Sarah Àlainn recently celebrated 15 years as a professional artist, since she first recorded ”Beyond the Sky” for Xenoblade Chronicles, straight out of university as an exchange student in Tokyo. Fitting, then, that ”Beyond the Sky” starts off the new album. We’ve have multiple versions of it already, but this is a new live recording. I prefer the previous album version for the clearer vocals, but it’s nice to hear a new take. Another live recording is ”Isabella’s Lullaby”, a song from The Promised Neverland without lyrics.

The next three tracks aren’t really new, as they released as singles last November. ”Flags of Brave” is of course the theme to Eiyuden Chronicle, this time in a piano version. It’s nice, but it’s missing the grander arrangement and the choir, so it’s more of a treat for us fans. ”Eight Melodies” is a super sweet song based on melodies from Mother/Earthbound. It has a simple arrangement and a music box quality to it with a kalimba melody, but ends up as one of the best themes on this album. ”For Us to Decide”, finally, is from Z Gundam, and similarly uses a lot of backing vocals to great effect. These three singles counted towards my Itunes purchase of the album which was nice, but as a side effect the tracks still count as different albums.

Much of the album consists of Sarah’s recent game themes. ”Sunbreak” from Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is here as a trilingual live version, and it’s an amazing song to begin with. It needs to be played loud! ”Crazy for Who?” from Saga: Emerald Beyond is much more light-weight, but fun in its own, and this version sounds much clearer than the in-game track. ”Radical Dreamers” from Chrono Cross is another great live rendition with some new flourishes, although ultimately I prefered the version on the Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross album. The album also finishes off with ”Flags of Brave” once more, this time straight from the game arrangement. If you haven’t played the game, hopefully this song provides enough incentive, because it’s one of her best.

The last game theme isn’t recent, far from it. ”The Final Time Traveler” has appeared multiple times starting on her very first album, Celeste. This time it’s a very smooth, slow jazz version. And wouldn’t you know – I finally like it! It pairs well with the last two non-game songs. ”Idol” from Oshi no Ko also starts off as a slow jazz ballad, but launches into a funky tune where Sarah is just having tons of fun. ”Sayonara”, finally, is from the classic anime Galaxy Express 999, and has a retro ballad sound to it complete with lines from the movie.

I’ve had the songs downloaded since the day they were available, but the physical album was a bit trickier to track down. For the international release, Sarah partnered with Wayô Records (who incidentally also released the arranged Little Big Adventure soundtrack that I picked up at the same time). So I didn’t have to import the album from Japan, but instead had to wait for it to turn up in Europe. On the plus side, this version came with a signed card which is very appreciated since I can’t easily visit a concert in Japan. There was also a bonus DVD with some behind the scenes material, showing the process of some of the cover photography and the making of ”Eight Melodies”. Oh, and I didn’t put the booklet in the wrong way, the cover is supposed to look like this.

Isekai is a remarkably intimate and sweet album, much due to the jazz theme and the overall production. If there’s a downside to it, it’s that I’ve heard most of it before. But that’s probably due to me specifically tracking down all those game performances in one go. What is here is brilliant, though. There’s not really a weak track, and the softer anime songs contrast well to the epic main themes. More of this, please.