolutely knock it out of the park. As far as the original music goes, we have the beautiful "Kid's Festival - Innocent Treasures", the quirky "Boys And Girls Of Science Era", and the chill-inducing "Border Between Dream And Reality". For the remixes, we got the return of two of Imperishable Night's best pieces, the criminally underrated Yukari theme "Night Falls", the phenomenal remix of "Mystic Maple" that pretty much invalidates the original, and the crushingly hopeless remix of one of Seihou's most memorable themes, "Phantasm Machine - Phantom Factory". Seriously, I cannot understate how good this album is, it might just be the best thing ZUN has ever done.
2. Dolls In Pseudo Paradise (#1)
If you like the uniquely distorted sound of Embodiment Of Scarlet Devil, wanted some more PC-98 and Seihou remixes, or wanted a Touhou soundtrack that's dark and eerie, then Dolls In Pseudo Paradise is for you. The story alone is one of the creepiest takes on Gensokyo to date, and the whole soundtrack is just plain beautiful. It's the perfect showcase of what makes early ZUN so great, with every song having a compelling sense of melancholy even with how upbeat they could feel on the surface. There aren't too many original tracks, but the ones that do exist like "Forest Of Dolls" and "Legend Of Hourai" are great, and the remixes stem from so many of ZUN's different works like Seihou, the PC-98 games, and even the obscure Torte Le Magic. And even with the variety, there's a consistently dark tone makes the soundtrack feel more cohesive than many of the other music CDs. It's also really hard for me to list my favorite tracks here, you really need to listen to the whole thing. The remixes "Enigmatic Doll" from Seihou 2, "UN Owen Was Her" from Touhou 6, "Eternal Shrine Maiden" and "Strange Oriental Discourse" from Touhou 1, and "Reincarnation" from Touhou 3 are all probably the highlights, all of which completely surpass the original compositions. The whole CD is great, though, so many of the themes rank up with some of my favorite Touhou music ever.
3. Magical Astronomy (#5)
As far as the original tracks go, Magical Astronomy is easily the high point of the CDs, with a whopping seven original tracks and all of them ranging from great to absolutely fantastic. The whole CD has wondrous and soaring vibe that perfectly fits its story about going into space. I also love how certain songs feel like they're directed towards pivotal figures in space travel, particularly "The Wheelchair's Future In Space" obviously being about Stephen Hawking. As far as highlights go, I love the awe-inspiring "Welcome To The Moon Tour", the emotional "The Far Side Of The Moon", the jolly "Greenwich In The Sky", and especially the epic "G Free" that could've been a perfect final boss theme (wait a sec...). There aren't too many remixes here, but along with a great Shoot The Bullet remix, we also get easily the greatest remix in all nine CDs in "Necrofantasia", which takes all of the previous versions of the song, improves the instrumentation in case the original hurts your ears, and turns it into a beautiful and impactful seven-minute track. Overall, Magical Astronomy is absolutely worth listening to if you're a Touhou fan, containing some amazing original tracks and ZUN's best remix.
4. Neo-Traditionalism In Japan (#7)
This is the perfect example of a CD that manages to juggle strong remixes and original tracks without one category overshadowing the other. Nearly every track here is great, with hardly a weak point to be found. For the original tracks, we get "Led On By A Cow To Visit Zenkou Temple" which nails the title theme vibe, along with the eclectic "Izanagi Object". As for the remixes, we have "Let's Live In A Lovely Cemetery" and "Heartfelt Fancy" getting great updates, along with "Fate Of Sixty Years" and "Youkai Back Street Road" getting remixes that absolutely bring them to new heights. My only issue with this CD is my struggle to figure out what kind of vibe it's going for, as if it's trying to capture that same weird vibe of Dr Latency and Dateless Bar without really going all the way. Despite that, Neo Traditionalism In Japan has easily one of the best selections of songs, with highlights for both the remixes and original tracks.
5. Dr Latency's Freak Report (#8)
Dr Latency's Freak Report is weird and experimental, but unlike a certain other CD ranked lower than this, I think it tends to work a lot more. It's got a good balance of strong original tracks and a great selection remixes, many of which improve on the originals, and the CD has a general sense of consistency throughout. My only issue is that most of the remixes are so good, they kinda overshadow the original tracks. "The Frozen Eternal Capital", "The Shining Needle Castle", and "The Sea Where The Home Planet Is Reflected" are already some of my favorites in the series, so having them all in the same CD is a bit unfair. Still, there are some original tracks worth noting like "Natural History Of The Childlike Duo" and "Schrodinger's Bakeneko". Frankly, Dr Latency's Freak Report is a really good and consistently strong CD, but the original tracks, while still great, do struggle to match up against the phenomenal selection of remixes.
6. Ghostly Field Club (#2)
The first Hifuu club CD and easily the most solid of the bunch, in my opinion, with a pretty good lineup of both remixes and original tracks. My biggest problem with Ghostly Field Club is that it saves all of its best tracks for the second half of the CD. The first half has some solid remixes and great original tracks, but from "Mary The Magician" onward, the CD just becomes amazing, with some of my favorite tracks in both categories. "Mary The Magician" is an experimental and eerie track that borders into horror and "Illusionary Eternal Festival" feels like a triumphant yet melancholy credits theme. As for remixes, we get a strong remix of "Necro-Fantasy" along with an even better remix of Seihou's already great "Magical Girl Crusade". The second half even brings in an unused track from one of the mainline games just to make it even more special. Overall, I like Ghostly Field Club a lot, but I'd rank it as one of my favorites if the whole thing was just a bit more consistently strong.
7. Dateless Bar "Old Bar" (#9)
This CD goes for a bit of a goofy vibe, trying to create the feel of getting drunk at a bar or something. As a result, a lot of the music is experimental, and I do respect ZUN for trying something new with this one. Not much of the original songs really stuck with me, with the except of "Old Adam Bar" which might be one of my favorite original CDs songs in general. I also really love the remixes in this CD which tend to improve on their source material more often than not. "Omiwa Legend" gives one of the less memorable tracks a great techno vibe that makes it hit so much harder, "Pandemonic Planet" is generally higher quality, and "Rural Makai City Esoteria" adds more instruments to make it sound fuller. Not all the remixes are as strong, "The Lost Emotion" is exactly the same as the original, but overall, they're welcome additions. Overall, I quite like Dateless Bar, it has some unique original songs and great remixes, but it also doesn't stack up to the best CDs of the bunch.
8. Retrospective 53 Minutes (#4)
Some of the CDs suffer from an issue where the remixes completely overshadow the original songs, and this is definitely one of the most blatant instances of this. Retrospective 53 Minutes includes some of my favorite songs in the series like "Reach For The Moon, Immortal Smoke" and "Higan Retour", along with outstanding remixes of songs like "Locked Girl" and "Retrospective Kyoto", but the original songs are a bit lacking. The CD goes for a more chill and laidback vibe with a lot of its music which I'm just not a big fan of, with the worst being "Blue Sea Of 53 Minutes" which is relaxing to listen to but also completely lacking in melody. Still, the original tunes aren't all bad, I do really like "Hiroshige No 31" which is an upbeat tune all about trains. However, with only four original tunes and just one of them standing out, Retrospective 53 Minutes is definitely just carried by the remixes.
9. Trojan Green Asteroid (#6)
This CD is easily the weakest for me for a number of reasons. First of all and most importantly, the original tracks are mostly misses. The only original track in the CD that I really love is "Satellite TORIFUNE", which captures the exciting vibe of some of the series' best menu themes. As for the remixes, they're also a bit hit or miss. The remixes of "Hartmann's Youkai Girl" and "Desire Drive" actually surpass the originals, utilizing Ten Desires' distinct soundfont to give the songs a new twist. On the other hand, the remixes of "Emotional Skyscraper" and "UFO Romance", while still great songs, are nearly exactly the same as the original. It also feels like the CD is trying to go for a space-y vibe that other CDs do so much better than this one. Not to be too harsh, any music from ZUN is great and there are some great songs here, but Trojan Green Asteroid is a bit of weak point.
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