Ayaka: The beginning album

So the Ayaka album i pre-ordered in January finally came in today. It was pretty pricey (3150yen plus shipping) but i felt it was worth it since i do love her music and I've never actually bought a physical album of her's yet.I've always liked her ballads and songs since she debuted with the I Believe single...so i was quite happy to find out last December that she was returning to singing once again. For those want to know more about her, here is her Wiki . She was diagnosed with Graves disease in 2009 and had to quit making music close to the end of that year for an indefinite amount of time due to strain to her vocal chords. Thankfully, it was manageable and she's back with a new album~ yay!

The album inside is cute and follows the overall theme of the whole packaging.

Though the cd feels abit too bare...think they skimped out on decorating it.

One thing I've always liked about her music is the way she sings; like its her last time singing...with so much emotion and expression in her voice that you can almost experience the feelings she had put into the meaning of the song. Since i don't understand Japanese enough to interpret the lyrics, i'm just going to review the title song and the rest of the album as a whole.

Hajimari no toki

This song wasn't much of a surprise since she sung it live back in December to promote the album. As a pop song, it follows a good pace and the song flows through the bridge and into the chorus naturally, with no sense of false urgency. her vocals seem to have settled more since she first started singing, with her high notes and holds to not waver or have to much vibrato...which worked really well with this song. The Chorus sounds so bittersweet (as it should according to the lyrics of the song) that it suited the meaning of the song, and was a very good opening track to the album. This is probably one of my top five favorite songs by her.

The rest of the album

The next song following it is called "Hello".This song has a upbeat opening, with the drums and bass playing heavily. Unfortunately i can't find a translation for this, so from the limited amount of what i can hear, its a much more upbeat and happier sounding. Not a bad track from Ayaka, but not what i prefer from her, although she sings it very well. "Akai Sora" (Red Sky) followed it up, the tune and beat is of course, nice as usual, with a medium tempo used to match and accompany her voice. A very mellow song that doesn't really have a defining moment until halfway into the song. However i can ignore that because the arrangement and vocal talent work well to make a good track. "The beginning" is the fourth track on this album. It starts off very slow with a piano, my ballad jitters are already honing into this track and i wasn't dissapointed. The chorus is just as great as Hajimari no toki and reminds me of Mikadzuki (Another single) due to the high notes in the chorus, but the whole song once again sounds great..another good ballad from Ayaka.

"Hikari" has a cute heavy beat and follows the whole album's feel of mellow-induced hippy pop music. The male back up singing in the bridge works very well with her voice. As the heavy electric guitar comes in during the chorus i roll over and feel like I've been trolled because it started off as a hipster slow song. An overall very cute song. (I can't help that it feels like something Utada would write, regardless of the song name) "Sora yo Onegai" lets us hear her voice clear voice with the solo piano playing in the background. I won't lie, its cute and display's her voice for us to hear but as bittersweet and pretty it is, that's all there really is to it. It does have a nice tune though. "Tsunagaru Kokoro" Is too country and boring for me, it really feels like a filler song for the album, even if the tune and voice is once again, delivering. Too typical jpop. Almost skipped to the next track."This is the time" Starts off with a serious sounding violin that has us thinking it'll be another epic ballad like its opening track and we get...dissapointed. But then it picks up into a mysterious sounding blues influenced jazzy number that works really well with her voice.

"Sokomade Aruite Iku yo" Has a very nice tune, with little instrumental to distract us from her voice until the chorus. But that's all there is to it. The song feels a little too long with 5:11 minutes to it and nothing new or playing to her strengths. "Egao no Canvas" reminds me too much of another song called Sha lal a by her, probably because that's the majority of the lyrics. Unfortunately another filler track. "Magic mind" starts off with a heavy beat thats...poppy. The chorus breaks into a mid tempo beat with the chorus in the middle, and two thirds into the song has a very nice bridge and instrumental, slowing down the beat momentarily.

"Kimi he"...Once again, a bit fillerly, very poppy but reminds me of Sing to the Sky, however i can't not notices that her vocals are very consistent throughout the whole album. They tie off the album with the last track, titled "Yasashii Ao" , saving us from thinking it was going to be a mediocre album. The vocals are very solid, once again, with minimal vibrato and wavering at the higher notes (makes me wonder if graves disease even did any permanent damage at all because her voice sounds fine). The album ends here with a nice, very Ayaka Jpop ballad.

To see all the romanji lyrics for the album, i found a nice blog with all of them here.

You can buy the album off CDjapan or Yesasia.