Let's talk music - Dawntrail really drops the ball reusing old themes

[Supersnow845]

I’m of two minds about this

I’m sick of them using 1.0 music in cutscenes (machinations looking at you) but on the whole DT’s unique new music is fantastic

Windswept echos (uquopacha day theme)
Cerelum smoke at high noon (shaaloni day theme)
Bygone serenity (living memory)
Sapphire over emerald (yak te’l day theme)

Are some of the best zone themes we have ever gotten

[Enkidoh]

Machinations is an ARR theme by Masayoshi Soken though, not 1.0 (1.0 music was mostly Nobuo Uematsu's work).

Reuse of earlier tracks is basically expected though - this is not a new game, but an expansion, a continuation of the game, so of course earlier music is going to return, where and when it's appropriate. It should go without saying though that new tracks should take priority, but why create a whole new track when an earlier one fits the theme? (Also, to be fair to Soken, the guy is in remission from lung cancer so it's probably taking him longer to get back into full time composing).

[Supersnow845]

Machinations is an ARR theme by Masayoshi Soken though, not 1.0 (1.0 music was mostly Nobuo Uematsu's work).

Reuse of earlier tracks is basically expected though - this is not a new game, but an expansion, a continuation of the game, so of course earlier music is going to return, where and when it's appropriate. It should go without saying though that new tracks should take priority, but why create a whole new track when an earlier one fits the theme? (Also, to be fair to Soken, the guy is in remission from lung cancer so it's probably taking him longer to get back into full time composing).

Because the quality of the new music is better. Machinations shows its age to hell and back, it’s a boring track and it’s come to be associated with boring scenes because they are basically always the “something has gone wrong non voiced exposition dump” cutscenes. Honestly at this point you can basically skip any cutscene that starts playing machinations and it changes nothing

If it’s a choice between using new music or old music in this case the old music is actively worse, hell I pointed out on reddit that machinations should be replaced with state of the realm and that would be a massive improvement and people seemed to agree with that

[TaleraRistain]

The two places the chorus of Smile gets used definitely felt odd and out of place. The full theme isn't as horrible and if you don't take it as Wuk Lamat but the WoL as the one singing, could almost be a positive theme of the WoL and the Scions when you pay attention to the words, especially the back and forth in the first part. It does feel like it belongs in a Disney movie or in a b-rated rom-com or something, though.

Really love the 95 dungeon theme.

[Loggos]

I haven't actually counted but this time it feels like they use their main motif (the one from the trailer pop song) even more than in past expansions? I know they always have around 2 themes that are part of almost every important piece of music (main cities, first two dungeon bosses, last dungeon boss, trials etc.) and while I understand why they do it, it already bothered me in the past. At some point I just get oversaturated by the constant repetitions of their main themes. But in the past they often had more than one at least. In EW for example they had the "flow" motif and the "footfalls" motif so there was some variation.
But in DT I have only recognised one so far? And it's even more prominent than themes from previous expacs.

[PaleYonder]

I liked a lot of the new music, especially the Tuliyollal themes (big jazz fan so I'm biased) and the later dungeons' synth rock (same thing), those are instant classics for me.

But I agree on the reuse of old music; I've replayed the MSQ quite a few times over the years, and I really need a break from some of those tracks.

What stood out the worst to me though was the reuse of specific Endwalker tracks that didn't fit at all here and felt terribly unearned, like with the defence of Tuliyollal - and the fault here lies with the writing issues that had been grating on me anyway; it actually soured the scenes for me to use those tracks.
Think of Endwalker what you will (I liked it beside a few minor gripes), but it was an end-of-the-world spectacle, culmination of a long arc, in which we and the Scions got to do important things. And the soundtrack was made for that, and IMO it worked great.
This story here, with a plot I couldn't care about, main characters I couldn't care about, and the Scions and us barely there as alibi presences, did not earn the same music tracks. And slotting them in there just because e.g. a Scion or someone from Endwalker gets to do something for once in a few seconds in a cutscene doesn't do the intended thing of making me well-inclined towards the present expansion cause of nostalgia and positive associations or whatever, it just makes me irritated with everything.

Finally, yes please new FATE music, I have to turn the sound off for FATE sessions, and even just flying over an area with a FATE and the fanfare starts, it's like "No, be quiet!" Honestly I'd like it best if it was optional like battle music; I like the zone music in the overwhelming majority of game zones and want to listen to it uninterrupted. That goes all the more if I'm going to be spending who knows how long in said zone to go from one FATE to another. Please just leave me the nice zone tracks.

[Ramiee]

I do think they should of had more new music in the msq since we are past the Zodiark era now.

[Lusarae]

What I found most unusual about the music is the theme for the capital city. It's modern jazz music, for what seems to be an Aztec themed city.

Which absolutely does not fit the theme whatsoever.

At the very least it should have been like the cozy night theme. The daytime music should have been something a bit more traditional for what you'd expect out of an Aztec inspired city.

[Connor]

I thought all the new pieces for Dawntrail were great as always, but I did feel like they reused far too many ‘elevator BGMs’ where it’s just the same one for every scene even remotely warranting the theme (i.e Machinations lol)

[SamSmoot]

I had the music running during MSQ (I think), but have it off now to stop the awful elevator music in Solution Nine.
If there was a way to have it off for just that location, I might leave it on for everywhere else.