Parasite Eve. If you are reading this review, it's almost definite that you know that name because of the video game. You may even be wondering what exactly this CD is that I'm reviewing, because you know the music to said game was written by Yoko Shimomura, not respected anime composer Joe Hisaishi. Well, if you didn't know, Parasite Eve started out as a novel, which the Square game was in essence a sequel to. The novel was also made into a live action movie. The soundtrack to that movie is what I'm reviewing.

Now if you look at the CD time, you'll notice the CD runs just over 27 minutes. This isn't a mistake - the CD is indeed that short, with 6 tracks running from 4 to 5 minutes each. There was also a single released, however I don't know if there was any of the same music on it or not.

But enough about history and time lengths. What really matters is how good the music on the CD is. I'm happy to say that upon first listen it instantly became one of my favorites. Each one of the six tracks is wonderful. There's an overall feeling of darkness in the music, and much of it uses synths, but it never suffers to bore me. And it's interesting to hear the obvious influences that Shimomura had when she wrote the game soundtrack.

The first track, "EVE - Vocal Version", is a beautiful singing melody. It's quite similar to the effect in the game's soundtrack, but it's a real voice, and not quite as harsh. It's one of those tracks you can just listen to forever and not get bored. "Choral" continues along the same lines, but is less melodic, and uses the synth choir as a sustained background under rhythmic activity.

"Cell" is quite an ambient track, but where it lacks in memorability, it makes up for in setting mood. There are little motifs thrown in everywhere, and it's quite relaxing, but it never wanders out of the darkness. And speaking of "Darkness", that track is where the music starts to pick up a bit. It retains a wonderful piano ostinato with a synth melody on top of it.

"Explosion" sounds exactly like the title implies. It's fast action music, but like the rest of the CD it's still dark and beautiful. "EVE ?EPiano Version" is once again the beautiful singing melody, but this time played on the piano. Mr. Hisaishi provides the piano playing in the whole album, and in this track especially he shows off his wonderful performing skills.

Overall, this is a CD worth having, especially for fans of Hisaishi's music. Yes, it is short , but fortunately it's also cheaper than most Japanese CDs. I would easily put it up against Hisaishi's most popular, Mononoke, as well as the Parasite Eve game soundtrack, even though both incredible in their own right.