Yoko Kanno - Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST

The tracks are well arranged given the variety of styles she plays. I’ve managed to collect almost every Yoko Kanno anime o.s.t. work put out, and this CD would be well within the top ranks. (IMO) As far as depth goes, I think the track that stands out the most would be “Fish ~ Silent Cruise.” Awesome orchestra with singing and a very well built suspenseful second half. Perhaps I’ve listened to the CD so many times that it just seems extraordinary.

To note on the Bjork song, “Hyper-Ballad”, yes “Where Does The Ocean Go?" is almost like a more clean, less annoying cover of it. I think YK does a much better job in presenting the sound, were at least you can recognize the noises in it … also the singing is crisper too. But hey, that’s just my opinion! Still, I’d suggest all fans of Y.K. to try the CD, or at the very least, any fans of G.I.T.S.

For me, this is not a very good album from Yoko Kanno. I mean, it's o.k,... it's musically proficiant of course. But it's lacking the depth that her other albums have. But maybe thats due in part to Stand Alone Complex being weaker than other anime she's scored (Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, etc..).
Either way, the song "Where Does The Ocean Go?" on this CD is a blantant rip-off of Bjork's "Hyper Ballad", but obviously not as deep and soulful.
I actually made a call-and-response mash-up of the two. It's surprizingly pretty good.