Customer Reviews

Soundtrack

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dark, ethereal, and evolutionary, Kenji Kawai serves up a signature aural landscape for the sequel to Ghost in the Shell (GITS). For "Innocence" he reassembles many of the elements that made his original GITS soundtrack so unique: taiko percussion, female Japanese chorus, brooding electronica, while adding two original western Jazz-oriented tracks sung in English: "River of Crystals" and "Follow Me."

With a nod to twentieth century classical music, "Follow Me" takes its motif from the second movement of Joaquin Rodrigro's "Concierto de Aranjuez" for guitar and orchestra. Usually, this sort of practice is disastrous but Kawai's arrangement and Kimiko Itoh's lush vocals make it work here.

In a departure from the original GITS soundtrack, Kawai includes several high-energy tracks which make use of percussion and electronic riffs ("Attack the Wakabayashi") along with more dark, familiar brooding tracks such as "Etorofu."

However it is on track #9, "Ballad of Puppets: The Ghost Waits in the World Beyond" that Kawai masterfully blends all his signature elements: female chorus, high energy taiko percussion, smart electronic riffs. During the movie, this track plays while Section 9 Operative Batou assaults the Gynoid Factory Ship. Kawai culminates the track by weaving in a choral theme from the original GITS Soundtrack associated with Major Motoko Kusanagi -- Batou's long lost partner. Highly recommended!

The soundtrack fits the movie perfecty. It's haunting, dark, mysterious, and, most of all, beautiful. I only really wanted the last song on the soundtrack, Follow Me, but I was forced to buy the soundtrack after iTunes refused to carry it for their US customers. Apparently they don't realize that music is a language that crosses all barriers.

I'm glad I was forced into buying the soundtrack, though, because there's nothing like putting it on the CD player, and just letting it be background music while reading a particularly good book.

Personally, I love most of the songs on here, but it depends on what kind of music you're looking for. There are several tracks without words, and a few with. River of Crystals and Follow Me are my two most favorite, and are performed by a female vocalist. Both are in the movie, ROC being when Batou was heading to the store to pick up dog food, and FM being the end song.

The rest, with vocals, are somber, multiple chorus singers, but they make the songs fit well. There are three different renditions of the beginning theme throughout the CD, which I enjoyed most. Both Doll House tracks also make it enjoyable, if you like creepy yet cool orchestrated music, which was playing when, well, Batou and Togusa entered The Doll House.

I would buy this CD, but then again I am a hardcore Ghost in the Shell fan and I love all kinds of music. If you want upbeat, this isn't the CD for you. ^_^

I don't know why Amazon does not list the tracks, so here is a tracklist that I transcribed from the liner notes:

01 - [1:26] - Dungeon
02 - [3:42] - The Ballade of Puppets: Flowers Grieve And Fall
03 - [4:07] - Type 2052 'Hadaly'
04 - [5:50] - River of Crystals
05 - [3:33] - Attack of Wakabayashi
06 - [3:57] - Etorofu
07 - [5:13] - The Ballade of Puppets: In A New World, Gods Will Descend
08 - [1:33] - The Doll House I
09 - [2:58] - The Doll House II
10 - [9:49] - The Ballade of Puppets: The Ghost Waits In The World Beyond
11 - [0:34] - Toh Kami Emi Tame
12 - [5:01] - Follow Me

In my opinion, the only 'good' track is River of Crystals, which is the soft jazz tune that plays just before Batou goes home to feed his dog

I have the soundtrack for the Stand Alone Complex and it is pretty good. So I thought that this soundtrack would be similarly quirky and full of good techno. No dice. This was uniformly bad.

I want to buy this soundtrack but I am waiting for the tracks to appear. So, amazon, what do you waiting for? I've heard that this release has 17 tracks. that's good news. thanks