Opinions on "Lost in Thoughts All Alone"?

[indigoasis]

I've been listening to a full rendition of the Hoshido version of Azura's Dance a lot, and it's a lot of fun and easy to sing along with, and it got me thinking about what people think of "Lost in Thoughts All Alone"? I know most players don't care for Fates all that much, but I stand by the opinion that it has some of the best music in the series, so I'd like to see what other people have to say in regard to the main theme song of Fates.

So, what do you guys think? Yay? Nay? If you do like it, is there a specific version of the song or its lyrics somewhere that you like the most?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 minutes ago, indigoasis said:

I've been listening to a full rendition of the Hoshido version of Azura's Dance a lot, and it's a lot of fun and easy to sing along with, and it got me thinking about what people think of "Lost in Thoughts All Alone"? I know most players don't care for Fates all that much, but I stand by the opinion that it has some of the best music in the series, so I'd like to see what other people have to say in regard to the main theme song of Fates.

So, what do you guys think? Yay? Nay? If you do like it, is there a specific version of the song or its lyrics somewhere that you like the most?

It's a good song that's horribly overused, both within Fates and in external representation the series receives (i.e. songs in Smash). Azura needs to learn another song.

[null]

I'm actually of the opinion that Fates's music isn't that great on the whole, but I do very much like Lost in Thoughts All Alone. Probably my favorite vocal theme the series has had so far. I especially dig the one with Japanese vocals. I think the singer's voice suits the song better than the English rendition.

[Use the Falchion]

I love Fates' music, and while I enjoyed the version of the song in the game, I much prefer covers, like Amalee's cover of the song. 

[Alastor15243]

Like basically every FE song with English lyrics, my biggest complaint is how terribly-implemented said lyrics are, deliberately mispronouncing words to make them fit a rhythmic meter. The only songs to my knowledge that don't do this are the FEH Book 3 boss theme and Annette's stupid little cake song from her support with Felix.

[Sunwoo]

It's all right, but was definitely overused way too much. They shoved it in everywhere and had Azura singing just because ... she could? By the end of Fates, I was kind of over Lost in Thoughts All Alone. In contrast, while PoR and RD used the heron galdr quite often, it didn't feel nearly as overused. Every time it came up it had a relevant purpose, whether it was the galdr of rebirth or the galdr of release.

[Ertrick36]

It's not a bad song, and I don't take issue with how it's sung, really; maybe I just have low standards in this respect, or I just got sick of all the bitching about it.  A bit surprising that they actually had the voice actress of Azura sing the song since for the most part media companies tend to get more skilled singers to perform those kinds of songs.  She got way too much flak for that, IMO, and it's part of why I still don't take a lot of the crazies who go mad for "more accurate" localizations seriously.  Maybe there are some legitimate issues with the localization, but the fans took the issue too far.

I just take issue with the fact that it's such an overused leitmotif in the game.  Apart from some of the more mundane songs that I couldn't care less about (such as the songs used for comedic moments or that one overly sappy romance song I prefer Awakening's romance song), it feels like there's not a single song that doesn't have the "You are the ocean's grey waves" melody jammed somewhere in them.  It's so prevalent that by the time you've beaten even just one path you've probably heard the main melody several thousands of times even though you only heard the actual song a handful of times.  A motif can work, but not when it's used so often that the subtlety is akin to the silence of an elephant stampede.

[vanguard333]

Shouldn't this be in the Fire Emblem Fates forum, not General Fire Emblem?

[pizzadragon21]

I like it. Probably my favorite track from any fire emblem I have played, thought, I don't recall it actually playing in game... 

[Interdimensional Observer]

Songs with magical lyrics of special meaning in video games don't work for me. They feel forced, which they are. I turned off the volume every time during Fates' final battle and credits. 

Not to say I don't mind lyrical theme tunes, Jump Up, Super Star! from Super Mario Odyssey is fine and snazzy. And I've a liking for the plentiful and utterly eclectic nonsense of The World Ends With You (Three Minutes Clapping being a favorite) and Xenoblade Chronicles X (In the Forest, The Key We've Lost, So Nah So Fern, Wir Fliegen, heck, even Uncontrollable are enjoyable).

This said, the Smash instrumental version of LiTAA is good, I like listening to it. The base composition is solid, it's the words I abhor.

[indigoasis]

19 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Shouldn't this be in the Fire Emblem Fates forum, not General Fire Emblem?

Eh, if it's that big a deal, it'll be moved. I didn't really think to post it there, so my b.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Not to say I don't mind lyrical theme tunes, Jump Up, Super Star! from Super Mario Odyssey is fine and snazzy. And I've a liking for the plentiful and utterly eclectic nonsense of The World Ends With You (Three Minutes Clapping being a favorite) and Xenoblade Chronicles X (In the Forest, The Key We've Lost, So Nah So Fern, Wir Fliegen, heck, even Uncontrollable are enjoyable).

Music in XCX absolutely rocks. I really hope it gets some kind of port or sequel on the Switch or something.

[eclipse]

Yeah it's a big deal, and it's being moved.  Which means @vanguard333 and @indigoasis use the Report function next time.  I happened to see this, but I'm not here all the time.

[vanguard333]

1 minute ago, eclipse said:

Yeah it's a big deal, and it's being moved.  Which means @vanguard333 and @indigoasis use the Report function next time.  I happened to see this, but I'm not here all the time.

Thanks. I honestly didn't know about the report function.

[Samz707]

I'm not really a fan, it honestly sounds like a fan-cover with how the lyrics clearly were not made with the singer in mind and are honestly kinda hard to make out at times thanks to the actual music being louder than the vocals, it's like they got the VA  to do the song, then made literally no effort to change it to account for the English Language. (While I don't know if HOA from Echoes also did that, if it didn't then it at least wasn't super obvious.)

It's not the worst anime-y music I've heard but it's pretty unremarkable and while I've not played Fates much, knowing that Azula is apparently ment to be a good singer is going to be hard to take seriously with how it actually sounds. (Since well, it doesn't make her sound like a good singer, at all.) 

 

So I'm just kinda indifferent to it, it's not offensive like say, Smash's Vocal Track (And I think 3H's vocal track as well from what I've heard of it while playing Smash.) but it's not something I actively want to listen to like say, The Heritors of Arcadia. 

[eclipse]

7 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Thanks. I honestly didn't know about the report function.

Report doesn't mean "this person's in trouble".  It's basically a way to flag the moderator's attention.  If you explain that the topic should be elsewhere, whoever picks up that report can move it if necessary.  Also works for accidental double-posts.

[Magenta Fantasies]

On 11/12/2021 at 10:07 PM, Ertrick36 said:

It's not a bad song, and I don't take issue with how it's sung, really; maybe I just have low standards in this respect, or I just got sick of all the bitching about it.  A bit surprising that they actually had the voice actress of Azura sing the song since for the most part media companies tend to get more skilled singers to perform those kinds of songs.  She got way too much flak for that, IMO, and it's part of why I still don't take a lot of the crazies who go mad for "more accurate" localizations seriously.  Maybe there are some legitimate issues with the localization, but the fans took the issue too far.

I just take issue with the fact that it's such an overused leitmotif in the game.  Apart from some of the more mundane songs that I couldn't care less about (such as the songs used for comedic moments or that one overly sappy romance song I prefer Awakening's romance song), it feels like there's not a single song that doesn't have the "You are the ocean's grey waves" melody jammed somewhere in them.  It's so prevalent that by the time you've beaten even just one path you've probably heard the main melody several thousands of times even though you only heard the actual song a handful of times.  A motif can work, but not when it's used so often that the subtlety is akin to the silence of an elephant stampede.

I agree it’s overused. Super Smash Bros. Brawl did the same with its theme to an even greater extent, and it still remains one of my favorite video game themes. (And I also agree that I prefer Awakening’s romance song; Fates’ romance song was too sappy for my taste.)

Lost in Thoughts All Alone is one of my favorite tracks in the series. I’m especially fond of the Endgame rendition and the rendition Azura performs on stage in Conquest. 

I really enjoyed that Azura’s singing voice and speaking voice were by the same person. I like Rena Strober’s singing voice, though as a trained songstress who has taken lessons, performed and sang competitively and in choirs for many years, I don’t think she is incredibly talented. She’s good, but not amazing. On the other hand, Rena is one of the weaker voice actors in Fates, a game that for the most part has very good voice acting.

Translating songs from one language to another is extremely difficult. Lost in Thoughts All Alone keeps the meaning of the original quite well (and some of the wording changes are improvements), though some of the lyrics sound stilted when set to the tune.

[Ertrick36]

55 minutes ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

I really enjoyed that Azura’s singing voice and speaking voice were by the same person. I like Rena Strober’s singing voice, though as a trained songstress who has taken lessons, performed and sang competitively and in choirs for many years, I don’t think she is incredibly talented. She’s good, but not amazing. On the other hand, Rena is one of the weaker voice actors in Fates, a game that for the most part has very good voice acting.

Translating songs from one language to another is extremely difficult. Lost in Thoughts All Alone keeps the meaning of the original quite well (and some of the wording changes are improvements), though some of the lyrics sound stilted when set to the tune.

Yeah, it wasn't to say that the singing was amazing god tier.  Some folks just were way too mad and harassed the actors over how the localization was handled.  Don't really want to go further into talking about it for fear of derailing the thread, but I'll just say there are plenty of terrible individuals out there and I've had more than my fill of them on the internet.  I haven't sang competitively or for very long, but I've received some choral instruction from accredited instructors for a few years so I can understand some of the finer gripes people have with the song.

It's not just that they're translating a song, but that they're translating between two entirely different language groups.  You get all manner of simpleton weebs who decry the fact that localizations don't do literal translations of the original material, but the issue is if you do that then the translation will be a stilted, confusing mess of alphabet soup.  Translation from Japanese to English requires not just a knowledge of what certain words mean, but an intimate understanding of the two languages to the point where either could be described as a first language to you.  Or at the very least it requires the ability to contextualize the words well enough to know the general gist of what's being said, although having this limited understanding has its drawbacks.  One could argue what the lyrics should've been after the fact, but it's fairly miraculous they managed to get the meaning down and have it sound... sorta decent.  There are better localized songs out there, but I've also heard much, much worse in terms of translated songs.

All in all, I find it to be an alright tune, but there are other songs in the game I like more.