Crystal Kay(クリスタル・ケイ) - I SING(cover album) Thoughts(J-pop)

 

   Fans haven't heard much from C-Kay since 2018's For You, which foreign fans either loved or hated. I for one am always ecstatic to have some new release from Miss Kay. She hinted at the latter half of last year that a cover album was in the works. I'm not one to really get into covers but I was there for each and every one of Crystals digital releases that came out spontaneously accompanied by music videos. I just knew after hearing the singles for this album that fans were in for something special. I Sing is Crystal Kay's very first cover album in her whole long career as a singer. She's done covers throughout her career but never a full compilation album.

Tracklist

1. 楓 (Original: Spitz, Producer: Maeda Kazuhiko)
2. ただ…逢いたくて(I Just... I Want to See You) (Original: EXILE, Producer: Shimada Masanori)
3. 3月9日(March 9) (Original: Remioromen, Producer: Yaffle)
4. I LOVE... (Original: Official HIGE DANdism, Producer: Kawaguchi Daisuke)
5. Nandemonaiya (なんでもないや; Nothing) (Original: RADWIMPS, Producer: Shimada Masanori)
6. Suki (すき; Love) (Original: DREAMS COME TRUE, Producer: MANABOON)
7. 天体観測 (Astronomical Observation) (Original: BUMP OF CHICKEN, Producer: Matzura Akihisa)
8. Hitomi wo Tojite (瞳をとじて; Close Your Eyes) (Original: Hirai Ken, Producer: Kono Shin)
9. 歌うたいのバラッド(A Ballad I Want to Sing) (Original: Saito Kazuyoshi, Producer: Matzura Akihisa)
10. サウダージ (Melancholic Longing) (Original: Porno Graffitti, Producer: Sasaji Masanori)
11. One more time, One more chance (Original: Yamazaki Masayoshi, Producer: 笹路正徳)
12. 白い恋人達 (White Lovers) (Original: Kuwata Keisuke, Producer: UTA)
13. I LOVE...（Uptempo Ver.) (Original: Official HIGE DANdism, Producer: Kan Sano)

   I Sing is an album that you can sit back in a chair with your feet up and just enjoy all the musical dynamics or.... the lack there of..... Crystal decided to pick songs from the early to late 2000s except for the covers she did for Radwimp and Official HIGE DANdism both of which are more recent hits that were huge in Japan. She also only did cover songs by male artists/groups to my surprise. Unless you want to count Suki original preformed by Dreams Come True. Speaking of this track addition, I wish that Crystal had re-recorded it again so that it would have sounded more fresh than just a recycled B side to a single that didn't sell well. Crystal label probably didn't give her and her team the kind of money to use up studio time like that though. This fact kind of shows in the lack of production in some of the tracks. Certain tracks sound a bit empty in the instrumentals at points in the tracks. Crystal Kay has a voice that fills the emptiness but I could hear the lack of professional musical production in track such as March 9, A Ballad I want to Sing, and even the upbeat version of I LOVE... fell very short in giving that strong musical accompaniment that Kay deserves. Some Japanese people do tend to like more settle calm music however, that shouldn't be at the expense of the artist's strengths. A little light beat for half duration of a song just doesn't cut it at this point in Crystal Kay's career. She's too much of a veteran at this point. Now, I LOVE.... as a ballad pulls out all the stops that lets you know this is the lead single of I SING. Kay takes the track away from the original band, then made it a Christmas jam with a slab of classical orchestra on the side. All the production money defiantly went into creating this track.. There's a huge contrast between her upbeat version and the ballad version. Both are very listenable as I enjoyed elements from both. The upbeat version picks up a lot towards the end. I loved how the instrumental plays with the saxophones too. Can we also just take a moment to appreciate how she killed the HELL out of that Radwimp's cover though? Her vocals start the songs so crystal clear before soaring the new heights as the track builds up for a climactic conclusion. On top of that, she takes a song by the band Spitz and makes it so much into her own style that you forget what the original track sounds like. There's ballads on here too that sound beautiful conjoined into the span of the album's flow. You will have those people that will complain saying that the album is boring or that they want to keep her in a RnB box for the rest of her life. My thoughts are that this album is a little bit closer to what the production on a Crystal Kay album needs to be like for the next upcoming releases. I SING busts out all the stops while still falling short in places but it's kinda sad because her cover album sounds better than her last original album. This tells us that Crystal has it in her to be at the top. I just have to question how much faith does her label have in her? They surely are not giving her EXILE type funds for her projects.That's for sure. 

   Crystal Kay has always been a vocal beast. I SING gives her breathing room to be more vocally skilled than her other more recent albums. I do believe this is due to this being her first cover album where there's a hint of something to prove. If you fuck up the covers, Japanese people will talk but if you sing the the hell out those songs, you earn respect.  I was blown out of the water when hearing how she sang the Spitz's cover. That track literally sounds like a Crystal Kay song now. In fact, she sings the whole album like it's her original work. Most non Japanese listeners won't know the original songs except for the more recent hits so they can enjoy I SING like any other Crystal Kay album. Japanese listeners on the other hand are in for a nostalgia trip down memory lane CK STYLE. 

   I do believe that with the release of I SING, Crystal has big things in stored for her. I haven't looked at the album ranking on the Oricon Charts yet but even if the album only gets top twenty top thirty, at least she will still have the respect of listeners who can appreciate her constant climb up to becoming a more groundbreaking artist than she already is.