Several diamonds in the rough
Robert Speer | Cambridge, MA USA | 01/20/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I consider myself an "anime listener"; I don't really have time to watch anime series, but I seek out and listen to the good soundtracks. So I'm reviewing this album just based on the music, not how it connects to Stand Alone Complex, because I don't even know what the plot of the series is.
Unlike the other Ghost in the Shell OSTs, be Human doesn't really hold together as an album. I wouldn't often listen to it from start to finish. But despite this, it has individual tracks that stand out and make me say "wow" more than on its sister albums.
The most notable of these is "Rocky wa Doko?". It's got a beautiful, poignant, flowing melody, and it works in a reference to the song "Daisy" in a way that fits perfectly with the middle section. With the album's theme of robots trying to be human, I have to wonder if this is an intentional reference to Hal's death scene in 2001.
The CD gets off to a slow start with "Be Human", but it does establish the theme for the album. The hard-rocking second track, "Trip City", is worth the wait. The chorus, in particular, is worthy of some serious rocking out.
"FAX me" is perhaps difficult to appreciate at first. You may wonder why you're listening to a fax machine over some classical music. But the music is original Kanno, and the fax machine is an integral part of it. It's a concerto for string quartet and fax machine, and it works.
"Cream" is R&B the Yoko Kanno way. Not something I thought I'd like, but egad does that melody get stuck in my head. The broken guitar chords and the way they weave into the wordless female vocals are what make this track.
"Good By My Master" is a powerful bit of choral soundtrack, and it pretty much rounds out the section of the album I'd actively listen to. Some other good tracks I've passed over are the eccentric and fun "Tachikoma no Iede", the catchy Latin jazz of "bang bang banquet", and the driving orchestral "Spotter".
The end of the album is filled out with a bunch of very short tracks, and I don't see the point of them. They may mean something to fans of the anime. To me, they mean that the album needed to be padded out to 45 minutes. So while I'll listen to the other Stand Alone Complex albums as albums, here I pick and choose the tracks I like and shuffle them into my playlist. But hey, those are some good tracks."
Too different from the rest of the SAC soundtrack.
A. Prill | 04/08/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I became a fan of Yoko Kanno, Tim Jensen, and the rest of the regular artists from the SAC soundtrack series. When I finally listened to "Be Human", I was very disappointed. It doesn't have the same feeling as the rest. It seems light hearted and not serious, unlike the dramatic tone found in the rest of the series.
This album is about the Tachikomas. It contains some sound bytes of them, and the songs are either about or at least seem to go along with their personalties. The songs are cute and quirky, and I don't remember hearing most of them in the TV show.
I knew that this album would be about the Tachikomas and therefor different form the rest of the series, however, I was not expecting it to be as different as it is. The mood and tone of the music is not what I typically like, nor does it seem to "jive" with the rest of the soundtrack.
If you are a fan of Ghost in the Shell, be prepared for this CD before you buy it."
Track Listings (22) - Disc #1
