Brain Powerd OST 2

Moridin (Former Staff) — September 29th, 2001
Text Size: smaller text normal text size bigger text

The second OST for Brain Powerd is even better than the first. This album takes on a harder edge than the first. There are actually a couple of songs that you could call "rock" songs. It isn't exactly everyday you get to hear Yoko Kanno working a rock song. The album isn't all rock; it isn't even mostly rock. You'll hear the classic instrumentals you expect from Ms Kanno as well as some incredible vocal pieces. This album usually finds itself spinning around my CD player.

The album starts out with a vocal piece. The song called Light of Love is your series defining song. The beautiful voice chimes out in harmony with numerous instruments. Starting out with a soft harpsichord and slowly incorporating more and more of the orchestra. Oh, and it's long; very long. The song lasts almost 8 minutes. Eight gorgeous minutes of magical music that sometimes harkens back to memories of Record of Lodoss War's opening song. This easily places itself at the top of the album, right under In My Dream.

Passing over a few dynamite orchestral tracks will bring you to True Love, the first of the "rock" songs on the album. The guitar work is inspired and obviously done by a talented musician. The song also features a strong techno beat in the background making for a unique and very sweet sound. The male vocals in the song are perfect for this song. I think I'd like to hear him more often as a nice alternative to the soprano singers usually used by Yoko Kanno.

The very next song, In My Dream, is far and away the best on the album in my opinion. I include is any mix CD I create. The first time I listened to it I came up with the brilliant idea to abduct Miss Kanno and force her to create an entire rock album. Alas, that's illegal, so I'll just listen to this song again and again and again. She did get some help on this one from Eri Shingyoji, who also lends her fantastic lungs to the song. The guitar and vocals blend together for a simply awesome sound. It was hard to tear myself away from this one to listen to the rest of the album.

The very next song is an uplifting march that sounds Scottish to me. The song has a steady drum beat with some bagpipes throughout, which is probably the reason why it sounds Scottish. It makes for a nice introduction into the second half of the album that features more of the instrumental music used in the series, like the next song, Waver, that seems to be an orchestral remix of some trance song. The next few songs are more instrumentals, and all are superb; the only one that's really different is Orphan. Orphan is one of those choir songs that seem to find its way in on any Yoko Kanno album.

You will eventually come to Field, a song that bears a strong resemblance to Music Box from the first album. The album finishes with Walk by Myself. Walk by Myself brings Taps, the song played at the funeral for a serviceman, to my mind. It's a sad song that conveys a feeling of honor with that sadness.

The second Brain Powerd OST has instrumentals that are just as strong as the first, but it has a couple of really stand out tracks as well. I like this album quite a bit because of the harder edge. Once again, I can't say enough about how much I like In My Dream. The entire album is worth the money simply for that song. One thing about the Brain Powerd OSTs is that they appeal to fans that usually aren't into anime soundtracks as well as those who are. This is one you should definitely add to your collection.