Kenshi Yonezu has been having a fantastic few years as a singer. He started at originally as the voice for vocalloids then began releasing music under his real name. Because he had garnered such a following from his post sonline, Yonezu became a sensation with his albums selling thousands of units and placing him as one of the most promenade male solo singers of Japan's current generation along side Gen Hoshino. Stray Sheep is his fifth album. The album debuted at the top of the Oricon album Chart in it's first week.
01 カムパネルラ
02 Flamingo
03 感電
04 PLACEBO ＋ 野田洋次郎
05 パプリカ
06 馬と鹿
07 優しい人
08 Lemon
09 まちがいさがし
10 ひまわり
11 迷える羊
12 Décolleté
13 TEENAGE RIOT
14 海の幽霊
15 カナリヤ
Stray Sheep defiantly hits different musically from Yonezu's last effort. Most notably changes come through the music's new sense of maturity for the singer's ability to have a solid idea created by the tracks on this album. While his last album was a bit experimental causing the body of work to drift all over the place, Stray Sheep strays stable in genre and mood that will entice the listener easier. Don't get me wrong about Stray Sheep not being experimental cause it really is an album that takes inspiration from all music. It's just that what vision Yonezu was trying to create is much easier to understand when you hear him transfer to more mid tempo pop fusion tracks that fit the album's continuity. He dabbles around with jazz, hip hop, and even some Irish sounds surprisingly. Production knows how to add any instrumentation under a beat and make everything sound like it belongs there. I especially loved how a section of the album was crafted around Yonezu's smash hit single: Lemon. I've often wondered before the album release if the tracks would sound worlds apart from what Lemon is. The thought scared me a bit since many people including myself, love this single. He does give good lead up tracks that set the mood before the song's play. It was genius how emotional dramatic the instrumentals are for a good number of the tracks and it fit right in with Lemon. Ballads on Stray Sheep bring a new side to Kenshi Yonezu on the album. Simply these tracks are very well produced. Anybody can make a ballad track but not everyone can keep a ballad track from being boring as hell. There's moments on the album that weren't for me. Sometimes the tracks could be too over the top in mainstream appeal or just kinda uninteresting in my opinion. Stray sheep is a fifteen track album so you can expect to find some duds in there somewhere.
Yonezu's vocals have always been something I've enjoyed listening to. When the vocalloid edits are taken away, this guy still has a decent voice. I'm not going to lie though, every time I listen to some of his songs, I think of a Hastune Miku video game.... Some of the tracks on the album go back to his old vocaloid days with all the edits on his vocals which I honestly don't mind as a varied take on his vocals. His mixture in high and low ranges are everything. The vocal attacks he sometimes does when he sings are noticeable but also adds a grit to his singing in rock inspired songs.
Stray Sheep's familiar yet twisting antics won me over most of all. I like more tracks on this album than the last one. Only the singles really caught me attention on
No comments:
Post a Comment