JAY'ED - Here I Stand Album Thoughts(J-pop)

Tracklist:

01 The Paradise
02 Must Be MAGIC
03 Without You feat.Crystal Kay
04 ずっと一緒 feat.Duran (RED DIAMOND DOG)
05 Beautiful Days
06 blind
07 All I Did Is Grind feat.AKLO
08 P.B.E feat.今市隆二 (三代目J Soul Brothe
09 明日がくるなら ~JAY ED Solo version~
10 MY WAY
11 Takers feat.DOBERMAN INFINITY
12 Everybody PKCZ® Remix
13 Here I Stand

  JAY'ED is a singer that I know mostly through  the duets he preformed with other artists. Most notably, was the duets that he did with Jazz Pop singer, JUJU. These singles were in fact, not only his best selling singles but also the songs that rose him to fame in Japan. Here I Stand is his newest album that explores musical genres of 80's disco pop mixed with RnB, acoustic rock, and electro dance pop. The disco dance pop was in the album opening tracks for an upbeat start off to Here I Stand. His voice feels at home in the dynamics of the in music motion. The Paradise is the perfect example of JAY'ED coming into an RnB vocal form while the instrumental used instruments such as drums and saxophones that are heard in African American college marching bands. Other than this track, the disco pop dance style runs out of energy fast in the upcoming tracks. The choruses for some of the tracks lacked power to make you be hooked instantly. A listener will instead have to listen to these type of tracks several times before they grow a liking for them. Crystal Kay joins JAY'ED for a duet on Without You and I honestly gave Here I Stand a listen because of this collaboration. Both singers merge their voices together perfectly for a beautiful harmony above a dance electro pop track. I've never heard a male singer that could match Crystal Kay's vocals note for note until I heard JAY'ED sing with her. We also can't forget that both singers have multicultural backgrounds. YAY FOR DIVERSITY IN JAPAN! Beautiful Days will please listeners who just want a plain love inspired Jpop track while Rapper AKLO jumps on another artist's track making things sizzle on All I Do Is Grind. I jam to this track each time it comes on my iPod playlists. Auto tune works for certain RnB songs here and I relate to the message of the lyrics. My Way has JAY'ED singing in a lower kay than normally heard. His voice on this track throws me off a little bit because the track has him singing with an acoustic guitar. Here I Stand tries to pull out all the stops considering its featured artists list. A member of J Soul Brother, PKCZ, DOBERMAN INFINITY etc are hired to make sweet music happen. I wasn't feeling a lot of the album's sell out quality choices in making the album track list since the tracks might appeal a wider audience but they lack excitement to me. He doesn't leave listeners with only one style to choose from though which is good. The solo version of the duet he did with JUJU was a treat in itself too.


  JAY'ED is a high tenor that sounds perfect singing different styles of music. I fell in love with hearing him sing with other artists because he knows how to make his voice fit with whoever he's singing with. There's nothing else to say about his voice honestly.  Dude can hit a pretty high range easily.

 Here I Stand has more skiable songs than good songs for me. I was a little disappointed that the album didn't bring the truth like I though it would. JAY'ED has true talent never the less.