Bentley Jones To Return to Sonic For New Official Projects

For "future projects" I assume they are having him remix something for the Gens remake?

Can't say it's the most anticipated artist I'd ever want to see do a comeback to the series, in fact, that likely goes to the Richard Jacques and T.J. Davis duo themselves.

Apparently, there's an "Original" and Ballad Mixes for Diamond in the Sky:

Which, by the way, the hell is this album cover?

Couldn't really stand to listen to both of these in full, the Original mix seems more "acceptable" than the ballad one, the instrumentation is really good, but I feel he really should have hired a different vocalist for the track, preferentially a woman to have a similar tone to the original, then I think I could consider adding the track to a playlist.

That's something Tee Lopes did really well to his Can You Feel the Sunshine version.

Now, call me a hater, but none of them beat the originals.

It'd be great to hear new Bentley Jones stuff. He had a falling out with Sega not long before Colors came out if I recall correctly, right?

I think I'm in love with that cover of Diamond in the Sky. The cover art is also just so deliciously gay.

You love to see it.

Can't say that I'm a fan of either of his Diamond in the Sky covers. But I am fan of Jones in general, and I'm thrilled to hear that he's going to make a comeback to the series. Dreams of an Absolution is easily one of the top 5 vocal tracks to come out of the entire franchise.

In regards to the fallout between him and SEGA, it was to do with music rights which sadly severed their working relationship for a long time. And he was also treated very disrespectfully by Richard Jacques, who would later publicly show his petty and spiteful nature when he treated Tee Lopes the same way. Jones gives Jacques credits for writing DITS in the videos, so hopefully Jacques won't be slinging anymore dirt.

On 2/10/2024 at 11:16 AM, Blue Blood said:

In regards to the fallout between him and SEGA, it was to do with music rights which sadly severed their working relationship for a long time. And he was also treated very disrespectfully by Richard Jacques, who would later publicly show his petty and spiteful nature when he treated Tee Lopes the same way. Jones gives Jacques credits for writing DITS in the videos, so hopefully Jacques won't be slinging anymore dirt.

To be fair to Richard, I'm pretty sure that whole thing was down to an internal miscommunication on who had 'ownership' (in other words, whose name was front and centre) of the soundtrack to Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

To my recollection, RJ had basically done the entire soundtrack (including main theme), before Bentley Jones met Sumo Digital at Summer of Sonic 2009 (which they say was a factor in 'So Much More' becoming a song in the game).

As we know, SMM ended up being called the 'theme song' of S&SASR, but I imagine RJ didn't know about it until last minute.

Of course you could argue whether or not RJ had any right to be mad about it, but I imagine it's all water under the bridge now anyway.

Yeeaaah, not feeling it. I prefer the originals still.

sorry, but that diamond in the sky mix is just unbearable. jeez.

I'm not really excited about his return, but to each their own I guess.

His music has always been hit and miss for me. All versions of Dreams of an Absolution are amazing, even his version of Seven Rings in Hand, but have never been a fan of the Open Your Heart Remixes. Not a fan of this new Diamond In the Sky, either. As someone said above, he's likely making a return for the Generations Remake. Can't say that I'm excited to see he's returning though. It's more of an "alright" feeling instead of a "yay" for me haha But he's proven he can make great remixes, so hopefully he won't disappoint with those future ones!