Music Post!
Yuki Kajiura scores an winner with Pandora Hearts OST 1!
Album Title: TBS Animation “Pandora Hearts” Original Soundtrack 1
Category: Animation Soundtrack (Music by Yuki Kajiura)
Date Released: 8-Jul-2009
Impressions:
The long awaited Pandora Hearts Original Soundtrack 1 is finally out and certainly did not disappoint. It lives up to my expectation and so much more. I think Yuki Kajiura outdid herself with her stunning compositions for Pandora Hearts. There are so many memorable and excellent pieces, words alone don’t do justice to the fabulous music she crafted for the series. Every piece fits the theme and mood of the show aside from a teeny weeny hick-up in the music direction in one of the earlier episodes where I thought one of the bgm piece was inappropriately used for a particular scene. Overall, the album reflect Kajiura’s unique style but also managed to sound different from her previous anime soundtrack contributions.
So what are my favourite tracks? To be honest, I love every single piece on the album and after several repeat listens while re-watching several episodes of Pandora Hearts including episode 14 (ya, I go to that length in my appreciation)… tracks 1, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21 and 26 are particular favourites. Track 8 is pretty unique because Kajiura infused a bit of Indian/Hindi influence in the music with the bit of vocal chant. But really, the whole album is simply breathtaking and is a strong contender for 2009’s best anime soundtrack album. Can’t wait for Volume 2 to be released. Nuff’ said.
Catalog No.: VTCL-60120
Label/Distributor: Victor Entertainment
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 1
Source: cdjapan, yesasia, amazon.co.jp
**Listen to the whole soundtrack playlist here or here.
Tracklist:
**See next page for Lyrics to Parallel Hearts & Maze.
Pages: 1 2
Hiya, I agree that this OST is amazing! I didn’t really care for the lighthearted stuff, but the more serious pieces are really well composed. It’s a terrible shame that the music didn’t really get focused on at all except during some of the fight scenes in the anime. In addition to the ones you listed, I also enjoyed 10 and 25. It’s a shame that 25 was so short. If she can expand it into a full-fledged piece, I’d be completely satisfied.
Do you know what language pieces 1, 10, 13, and 14 are vocalized in? I’d have guessed it was in Japanese, but it didn’t seem that way. Nor did it sound like any of the common languages. Latin perhaps?
On another note, I’m eagerly awaiting OST 2 to come out now. The piano arrangement of the music box theme will be great.
The vocal bits do sound a bit like Latin but I can’t be certain. Knowing Kajiura Yuki’s past work with Fiction Junction, it is most likely Kajiuran language she’s using… xD.
I agree, kajiura has something new to offer with this soundtrack. after mai hime in general, almost all her osts started to sound the same, even those for Kara no Kyoukai (only the OST for movie 1 still sticks in my head).
wish she would inject more variety for Kalafina though….the songs are beginning to sound similar too
I suppose she’s stuck with the same medium for so long that some of the compositions ends up to be in similar vain. But it’s good that Kajiura try to compose something a little different for Pandora Hearts. Same goes for Kalafina although I tend to think that their music is confined to the genre they pick, that of contemporary pop gothic/folk inspired.