Well, I am absolutely stunned... in a bad way.
The Kingdom Hearts remixes approved for OCR are few and far between, and with tons of great source material (from the entire series) it baffles me. Granted I don't really keep up with the WIP sub-forum much, albeit I bet there has been some noteworthy stuff in there to be rejected (with good reason: standards).
It's obvious how this got approved, but I couldn't even finish listening to this. The quality of the recording, the instruments, all fine and dandy (nothing particularly special about the arrangement here either, granted the cello was introduced). I remember hearing a similar take on Hikari/S&C from Missy (an average mixer) a few years ago, but she actually just spliced the official English and Japanese renditions of the PlanetB remix together and the end result was - enjoyable.
At the risk of being rude, this just makes me sad. OCR hits its 10th year, has been met with some pro success, and we get a new KH mix! Unfortunately, this will not go on the playlist. The vocals ripped this song to shreds. The held note at the beginning was shaky, there were more than several instances where diotrans was not in tune, overpowered the music or didn't annunciate strongly. Also, the falsetto coupled with the guitar reminds me of a handful of volunteer praise and worship singers from my private school days.
In lieu of complaining anymore, I will just digest the fact that "they can't all be winners".