Spinning: Chihara Minori’s Sing All Love
And so Chihara Minori’s fourth album is here. Generally my expectations for Minorin’s music are set rather low since I’ve already been burned too many times, watching her lurch from disco to high-octane dance-pop to bubbly galge with confusing results. Even so, I’m a fan of her voice and personality so each new release is approached with typical optimism.
The first thing you’ll notice when you look at Sing All Love’s credits list is the fact that Elements Garden wrote/produced less than half of the tracks, with more of Lantis’ favoured songwriters on hand to help out this time around. This may or may not be a good thing depending on which type of Minorin fan you are, those who liked her from the Tenjou Tenge/HEROINE days (meaning you’ll have heard the worse of her pop days) or those who came on board after Haruhi (those weaned on her EleGa material). Will the move to shake things up pay off? We’ll find out.
Track-by-track
01. Kakusei Filament (覚醒フィラメント)
Lyrics: Hata Aki Composition & Arrangement: Kikuta Daisuke (Elements Garden)
Terrible way to open the album. The song doesn’t have much of a tune to it, Minorin’s lifeless vocal trudges along aimlessly to a plodding ’80s synth beat. She’s singing too low on this. It sounds like Gimmick Game. Poor overall.
02. Final Moratorium
Lyrics: Kodama Saori Composition & Arrangement: Kikuta Daisuke (Elements Garden)
The lead promo track for the album packs more punch when it’s accompanied by the PV, but even by itself it’s quite good. It’s obvious that Kikuta Daisuke is aiming for a Paradise Lost kind of feel, the fast-paced arrangement and composition of both songs are fairly similar, something that’s most apparent in the transition from the first chorus to the second verse. Saito Shigeru & Minorin should’ve chosen Moratorium to start off SAL.
03. Tomorrow’s chance
Lyrics: Hata Aki Composition & Arrangement: Kikuta Daisuke (Elements Garden)
Still as mediocre as the first time I heard it. Kikuta should lighten up on the bombastic string arrangements, they tend to overwhelm his songs and obscure the melodies more often than not. Oh wait, that’s because Tomorrow’s chance doesn’t have a melody to start with.
04. Kakikake no Destiny (書きかけのDestiny)
Lyrics: Kodama Saori Composition & Arrangement: Saito Shinya
By the first guitar riff you can already tell that this is Saito Shinya (just think of Nakagawa Shoko’s Sorairo Days or Hirano Aya’s NEOPHILIA). He does throw a few spanners into the works; that waltzy bit in the first bridge should work well to throw otagei-ers completely off their rhythm. While it’s perhaps not as strong as Saito’s other works, it’s still a meaty track that allows Minorin to project her inner rock god. I like this one.
05. Kodoku no Kessho (孤独の結晶)
Lyrics: Hata Aki Composition & Arrangement: Fujisue Miki
Another song with rock leanings, this time more to the goth/VK side. Fujisue doesn’t have a set style and what he conjures up here is quite interesting – that little vocal twist towards the end of chorus is something I’d expect to hear from Yousei Teikoku, not Minorin. On the first spin through SAL, this is the track that grabs my attention the most – mostly for the arrangement, though Minorin’s vocal is fairly solid here.
06. Love Medicine*
Lyrics: Kodama Saori Composition & Arrangement: Kikuta Daisuke (Elements Garden)
….is that the sound of a chorus that the dog dragged in?? No wonder people compare this to Futari no Reflection since that was the shittiest song on Contact by far. Love Medicine* would easily earn that accolade for SAL if not for the presence of a certain Kakusei Filament. In its defense the intro does start off pleasantly, but the song takes far too long to ‘climax’ (chorus only hits at 1:50) and by that point it’s already totally lost the plot.
07. Amaoto no Bell (雨音のベール)
Lyrics: Kodama Saori Composition & Arrangement: Oyagi Hiroo
Amaoto is old-school Jpop, it’s got that melancholic ballad feel that was all the rage in the late ’80s and early ’90s which I figure Minorin might be pleased with given her undying love for Ozaki Yutaka. It’s the kind of song that seems like it would fit somebody like Suara a whole lot more, but Minorin does a decent job with it. Some people might be alarmed to know that Oyagi wrote two Arashi hits (WISH and Tomadoinagara) and a load of other Johnny’s songs (KinKi Kids, V6, Kanjani8) though.
08. tea for two
Lyrics: Kodama Saori Composition & Arrangement: Oyagi Hiroo
Another Oyagi contribution, this time an acoustic pop number. I’m not liking the way Minorin’s chosen to approach the song vocally, pitching it at that slightly annoying nasal level of hers during the chorus parts. Singing through her nose? Song is fine though.
09. PRECIOUS ONE
Lyrics: Kodama Saori Composition & Arrangement: Fujisue Miki Strings Arrangement: Nijine
The other single released from SAL is a mid-tempo ballad and a bit of a sleeper that takes some time to grow on you. Nijine’s strings work is subtly grand without drowning out everything else.
10. Sakura Pierce (サクラピアス)
Lyrics: Kodama Saori Composition & Arrangement: Watanabe Kazunori Strings Arrangement: Nijine
Latino-pop, who woulda thunk it? It’s well-arranged but I get the feeling I’ve heard too many of these kind of songs for it to make a lasting impression. Blandly nice.
11. Falling heaven’s now
Lyrics: Hata Aki Composition & Arrangement: Odaka Kotaro
You can tell this is an Odaka Kotaro song from the get-go if you’re at all familiar with all those ethereal, floaty string-laden mid-tempo ballads he’s been writing for Ceui over the past few years. This isn’t as strong as say, Centifolia or Kamigami no Uta, but it is an interesting style for Minorin to try out. Her vocal is a bit too thick and forceful though – I think the Ceui bias is a bit too strong to ignore.
12. Flame
Lyrics: Hata Aki Composition & Arrangement: Kikuta Daisuke (Elements Garden)
*Deep breath* back to Kikuta. Here we go with the boring old strings intro, then the beats kick in and then the keys chime in and…man, he’s so predictable. It’s not terribad, but it’s not terrigood either. Wouldn’t sound out of place on Parade, that’s for sure.
13. Perfect energy
Lyrics: Hata Aki Composition & Arrangement: Saito Shinya
Here we go with Saito’s pop-rock again. For some reason this reminded me of Hirano Aya’s Unnamed world eventhough that was written by Kurosu Katsuhiko, who often plays bass on Saito’s songs. Minorin’s sounding a little shouty at certain points in the song, and it’s not pretty.
14. sing for you
Lyrics: Chihara Minori Composition: rino Arrangement: Fujita Junpei (Elements Garden)
AT LAST FUJITA JUNPEI. He’s the guy that made all the decent tracks on Parade (Aoi Kotou, Prism in the Name of Hope), and his sole contribution this time is a ballad. It sounds suspiciously like something Nana would sing, like a cross between Ano Hi Yume Mita Negai and Takaramono. The best part of the song is the instrumental break (around 4:14), I would really like a -1 version of SAL – Fujita’s piano and strings combo arrangements are always so pretty (refer to Aoi Kotou). sing for you also happens to be Minorin’s first lyrical contribution and uhhh…. OK it’s not memorable at all. She should write about colourful frying pans more.
In short:
+ It’s the most diverse of her albums so far.
+ But it still maintains a good flow and balance.
+ There’s rock!
+ Interesting arrangements overall. An instrumental album would be welcome…suddenly I’m looking forward to the strings arrange CD.
+ It doesn’t sound like a poor man’s Mizuki Nana album.
+ There’s no weird r’n'b track…oh wait, I actually liked Fairy Tune. Scrap that.
- There’s no killer track like Aoi Kotou on Parade.
- The singles that were released aren’t songs that will shift CDs and I don’t know that Minorin will gain any new fans. She needs a big theme song for some big anime, SAL could’ve sold more if Yasashii Bokyaku was stuck on here instead of being released as a single CD on the same day.
- Kikuta Daisuke’s contributions here are largely awful. I would’ve swapped Love Medicine* for animand~agitato.
- The ‘new’ style could alienate fans drawn in by her Elements Garden material.
- I find myself complaining about the vocals a lot, which is worrying. Not sure who’s giving Minorin advice on singing but they need to stop her going in at too high a pitch, else it gets a little too shrieky than is comfortable.
Verdict: Average again, but it’s still 0.2 higher than what I scored Parade, which was still an album I eventually grew to love. There’s at least six tracks that I’m constantly looping, but also four that I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. I have a feeling that Sing All Love is another slow-burner so I’ll refrain from saying ‘It’s totally great!’ or ‘It sucks bad!’ for now, come back in ten months for a final assessment of the album in my year-end reviews.
With regards to the musical direction that this album is taking small steps towards (mainstream Jpop), I think it’s a good thing if Lantis/her management are aiming to broaden her appeal to a wider audience. Unfortunately Minorin doesn’t have a set style on record (Nana=fast-paced, Aaya=rock, Shimizu Ai=weird goth-pop) and it may be too late to change the perception of being Nana-lite, something she still needs to appease the anisong/seiyuu wota crowd – her fanbase does overlap with Nana’s and Aaya’s after all.
We all know from Minorin’s own compositions (一等星, La La La) and music tastes (B’z, Takeuchi Mariya, Alice) that she leans more towards folk, singer-songwriter pop and rock so maybe it’s a belated attempt to evolve from the dance-pop that dominated her first two CDs since relaunching. Too Late? Not Late…ok ignore that lame-assed joke.
Nevertheless, it’s a dangerous game for Lantis to play to change things up when fans are used to hearing the Final Moratorium kind of track rather than rockier things like Kakikake no Destiny. If Elements Garden must remain part of the equation may I suggest trying to get Nakayama Masato instead of fricking Kikuta Daisuke please? Recent works (Sakakibara Yui’s Konton no Oratorio, Faylan’s scat blue) have been very impressive… Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but Kikuta’s just stretching himself too thin these days and holds full responsibility for inflicting Mizuki Nana’s atrocious Silent Bible on the world.
Anyhow, we’ll see well people take to the changes when SAL’s sales figures come up later today, though I suspect they’ll be skewed by hardcore fans buying multiple copies (seriously Lantis, 3 versions is overkill).
I’m probably not going to check out the DVD contents (I mean, I still haven’t watched Message 02 or Parade live tour) but obviously I’m a little disappointed but not surprised that for the SUMMER CAMP segment, the covers of B’z Blowin and Princess Princess’s Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Natsu were left on the cutting room floor, along with her character songs and material from the King Records days. Oh well, damn licensing issues.
And ah, I almost forgot that gimmick about there being 30 signed copies of the album (+10 BD & 10 DVD) being randomly sent to shops. I already have Minorin’s autograph tucked away in my room…somewhere (no idea where) so I hope some of you guys strike it lucky.
*Images borrowed from natalie.mu
Themocracy
Still tsundere for Minorin, I see
. I like Final Moratorium the most from this album… the rest, I still can’t remember the tunes LOL.
Only tsun for you to see! The dere is strictly behind closed doors~~
I thought so! You and townberry are so same at some weird points kekekeke.
Why for some reason. I kena tembak?
I don’t tsundere for Minorin okay?!
lol what a joke.
W-W-W-Where is my Colourful Frying Pan-like song? ヽ( `Д´)ﾉ
Kodoku no Kessho scared me the first time I heard it. And it still kind of does. Kakikake no Destiny sounds like something I’ve heard before, but considering the other tracks on the album, it’s definitely something I’m liking. The others… Yeah, I need to go through Minorin’s album more than supercell’s single. ._.;
>> It sounds suspiciously like something Nana would sing
It totally does… But I’m starting to like Minorin’s voice more than Nana’s, so I don’t mind~ *proceeds to hide from hxc fans*
I wouldn’t mind hearing more of Minorin’s self-composed songs.
Or maybe an acoustic cover album.I probably listen to too much goth-rock to find Kodoku no Kessho scary
In fact, I find it incredibly normal when I think of all the pain AliPro inflicts on my eardrums…
I got the album when it leaked a few days before release on Tokyo Tosho. Being a fan who’d probably fit into the “EleGa” group, I personally found myself, if not liking most of the album, at least able to listen to it relatively comfortably. However, as you mentioned, I do not enjoy where Lantis is going with her stylistically. She seems almost like a chicken with her head cut off – running around randomly, not sure where to go. As a fan, it pains me that they’re so freely experimenting when she is already decently established in the genre. I loved her work in Contact, and like you, got to like Parade over time. However, I don’t see myself ever truly getting comfortable with songs like Kakusei Filament (reminded me of fripside’s Railgun OPs) and Kodoku no Kessho (the one song I wouldn’t poke with a stick, as you so eloquently put it) because it just doesn’t fit the image that Lantis has cultivated thus far (Paradise Lost was similar, but it’s just too awesome to not like).
It makes me really sad when I find myself enjoying Sayonara Memories more than any track on the album I’ve been looking forward to for months and that I’ve bought two versions of (DVD and BD). Not dissing on supercell or anything, the single is amazing, but as a loyal Minorist (overrides my Nanaism, if not by just a bit), I’m just hoping now that Yasashii Bokyaku and the instrumental album are going to be good enough to make up for it.
With SAL doing so well in the charts, it seems it was a decent call to dismantle the cultivated ‘image’ after all. She certainly wasn’t going to gain any more fans if she stayed rooted to the same style that’s for sure.
Dear lord, they know how to cocktease. They put some of the cut material in the credits, without audio. Now I am desperate for seeing that stuff somehow…I guess I can hope this is just a setup for some complete release of Summer Camp coming up along with Sing All Love’s concert discs, however bleak the chance of that happening may be. They could have at least kept the fireworks part in there…
Hmm, one thing I’ve probably felt, is that Minorin songs usually have very long shelf life. I can get bored of some Nana songs really easily, but Minorin’s songs seems to be pretty good at keeping me happy. I just hope this album will be, too.
Also, it’s kind of good to see Minorin trying out different genres, it’s quite a challenge for her. I was listening to Minorhythm last week, where she was introducing her songs, and was talking about how she has to change between A verse and B verse for Kakikake etc. and how it was hard or whatever. It’ll be good experience for her, anyway.
Finally, I hope I can get a signed copy, living in New Zealand has its… boredom. Especially when I can’t afford tickets to Japan. (Poor uni student sigh)
I do hope you get that signed copy. Don’t know anyone who has, so far.