It's been a really long time since I played Snatcher. A really long time. It gripped me like a great book, from start to finish. All I did was eat, sleep, and play Snatcher, mostly the latter, for a few days. I'd been in search of the soundtrack ever since, and immediately snapped this one up. It's not the complete soundtrack. In fact, I think it's all arranged music of the original Japanese PC game's original music, but I also think that the America Sega CD version used some of these songs note for note.

Listening to these songs brings back a lot of the feeling from the game, from the spookiness of the first track to the "Miami Vice" feel of the second (as dorky as that sounds, it's a complement to both the game and the music). There are also a lot of tracks that are hauntingly beautiful, yet they never sacrifice the Japanese power-rock mentality. This is very moving stuff.

It's mostly written and arranged with amazing skill, and I'm not just saying that because I loved the game so much. This is a CD you can easily pop in and listen to from start to finish, enjoying every measure and every beat, at the very least, and at the most, reveling in some of its glory moments.

A few arrangements actually get sort of jazzy. It's obvious that each of the arrangers wanted to get in his own personal licks and edit in his own feelings. I can happily say that it doesn't hurt the original feeling the music is supposed to have, though. However, I can also say that the music that really stays true to the original is what shines the most for me, and that's what the majority of this CD consists of.

There's quite a bit of diversity here, a real separation between tracks. I guess that's to be expected - the game was the same way, many thoughts and moods colliding to create an almost devastating whole. What really makes the CD stand out is its sense of melody and rhythm, the very stuff that attracted me to game music in the first place, years ago.

Snatcher Zoom Tracks borders on getting my highest recommendation. I think it would be hard to go wrong here.