Those of us who are musically inclined have a tendency to pick certain albums as a general soundtrack, the music we enjoy listening to when just going through the activities of everyday life. Various soundtrack albums have fulfilled that role for me over the years, and a few anime soundtracks have served in that position, including the soundtrack to the original Oh My Goddess OVA and the first season of Mahoromatic. No offense to those great soundtracks, but Takefumi Haketa's work on Someday's Dreamers has newly taken that position due to the album's overall quality and coherence of theme.

The atmosphere of shows usually dictates the type of music they contain. The soundtrack for Bastard!!, for example, would never make good easy listening music, as the show is all about fighting and killing, and its soundtrack is written to support that. Someday's Dreamers falls into a middle ground, due to its "slice of life" story about adolescent emotional development. There are happy songs, and there are sad songs, but for the most part the music strikes a middle ground that says "This is life as it is lived, with all the good and bad that sometimes comes with it," which is very much in line with the show's approach to its story.

When I first listened to the album I knew I was in for a treat, as the first four tracks were all excellent, and in fact each one was more enjoyable then the previous one. I appreciate it when an album is arranged that way, where the tracks support and build on each other. Instrumentally, the album is very acoustic, with primary emphasis being given to the piano, due to the fact that the composer is a pianist. Acoustic guitars and Celtic-style flutes also make frequent appearances. Electric guitars and brass instruments are noticeably absent, with the exception of the single piece of background music used in every scene in the salsa bar, "Hot Frenzy" (track 16).

Tempo-wise, the music is generally rather slow and introspective. This fits the mood of the show, where the main character is often talking to herself or others about her feelings. In fact, the entire show consists of people talking about their feelings, and therefore the slower, introspective music works in most of the scenes in the show. Because of this, the music best fits an introspective or more slow-paced time for listening. This does not make excellent "pump up the crowd" music for a football game, for example, nor would it likely be appropriate music for reading a book about a war. Still, more often than not, the music of Someday's Dreamers hits the right notes and this album works excellently as a stand-alone piece of work.

On to the tracks themselves. As noted above, the first four pieces flow from one to the next very well, as they all feature the piano as the primary instrument. My personal favourite of them is track 4, "Sunflower ~ surrounded by the wind of light," for the way the violins, acoustic guitar, and piano all play together, with each instrument taking the melody at different times. Other tracks of note include tracks 9 and 10, which sound very much like traditional Celtic dance tunes; track 16, "Hot Frenzy," because it really doesn't fit in with the rest of the album from a stylistic standpoint; track 18, "As a Human as a Witch," for its excellent string quartet interpretation of the musical theme from track 3; and track 20, "Kidokorone - Doze," for its outstanding acoustic guitar interpretation of the musical theme from track 4, which always seems to make me smile whenever I hear it. In fact, as you listen to the album and identify which tracks repeat which theme, you will probably develop a favorite interpretation for each theme.

This leads to one thing that should be pointed out: the album is quite repetitive. There are no less than three standard musical themes that are repeated many times throughout different tracks on the album. I found all of the themes to be quite enjoyable, and they are used in different ways or with different instruments every time, so I did not find it to be a problem. The end result is noticeably more repetitive than is normal for a soundtrack album, however, and is a minor strike against the album.

At the end of the album are two songs by The Indigo, a J-pop duo. Both songs are standard, easy-listening pop fare, though the second one, "Under the Blue Sky," is the edited version of the closing theme from the show. Interestingly enough, the opening theme is nowhere to be found on the album, which is another strike.* The album wraps up by including the nine short pieces of music used during the eye catches.

Overall, the Someday's Dreamers soundtrack is very enjoyable, and has become one of my favorites. It is not perfect, suffering a little from too much repetition and committing one of the cardinal sins of not including the opening theme song from the show. You can still hit a home run with two strikes, however, and this album is highly recommended to all anime fans and for those who need a solid soundtrack for the slower, more introspective moments in life.

*Ed. Note: No tracks are missing from the Geneon domestic release of this album. The opening theme to Someday's Dreamers is not present on the Japanese release (PICA-1271), either.