This release
is packed with content, featuring over 85 minutes of
music across two discs, an 18 page booklet on the artists
involved and a mini-poster; furthermore, this is all
made even more sweet by the low retail cost of $15. As
for the music itself, it's kind of mixed though. The
first disc is almost entirely vocal work done in English,
some featured in the movie or trailers and others just "inspired by ".
A few of them, like "Burns Attack" by Paul
Oakenfold and "Good Luck" by Basement Jaxx,
are quite good. Others, like "Dive for You", are
only okay, typically starting off strong before outstaying
their welcome before their runtime clicks out. Unfortunately,
there are several awful tracks on this disc as well,
all of which are positioned at the end of the CD. Of
these,
"coro" by Ryuichi Sakamoto is easily the worst,
as it's four minutes of extremely repetitious electronic
music that sounds very harsh to the ears; in fact, I
would go as far to say that it's one of the worst tracks
I have ever heard on a commercail release.
The second disc is the musical score composed by Tetsuya
Takahashi. Overall, Takahashi's compositions are actually
very enjoyable, perhaps even more so as a standalone
experience than as part of the original 2004 movie. For
this soundtrack, Takahashi delivers a number of stand
out cues, like "Crossfire"
and "Password". It's a solid score all around
from the composer, as he produces a very energetic collection
of themes while also being successful at melding traditional
orchestrations with more "techno" and "new
age" kind of digital techniques.
Overall, one of the best "bang for your buck" releases of a Japanese score in the US. The first disc has some interesting cues mixed in its contents, while the second has a pretty stellar score from Takahashi. Combined, this is a pretty recommendable release.
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