Twitter-esque notes of Yoko Kanno’s Macross Frontier OST
by Paul
- Track 01: Beginning of an epic adventure. Planets exploding and stars colliding.
- 03: Easy listening, I like the chorus, it’s nice.
- 04: Pumping, theatrical, energetic, awesome, voice is perfect for this kind of song, when artificial JPop sounds good, operatic pop fusion. A genuinely original, futuristic tune.
- 05: Reminds me of a classic adventure movie like Indiana Jones. Dog-fighthing air-craft wouldn’t be the same without these kind of refined, epic strings.
- 06: Triangler is alright, but the vocals are too… flawlessly cute and melodramatic.
- 08: Smooth. Rock. Melodic.
- 09: Piano; it’s lovely. A very tender, playful song, happy and melancholy.
- 10: Vividly remember this from the anime; a really beautiful song. Vocals are so sweet, and at times it’s almost accapella. Kanno at her best.
- 15: A lot of the recent songs have had a notably foreign, cultural aesthetic. This was Chinese.
- 16: Harp. Elegant theme for Alto.
- 17: More Indiana Jones; it’s very heroic, but this time has a giant monster feeling too. Totally apt for a space opera anime like Macross Frontier.
- 18: More epic space opera, thrilling Star Wars-esque stuff; Luke Skywalker about to blow up the Death Star vibe. Actually, it reminds me of those great Christopher Reeves Superman flicks too; has quiet moments of reflection before launching itself into the sun.
- 19: Lovecraft. Horrific, unforeseen, unfathomable.
- 20: Piano, thoughtful, emotionally provocative. Feels like a harsh decision has been made; living with the consequences of tragedy.
- 21: All encompassing, I get the feeling this is the genuiene theme of Macross Frontier. Same vocals as track 10, but the song is bigger this time, voice backed by orchestral sounds. Kind of like “Voices” from Macross Plus, but with a bit more studio sheen. I prefer the earlier version, if just because it’s rawer, more empathetic and fragile.
- 22: Fluffy white clouds, blue sky crawling.
- 24: Sparkling and theatrical but a little too emotionally artificial for my tastes, almost cheesy. Would be a fitting end for a soap opera.
4 comments
They came out with this fast, didn’t they? Yoko Kanno’s handiwork, have to get my hands on this. Waiting till exam season passes into summer first, ^^;. 10, 15, 16, 21, 22, judging from your notes, would be the tracks I’m looking out for when I do.
Yup, I think because Macross is such a musical franchise, they were probably looking to milk the soundtracks as much as possible. I’m hoping Kanno’s got a whole bunch of new songs lined up for the second half of the TV series too. Out of interest, have you seen much more of Frontier since the first few episodes?
Watching it, expect a post real soon! ^^
[...] soundtrack is amazing, need I say more? After reading Paul’s take on the soundtrack, I’ve been looking forward to hearing it. Kanno doesn’t disappoint, she never [...]
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