AI - Dream Album Thoughts(J-Ballad,J-RnB,J-rap)

   

    AI is a quarter Italian and Japanese singer who has roots in California as well as Japan. She is known for being the first female artist to be signed to Japan's Def Jam music label. Her core style is  RnB, Hip Hop, Rap, and Ragge. AI's biggest hit to date is a ballad(titled STORY) however, the singer is coined one of the few artists that brought a real RnB sound to Japanese listeners in the early 2000s. Dream is her first album in five years.

1. アルデバラン / NHK連続テレビ小説「カムカムエヴリバディ」主題歌
2. IN THE MIDDLE (feat. 三浦大知)
3. THE MOMENT (feat. ¥ellow Bucks)
4. Welcome Rain
5. First Time (feat. RIEHATA)
6. Lessons
7. BE WITH YOU / 東京建物 企業CMソング
8. パパへ
9. WE HAVE A DREAM / 書籍「WE HAVE A DREAM 201カ国202人の夢×SDGs 」テーマソング

    AI is an artists that has many faces in my opinion. I've stated her core sound above and that's were she tends to be comfortable. Still, she's manages to cultivate her sound using these core elements each time her albums drop. I'm not a huge fan of all the albums that AI has released but I can't deny that when she's on her game musically, it's on like super glue. Dream shows that while the singer was away, she took the time to think about what style she wanted to create. The title track is a classical gospel ballad representative of AI's biggest hit over a decade ago. Lyrics in the track tell of desperate love reading " I want to see you smile before the world ends" as the the violins's sleekness flows on behind an every growing vocal choir(who still stays controlled until the last half of the track.). Dream actually melts together track wise more than her last album. She also chose good collaborations such as Daichi Miura and Yellow Bucks who up lift their tracks to add upbeat numbers to Dream's tracklist. There's also tracks such as mid tempo RnB Pop track called Welcome Rain where the AI proves that she can preform a song all on her own. All her core values in what she likes to do as an artist are in this album but more formulated and mature. I enjoyed the first half of the album a bit more than the latter half that felt more like normal songs. The sampling of a chorus from another track she released a couple years ago was cool too. It was a song about her mother. 

   AI has roots in Gospel music. I remember watching one of her english interviews years ago about how she used to sing in a Gospel choir in America. She naturally has a deep richness to her voice that fits Soul music. Her vocal range is quite big too if you go back and listen to her older works.