Song of the Week 25.5: 'A Day in the Life of a Gambler' by JJT (redo)

It's about time I posted something up here. I apologize for my sudden and long absence that lasted almost two weeks, but I'm back and ready for some song reviews. This one (like most .5 editions) is coming off of one of the early SotW's. My review is basically a redo of Song of the Week 1, which is the one post that started it all. So the song is from Final Fantasy VI (the Final Fantasy series has some great remixes, by the way), and is titled 'A Day in the Life of a Gambler'. For the direct link to the remix, you can click here.

The beginning starts out strong, and through the first couple of notes I knew that this solo piano piece was going to be a jazz piece. The first seventeen seconds acts as the introduction, and at about 0:18 I can start to get the feel of the tempo. It's actually rather slow, but there are numerous little runs to add some flair (especially at 0:24). At 0:36 there's a small break after a series of chords, and it starts up again at 0:39. At this new section the whole song breaks out into a swing, which makes me correct about it being a jazz song. The tempo increases in speed as well. It starts out with some low keys on the piano being played as a bass, creating the swing. At 0:47 a melody starts to appear, which totally fits with the bass being played. Some very quick and short triplets come with the melody, adding even more flair here. Some examples are at 0:51 and 0:54 (0:54 has a little more with this run though). The tiniest detail in the melody here is key, although the song in itself is awesome. At 0:58 I'm starting to hear a lot more runs, which really adds excitement here to the song. At 1:04 I heard some of the bass act as a harmony with the swinging melody. The melody switches into something I haven't heard thus far, with even more bass having the occasional run to back everything up. At 1:16 it's now a small section consisting of bass and treble chords switching off in a swing. This right here is a great example of the bass and melody working together perfectly, for if one part of the song was gone, the section would be chaos. This repeats at 1:20, although at a much quieter and lower pitch. It gets gradually louder at about 1:23 until there's an excellent transition into the next section at 0:25. At 0:28 is the spot where it really transitions, using only a brief pause. This is one of the few times I find a complete pause in a song a good thing since the pause here was in the perfect spot. The bass starts up again at 0:29, but much quieter this time. Having some complicated, jazzy chords increase in pitch, another transition is born until a new melody plays at 1:36. The bass is gone here, getting rid of some of the jazz. There is a nice, lower harmony here though, which really makes this section sound really cool. The entire harmony makes the melody sound complete; without it, this section wouldn't be very much. There is a bit of a very soft pulse heard to create a light beat, although my attention was drawn more to the piano. This section continues all the way until 2:07, where there's a slight pause in the music. At 2:10 the new section starts out strong, with fast treble notes and the occasional bass notes for support. The treble notes here aren't entirely boring; they do indeed play the same note, but there are frequent triplets played throughout. This section lasts for quite a while, repeating itself until some new chords create a transition into the next section at 2:41. Here it goes back into that same jazz feel that I had felt before, with everything swinging away. The melody displayed here is almost the exact same as the one back at 0:47, but this time it's in the form of chords. At 2:49 there are some very unique chords here that create a couple of triplets, which is probably added in there to add more impression to this section (this also happens again at 3:02). At 3:09 there's a small change in the melody to slightly change the feel as well as a change in the key. It gets quieter and lower once again at 3:17, making the melody drop in pitch as well. The melody in this new section is hard to pick out, but it's audible if listened closely. The treble create more of a bass now, which adds a small amount of uniqueness into the song in general. This last all the way until 3:48, where everything slows down into one last, peaceful chord at 3:51 (this is one of those chords where each note is played by itself into the chord, but I seriously have forgotten what that term in music is called). The ending is great, and the soothing chord has that jazz-like ending which always sounds cool in my opinion. The note is held until there is no more.

Pros: Everything that was a part of this song was excellent. There were just some sections such as at 0:47 where the song couldn't have been played any better than that. The entire song had outstanding melodies, and even those tiny little triplets made all the difference to me. Every transition was just about perfect also. I really haven't even begun to say everything cool about it. This song is just about flawless, and I would highly recommend listening to this mesmerizing piece.

Cons: Cons...what cons? There really isn't any that I can think of at all other than having the melody be a little more clear during that last section at 3:17.

Overall: This song is brilliant, excellent, and completely awesome. Everything that was played in this track worked together and flowed with perfection.

Rating: 9.9/10