Some random fact about Arianna Sterling: When I was younger, a little kid, I did not, under any circumstances, like listening to instrumentals. I wanted words, dammit. And if a song wasn't going to give me words, that song could just go straight to hell. Then when I got a bit older, I think around eleven or twelve, I discovered that some instrumentals (read: the ones by Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Savatage) weren't all that bad. Skip forward a little more to when I was thirteen, more instrumentals were welcome in my life, including classical stuff like Beethoven. I love Beethoven.
Then take me now, and I love a lot of instrumentals just as much as I love songs with words.
Granted, this list is not 100% instrumental. A number of the songs have those vague kinda vocalizations, and there are a few with actual words. But for the most part, they're wordless, so I figured I would just offer up this tidbit about myself.
And for the record, music is one of my greatest loves next to anime and writing. I'm always on the lookout for something new to listen to.
Moving on, my top ten OST/insert tracks.
Number Ten: Kokoro wo Shibaru Ai no Kotoba (Durarara!!)
Composer: Makoto Yoshimori
In general, I wasn't all that impressed by the DRRR!! OSTs, but I can go into detail on that when I review them, so I won't babble about that here. This is the one song that stuck with me when I gave it a listen and I kinda sorta love it. For anyone who doesn't know (most of you?) I'm a really morbid, sometimes creepy, obsessed-with-Poe sorta person. I mean, bodies make me happy.
So this song, with it's not-word vocals that sound like the musically enhanced moans of someone dying (it's not just me who hears that, is it?), or at least someone who has been stabbed by Saika, it appeals to me. It gets even better with the...whatever that is that comes in at about 0:50. Seriously, what is that? I don't know, but I love the hell out of it. And when both those aspects are combined...well. Let's just say it makes me smile.
Number Nine: Diva (Blood+)
Composer: Mark Mancina
The song opens up beautifully, and makes me think of dark theatres and single spotlights on girls in long black dresses. Which is interesting, considering the character who sang it did not wear long black dresses—I believe she wore white dresses, and also little sailor boy clothes (← that was kinda weird). Yes, this is in fact Diva's song from Blood+, so it was only played if the character was singing it herself. And as much as it's certainly beautiful when you don't know the context, it takes on an extreme creepy factor when you put it inside of its own story.
Usually people started turning into Chiropterans if they heard this in person. Great fun, turning people into horrible man-eating monsters. Well, despite that horrifying bit, the song is still lovely. I think the high point for me is around 2:20, when it's picking up, and then a number of seconds later when she hits that high point. Or 3:12-ish, which is also amazing. I have no clue who actually did the vocals for this, but I she has a beautiful voice. I suspect she was trained in opera.
Number Eight: Kage Futatsu (Clannad)
Artist: Riya
Studio Key, in most of their creations, seem to have a penchant for using songs performed by ladies with absolutely gorgeous voices. Clannad certainly wasn't an exception, and it was hard for me to choose which Clannad piece was my favorite, but Kage Futatsu won.
Riya does have a lovely voice, so I couldn't even complain that the song wasn't Lia, like so many songs Key uses are. I think part of what makes me love the song so much might just be that it was played during a scene that brought an enormous smile to my face, because it was something I'd been waiting on for awhile, but for the most part...how can someone not enjoy this song? It isn't the most masterful composition on this list by any means, it's just plain beautiful and really, that's all it needs.
Number Seven: Si Deus Me Relinquit (Kuroshitsuji)
Composer: Taku Iwasaki (I think)
The first time I heard this song it brought tears to my eyes and it had nothing to do with what was going on in the anime at the time. That voice...it's so pretty, so soft. And I have a weak spot for Latin in music (Carmina Burana anyone?). Then I looked up the lyrics translation and somehow that made it even better. Even just the first line:
If God has forsaken me, Then I shall forsake God, too
That's...wow. This is a heart-wrenching song in its own right. Throw Ciel's backstory in there and it's a recipe for disaster. In a good way. If that makes sense.
Besides the female vocalist, I also like how the male voices are tossed in the back. And the instrumental appeal is very high. And I just really love this song. It still makes me cry when I listen to it, and that tends to be somewhat often, as it also sort of perfectly fits every single main character in one of the novels I'm working on (very much not a happy novel).
Number Six: Day and Night (Shiki)
Composer: Yasuharu Takanashi
This song...I can't explain what makes it so good, it's kind of just a matter of, wow, this song is good. I love the way the music all works together—I feel like if I picked it apart, each separate sound would work fine on its own, but hearing them all right atop each other the way Takanashi did it lovely.
Oh, and the rain first heard at 1:27? I love those things. Plus the strings that enter right after—I have such a weakness to strings. The vocals that follow, are...how is this song not higher on my list? I'm not sure. But it ended up right here. I just love it so.
Especially how the strings trail off at the end.
Number Five: L's Theme B (Death Note)
Composer: Yoshihisa Hirano
L himself made my top guys ten list, as number two, as you may have seen. Well here's another thing about L that's pretty awesome: he also has amazing themes. In fact, just that he has two themes is pretty freaking awesome. His second theme gets to be number five on my list.
I can't for the life of me remember which L scenes used this song. But I love it. I spent spring break my junior year (last year, guys) listening mostly to the Death Note OST and mostly to this song and L's other theme. I love the rock-esque tone to this. It's not actually rock, and anyone who calls it such can feel free to argue with me.
This song represents L's badassery though. I can say that. Because you know that genius is a badass. How else could he have all those weirdo habits and still be taken so seriously? And probably my favorite part of this song is the series of notes first heard starting at 0:09 which play throughout the entire song (they change midway through and start taking breaks, but they're the same notes). While I love the entire combination of music, there's something about that specific sound that just draws me in every time—basically, if I turn this on and don't actually want to listen to it at first, I have to get out before those notes begin or I will listen to the entire song.
Number Four: Aozora (Air)
Artist: Lia
I mentioned Lia, didn't I? Well, of course she was going to make this list somewhere. I think she's also on another one somewhere, but that's beside the point. This song.
This song makes me cry every single time I listen to it. Now, I had heard it before watching Air. Or...okay, an amendment. I heard it after seeing one episode, because I went to download the songs, and of course, having seen one episode of Air, you still get to think it's a happy series. The soul-ripping comes later. So I figured, happy series with pretty music, very awesome.
Then I got to the part of the anime where they play this song. And I was already in tears at that part, so having the depressing combined with this pure beauty—that just made me cry harder. Thus why I cry whenever I hear this. But listen to it! It's beautiful. I can't stop listening.
Meaning really, I just can't win.
Number Three: L's Theme (Death Note)
Composer: Yoshihisa Hirano
Okay, walking into writing this list, I had a goal. I knew there was going to be something from Death Note in here, and I knew it was going to be L-related. And I know myself, so I knew it would be an L theme, and my goal was to only include one of those themes. Well, then I listened to them both and I tried so hard to pick just one to make the list. ...Obviously, I did not succeed. I'm too in love with both of them.
This one gets to be higher up on the list, my third favorite, because it plays during one of my absolute favorite scenes from that anime. In episode two, when L decides to send Lind L. Taylor on TV and see if he'll die, completely playing Light with that trick (where the thing was broadcasting), that is where I first started to love the crazy detective. And this song was playing for that duration. So I feel like this song completely just 100% really represents the essence of L, who he is and what he can do.
And that piano. God, I love that piano. (The piano and violin are my two favorite instruments.) Of course what amuses me in this song is that both of my parents have heard the beginning of it at different times, and both have assumed based on the piano at the beginning that it's Savatage. No guys, it's from an anime.
A really awesome anime.
Note: Numbers 1 & 2 were very hard choices. I love both of these songs obsessively.
Number Two: Eau de Vie (Shiki)
Composer: Yasuharu Takanashi
I couldn't help it, Shiki had to be on this list again. It has one of my favorite OSTs of all time, for sure. This song is so amazing it distracted the hell out of me during the series. It didn't matter if something was going down, if I was mourning over a recently lost character (much as I knew better than to get attached to anyone from the very beginning, there were still a few people I felt mildly sad over) this song...as soon as it started playing, I started fangirling.
If I tell this song to play, I have to get out very early, or I'll be trapped. And I mean I'll let it loop for awhile unless there's something else I really want to listen to.
My favorite aspects of this particular song are...well there are a few. I love the way it sounds around 0:10, how it's pretty but also sounds a bit like urgency. It is followed up by the rising of the strings at 0:22, in another beautiful melody. I adore both of those parts with all my heart. But what takes the cake for the track is the way the strings and the voice join forces around 0:56 and just keep going. I believe the first time it played in the series my jaw literally dropped for that part.
Such pretty music, I think, would mask the true manner of the series if you hearing it without context. As things stand, it's a little creepy, how beautiful it is.
Number One: Ake ni Somaru (Jigoku Shoujo)
Composer: Yasuharu Takanashi
First of all, notice something—there are three Yasuharu Takanashi compositions on this song. Clearly, he knows how to get to me.
From the start, watching Jigoku Shoujo, I adored this song. That little-girlish voice set to that tone of music, sounding that way, and in such a darkly themed anime...it sorta blew my mind. Then the rest of the music came in, along with the other sort of vocals this song gets, and my mind was blown all over again. Then it got strings and guess what happened? Yes. More mind-blowing.
It seems like every time I listen to this song, I locate a new portion of it to give my love to and worship and bow down to. The little girl 'la' thing coming back in, softer, combined with the music right there? Yes. All over that. The slow ending, drawn out with sort of the Silent Hill-static sound thrown in there just for good measure? Yes.
Am I in love with this song?
Oh hell yes.
So there's my top ten OSTs/insert tracks. That was fun.
