I purchased this album a couple years ago when I got all of the discs for the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Normally I wait until after I've heard some of the music from the show, but this show has music by Yoko Kanno, who has never disappointed me, so I figured that there couldn't be any harm in jumping the gun a little bit. And you know what? I hated it. Seriously, I listened to the CD maybe twice and then buried it in my collection.

As someone who listens to a fair number of anime soundtracks, this was odd behavior for me. Even somewhat lame soundtracks will usually have at least a couple good tracks that can, at the least, be ripped to MP3s and listened to separate from the rest of the drek on the original album. I didn't even want to do that with this one, though; I just wanted it out of my sight.

My readers who have been paying attention over the years will likely have noticed that my usual tastes run towards acoustic and orchestral music. While being as susceptible to the latest Megumi Hayashibara bubblegum J-pop as the next guy, that kind of music has never been a big draw for me. Nor am I really in to J-dance, or trance, or techno, or any of that stuff that the kids listen to at raves these days.

Believe me when I tell you that this album is pretty much that, or at least, that is the first impression you will get. The album opens with run rabbit junk, a cool yet strange piece that is used in the first episode of the first season of the TV series. It built tension nicely in the show, but weirded me out when I heard it on the album. And don't even bother reading the lyrics, because they don't make any sense. Coming back to this track a few years later, I must say that it still doesn't do anything for me. The underlying guitar is well done, but the song is just too weird for me.

The next track, yakitori, is a different case, though. My opinion of this track has completely changed over the years. When I first heard it, I thought it was what happened when you tried way too hard to be edgy just for the sake of being edgy. However, in intentionally listening to the song recently, I realized that the song isn't edgy, it's brilliant. I've heard a bit over the years about the fusion of jazz and rock music, but nothing I've heard before has ever come close to encapsulating how that should actually work better than this number. It is long, over 7 minutes, which fits perfectly in the jazz category, but it is totally a rock song, with driving guitar, drums, and bass. it uses the standard "variation on a theme" approach that has served jazz so well for over 80 years, but it never gets stale. It is simply brilliant.

From there, things jump around quite a bit, from jazz to world beats to rock and back again. Some of it is great, and some of it is just strange, but the whole thing can be pretty difficult to listen to as a regular album. What I mean by that is this album makes very bad general background music. Instead, it is the kind of album that rewards intentional listening. Don't listen to this while reading, or cleaning your house, or playing a board game. Your brain will pick up on the odd stuff, and you will think this album is very strange. If you put your focus on listening to the music, however, you will be rewarded with some really varied and intense music experiences. A great example of this is the fourth track, surf. Flute, new age synth, and bass are not three things that I would have thrown together, but the combo makes for a very compelling music experience. It reminds me of some early David Arkenstone music from the '90s, but with more of an edge.

As I mentioned before, though, not everything is great. For example, track seven, Siberian Doll House, is an odd piece of synth techno and chanting that never really comes together. That might be the point, but it makes very a strange and somewhat disturbing listening experience.

This being a Yoko Kanno album, there are also vocal tracks, featuring a variety of singers, most of whom sing in English. Some of these are pretty forgettable (and in the show were used in that fashion, being background radio music or other such stuff the viewer isn't supposed to be paying a lot of attention to), but some are pretty cool. In a nice touch, both of the theme songs from the first season, inner universe and lithium flower, are present at their full length. What I did not expect was that songs from the second season would show up, as well, though they are TV edits. These include Get9 and rise, which is the second series' opening theme. Still, that is a cool touch.

In the end, this album is a bit of an enigma. There are some great tracks here, but also some pretty strange tracks, as well. If you are a big Yoko Kanno fan then you will definitely want to pick this up, as her standard stylings are definitely present. If you are just a fan of the TV show, it is more of a toss up and you will have to determine how much you want to have your favorite music tracks.