I guess Falcom didn't feel right continuing their Vocal Collections that they published in the '90s with King Records. That four-volume set is lovely in its own right. But instead of naming his album "Falcom Vocal Collection 5," they just restarted and simplified the album title to simply "VOCAL." And guess what? It's awesome. As if there were any doubt.

The first "Vocal" includes a lovely assortment of vocals that were new at the time, and some classic tracks as well. The "classic" tracks were first found on Falcom Vocal Collection 1 (and 2) and, before that, early albums like "Music From Ys" and "Falcom Special Box '89." The new tracks come from the Sora no Kiseki games. So basically, you have one album with both "Endless History" (i.e. the best vocal track Falcom ever made ever, you cannot question me on this) and the new, catchy sound of "Silver Will, Golden Wings" and "Where the Stars Are" from Sora no Kiseki. Good stuff, my friends. Good stuff.

Now, later on, Falcom goes on to publish VOCAL 2 and VOCAL 3, which is almost entirely new stuff, and there's a lot of new stuff between the release of this album and the present day (2012). Be sure to check out those reviews to see what else Falcom has up their vocal performers' sleeves.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann