The second soundtrack album to His and Her Circumstances suffers from a common situation, where the cool stuff was put on the first album, and the rest was put on the second album. It isn't that the music on this album is bad, but after listening to it, I am left with the feeling that I heard all of this done better on the first album. To a significant extent, this is because the majority of tracks on this album are different versions of songs from the first album — specifically, slower versions of those songs. Three of the tracks even have "(slow)" in their name, though there are many more than three slow tracks present here.

Whereas the first album really kicks off with a lot of manic energy (just like the TV show does), this second album is subdued out of the gate. It isn't until track nine, Yukino Miyazawa VI, that we get anything peppy. This track delivers another Sousa-style march, which is entertaining enough if you like that kind of thing, but it sticks out like a sore thumb amidst all the somber or melancholy music that comes before it.

I must admit that the slow music present here does what it intends to do very well. In fact, much of it is quite good, just like the original songs on the first album were good, from a musical standpoint. For example, one of the new songs, Groping in the Dark, does a great job of conveying the emotional fatigue of not really knowing where you should go next and spending lots of energy to get nowhere. It's a good song, but not something I routinely want to listen to. Track 12, Taking it Easy, is also a good song, if a bit different. The music definitely fits the name.

While the slow music is the majority, there are some peppier tracks, generally in the back half of the album. Into a Dream IV is an instrumental version of the closing song, with heavy tremolo and horns blaring. Sudden Change is essentially an experimental jazz piece that tries of make discordant music work. I think it fails, but it is at least interesting. Clear Oneself of the Charge brings back the string-bending antics from the first album. And... that's about it for upbeat songs.

This album also contains a couple of vocal songs straight from the show, S.O.S. and Man-monster Bem. Both of these songs serve specific purposes in the show, but their shortened nature doesn't translate that well to an independent listening experience. While S.O.S. is kind of funny, the monster song ends too abruptly and ends up being kind of annoying.

Two final notes about the album. First, the art for this album focuses mostly on all of the supporting cast from the show, which I found interesting. The first album's art gave you the impression that the show was about nothing but the two main characters, while this album includes a number of other characters, especially on the cover. Second, this album includes the TV edits of both the opening and ending themes, which I appreciated. The full versions are on the first album, but it is nice to have the TV edits, as well.

In the final reckoning, this is not a bad album, but it is not as good as the first His and Her Circumstances soundtrack album. Huge fans of the show, or fans of melancholy music, may find enough they like to warrant a purchase. All others may safely give it a pass.