Jobie Reviews Music 137: ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 黄金の風 O.S.T vol.1 Overture (album) by 菅野祐悟. Req. by a friend.

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 黄金の風 (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind) O.S.T vol.1 Overture is a 2018 soundtrack album by 菅野祐悟 (Yugu Kanno). It is 26 tracks long, totaling 1 hour and 4 minutes of music. The album, being a soundtrack album, uses a variety of different sounds in order to create the soundtrack to the show it belongs to, in this case JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. Some tracks adopt a happy tone, while others are more solemn.

Keeping this in mind, it’s no surprise that a variety of different genres are explored on this soundtrack album. Some tracks adopt a prog rock style, while others adopt a more “dramatic” style. Of course, there are a few tracks that truly stand out from the rest. The track “Canzoni preferite” has a sound which no other tracks replicate, having a more dancesque sound than the other 25 tracks in the album (especially fitting, considering where the track is used in the anime that the soundtrack is for).

Another track that stands out from the rest of the tracks on the album is “alba”. It features (what I assume to be) an Italian folk sound, having a notably more positive tone than most of the tracks on the album (considering the plot of the anime this soundtrack was made for, that’s not surprising). It’s a very “feel good” track, having a calm tone to its sound.

When this album wants to create a certain atmosphere, it does so perfectly. Tracks like “tensione” create, as you might’ve guessed, tension while listening to them. This is achieved with the clever instrumentation and sound used throughout that track, and others like it. In other words, when Kanno wants to achieve a certain sound, he does so with ease.

It’s also worth pointing out that the main melody of the track “il vento d’oro” (which is by far the most well known track on the album) is reused several times across the soundtrack’s runtime. For example, it’s reprised in the track “Esperienza d’oro”. It’s reprised a good number of times throughout the album because, in the anime, “il vento d’oro” is used as the theme song for the character Giorno Giovanna, the main protagonist of the anime. The tracks that reprise the theme are associated with the character of Giovanna.

The aforementioned “Esperienza d’oro”, for example, was used in the anime for whenever Giovanna managed to fight back, despite both he and an antagonist being injured. This, in my opinion, is a clever usage of the theme in order to create a certain tone. It also makes it easy to associate the tracks that re-use the theme with the main character, since “il vento d’oro” itself has a very distinct melody.

My favorite tracks from this album are “il vento d’oro”, “alba”, “tensione”, “attacco”, “Esperienza d’oro”, “Canzoni preferite”, and “Un songo”.

Overall, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 黄金の風 O.S.T vol.1 Overture is a great soundtrack album. It’s able to achieve a variety of different tones, atmospheres, and musical styles with ease. This can be widely attributed to the well made, cleverly composed instrumentation which is present in the entirety of the album’s runtime. This soundtrack is worth a listen, even if you’ve never watched JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind before, as you’re sure to appreciate the great sound each track brings to the table.

Overall rating:

9.3/10

LINK TO ALBUM:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0SLGYonJPgxa7qRDxqtraX