Search - Various :: Cowboy Bebop

Heads and Shoulders Above Most Modern Music

M. Warren | Arizona | 06/22/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hard to believe that some of my favorite music ever composed would come from the Anime Cowboy Bebop (great anime as well), but Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts create some rather jaw dropping, passionate, and excellent music that has to be heard to believe. Make no mistake, this is some of the highest quality music I've had the pleasure of listening to, and they do an excellent job at just about every genre they touch, with variety, verve, and confidence. Touching up on all types of Jazz, electronic, blues, country, and more, their range and senses of style make them also a fresh listen, you never know what kind of emotion, feel, and music they will play after dishing out some of the swingiest, most hard boiled Jazz since the masters did so way before. I haven't heard that many Anime soundtracks, so I'm not going to quite say this is the best. However, ranking is not that important, as this music is just excellent either way.



Cowboy Bebop Vol 1 is perhaps the most complete Cowboy Bebop album, the one with the most music, and generally contains the anime's best known tracks. The album, running around 70 minutes, contains some of the most well known Cowboy Bebop tracks. including its theme song, Tank!, and other notables that you have heard before in the series. This album seems to stay grounded in Jazz and Blues, though it occasionally delves into other genres such as ambient and other genres, such as the jam session of "The Egg and I". That said, onto the music on the album and the overview of the individual tracks.



1. Tank!-The opening track of Cowboy Bebop is an awesome blend of latin rhythm, big band playing, and super cool, with the type of energy that would make a band like the Reverend Horton Heat proud what they have done with a jazz number. One hell of a number that blows away just about any jazz of recent memory, an excellent blend of vintage cool and a red bull worth of energy.



2. Rush-One of the best Seatbelt tunes, an excellent jazz number, more vintage and big band. The rhythms here are so good, so pulsing and swinging, if you are not, check your pulse. Check out the way that bass pulses and drives the song, especially through it's middle.



3. Spokey Dokey-Rugged, runaway type blues piece, with some damn rugged and bluesy harmonica, you can certainly feel the atmosphere of this kind of lonely . Country guitar adds flourish to the ambiance to the mean harmonica.



4. Bad Dog, No Biscuit-A somewhat manic and harsher piece of work, as one other reviewer put it, was kind of taken from a 60's cop show, although very, very good. Tons of changes in style throughout, mixing ska, crime jazz, some free jazz, all through a driving, urgent sense of rhythm.



5. Cat Blues-Much as the title suggests, this is a struttin', stylin' and laid back jazz piece, perfect for, pardon the cheesiness, any cool cat willing to strut around in a trench coat in the seedy side of town. Would do the ultra cool Brian Setzer proud! Would be right at home in a mix of crime serials and brooding film noir, not too drab, but not too campy. One heck of a track.



6. Cosmos-A short spacey trumpet solo, rather peaceful and relaxing.



7. Space Lion-A mix of starry ambiance, floating saxophones, and just an engulfing atmosphere, perfect for spacing out. It's perfect runtime adds to the songs calmness.



8. Waltz for Zizi-Serene, achingly beautiful county western piece, the PERFECT tune for any sunset driving introspection in the deserts of Texas. Played during the most poignant moments of Cowboy Bebop, and for good reason. Great song.



9. Piano Black-One of the coolest tracks on the album, with it's own distinct style. A groovy, shuffly electronic and organic beat (with pulsing shots of bass), jazzy piano, that's topped with a wonderfully soulful sax solo and some electronic touches, all layered on top of each other trying to outdo each other. Haven't heard something like this before, but it's darn good.



10. Pot City-For some reason, this one almost reminds me of a number by Gang of Four, with it's stripped down and almost simple feel, but only layered (if that's even possible). Like the title suggest, a smoky, hazy number, effortlessly blending jazz and doped out dub/reggae.



11. Too Good, Too Bad-A short, punchy and raunchy jazz number, played with insufferable energy, sexy and golden horn playing, and WICKED drumming. I swear I said "DAMN" more than once when listening to this.



12. Car 24-A light, airy and catchy beyond belief jazz number, gleefully happy, and, at that, will make you very much happy as well. Not much to say here, but a great tune.



13. The Egg and I-Backed up by some of the deepest, groovy tribal drums I've ever heard, this one will make anybody dance, topped off with infectious funky sliding guitar and a chirpy, gleefully infectious flute. Be prepared to use nearly your whole body for this one. If you don't find yourself moving to the rhythm, check your pulse. You might be dead. One of my all time favorites.



14. Felt Tip Pen-I really did this track for some reason. Not quite why though, maybe I just love it's quirky country feel, with a shuffly beat played over some countryish slide guitars, somehow seem to mock. Somewhat a strange track, but it's offbeat nature really clicked with me.



15. Rain-A mostly vocal piece, with melancholy tone, backed by gothic organs. Kind of a one note song, but emotional and dramatic, operatic even. Maybe the weakest track on here, but that's not saying that much. Not as musically inventive, so that's probably why.



16. Digging My Potato-Containing some wickedly mean harmonica playing, it's combined with some deeply groovy tribal drums (not quite as earth shaking as the Egg and I) and spacey, beautiful ambiance. The ideal song for space dancing, if there ever was such a thing.



17. Memory-Finally! After all this music that's enough to make you sweat buckets, a peaceful short music piece ends the album on a very high, impressionable note.



In short, don't be put off by the fact that this is anime music (as a matter of act, the same applies for the series, it's much better than Pokemon). This music stands alone, and to illustrate that, let's just say I listen to the music more than the anime, and I don't need the visuals of the anime to make the music count more. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure if these albums are widely on sale in the US, which kind of saddens me. These albums really would be a treasure if it could get into even more lucky hands, but sadly, this hasn't happened quite yet. It's too bad, because if you can find a cheaper way to listen to these whole songs, I recommend doing so because the music is just so excellent. Needless to say, if you haven't listened to this yet and you consider yourself to be interested in the genres the Seatbelts cover, get off your high horse and check it out, like, right now! Your ears will be very happy."

Sooooo Underrated

Private Quentin Tarantino Fan | nowhere | 08/28/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I have to say I like Cowboy Bebop for it's action, style, and wit, but I don't find it to be the best anime of all time. Great series and all, but I do feel it's a *little* overrated. But god damn, is the music for this series so _________ good. I don't understand why so many people even attempt to listen to Kenny G when such a magnificant album and band such as this are rotting in the dust. I really don't have many other words to say for this. If you like jazz, blues, and just music in general, then you need to make. I am so _________ glad I got this. It's sad to see that something like Justin Bieber is getting all the hype when jaw dropping music is sitting in the dust. Get it NOW!"