Paranoia Agent (Mousou Dairinin) - Original Soundtrack

I say that for a good number of reasons. While I do love all of his other commissioned works, this one reigns over them in my ears. First of all, it's very long compared to his others, which maybe have 9-12 songs (say, for a feature length film score) but with this anime series Hirasawa created 19 separate songs including the energetic and strange theme song. Another thing is that the music is extremely varied, from high-energy electronic tracks (Escape; Sub-Usual) to light ambient music (Happiness; Reverie Hill), dark ambient music (Focus; Object Definition) or theatrical/thematic scores (White Hill; Hero) to simply strange and undefinable instrumentals (Condition Boy; Tension), the scope of the music is just amazing! The biggest reason however for why I like this soundtrack best is because you can enjoy the music thoroughly outside of the context of the show. As with, say, the Paprika soundtrack, a lot of the music centers very heavily around specific scenes to give the appropriate atmosphere, but most of the music in PA is significantly more stand-alone, and gives it a better 'timelessness'. Also, the CD comes with a bonus track of Granfatherly Wind, taken original from Blue Limbo; long-time fans already have this song, but new fans could take the song as a good opportunity to hear Hirasawa's non-commissioned style.