Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is a soundtrack album by Japanese band Seatbelts, originally released in May 1998 via Victor Entertainment.

Originally aired in 1998, Cowboy Bebop became a critical and commercial success both in Japanese and international markets (most notably in the United States), garnered several major anime and science fiction awards upon its release, and received wide acclaim for its style, characters, story, voice acting, animation, and soundtrack.

In 2001, Cowboy Bebop became the first anime title to be broadcast on Adult Swim in the United States.

Seatbelts’s repertoire covers not only jazz but also rock, electronic, funk, blues, heavy metal, country and J-pop.

The album begins with the show's theme song, "Tank!". The song, written by Yoko Kanno and performed by Seatbelts, has an extensive alto saxophone solo played by Masato Honda, as well as a fill part at the end. The song is a big band jazz piece in a Latin-infused hard bop style with a rhythm section that combines a double bass and bongo drums.

"Tank!" is primarily an instrumental piece, though it does feature some spoken male vocals (provided by long-time collaborator with Kanno, Tim Jensen) in the introductory portion of the song, thematically jazz in style. The vocal portion provides a lead-in to the instrumental portion, and its final lyrics, "I think it's time we blow this scene. Get everybody and the stuff together. Okay, three, two, one let's jam", signal the beginning bursts of the majority, purely instrumental end of the song.

The track "Bad Dog No Biscuits" opens with a cover of the Tom Waits composition "Midtown" before diverting in its interpretation.

This double album 2LP record set is a 2021 reissue on purple (LP1) and red gold (LP2) translucent marbled coloured vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves, pressed in Europe via Masterworks and Sony Music.