Spin The Music

Posted by Die on December 30, 2010 · 1 Comment 

Spin The Music was Crystal Kay’s 9th studio album. It was released on December 8, 2010 and debuted at no. 42 on the Oricon Weekly Charts with 4,439 copies sold. In all, this album has sold over 6,308+ copies. It was released in a CD-Only edition, the first since her album 4 REAL back in 2003.

Tracks:
1. Journey ~Kimi to Futari de~
2. After Love -First Boyfriend- feat. KANAME (CHEMISTRY)
3. Konya wa No.1
4. Kimi ga Ireba
5. Time of Love
6. I pray
7. Goodbye
8. LOVE or GAME
9. Hands up
10. FLASH
11. Thank You For Talkin’ To Me Africa (Yellow Magic Orchestra feat. Crystal Kay)
12. I’ll be there

Review:
This is the first album from CK that I have reviewed, I didn’t care for Color Change! all that much, just my opinion. This album features material from 2009-2010, so there are some familiar songs on the album. With that said, let’s go!

The album begins with two of my favorite songs from CK. The first is from her latest single Journey ~Kimi to Futari de~. It’s a wonderful R&B ballad, extremely heart-wrenching, yet extremely catchy and beautiful. Then comes After Love -First Boyfriend-, her first single in this era. It’s a somewhat flashy ballad, very synth driven, along with some wonderful strings, and piano chords. Epic collaboration with Kaname, and really infectious, even for a ballad.

The first new song is Konya wa No.1. It’s a rather catchy, almost club/electric tune. It’s extremely up-tempo and up-beat. I’ve never heard anything like it from her. It sounds pretty modern and contemporary to say the least. The electric beats surprised me; overall, I do like it though, pretty catchy.

I’m not quite sure why, but Kimi ga Ireba was placed right after the previous track. It’s a ballad, which made me ask myself why not after the two ballads??? Doesn’t matter all that much though, the song is beautiful and wintery as well. It reminds me of a Christmas ballad, just the sound of it.The strings, acoustic guitar, piano etc. sound great. And her vocals were pretty clear as well, and powerful. Right after it though is the popular Time of Love. It was used as the theme song for a NHK drama, so I guess it’s popular?!?! Either way, it’s a moving ballad, traditional in every sense. All of the strings, piano, light percussion, and acoustic guitar, make for a astounding and beautiful sound. Definitely a dramatic ballad, and worthy of praise. Another ballad featured, I pray. It was on her mini-album FLASH. It’s a mellow piano ballad, nothing all that special IMO. Does sound nice though.

Luckily, Goodbye breaks the trend of ballads. It’s more of your typical choppy R&B tune. The beats sounded ok, nothing to rave about really. But it was different than her other stuff so far on the album. LOVE or GAME is 10 times better. It’s faster, less choppy, and a lot more futuristic, namely the electronic sound effects. The music and rhythm is just so infectious. The up-tempo and up-beat arrangement is what made is a hit as well. Cheerful and energetic, and just a great dance song! Hands up slightly breaks away from the previous song, being slightly ballad-esque, but it utilizes some synth and remains dance friendly. The up-tempo arrangement works for this song, despite it being a semi-ballad. I loved it because it was catchy. Didn’t hurt with the synth arrangement, percussion, and piano. One of my favorite songs on the entire album, didn’t expect to have one either honestly.

The final three tracks make me question the order of the songs. FLASH was just epic, the title track of her mini-album too. I seriously went “WTF” when I saw Thank You For Talkin’ To Me Africa. If the title was strange, the fact that it was YMO feat. CK blew my mind, and the fact that it wasn’t electronic. It was so strange and weird, I mean seriously? Yes it was a throwback to an old classic, but it was just boring IMO. But she ended the album on a high note with I’ll be there. As you might have guessed, it’s a ballad. It’s definitely different than her other songs on the album. It’s a mix between a jazz/club, gospel, and ragtime-esque. The music is uplifting, emotional, and positive. The organ, strings, percussion, piano, guitar and tambourine set the tone for a well sung ballad; as well as a chimera of sounds. Parts do sound sad at times, but overall superb. Quite a closer.

~~~~~

For being the first album that I’ve actually heard from CK, I have to admit that it’s far more impressive than I thought it was going to be. I absolutely loved the singles, well, songs from this era. And I was even surprised that I actually ended up liking a good amount of the new songs on the album. It certainly keeps with her overall theme of R&B, with some electronic/synth influences that I am loving. The ballads were impressive, namely Time of Love. The up-tempo, synth-infused songs turned out to be some of my favorites. And even those that I didn’t care for, weren’t so terribly bad. A solid album, and it’s going to show up on my super review for the year, just a heads up ; )

Rating

Filed under Crystal Kay · Tagged with Crystal, Crystal Kay, Kay