絢香 – Sing to the Sky
Release Date: 25 June 2008
Buy her album at cdjapan
01 POWER OF MUSIC
02 愛を歌おう
03 SKY
04 Jewelry Day
05 グンナイベイビー
06 For today
07 Why
08 ゴールドスター
09 魔法使いのしわざ
10 手をつなごう
11 愛も嘘も真実
12 CLAP & LOVE
13 君がいるから
14 おかえり
15 今夜も星に抱かれて・・・
16 WINDING ROAD
17 I Believe <English ver.>
This is ayaka’s second album and a much anticipated album. Track 4, Jewelry Day, is a simple song with an accoustic guitar. So, her vocals + accoustic guitar = instant win. Track 10, Te wo tsunagou, is a motivating song which means “let’s hold hands”. ayaka seems to have a penchant of singing songs that would encourage and motivate you when times get rough. What I’m trying to say is that, she illustrates issues people go through everyday like failures, helplessness and then sings of it and tells them that everything would be okay. Track 12, Okaeri, was the ending theme for the jdrama Zettai Kareshi and it’s a cute song welcoming a loved one back home. To me, it was a perfect song for the drama which I enjoyed. Track 15, Konya mo hoshi ni dakarete, is a beautiful sad ballad. I swear I had this song played for like more than 20 times. Actually, I don’t know the exact number of times this song has been played but it’s a lot. I mean, piano and vocals? Another instant win! I appreciate simple songs with only an instrument. The track title translates to “I want to hug the stars tonight”, crudely put. Track 16, WINDING ROAD, is a collaboration with Kobukuro. This song features great harmony between Kobukuro (which is a portmanteu of the group’s 2 male singers, Kentarō Kobuchi and Shunsuke Kuroda) and ayaka. It’s an upbeat song and one that would make me sway from side to side (seeing how I fail at dancing).
Overall, this album is great played in its entirety as it has a balance of upbeat fun songs and the more mellow ones. As expected of ayaka, I loved this album. In fact, it’s a little hard for me to be disappointed with her music although i have to admit I didn’t really like her CLAP&LOVE/WHY single when it was released. I guess I was pretty used to her singing more ballad-ish songs and when something upbeat like that was released instead, I didn’t really like it. However, listening to it on the album, it wasn’t that bad. Probably because there were other tracks in the album which was also upbeat and so listening to those two songs amidst the other songs didn’t sound as bad.
I may not have pointed this out before but I’m pretty picky when it comes to female singers as I tend to stay away from those cutesy, high pitched vocalists. ayaka is the kind I like; her vocals are strong and a lil low but she can still hit those high notes effortlessly. Her vocals are soothing and this sounds really stupid but it feels comforting as well.
