Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post

Kacku · #**278** 9th August 2017, 03:50 PM

Here's your late reminder that the latest I've GIRL's COMPILATION album has been released! The album has been uploaded in many places on the internet (example 1, example 2), so go download and listen! And here are the covers and the finalised tracklist, just because I like to be thorough sometimes:

Spoiler:

I'm really impressed with all the new tracks made specially for this album: RINA sounds really good on Hierarchie, and she really elevates what is otherwise just another generic C.G mix song (seriously, when was the last time C.G mix produced anything worthy of anyone's time...); IKU brings the DRAMA on the title track, hits it out of the park with her singing, and definitively proves that she can do darker songs; but my favourite is easily Forever no End, which features a beautiful melody, a soaring, intensely catchy chorus, a perfect Tomoyuki Nakazawa pop production I just cannot get enough of, and a beautiful vocal performance by Riho, whom I really hope to see more of on future I've works. And honestly, I hope to see all three of these singers (and marriage blue, who does a lovely cover of Utsukushiku Ikitai on the limited CD) more, they really impressed me here and give me hope that I've will still be able to produce rewarding music even in their current, confusing, member-depleted state.

As for the other songs: I really loved Aim ～we can do all to be fine～ and Wings of Courage -Sora wo Koete-, and found a bunch of the other songs nice, but this is not gonna go down as one of my favourite I've compilations. On the bonus disc with all the 2017 versions, I only really loved Utsukushiku Ikitai, and unfortunately thought all the other songs had some problems that kept them from being very remarkable (Around the mind sounds generic, and honestly the cheesy, outdated original version is better; Imaginary Affair either now has acoustic strings or the volume on the strings has just been turned way up, and it contributes nothing; INITIATIVE's arrangement has a dark undercurrent which doesn't suit the song AT ALL; Kiss the Future was never a good song in the first place, but this version might actually be better than the original; Bizarrerie Cage is good, I guess).

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And an even later notice: I've released a collaboration album with Key Sounds Label at the last winter Comiket, with I've singers covering Key classics and Key singers covering I've songs. You can download the album here, and, as discovered by MeltingCORE on I've Sound Forum, it's also available on iTunes!

I heartily recommend checking the album out for three tracks in particular: RINA's version of Last regrets (RINA gives an awesome vocal performance, and Tomoyuki Nakazawa updates the song with a very modern arrangement that even features a pop drop that I actually like!), Airi Kirishima's take on Saya's song (NAMI turns the plodding ballad into a sorrowful dancefloor anthem, and it's amazing), and Lily on the FIeLD's (a.k.a. Riho's) cover of Aozora (the arrangement is honestly a bit dull, but Riho's voice is everything).

Spoiler: