11 Oct 2006
Macross Plus OST 2
The second half of the Macross Plus soundtrack is much more varied in style than the first, although inevitably this means that it is less consistent in quality. At least, unlike its predecessor, this CD is still available outside of Japan without going to too much trouble with importing.
Idol Talk is an impressive way to open the album, being lifted straight from that legendary Sharon Apple concert scene. Imagine early Madonna fast-forwarded fifty years and you’d be halfway to imagining what a superlative piece of J-pop this song is: an insistent synthesised drumbeat mixes with electronic samples and Akino Arai’s sweet, seductive vocal delivery that really sounds like the future of music.
The tagline ’schoolgirls by day…call girls by night’ has to be one of the most misleading sales pitches of any film I’ve yet seen. Ignoring the sensationalist waffle on the DVD case, this is a film that is innovative in the extreme and explains why I think Hideaki Anno is one of the best film directors of recent years.