CLICK ME!! to listen
Sony Music has put up samples of all the songs and I must say first impressions for me are mostly favourable. There will be some songs I think I will need time to digest but there are some I think I will already like. The trio said in an interview that this album will take some different paths from their earlier work and from what I can tell, some of it really does seem that way. But happily, as usual, it is heavy on harmony, which is to me A VERY GOOD THING because the biggest reason why I like Kajiura Yuki's vocal projects, Kalafina and FictionJunction, is precisely because it is heavy on harmony. I've said it more than once to friends that no matter how much I love Keiko and Kaori, I am not interested in them going solo and when Nanri Yuuka and Ishikawa Chieko kind of went solo, I was only marginally interested in their work. I really, really like it that the Kalafina and FJ vocalists sing for Kajiura and in their respective vocal units.
I really love Keiko's unusual voice and I am always happy to hear the moments when she does have a solo bit or when she does lead songs. I can't say for sure if she leads in any of the songs in After Eden, since these are only samples. But I was quite happy to hear her voice come through strong and clear in some of the songs. :) I know she's the contralto, so while supporting the alto and the soprano is part of her job and I do like it that she does it so well but still, I really do love her voice so I am always happy to be able to hear her on her own once in a while or when the other two support her lovely deep vocals. :)
Quick thoughts about the tracks:
I can already see "Destination Unknown" and "胸の行方" becoming early personal favourites. :) The first song because I love Keiko's part in that song and the second song because it's kind of not very Kajiura which already makes it kind of interesting for me. Actually, "In Your Eyes", is quite unusual too but that is a song I probably need to hear more of before I can conclude if I like it. The beginning of the sample is not particularly interesting but Hikaru's solo bit at the end of the sample is interesting. I'm definitely partial to "magnolia" because I usually like songs with a heavy beat. And I quite like "neverending", heh heh... more Keiko for me... and it's great too cuz it's not the usual "Ongaku" style Keiko too... I like it. :) I'm not sure on "Eden" but I do like the harmony, the girls always sound good together. "ことのは" is nice, not a lot of musical accompaniment in the sample which is nice because their voices come across clean, clear and beautiful. "sandpiper" seems to be more typical Kajiura which is fine for me but is unlikely to be my favourite track from this album at the moment. "九月" is quite pretty, not incredibly non-Kajiura but I like the sample enough, this type of song is just one of the types of songs which made Kajiura popular and I'm not opposed to them. I like typical Kajiura as much as I like atypical Kajiura. :-)
The rest are songs which have already been released.... at least I think I didn't miss any of the new ones... I'm fading really fast... and need to sleep.
But before I leave... Kawaii Girl Japan has put up the second part of the Kalafina interview... they change it every Monday. And although I know it is part of the same shoot, the girls seem more energetic now then in the first clip when I felt they seemed a little tired. They are kind of funny in the second clip and I think in the interviews/radio programs where they are allowed to just talk pretty freely, they are actually quite amusing and funny at times. I guess they just had to get the serious stuff out of the way in the first part of the interview so they came across less jolly then usual... perhaps. :-)
Maybe tomorrow I will post something on another piece of software that I tested and loved on the Android Samsung Galaxy SII or perhaps finish up a post I had written two nights ago on the train but didn't finish and is currently still in draft... we'll see... tomorrow I'm suppose to play table tennis so maybe too tired for blogging.
K.... time to sleep... enjoy the After Eden samples guys. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment