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KUROYUME |
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KIYOHARU |
Reviews©
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蝶 Translation by: You're a flower blooming by the window, someday, a butterfly circles
above Yesterday, hope lightly touched us, didn't it. If it's a dream, let's wake up; even if we're only drifting You're my, My silence You're my, My silence Your smiling face I saw your smile |
| 1. 光 Hikari Interesting beginnings. Loving the first song already. Really subterranean bass >< Lovely sense of build and pacing, sweeping in like a slowly rising tide. In fact everything about this is watery, even the way he sings it: gorgeously rich flanging tones that seem to embrace and lick you all over. It's SO sensuous! Love the packaging! The first picture of him crouching on a floor near a vase of flowers is a clear reference to Syd Barretts' The Madcap Laughs album cover. Really beautiful pictures and he's actually looking at the camera in some of them. Packaging gets an A+ in fact, as does the first song. Always a good thing to start on a high. You need to start off as you mean to continue and he is certainly grabbing our attention forcibly here from the very first moment. He has great ears for production and really pretty feet too @__@ |
| 2. Come Home Starting stunningly again. New Order/ Joy Division type choppy bass but much wilder. Great stuff !! He should do more songs like this one. Really the more I have listened to this album (dozens of times now) this is still the one that stuns me the most. So simple and yet so perfect with such a subtle build up that you don’t even know it is coming until it arrives. This is always the one that makes me feel like dancing most. Love the way he sings it too, so raw and powerful. |
| 3. Bunny Smile A Sads song called Stop remodelled very nicely indeed. I always did think this was a hot song, and this is a great new version. I can see this one becoming rather addictive. Much lighter and funkier than the last song in a soothing kind of way, but he is still playing with that raw vibrating voice. Love the way he slides it around XDD It’s impossible to avoid sexual metaphors when describing music generally, but Kiyoharus’ voice is certainly an extreme case. This song just gets better and better as it goes along :O Features Tsuchiya Kohey (Street Sliders) doing Programming and Guitar. |
| 4. ROOM He tries to hurt us with that guitar sound, it etches my eardrums. Wah! I knew just from the sample I was going to love this song. Hurts us and then he soothes, mmmmmm...really amazing vocal melody >< That descending scale he does = love. GAH! Another unreleased Sads song. |
| 5. 蝶 CHOU (The Butterfly) English Translation "You're my. My silence" Lovely! Really! Love at first listening. Over time this has become even more adored if that was possible. I literally never tire of listening to it. On the whole, this song is addiction central. Guitar work on this gets an A++ as does his wonderful vocals. The heart is just unbelievable. So passionate and yet not syrupy at all. |
| 6. Horizon I already liked this one alot, and though it sounds a bit radio friendly after the last treat I still do love hearing it. His voice is really on form :) I particularly like the very last section of this one, when he finally cuts loose. It’s a bit more tortured than the last one, with lots of tension building before the big catharsis at the end. |
| 7. 影絵 Kagee Turn the page and OH the prettiest picture of all, with him standing there with his boxing glove. Song starts with yet more sub bass. Mmmmmmm very like :) This is the first truly Mellow one, and its also really freaking gorgeous. It has this kind of quiet optimism that really is infectious. And I love the Sato Taiji (Theatre Brook) guitar. He is a very talented guy and also plays on Hikari, Alstroemeria and Slider. Of course he played on Poetry and on the Last Song single too so he’s becoming a bit of regular (a very good thing imo). |
| 8. Faidia This song starts out brilliantly, and carries me along in a kind of rollicking manner until we hit the chorus, where I start to have problems with it. While I can see it’s a perfectly good song, I just seem to tune out at a certain point. There are some very nice elements (a very sweet solo around 2min – 2.20) to it but it is definitely my least favourite song on the album so far. The acoustic guitar break at 3.12 is a bit boring and long winded and I really don’t like the way he sings that chorus. That said I have grown to like it a lot more than I did at first. |
| 9. Last Song –album version- You already know what I think of this song. Picture on the actual page is one of the best of all. o__o I still love this song even after playing it to death when I first got the single. The song writing technique on display is startlingly good :O It does sound a bit different to the single version…maybe a little more vigorous and energetic. |
| 10. Alstroemeria Goodly goodness yet again, with the Taiji man again. Pic next to it is adorable >< I have come to really love this song as I listen to it more and more I get more and more entranced. He’s so good at creating warm, enveloping ambiences with sound and you really feel you are entering into his emotional world as you listen. This is so intricately and exquisitely crafted and performed. I really don’t think there is a singer/song writer alive right now who is his equal. And this song is probably the finest example of his skill I have heard so far. |
| 11. Slider More of the Taiji man. This again has a kind of New Ordery feel to it. Superb song actually. He makes all his songs brilliant with his complex and unexpected vocal melodies. I suppose it’s really appropriate that this song seems to just slide off the edge of the album into nothingness. |
| Conclusion... I think that this album is a whole quantum shift up
from Poetry in every sense. Congratulations to Kiyo on an amazing achievement! :) *lipo dances* |
blah©flyingfox2005
Kiyoharu
Mellow
30/03/05
LTCA-00006
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