Original Composition: Noboyuki Iwadare
Arrangement: various
Vocals: various artists, see the Lunar Goods Archive for details

Tracks:

1. Tsubasa (Wings) [translation by Garrett McGowan at the Lunar Goods Guide] 2. Hikari to Kage no Rondo (Rondo of Light and Shadow) [translation by Garrett McGowan at the Lunar Goods Guide] 3. Killy Is No. 1 [translation by Garrett McGowan at the Lunar Goods Guide]

4. RabuRabu Fanii (LoveLove Funny) [translation by me on-site] 5. Fearii Rein (Fairy Rain) [translation by me on-site] 6. Re Mizeraburu (Les Miserables) 7. Adventure Road - Atara Naru Funade (Adventure Road - A New Embarkment) [translation by me on-site] 8. Senshitivu Doriimu (Sensitive Dream) [translation by me on-site]

To quote that profound turn-of-the-century sage Nick Rox on the subject of this CD's eponymously self-explanatory title, "What's in Lunar Songs? Lunar songs, baby!". And Lunar songs there are - songs from the games themselves, songs from previous (and, in the West, fairly scarce and hard-to-get) Lunar CD's, and new vocal arrangements of in-game BGM. At only eight tracks and a little shy of thirty-six minutes, the CD clocks in a little light (explained by the fact that the project was stretched out to a two-volume set, presumably to generate more revenue through the production and sale of two separate CD's), but the composers have packed a lot of punch into that short span of time, whipping up an at-times uneven but overall fun listen. The songs are very much in the spirit of Lunar - buoyant and platitudinal and not too profound. Lunar Songs 1's first track, the singsongy "Tsubasa" (the Japanese intro song for the Saturn's Silver Star Story) is perhaps exemplary of this - the lyrics are the usual unconvincing flying-away-to-another-world cotton-candy fluff, but the melody, rhythm, and instruments (a nice folk guitar accompanied by bold violins) effect a magical transition from serenity and wistfulness to awe and make "Tsubasa" overwhelming in its beauty and sense of wonder; the mood is well-carried and the music well-performed, even though the song itself hasn't much to say. The collection also contains new takes on two songs that should be familiar to Western Lunar fans - the theme from Eternal Blue's first ending - in the original Japanese version, "Hikari to Kage no Rondo" - and a vocal version of the original Silver Star ending music. "Rondo", to my ears, sounds rather strange and actually inferior to the English version; the vocals are weak and wavering and drowned out (especially in the chorus) and occasionally slightly out of sync with the instrumental music, and the two elements never come together to produce one strong piece of music. The Silver Star vocal song (called "Sensitive Dream") is well-rendered, I suppose, with a good beat and structure and justifiable focus on the talented (but occasionally (though forgivably) cloying) chorus. I liked "Sensitive Dream" well enough, and the song does make quite an impression, but it is pretentious and seems to think itself more magnificent than it actually is; you'll enjoy it more if you're partial to Lunar's "goddess songs" (which, as a die-hard Althena-hater, I personally don't happen to be). Where the CD really shines, however, are with the character-specific songs. Though Nall and Ruby's ballads ("Les Miserables" and "LoveLove Funny" respectively) are uninspired - they're sorta bland-cheery Generic Image Songs about love 'n stuff that don't really go anywhere (and "LoveLove Funny"'s lyrics and high-pitched vocals are completely inappropriate for the music itself, which demands an Ai Orikusa, "Daihakkensha no Blues"-esque rendition) - their human counterparts (Killy, Mia, and Hiro) fare siginificantly better with exemplary image songs that more than compensate for the lapse. Hiro's "Adventure Road - A New Embarkment", a bold, inspiring, full-steam-ahead song with spirited lyrics about the wind and stars clearing one's course for adventure, so fitting for Hiro the explorer, has always been a favorite of mine, while "Killy is No. 1" was a surprise treat for me - Killy/Kyle is one of my least favorite Lunar characters, but the song's just such a hilarious over-the-top ego trip - Killy the pop idol, "the only one man enough for the women of this world", crowing/crooning to a rock tune and electric guitar riffs about his "clean, white teeth" and hipline, with a chorus of teeny-bopper girls chiming in with "Killy! Killy's the greatest!" on backup. Seiyuu Tomokazu Seki's terrific performance makes the song - you can tell he's having a great time. On the polar opposite side of the spectrum, we have Mia's "Fairy Rain", very quiet, gentle, and reflective, like its singer, with the added, refreshing novelty of being a Lunar song that's actually a bit pensive and sad and not all cheery and happy. "Fairy Rain"'s opening instrumentation, with its faraway woodwind and woodblocks imitating the sound of raindrops, beautifully simulate the peaceful sounds one would hear on a rainy morning, and the soft, low-key tone and vocals, evoking the song's sense of taking refuge in solitude and quiet, simple pleasures, provide a meditative (and perhaps more heartfelt) flip-side alternative to "Tsubasa"'s often-blustery take on the theme of the desire to escape to a separate world. All in all, the mix works well. While the CD takes a very textbook approach to the genre and doesn't risk any daring new angles for its material (I can't help but wonder if "Sensitive Dream" might have been even more striking had it been performed a cappella, à la the Goddess Tower music in The Silver Star), it makes up in old-fashioned quality what it lacks in innovation, and it strives for and achieves enough success ("Killy Is No. 1" and "Fairy Rain" are worth the price of the CD alone) to make Lunar Songs 1 merit a purchase for any serious Lunar fan.

Notes:
1. There used to be a terrific site called Lunar Music School managed by a fellow named Garrett McGowan that, among other useful bits of Lunar CD information, had translations of the lyrics to "Tsubasa", "Hikari to Kage no Rondo", and "Killy Is No. 1" (as well as "Kaze no Nocturne" from Lunar Songs 2), but it has unfortunately closed up shop. As of my knowledge, McGowan-san has not reopened the site in any form; I'd appreciate it if somebody would tell me if he does.
2. "Adventure Road" *is* included on the Eternal Blue sampler CD that seemed to be all the rage among Lunar fans a coupla years back, so you may have heard it already.
3. I do not own the second volume of Lunar Songs, nor do I intend to purchase it - most of the songs it contains just don't much personally interest me. I will, however, urge you, dear reader, to get your hands whatever way you can on a copy, be it on CD, taped, or a sound file, of the first track, simply entitled "LUNAR", an awesome reworking of the intro song from The Silver Star (the "when all the land is peaceful" one in the Western port, y'know the one). (Geez, did I break the record for commas in that last sentence, or what?)

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