CD review: “Band Yarou Yo!! PART 2” Band Score CD/DVD

Of course, just one band score release is not enough for a franchise like K-On! – even though that first volume contained every song from the first anime season, and more – so a second book focusing primarily on songs from the character singles saw a release before not too long.

As before, the book comes with a CD, which is what I’m most concerned with – but before going into that, I will take a superficial look at the actual band score book.

The second band score book is considerably thicker than the first, and contains roughly twice as many songs. Every song from the character image song series is found here (with the exception of “Let’s Go”, which was included in the first volume), as well as both Death Devil songs from the season 1 single, the updated “Fuwa Fuwa Time” from the Ho-Kago Tea Time album, and the band version of “Tsubasa wo Kudasai”.

Full song list:

• Fuwa Fuwa Time
• Giita ni Kubiddake
• Sunday Siesta
• Heart Goes Boom!!
• Hello Little Girl
• Girly Storm Shisso Stick
• Mezase Happy 100%↑↑↑
• Dear My Keys ～Kenban no Maho～
• Humming Bird
• Jajauma Way To Go
• Watashi wa Watashi no Michi wo Yuku
• Lovely Sister LOVE
• Oui! Ai Kotoba
• Cooly Hotty Tension Hi!!
• Prologue
• Maddy Candy
• Hell the World
• Tsubasa wo Kudasai

Again like the first volume, the second band score book also contains a special Kakifly manga page, making it a must-have for obsessive K-On! manga completists and obsessive K-On! CD completists alike.

Of course, the ones who will get the most out of this are the music geeks who also happen to be K-On! fans. That is probably even more true for this release than for the first one, and this time it applies more heavily to the included CD as well.

The discs (oh yes, plural) come in a clear jewel case, with the cover featuring the five HTT members as depicted on their character singles. The back features the track list and the silhouettes of the HTT 5 plus Ui, Nodoka and Sawako covered in colored squares against a black backdrop.

The insert is a simple foldout containing an overview of the disc contents, as well as the credits. The character artwork from the image song series feature throughout in the design, along with patterns of those colored squares.

The square pattern continues on the disc design, with little black and red squares all over the label of disc 1. The second disc, which is actually a DVD – more on that later – features blue and black.

The first disc starts off with the same instrumental mix of “Fuwa Fuwa Time” that was included on the first band score CD, but this time it is followed by five additional instrumental versions, each of them subtracting one instrument from the mix. This is similar to what was done on the original “Fuwa Fuwa Time” CD single, but the tracks featured here aren’t the same ones as this is the “five people version” of the song which was introduced later.

Following that are instrumental versions of the Death Devil songs, “Maddy Candy” and “Hell The World” – two of each; one regular and one guitarless version.

The second disc, as I mentioned, is a DVD. And where the CD provides you with the audio tracks you’d need if you want to play one of the instruments on “Fuwa Fuwa Time” yourself, the DVD aims to teach you how to do that.

The DVD kicks off with a short but cool opening sequence before presenting you with the main menu. Here, you are given the choice of whose part you want to see played (and study, if that is your wish). Each instrument’s part is demonstrated by one of the original musicians, played in full when you select “Demo”.

The “Exercise” part splits the song into short sections, allowing for a closer study of each one. The main menu also offers you the choice of watching all the video of any one of the instruments played continuously.

Overall, this release is probably ideal for exactly the people it is intended for; that being those who are both major K-On! fans as well as big music nuts. For anyone else, it’s not particularly interesting, aside for wanting to complete ones collection. If you’re not a music geek, and not a crazy completist like myself, it’s safe to pass on this one.