The follow-up album to 2014's "A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy" arranged album recently came out for lossless download on Bandcamp and CD on Amazon. Like the original, Volume II is produced by Arnie Roth of Distant Worlds, and uses a smaller-scale instrumental ensemble for generally more low-key, "intimate" arrangements.

Volume I was a hit or miss affair - half the album I found quite pretty and true to the "intimate" moniker, whereas the other half suffered from some rather poor live production values and couldn't help but venture into some action-oriented themes beyond its scope.

After a couple listens, Volume II strikes me as a much more consistent effort. Certainly in production values, which are solid from start to finish (I suspect these are all studio-recorded as opposed to live), and in overall tone as well, as even the most upbeat cues work well in the flow of the album. I'm not sure if any single track matches Volume I's gorgeous FFI "Town" and FFXII "Eruyt Village", but I found enough to enjoy after a single listen on Bandcamp to buy it without hesitation.

My CD copy of this arrived from Amazon a couple days ago and I've been listening to it pretty non-stop.  Definitely one of my favorite FF albums in a while - part of that is just due to the fact that they included some of my absolute favorite original themes on it, though.  Selbina and Home Sweet Home alone would have made this album worth it to me (and I've been waiting for a recording of those patiently since seeing one of these "intimate" concerts a couple years ago).  Also nice that they've included some more recent stuff, though I feel like FFXV has much better tracks to choose from if you go with Shimomura's stuff vs. the other contributors.  Overall very very good CD!

I listened to this on bandcamp and was just as disappointed with this one as the first one. The arrangements are simple and the instrumentation is basic and boring. Also, I don’t know if they’re just running out of songs to arrange or they just picked simpler ones but the track list on this album is absolute trash.

Major disappointment. Would not recommend.

These are arranged for a small instrumental set so that's generally going to lead to more basic instrumentation. Exceptional arrangement or performances could compensate but let's face it, that has never been a hallmark of the Distant Worlds productions.

I get turned off by overly simplistic arrangements as well but I found this album to be in the safe zone.

It may not have been you but I remember reading complaints about the same themes being featured over and over. It's a choice between either that or branching out. Here are some of the themes featured in my favorite tracks on the album; I'll let everyone decide for themselves whether they're "absolute trash".

- FFI "Chaos Shrine"
- FFV "Home, Sweet Home"
- FFVII "Gold Saucer"
- FFIX "A Place to Call Home"
- FFXI "Selbina"
- FFXII "Royal Capital Rabanastre ~ City Upper Ground", "Eruyt Village", "The Phon Coast", "To the Place of Gods"