Anata o Yurusanai Original Soundtrack
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Album Title: Anata o Yurusanai Original Soundtrack |
| Record Label: Dog Ear Records |
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| Catalog No.: DERP-10001 |
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| Release Date: December 19, 2007 |
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| Purchase: Buy at CDJapan |
Overview
Anata o Yurusanai is one of Dog Ear Records’ first published albums. Composed for a PSP game (although it’s probably more appropriately called a sound novel) featuring a female detective, it features compositions by Nobuo Uematsu himself as well as some collaborators in a jazz and bossa-nova style. Given this fresh take of music from Uematsu, how does he do in comparison to his collaborators?
Body
Sadly, this album is extremely unmemorable. A lot of the tracks seem to share a similar style in composition. The jazz is taken to the extreme in a lot of the collaborator’s works. To be honest, though, I don’t think there is a single collaborator’s original composition that I enjoy. Given this soundtrack had quite a few jazz musicians, perhaps this wasn’t the best medium for me to be introduced to their work, but at the same time, had I heard their work beforehand, I might have been even more disappointed than I already am. However, it really doesn’t get much better for Uematsu either. Aside from “Toneless” and “You from a Distance” and its few incarnations, most of it sounds lifeless, even if they are fast-paced.
Perhaps my biggest gripe with the soundtrack is that a lot of the music is extremely repetitive. There is little variety between the tracks, and even if it does feature a change of pace every once in a while, it reverts back to something that sounds like a previous track. “Attention!” and “Collision”, for instance, seem to share this very piano-focused jazz basis, but end up being very monotonous. Although I’m not the biggest jazz listener, I don’t think that all jazz sounds the same. On a more positive note, at least some of the soundscapes produced are pretty decent and only suffer from the idea of repetition or sameness.
Moving on to what I consider the good part of the soundtrack, the vocal themes, we get a much better listening experience. “Toneless” is a very pleasant vocal theme. The jazzy percussion and piano that makes up the majority of the track is complimented nicely by the woodwinds. However, the addition of an electric guitar in the middle really helps to heighten the overall sound and adds a nice flavor uncommon to a lot of jazz into the experience. The vocalist, YVONNE, isn’t the greatest, but her voice does seem to fit the music, even if it does sound a bit flat at times. Overall, very fitting for the female detective theme.
“You from a Distance” is the strongest track on the album. Once again, Uematsu proves he is a very capable vocal theme composer and redeems, in my eyes, his efforts in Blue Dragon. It’s such a peaceful composition, led mainly by piano, acoustic guitar, and harmonica. YVONNE’s voice in this one is much better than in “Toneless”, but at times, still a little flat. The atmosphere produced in this vocal theme is quite quaint. The harmonica solos, the piano harmonies, and percussion just seem to blend extremely well together. Layer in some strings and you have a piece you just can’t pass up.
Summary
As much as I wanted to like this album, I just couldn’t. There really wasn’t anything at all worth my time, aside from “Toneless,” and “You from a Distance”. Those vocal themes really made me happy, especially since one starts off the album and one ends the album. It’s a shame that the middle had to be pretty boring. In the end, if you like this album from either playing the game, or are just a fan of what you heard, I suggest buying it. Otherwise, it’s definitely going to be money ill-spent.
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
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Posted on August 1, 2012 by Don Kotowski. Last modified on January 18, 2016.
About the Author
Don Kotowski Currently residing in Philadelphia. I spend my days working in vaccine characterization and dedicate some of my spare time in the evening to the vast world of video game music, both reviewing soundtracks as well as maintaining relationships with composers overseas in Europe and in Japan.
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