Though I've always liked it to some extent, Akira's OST has grown on me over the years as I've become more open-minded (I'd like to think) towards not-so conventional genres of music.

Then I gave it a partial listen today and the chills that final track gave me prompted me to update my review.

Anybody else have this album?  Thoughts?

Don't have the album, but to me nothing is more appropriate for putting me ill at ease than gamelan music. It's perfect for anything that's intended to either terrify me or disrupt my perception from "normal".

I have the album. It has a few beautiful tracks, and a few tracks that put me to sleep. However it is worth the cost for the tracks that I enjoy are very well done. Very nice use of the xylophone and gamelan, and when it was released much of the music was relatively new to American audiences. I definitely enjoyed the music more than the film, although I have never been a big anime fan. I do as a rule really enjoy cartoons, but Akira was just not to my taste. I will keep the OST though. I would probably give the album 3 or 3.5/5 stars. However, I completely understand that everyone has his/her own taste in music.

I actually re-watched the movie a year or two ago, and I definitely had a greater appreciation for it than the first time I saw it.

It was definitely one of those movies that made you think the world was ending...

Aside from some bombastic choruses, I didn't really remember a whole lot of music out of the movie, but looking up some music samples, I'd agree this's actually a really good soundtrack.

Me, I've always had a soft spot for ethnic and folk music, and a lot of the tribal motifs are appropriate, given how savage the world in the movie is.

I suppose, at some point, I really will get my hands on this one; it's definitely some moody, foreboding stuff.

If I could find the original soundtrack, I'd love to give it a listen again. I remember my first experience being pretty favorable, definitely unique.

If you like the Akira soundtrack you might also be interested in checking out Yamashirogumi's album Ecophony Rinne, if you haven't already. It was the album which made Otomo hire Shoji Yamashiro as the composer for the Akira movie. I have to say I'm a big fan of both