Came for Kanno, Stayed for Natsumi Kiyoura
I have this bad habit of gambling on debut albums. Thankfully it happens only once every year or three. It’s no big deal; only $40 tops down the drain tops… Maybe that is why I kept on doing it.
This time, it is Natsumi Kiyoura’s first solo album, called 19 Colors. CDJapan actually wrote it up better than I could have. To save you the trouble, I’ll just word drop a bit:
- A song produced w/ Yoko Kanno
- Spice and Wolf Season 1 OP
- Sasameki Koto OP/ED
- Keroro ED14
- Some song from Ristorante Paradiso (full version)
- Sketchbook OP new version
And other stuff.
If you read that CDJ promo piece, you might wonder why people compare Kiyoura with Maaya Sakamoto. Besides the Kanno connection, I guess, that is because both of them are child talents that grew up into this weird acting/music/seiyuu niche after they aged out the children’s talent bracket. Maaya is roughly 10 years senior of Natsumi IIRC.
As for the Yoko Kanno connection, the Kanno song, “Ano ne demo ne,” is not much to write home about. It reminds me of Maaya’s pop-ish tracks from, I dunno, Dive. It is a little jarring considering the rest of Kiyoura’s album is laid-back, jazzy, and overall nowhere nearly as intense as Maaya’s sound. I didn’t like it much, and you know I whore out for Kanno (who’s actually on the keyboard for it) any day.
On the other hand, unlike Maaya’s very early work, Kiyoura’s songs actually are cohesive, and the overall product is spot on if you enjoy crap like, well, Ristorante Paradiso. It’s like, sometimes these seiyuu-pop-idol types need a while to find a sound that works with their voice, but Kiyoura has already got it. Or is closing in on it, at any rate.
In short, just need more songs like Tabi no Touchuu yeah? Yeah. I’m not going to break the tracks down one by one; not my style anyways. I think it’s a good thing rather than a bad thing when the album goes down smooth without dips, but also without many outstanding marks. The more rock-like tracks on the album sound like “winded down idol group music” for lack of a better term, but even so Kiyoura adds a notable touch to the sound. It just isn’t so haunting or so memorable as her most outstanding track.
I was oddly surprised by Nijiiro Pocket however. The full cut is so much better…
Random factoid time.
- I think there really are a total of 19 colors on the album if you add something to something.
- The studio live that’s on the DVD were televised at one point? Not sure how they got on Youtube in the first place. Nice to have on DVD nonetheless. There are 4 performances, total, acoustic arrangements, I had a good time playing it in the background.
- The front cover of the insert booklet, which you see as the album cover, writes the album name “19 Colors” in (American) English. The rest of the album, at least everywhere I looked, writes it in kanji (十九色). I take this to mean that the proper way to refer to the name of this album is by its translated term in whichever language you choose. At the same time, the first track, also the title track, has the same name, and it is labeled itself by kanji only. For that I used the romanized term. Seems inconsistent but oh well.
Track list–
- Jyukuiro
- Tabi no Tochu
- Ano ne Demo ne
- Giniro no Kanashimi
- Neverland
- Nijiiro Pocket
- Kanashii Hodo Aoku <album version>
- Pallet
- Kaze Sagashi <full-colored samba mix>
- Bokura no Aikotoba
- Nanairo
- Midnight Love Call
PS. Limited Edition and Regular Edition at CDJ (affiliate links).
If you want more tracks like Tabi no Tochuu you really need to get stuff from the original composer, who is also the guy singing in the chorus, Tomohiko Kira. In the band ZABADAK he has worked with many vocalists (incl. Akino Arai, Yoko Ueno,..). it’s a shame he’s so obscure…
samples:
Michishio no yoru – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SNkvDiWMeE
Deir Paidir – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQIImSS9p7I
Tabi no tochuu (self cover) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT-B9X4xdww
Tenshi ni chikai yume (live) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJMHicHxVMU
Getsumei Fumei (Twelve Kingdoms ED) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9490mKaH7Is
I preordered this on a whim, good to know that it stands up to scrutiny.
FYI, Tabi no Tochu is composed by Kira Tomohiko of ZABADAK fame. He’s an exceptional composer/arranger in his own right. You may remember Getsumei Fuuhei, the ED for 12 kokki. He was also the guitarist for several of Yasunori Mitsuda’s works, including Kokoro from Xenosaga.
I’ll check out the guy, but I think I’ll probably be disappointed lol. But impressive resume to say the least.
“I’m not going to break the tracks down one by one”
Don’t worry, I’ll probably do that when I review the CD. :P
I’m a little disappointed that “O Bento O Tabenagara” isn’t on the CD, but then again, it was a CM song. Still. ;_;
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