The second soundtrack album for the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series covers, reasonably enough, the second season, or the "2nd Gig," as the second season is referred to. However, it isn't stylistically any different from the music from the first season, which I covered in my review of the O.S.T. Plus album. The music is still a collection of jazz, rock, and pop in that Yoko Kanno style that all her fans know so well. That being said, I found that I liked this album noticeably more than I did the Plus album.

The album starts out with an interesting vocal number in Japanese, Cyberbird. I think that this track sets the tone quite well for the album, with a bit of "new age" feel to the music, built on a foundation of a driving drum line. Yoko Kanno excels at taking different music styles and merging them together, and that is present here. The vocals are relaxing and a bit soothing, but the drums will not let you be relaxed, keeping you on your guard for the rest of the album.

From there the album quickly hits its stride, moving to the full version of the opening theme for the second season, Rise, a piece by Origa that I happen to like more than her opening theme for the first season. Maybe I just like the Russian/English vocal combo more than I like the Russian/Latin combo from the first season. Then the album makes the same move the Plus album does, and jumps straight into a rock/jazz fusion piece. The one on this album, Ride on Technology, is not near as long as the similar track on the Plus album, but it kicks even more rear, with one of the best, most entertaining bass lines I have ever encountered.

From there the album almost hits a snag. After the bounding energy of the previous track, Idoling starts out very droll and slow. The transition is a bit jarring, but I believe that to be intentional. The transition, and the almost vaporous nature of the music forces you to pay attention to what little music is actually there. Just when you are really paying attention, one of those great bass lines that keeps showing up appears, and the track gets interesting. I can tell how some people might not enjoy this transition, but it works for me.

The fifth track, I Can't Be Cool, is an OK song (sung in Italian, I believe), but it's pretty average. One of the problems I have is that the crunching guitar in the chorus somewhat overpowers the singer's voice, and the combo doesn't work that well. This turns out to be the start of a down patch, as the next track, 3tops, is a slower-paced jazz piece, with saxophone, drums, piano, and bass. It's a good jazz piece, but it doesn't fit with the previous song. This is followed by a short guitar number that feels like filler and isn't very pleasing.

Then we jump back into action with Get9, a hip-hop piece that is kind of stupid, but in a "stupidly awesome" kind of way. The lyrics don't really make sense, so I don't recommend trying to pay attention to them. That said, the rap bridge is pretty cool, having hints of '90s-style hip. But the overall track is just so much goofy fun that you can't help but get wrapped up in it. Unfortunately, this great track is followed by the dumbest thing on the album, a bunch of kazoos. Seriously, Go DA DA is a bunch of kazoos. It sounds like an orchestra of mosquitoes. At least it is less than 2 minutes long.

Once that is over, we run into three voal tracks. The first, Psychedelic Soul, is a pretty standard Tim Jensen piece, lyrcially. I find the music pretty middling, though, and it just doesn't stand out in any way. In opposition is the next track, What's It For, which is a fairly quiet, acoustic piece that has a nice rhythm and flow to it, though the chorus does something very strange, musically. It shifts from a standard 4-4 time to something much different. I'm unable to put my finger on exactly what the timing is, but it is quite noticeable. Since I am someone who has played instruments most of my life (piano, then clarinet, then guitar), I picked up on this strange timing instantly. I'm pretty sure my head actually snapped around to stare at the stereo the first time I heard it. Pretty cool, and the kind of nice surprise that a top notch composer can provide. The third vocal track, Living Inside the Shell, is a full version of the closing theme to the second season. It's perfectly fine, but it feels pretty bland and normal when surrounded by tracks that often times do something out of the ordinary. That, and it goes on too long, taking almost six-and-a-half minutes.

The next track, Pet Food, is a short track that you will probably like if you like people doing funky things with acoustic guitars. I can't pin it down to a specific genre, but whatever the musicians are doing, they do it very well. This is followed by the even shorter Security Off, which while not as annoying as the mosquito song, doesn't really serve much purpose. "Rhythmic raindrops" is the best description I can give it. The next track, To Tell the Truth, starts out feeling like you're standing in a large empty chamber, with thumps and beats sounding around you. Then this rather quiet piano and string music works its way in to the chamber, which provides an interesting juxtaposition between the rhythm work and the rest, before shifting to solo piano. A few more instruments then slowly work their way in, including a harp and synthesizer strings. It's a pretty mellow track, but near the end of the album that is appropriate, and the composition of the music helps that transition towards closure, especially as this track ends with piano while the next one picks up on piano, almost on the same note.

I Do might be my favorite track on this album, even though I don't understand the language it is sung in. When Ilaria Graziano sung on I Can't Be Cool I found that the instrumentation didn't fit her voice well. Here, the piano embraces her voice perfectly, and voice and instrument work together to create a virtuoso performance that never fails to bring a smile to my face. I wish the album had ended here, but there is one more track, We Can't Be Cool. This last track is a "mood" piece using drums and synthesizer to create a somber, yet tense mood in the listener. I think it would have worked much better earlier in the album, bridging the space from Get9 to the mosquito song, but instead we get to end the album with some tension for no apparent reason.

In the end, this album is pretty good. It has a number of solid hits on it, but some misses, as well. I can recommend it to Yoko Kanno fans, but realize that there are some tracks on here that will leave you scratching your head, wondering what was going through her head when she wrote them.