Top 10 Yuki Kajiura soundtrack albums

[YKWorshiper]

Another great thing about YK's soundtrack music is that no matter your mood (happy, sad, tired, excited, reflective...), you are always able to find some music by her to suit your present state of mind. The right album neither annoys you nor makes you feel bored. It's pleasant and elicits your attention without becoming irritating or dull.

That's my experience anyway now that I've 29 or 30 OSTs by her plus the other projects.

My partner likes YK stuff too every now and then. Her all-time favorite seems to be Tsubasa Vol. II but she's tried out nearly my entire YK OST collection. She doesn't care about FJ or Kalafina though.

 

[YKWorshiper]

To my amazement, I was unable to find a thread where fans could list their top 10 YK OST albums. As we know, there are dozens of them out there. I don't know about the rest of you—and maybe because of Spotify etc. this has changed quite a lot—but I tend to listen entire discs or albums at once through my HiFi set. That's how I approach all music, YK included. I think YK's music rewards a listener from close listening and having a good system. So, here's my personal top 10:

1. Tsubasa Chronicle Future Soundscape Volume 1

(the only thing on this album I don't like so much is the vocal tracks, especially the one at the end: this was my second YK album and I think I've listened to this album roughly 1,500 times making it one of my most listened-to albums ever out of my collection of more than 1,000 albums)

2. .hack//SIGN 1
3. The Garden of Sinners Movie
4. .hack//SIGN 2
5. The Works for Soundtrack
6. Tsubasa Chronicle Future Soundscape Volume 2
7. Mai-Hime 2
8. Sword Art Online Alicization War of the Underworld 1
9. Fate/Zero Standalone Complex
10. MADLAX 2

I'd like to insert Shin Kyuuseishu Densetsu Hokuto no Ken Raoh Den Junai no Sho / Yuria Den Original Soundtrack 1 as #10. It starts a bit slow but the second half is just hit after hit after hit and at the end I was smiling and had tears in my eyes. It's YK at her most Eastern traditional style that I've come across.

So, my revised top ten is:

1. Tsubasa Chronicle Future Soundscape Volume 1

2. .hack//SIGN 1

3. The Garden of Sinners Movie

4. .hack//SIGN 2

5. The Works for Soundtrack

6. Tsubasa Chronicle Future Soundscape Volume 2

7. Mai-Hime 2

8. Sword Art Online Alicization War of the Underworld 1

9. Fate/Zero Standalone Complex

10. Shin Kyuuseishu Densetsu Hokuto no Ken Raoh Den Junai no Sho / Yuria Den Original Soundtrack 1

There are plenty of runners‐up. It's much easier to name the weakest albums. They're SAO Ordinal Scale and, after a little gap, SAO – Progressive – Scherzo Of A Dark Dusk. Neither is terrible, and I like Scherzo more, but for me the rest is ahead of these two by a fair margin.