Artist: Various
Album/Single: Tsubasa Chronicles Best Vocal Collection
Release Date: December 20, 2006

1. BLAZE / キンヤ (KINYA)
There has always been something about this song that I never particularly liked, and I’ve never been to put my finger on it. I think it might be that KINYA opted to go for more of a pop sound than a rock sound, despite the obvious call to the rock side of this song. It doesn’t have enough kick to it to keep my interest for the entire song. The melody is just alright. It’s not bad, but also not good (although leaning towards the awkward side). I also can’t help but feel that KINYA sounds less-than-inspired when performing this song, so it’s pretty dull to listen to.

2. tsubasa / FictionJunction KAORI
Getting into one of the more recognizable songs of the actual series, we’re graced with a very “Kajiura Yuki” sound. The song is sung completely in English by KAORI, but her English isn’t that impressive, however, her singing is quite the opposite. She’s a little monotone, which is expected since she’s singing in a language she’s unfamiliar with, but she still carries through quite nicely. I really like the uplifting sound of the chorus, especially that first line. KAORI honestly sounds like she was made for Kajiura’s compositions because her interpretation and performance work well in this song. I wouldn’t say this is the best song I’ve heard, and certainly not by Kajiura Yuki, but it’s not bad either.

3. ループ (LOOP) / 坂本真綾 (Sakamoto Maaya)
Here we have no stranger to the anime world. This is yet another creation by the ever famous seiyuu-turned-singer, Sakamoto Maaya, and she delivers yet again. This would be the first song she released post-Kanno Yoko era, and she definitely managed to hit some success with it. h-wonder doesn’t necessarily create compositions that are as intricate as Kanno, but he certainly knows how to play to the artists strengths. I was quite surprised by his versatility, because I recognized his name from working with Koda Kumi, so I was very impressed by how he was able to adapt to Sakamoto’s style quite easily and create a song that suits her perfectly (and the strings add a nice touch too). Sakamoto is right there with him too, with great interpretation. I like how she carries through phrases fully, and not only that, she creates a nice full and strong sound here.

4. つきのしじま (tsuki no shijima) / 牧野由依 as サクラ (Makino Yui as SAKURA)
There’s something about Kajiura Yuki and adding in the choir to open a lot of Makino Yui’s callborations. It provides a huge contrast to Makino’s light, high pitched voice. For a relatively young artist, she’s alright (and it’s safe to say that she does improve massively later on). I’m not quite that impressed with her singing here, because it’s very light and slightly uncontrolled. The flow of this song isn’t as good as it probably could have been, with a lot of abrupt moments occurring throughout, especially with the starting and stopping of the programming. I find that most of the song is lost through Makino’s interpretation though. There’s a great line (the third one) in the chorus that I think Makino could have definitely done much better in terms of singing with emotion, but it came out a little bit mechanical. It sounded like she had the right idea, but didn’t quite commit to what she wanted to do and came up a bit short.

5. 風の街へ (kaze no machi e) / FictionJunction KEIKO
What can I say about this song? Everything about it is just absolutely stunning. KEIKO has a different timbre to her voice than the usual (Japanese) artists that Kajiura tends to work with, but what a wonderful vocalist she is. Her ense of the music is amazing, and I love the way she makes use of dynamics and how she phrases throughout this song. She definitely is a mixture of grace and power. The composition is top notch, and not without the usual chorus Kajiura likes to include, but it’s not out of place. It actually meshes in quite well with the rest of the song. The programming is simple and gives off a pure atmosphere. This against the strings just adds the final touch, with solos and countermelodies by the cello and violin. To top it all off, Kajiura incorporates a strong piano base to hold the song together. Nothing short of perfection.

6. 斬光 (Zankou) / 稲田徹 as 黒鋼 (Ineda Tooru as Kurogane)
Is it wrong that I totally thought of some random Street Fighter background music when I first heard the opening? XD Ineda is by no means the greatest vocalist, but he seems to have better control over his singing. He does struggle with some of those held notes, falling out of tune whenever he gets them, but he sounds pretty decent elsewhere. There’s something about the melody of this song that catches my attention. I find the programming terribly cheesy, but many parts of this song remind me of a regular Jpop song, which is good. In any case, if you’re a Tsubasa fan, and you’ve always wondered how Kurogane would sound if he sang, you can be rest assured that he’s not completely hopeless.

7. キズナ (KIZUNA) / 入野自由 as 小狼 (Irino Miyu as Syaoran)
Again, this isn’t as cheesy as it could be, so it sounds like a regular Jpop song, especially one that comes straight from a boyband (e.g. V6). Irino is probably the one that did the best singing job with his song out of the rest of the feature seiyuu. He has decent control, and a fair bit of power despite his higher register. I like the dramatic strings during the non-vocal parts of this song. The electric guitar also gives the song more of an edge, helping to carry it through. Amazingly, I think this tops Ineda’s “Zankou”.

8. IT’S / キンヤ (KINYA)
Finally, we’re back to a better sounding KINYA. This song moves much faster, but it has a lot more character to it than “BLAZE” did. I like the little variations (although slight) that KINYA decided to include in this song. He doesn’t sound as one-dimensional as he had in BLAZE, so it helps make the song much more interesting. I find this song has a better balance in style, not a rock song attempting to sound overly pop. Everything about this song fits together well, so it flows much better. There’s a great upbeat melody that keeps you pumped all the way through. KINYA also sounds more comfortable singing this song, so I feel more willing to listen to this all the way through.

9. dream scape / FictionJunction KAORI
I’m not sure what it is about this FictionJunction project, but I just simply don’t like the work that came from these two. This one though, is a much better turn out than “tsubasa”. As I suspected, KAORI singing in her native tongue allows her to phrase better and more naturally, so she definitely brings in a beauty factor to this performance. Even though I don’t particularly like this song all that much, I definitely like KAORI’s interpretation here. I feel she added character to the song, made it her own, and prevented it from being just any other Kajiura Yuki song.

10. ring your song / 梶浦由紀 feat. 伊東恵里 (Kajiura Yuki feat. Itou Eri)
I absolutely adore this main theme from Future Soundscape IV. The piano provides a strong accompaniment next to the majestic melody played by strings. Itou adds a bit more finesse to the song itself by providing it with her beautiful vocals. She sings with a very lovely and lilting voice. She doesn’t always hit her notes immediately, causing her to swoop into the right notes, and I find that kind of distracting at times, but when she’s on, she’s on. I love the quality of her voice and tone. Simply gorgeous.

11. smile / 浪川大輔 as ファイ(Namikawa Daisuke as FAI)
It hurts me to have to sit through this after such a lovely performance. I’m sorry Fai, but as cute of a character you are, your voice actor should stick to only acting you out. Namikawa can barely hold his own through this song. He obviously is not made for singing, evident by the lifeless, toneless performance here (though I am slightly impressed that he managed to hit the descending line in the chorus fairly accurately). The composition of the song isn’t very impressive either. It’s too cheesy for my liking, and believe me, I can handle quite a bit of cheese. It has a nice guitar solo but that’s about it.

12. you are my love / 梶浦由紀 feat. 伊東恵里 (Kajiura Yuki feat. Itou Eri)
My first impression is that Itou doesn’t capture my attention as easily as she had done with “ring my song”. For some reason, she’s singing a bit differently here, with a much lighter and unsupported tone. I’m also noticing that she’s singing in a breathier tone as well. She still manages to hit some beautiful notes, but she doesn’t carry through as well as she did previously. A big difference here is that she is only supported by the guitar, and it’s pretty scarce in the entire song run, drawing more focus to Itou’s singing. It’s a good song as a whole, and very cryptic, but I can’t help but feel that it could have been done much better.

13. 旅の途中で希望の歌を歌おう (tabi no tochuu de kibou no uta wo utaou) / 牧野由依 as モコナ (Kikuchi Mika as MOKONA)
I haven’t particularly liked any of the songs sung in character so far, and unfortunately, not even the cuteness of this little thing could change my opinion. I actually like the melody quite a bit, and this song is insanely cute to match MOKONA’s character personality, but there’s really nothing special about it, nor does it set itself apart from any other image character songs. I also don’t really like the slower moments of the song because I find them to be out of place, but the little jazzy instrumental interlude and drum solo really stand out. Kikuchi does a nice job portraying MOKONA here, but otherwise, I can’t say much about the song.

14. 風待ちジェット (Kazemachi JET) / 坂本真綾 (Sakamoto Maaya)
I understand the idea of finishing off this album with the 2nd closing theme, but it feels more like an album opener than closer. This song really pushed Sakamoto’s singing a bit more than what she usually does. I love those lines during the chorus. I think Sakamoto nailed them, and her singing for the verses was actually better than the chorus. I felt she did a nice job overall and gave the song a unique character to it, even though the song itself was unique to begin with. Her singing wasn’t always on though, and you can hear her struggling with the higher notes of the song. She lacks some flow in her vocal performance that she had with “LOOP”. What caught my attention the most though, was the programming and instruemntation. I liked how each instrument served an important to the song, and I definitely like the feel that the violin solos gave. My favourite part of the song was right as the end when Sakamoto finished with only the staccato piano accompaniment, immediately after all the big fanfare of the other instruments stopped. It was a very nice contrast.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Kaze no machi e
This album certainly gave me mixed feelings. I don’t think I could sit through it in full again, only because there were too many songs I didn’t like as much as I had hoped (especially those character image songs). Some of the seiyuu did surprise me by how good they turned out (while others equally surprised me by how badly they turned out). Looking past that, it’s a nice collection of opening and ending themes, and insert songs. Some of these songs are simply divine, and many others are very strong and quite enjoyable to listen to.

Artist: 井筒昭雄 (Akio Izutsu)
Album: 「ラスト・フレンズ」オリジナル・サウンドトラック (Last Friends Original Soundtrack)
Release Date: June 11, 2008

I’m sure the people who are better at Japanese than I am will lol at my attempt to translate the Katakana. I FAILS. Stuff I couldn’t figure out is still romanized. XD I had fun with it. Yes, this is all instrumental. Thanks Mogchang for the lovely corrections <3

1. イーチ・リビング (Each Living)
The opening track of this soundtrack starts off with a soft piano solo and some long tones in the background of the bright melody. The long tones sometimes add a bit of dissonance to the sound, which I find rather interesting. However, the opening is short, and the song quickly turns to a more upbeat with the bass and percussion added in. The combination is a soft, but flowing sound from the orchestra. The strings add a bit of a floating feeling to the overall sound and the guitars add a bit of bounciness to the legato strings. The combination is absolutely gorgeous. The song calms again and focuses on the strings, then turns to a solo section for the piano, which is so beautifully and delicate played, then the song changes again to feature a rhythmic guitar solo with percussion to bring back the upbeat side of the song before ending with the guitars fading off slightly.

2. グッド・フェローズ (Good Fellows)
The second track begins with a focus on guitars and light synths in the background. This upbeat song slowly adds the bass, then piano to write a nice effect between the repeated sequences between the different instruments, all playing their own rhythm and melody. The piano soon takes over the main melody as everything drives on lightly underneath it. The strings soon add a dramatic section where they play louder, stacatto notes over everything else, but quickly goes back into the sweeping long tones.

3. エターナル・コース (Eternal Course)
This next song goes into a darker sound with the lower strings playing a dramatic staccato note while there’s strange scratching notes over it. The song quickly turns a bit brighter as the strings and something else plays a more hopeful tune. This song has a tumping bass and percussion line, but somehow I don’t like it as much as the previous two when the percussion and clapping gets it’s own section. It’s rhythmnic, but it somehow feels somewhat monotone. Somewhere near the end, it turns somewhat into dance sound with the heavy synths, then turns into a celtic song with the bagpipe-sounding instruments. I’m not quite sure

4. マインド・ベンダー (Mind Bender)
This song is known as the “SOUSUKE-IS-STALKING-YOU SONG”. Nevertheless, it is a brilliant composition. It starts off with haunting xylophone with light synths. The percussion comes in and out of the song and the keyboard has a haunting echo. Small vocals are added in the background to simply sing “Ah”s in the background, and she sounds quite creepy in this song. My favourite part is about halfway through when really dissonant sounds come in over the percussion in the “SOUSUKE-IS-HITTING-SOMEONE” part of the song as the synths play a frantic melody over the beat of the song (Which has also changed to sound more frantic). Then the song quickly calms as the light keyboard plays detached notes, then disapears for a short xylophone solo which ends the song. Creepy.

5. スパイラル・ハート (Spiral Heart)
It’s it know as the minor “LA LA LA LA LA” song of the series, also known as “SOMETHING SINISTER IS GOING ON” as the female vocals hauntingly taunts us with her creepy solo. Amusingly, the song quickly turns into a bright string piece as the song turns into a major key and the vocals turn a bit flat in the song. Then the strings go back into the same key the soloish started off with (But without said vocalist) before going back into the major. The major parts are gorgeous and very pretty, while the minor key is absolutely creepy. I personally find the female vocalist is really lacking in the major parts as she sounds really uninterested. It works in the minor key, but not in the major. This song is also a bit too long for my liking as it mostly repeats the same formula for most of the track.

6. オン・オフ (On Off)
Akio brings in a rockish track for the next two minutes, and it’s absolutely catchy. The electric guitar solo is played with energy, an small little gasps are added in random parts of the track.

7. ディア・フレンズ (Dear Friends)
Gorgeous right from the beginning with the acoustic guitar. It is probably the most pleasant song so far. It has a bit of a jazz keyboard accompanying the song. The gorgeous mix of keyboard, strings, bass and acoustic guitar and quite lovely in this track. This is probably one of those songs you could easily turn into a vocal track if you wanted to. I love the keyboard and flute duet.

8. インナー・サークル (Inner Circle)
The next track starts off with minor piano notes that create a slight haunting feeling. I’m pretty sure most of you would recognize this song if you listened to it because it was so widely used in epic scenes. The higher chords are soon accompanied by lower ones. The piano composition following it is just really awesome. It a repeated sequence, but it really does sound rather irregular in time signature and are played in an interesting stacatto rhythm, while the strings over it sweep through the song over it, sometimes playing short notes themselves. The higher notes come back, then some in the middle octave with a rather catchy synth line goes through. Soon the strings section deliver a really epic performance in a dramatic section of this song before ending on several notes.

9. レイジー・デイズ (Lazy Days)
Harmonica starts off this next song is a bit of a country-flavoured, but it has a bit of a gospel sound afterwards when an organ-sound comes in with short sequences, then stops, then starts again. Eventually, the organ accompaniment becomes continuous and the harmonica comes in with some jazzy notes.

10. リトル・シャイン (Little Shine)
Beautiful acoustic guitar and flute start off this song. The flute starts off with high notes, then goes into lower, mellow notes as the guitar plucks away. This particular song is more of a “feel good” track with the very pleasant sounds. And of course, how can a flutist resist the sound of the flute? XDDD (Yes, I’m lame XD). This song is simplistic, yet very gorgeous. The flute is played lightly but with a bit of flare, and gorgeous tone and vibrato.

11. ブラインド・リマインダー (Blind Reminder)
Long notes start off this song and it has rather chilling feeling as they mostly start assonant, but quickly turn dissonant. Lower strings start an epic moving line under everything, while the higher strings start playing a haunting melody over it. It’s a rather gorgeous melody, while rather chilling. The executing of the fast moving notes are crisp and together. I really love the section where the high strings are playing the repeated notes in the background, but are doing an amazing job at the accents in the background. That is pretty awesome, especially if you were a band student, and your conductor drilled these kind of concepts of pulse into your head <3. Short, but effective.

12. スナップ・ショット (Snapshot)
A piano solo starts off this next song, and it sounds gorgeous, and does the rallentendos gorgeously at the end of the phrases. Acoustic guitar soon accompanies it with… MORE FLUTE. Mmmm yum. In any case, this song is GORGEOUS and probably one of my favourite songs when I was watching Last Friends. It’s very melodic, gentle, and played with such musicality and emotion. The blend between the parts is gorgeous and the harmonies are gorgeous. I love the clarinet solo, and just about everything in this track. Absolutely gorgeous composition and execution of the song.

13. アイコール・ユアネーム (I Call Your Name)
The next song has a lounge electronica sound at the beginning with the very laid-back feel of the song and the light synths and keyboard with a light bass sound. The jazzy feel of the whole this is really quite nice. I love the flute playing long notes, while the guitar and the keyboard each take their turn on a solo. The percussion and bass really drive this light song along into a light, but enjoyable experience.

14. メモリー・レイク (Memory Lake)
Minor sounds start off this next song as the clarinet plays with the piano with rather dissonant and minor sounds in the next piece. It sound really creepy as it suddenly ends with a few seconds of silence, then the instruments come back into the song in a major key, and really blow me away with a gorgeous sound. The instruments mostly play longer tones here, but the harmonies between the instruments are absolutely gorgeous.

15. コールド・ブレイン (Cold Brain)
Haunting piano notes start off this song, while the strings play a dramatic but quiet note-repeated sequence under it before going into a slightly louder and higher long tone section. Small dissonances come into the song as it goes into the next section where the percussion and bass comes in to add a rather haunting and dramatic section of the song. The combination of the strings and piano are absolutely chiling as the strings are ever so dramatic, but the piano remains slightly monotone and emotionless under it. The combination is absolutely awesome.

16. フレンド・シップ (Friendship)
Another beautiful piece comes in with gorgeous string section and a light piano playing the main melody. The mix of flute, string, clarinet and piano is absolutely gorgeous. They play a very melodic, flowing song that I absolutely adore and of which I remember liking quite a bit on the show. It has a sort of hopeful, light air to it.

17. ドロップ・モーション (Drop Motion)
Nearing the end of the soundtrack lies this gem. It features a gorgeous acoustic guitar solo that is upbeat and slightly edgy with light percussion in the background. I absolutely adore acoustic guitar melodies as they’re usually in the background being plucked in some repeated rhythm or being strummed in most of the songs I listen to (UNLESS YOU’RE DEPAPEPE, THEN YOU’RE DOING ALL OF THE ABOVE). This song is upbeat, but immensely calming.

18. シークレット・ポエッツ (Secret Poet)
More gorgeous solo piano work, accompanied by a light harp work playing arpeggios in ther background while strings play one dramatic note pizzicato in the background. The single piano playing by itself is absolutely gorgeous, and when the addition accompaniment come in, they really add to the song. The song itself ends with the solo piano once again.

19. ブランニュー・シーズン (Brand New Season)
Another bright song comes in with strummed guitar and some light synth sound in the background. The strummed guitar and the background vocalists really making this sound like it’s an instrumental for some vocal song, and we’re just missing the main vocalist. I’m serious. Either way, this song is pleasant, but the background vocalists really amuse me.

20. レッド・ストリングス (Red Strings)
The final original song by Akio is a gorgeous sweeping string ballad. First thing I think: absolutely gorgeous. The strings are played with so much emotion. It’s quickly accompanied by some percussion and bass to make it a bit more upbeat sounding.

21. Prisoner Of Love (Inst.Ver.)
Anyone who has seen the Last Friends drama knows how bloody amazing this rendition of Prisoner of Love is. It starts with a solo piano, which just breaks your heart from the moment it starts playing. The playing is just so amazing and played with precision and emotion. The slight dynamics are gorgeous. Strings add themselves lightly to the song before they swell in dynamics as the chorus comes near. The piano adds a bit of flavour with lovely phrasing and plays with a bit of bounce, while the strings add elegance with the long, legato notes underneath the piano. I absolutely love this rendition of Prisoner of Love; Akio interprets and arranges the original song so amazingly.

Overall -
Favourite Track: スナップ・ショット (Snap Set)
Akio Izutsu has composed an excellent soundtrack for such an enjoyable drama. The music really sets so many moods and the composer has created a variety of pleasant, haunting and just plain enjoyable instrumental tracks for the drama. I was immensely excited to hear this soundtrack, and to learn that it was a complete instrumental album. There is some gorgeous instrumental compositions and playing in this album. Some of the tracks do fall short of expectations, but overall, I really enjoy this album as it creates so many moods so effectively and shows that Akio is a rather varied composer.

Artist: Bruno Coulais
Album: Les Choristes OST
Release Date: January 4, 2005

1. Les Choristes
This lovely soundtrack starts off with a soft pizzicato strings in the background, while the male sololist sings the main line of the song. I love the phrasing in this song; it’s so perfect, and really interesting. I love the chorus as they’re immesely in tune and sound really nice together. The oboe at the end is nice touch.

2. In Memoriam
The second track starts off with short, detached high notes from the higher voiced boys, while the a lower sections sings an ongoing short, detached line to contrast the higher line. The male soloist sings higher notes in a legato manner, and it all creates a really good atmosphere. This is much longer than the previous track, but there’s a really haunting atmosphere to it that I quite like. I really love the layered feeling of the song. It’s definitely not my favourite song since it’s so repetitive, though.

3. L’arrivée à L’école
If the previous song was haunting, this next short track is just creepy. It has the same short,detached melody that the higher chorus sang, but at a much slower tempo, and in a minor key. The backing for this song is quite sinister-sounding. The chorus singing long, prolonged notes sound ghostly in this track.

4. Pépinot
This is the instrumental of my favourite song. It’s a gentle song, with short, detached notes playing the verse melody. The chorus bits are smooth and played with flute and strings. There’s a gentle beauty in this simple song. I love the clarinet solo in the verses playing a counter-melody. Beautiful song.

5. Vois Sur Ton Chemin
Taking the melody for the first track, and have everyone in the choir sing it at a quicker tempo, and you have this song. I enjoy the fuller sound of this song a bit more than the opening song. The boys are just so magnificent in this track; they’re together, their sound blend so well together.

6. Les Partitions
This is yet another orchestral piece. Among the long string notes going every, if you listen closely, you’ll hear “Vois Sur ton chemin” being played, although it’s not done in a very noticeable manner. Otherwise, the track kind of sounds weird without much of a distinguishable melody.

7. Caresses Sur L’océan
This is the vocal version of Pépinot. I love this song, although in this particular recording, there is a poor blend as I can hear someone stick out, and he’s a bit sharper than the other boys in the choirs (I think it’s the soloist), and their rhythm isn’t quite on with the accompaniment in the quicker moving passages. The soloist sounds much better by himself as he has such an angelic voice.

8. Lueur D’été
I love the quick moving piano passages in this song; it contrasts a lot of with what we’ve heard so far on the soundtrack. Again, the melody is very pretty, and there’s some layered work in here, although they’re not quite tightily done and seem rushed and slopped into the piece. I love the part at 25 sections where they come in with gorgeous harmonies and sing out a bit more. The added quick passages work a bit better after that.

9. Cerf-Volant
This is one of my other favourite songs from the movie. There’s a bit of a spring-like sound to it, and I absolutely love the harmonies and vocal layering in this song. The blend is absolutely delicious in this song. It’s a shame it’s such a short track.

10. Sous La Pluie
This track features short, detached strings as a backing, and oboe and clarinet playing the melody to “Vois sur ton chemin”. It’s quite a pretty track, and includes the boys singing long notes at the end.

11. Compère Guilleri
I love this song so far. The boys pronounce the lyrics so clearly, and considering the tempo of the song, they perform the lyrics with such clarity. This is just such a bouncy song.

12. La Désillusion
The melody of “Caresses sur l’océan” come back here as a oboe solo over a harp-like accompaniment. Again, like a any version of this song, it’s absolutely gorgeous. I love the oboe as it’s played with so much emotion and a nice vibrato. The accompaniment adds a bit of a crescendo throughout the short track.

13. La Nuit
This is another song that I really like, although the male soloist (I forget his name by now XD) sticks out really badly in the unison parts, and it’s just bad blending and equalizing of voice. I know he’s the soloist, but he sounds much better when he doesn’t stick out in the unison parts since his voice is so unique to the rest of the choir. I’ve always though his vibrato sounds really forced and tight, and sometimes it makes him a bit flat. The song’s nice, but I’d much prefer a blended chorus sound.

14. L’incendie
“In Memoriam” finally gets a different version. There’s still vocals in this song, but it’s epic and much darker with a heavier accompaniment. I love the boldness of this version.

15. L’évocation
Oboe solo to “Caresses sur l’océan”. This is a rather minimalistic version with harp backings and a soft counter-melody added to it. The blend is excellent in this song, and they slowly add more instruments to the song, creating a bit of a crescendo in the track. Beautifully played. The fast-moving passages have been elongated. Beautiful.

16. Les Avions En Papier
A longer version of Cerf-Volant. I don’t really hear a difference in the accompaniment at the beginning. It’s the same piano sequence, with the same vocal over it. The difference in this version is that the male soloist comes in about half-way through before restarting the song again, thus making it a bit longer.

17. Action Réaction
This is a sinister piece that focuses on minor sequences of the same note-lengths being played at different pitches with a bit of harmony added throughout the piece. It’s a rather simple piece, but effective at creating a bit of tension. There’s a small crescendo throughout the piece.

18. Seuls
This next song is yet another song in the minor key. It features an oboe solo, with a xylophone accompaniment and some flute. There’s a bit of a musical conversation going on between the oboe and the flute at some point as the xylophone plays a repeated rhythm in the background.

19. Morhange
This track has the same melody and sound as “Vois sur ton chemin”, but with an oboe and clarinet solo in the song. The strings play short-detached notes in the background (kind of like in the beginning track). There’s an added dialogue throughout the track from the movie. The track is nice, but I find the dialogue disruptive.

20. In Memorium A Capella
The title is pretty self-explanitory. It’s “In Memorium” without the accompaniment. It’s the same as the track with accompaniment so I really don’t have much to add. It sounds just as good with or without accompaniment.

21. Nous Sommes De Fond De L’étang
The final track of the album starts off with a short chorus. It’s a fun, stacatto song sung in unison without harmonies. Fun song. The latter parts of the track shows the scene where the conductor was trying to figure out their voice categories. It’s kind of a pointless track after the first part.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Cerf-Volant
The music on Les Choristes was such beautiful music that I couldn’t resist listening to the soundtrack. Some of these songs are just absolutely beautiful. I’ve always loved the pure sound that good boy choirs seem to have. The repeated themes are pretty, but unfortunately makes you kind of sick of the repeated melodies after awhile. In addition the final track of the soundtrack leaves a sour taste in the listeners’mouths. Seriously, did we really have to listen to the boys singing badly? I certainly don’t. In any case, pretty choir music. Go see the movie, though. Well worth it, and you’ll appreciate the music more than if you just went to listen to the whole soundtrack by itself. :)

Artist: Various Artists
Album/Single: They Kiss Again OST (惡作劇2吻)
Release Date: December 28, 2007

1. 幸福合作社 (范曉萱/Mavis Fan)
In contrast to the previous series opening theme, this is a more light-hearted and cute. I really like how Mavis Fan is singing. She sings with a lot of character and flare, which isn’t common for many Cpop singers. She doesn’t come across as a typical pop artist either. She makes good use of dynamics in her performance. The arrangement of this song could use more work as it gets messy at times, but Fan’s interpretation and presentation of this song is where all the attention is directed.

2. 你 (林依晨/Ariel Lin)
The opening of this song is a dead giveaway that Lin sang this in character (this is also the ending theme, just to note). Needless to say, the little vocal opening and speaking are more annoying and useless than anything else. When the actual song is underway though, it turns out to be quite a nice ballad. Lin kind of puts a cute spin on the song, shown especially in the verses. I really like the pre-chorus though, and it leads into the choruses very nicely. The choruses are also quite pretty as well. I love the accompaniment of the song during the choruses. Lin doesn’t have the best vocal ability though, and if she sang with more resonance and included more phrasing, then it would have made the musical aspect of the song more beautiful.

3. 忠於原味 (鄭元暢/Joe Cheng)
At this point, it’s turning out to be more of a character image song collection, although this song seems practically out of character for Cheng. If you don’t like cutesy songs (especially sung by males), I would advise you to avoid this song, because it’s probably the cutest song on the whole album. It actually sounds more like a theme song to some children’s TV show (save for the lyrics – which are in character). There really isn’t much else to say about the song itself, as it is fairly one-dimensional. Cheng himself doesn’t particularly have the best vocals, though for a song like this, his singing ability is probably the last thing you would key in on (and he tries, you can tell).

4. Be Your Superman (純表演)
This song is probably the closest you will come to the songs from the first series. It’s a midtempo pop song with an attempt to incorporate very light R&B into the song. The vocalist is not too bad, and he has a sort of raspy, smooth voice that suits the song well. He isn’t another monotone pop star either, and he does try to phrase and add dynamics to his vocal part. The bridge has some pretty high notes, and he struggles during that section a bit, but overall, I thought he wasn’t that bad. The brass section at the end was unexpected, but a nice addition.

5. 藏在微笑裡的秘密 (趙詠華/Cyndi Chaw)
The guitar accompaniment to this song is kind of cool and very upbeat. Chaw has a nice voice, and I think he if she focused on her singing a little more (and took a few lessons on projection), she would be a pretty good vocalist. She has a nice vibrato in her lower range, and those are some very nice moments of the song (her higher range could use some work though). The instrumental interlude includes a string section, and brings more character to the song.

6. 你曾經讓我心動 (a Chord)
This is what I call a classic vocal + guitar pop song. I love the very acoustic nature of this song, since the only accompaniment present here is an acoustic guitar. The vocalist is alright. He has his nice moments, but for the most part he sings in a very breathy, light tone and lacks substance. More resonance from his singing would really make this song more impactful and give it a fuller sound. It would also help him control those shaky higher notes. Overall, it’s a very nice song.

7. Heaven (寒 & 五熊)
Well, this is certainly a surprise. Where “It Started With A Kiss” aimed for a full out laidback mid-tempo pop sound, “They Kiss Again” is trying a lot of new things, as seen with this typica pop-rock tune. Unfortunately, that was the only thing that caught my attention as the vocalists are very weak, and they sound like they’re at some random idol audition. The song itself isn’t all that great either, and the the vocalists don’t have enough power to even make the chorus sound like a chorus.

8. 幸福合作社 (Instrumental)
I was kind of upset to see no guitar versions on this album, but the instrumentals are practically that. This one features a manipulated guitar sound playing the melody (I wanted to say distortion, but I’m not sure if that’s the correct term, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t – though there is some distortion later on). I’m not sure I like this instrumental version though. It actually sounds a little more country than I had anticipated, but the guitar soloing sort of took the character out of the song, so I don’t like it as much.

9. 你 (Instrumental)
I really like the different instruments featured on the melody of this song. It starts off with the piano, then the guitar and the strings take on the chorus. What I don’t like about this is that it doesn’t flourish as much as I expected it, and it stays relative mellow throughout. Normally I’d like something like this over the original version, but with the string version come up later, this is almost uninteresting next to it.

10. 藏在微笑裡的秘密 (Instrumental)
Once again, this is basically a guitar version of the original song, and for once, I think I like this version more than the original. It’s mostly because I like the guitar work done on this version, and it’s a little more stylistically pleasing. If you’re ever on a beach on vacation, this is probably the song you want to be tanning to. XD

11. 你 (Strings Version) (林依晨/Ariel Lin)
As mentioned earlier, this strings version of the ending theme is much better. It’s more dramatic and sweeping, which than the original, but it’s done in such a lovely way. I wish it had more of a true sound to the strings though (and that the strings played a bigger role throughout, not just the intro and choruses). The piano does well to support Lin though. When Lin is trying to sing with a fuller voice, it makes all the difference in the world. It’s much more nicer to listen to. Lin’s vocals are still relatively weak and she needs to work on her control, but this is still a huge improvement over the original.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 幸福合作社, 你 (Strings Version)
Early on I said this OST was more like a character image song collection, and I still stand by that. This OST has the cast of the drama more involved, solidifying its status as an idol drama. Naturally, there are pros and cons to approaching an album this way. What I really enjoyed was the increase variety of songs on this album. It offered more styles than the first OST, and kept my interest a bit longer. Unfortunately, not all of the songs were of good quality, leaving me with the impression that it probably could have been left out. Like its predecessor, the vocals weren’t much to praise about, but it was a decent album with nice songs (for the most part).

Artist: Various Artists
Album/Single: It Started With A Kiss OST (惡作劇之吻)
Release Date: October 21, 2005

Note: Once again, I think Chinese is too hard to translate, so I’m leaving it untranslated (unless it was written in English).

1. Dream Waltz
The album begins, not with the theme song, but a cute little waltz tune that was played throughout the show. It’s mostly a piano solo with the support of a string section. It’s played in a very detached manner, giving it a cute atmosphere. It does repeat a few times, but there are variations underlying the main theme.

2. Say U Love Me (Jason & Lara)
Now getting into the vocal work, this is the opening of the series. There’s a certain charm to this song that makes it very enjoyable to listen to. Lara sounds like a kid in her passages which can be kind of annoying, but she does a decent job with her parts. Jason mostly raps, but he does have some singing roles (and man, does he have a low voice), but he does a good job switching between the two to bring together the song. It provides a very laidback style, but it gives serves well as the series themesong.

3. 遇到 (方雅賢 – Fang Ya Xian)
The first of two songs from this vocalist, and I think it’s the better of the two. I find the vocalist lacks tone and she could use more vibrato in a song like this. It’s a very nice ballad however. The accompaniment is very gentle and lovely. The verses flow well into each chorus, and the chorus ends off well. It’s a very sweet song, and establishes helps establish the type of OST this will turn out to be very early on.

4. 愛情海 (葉慶龍)
This guy sings quite well, and carries through nicely for the most part. He has a very warm vibrato and really brings out the character of the song in a very natural way. I don’t really like the song that much though. Although it’s a decent song, it unfortunately sounds like any generic C-pop ballad out there, and the accompaniment has some random sounds from the programming, that sort of ruin the nice mood established by the vocalist.

5. 聼見 (方雅賢 – Fang Ya Xian)
The vocalist from Track 3 makes an earlier reappearance, but doesn’t provide a very good follow up. I find this song highlights her weak vocals even more so this time around. The melody has many more leaps and movement, and she has a hard time nailing them. The song itself isn’t that tasteful either. The accompaniment is a little light playful thing, and doesn’t do well with the overly dramatic mood they tried to establish here. Speaking of dramatic, the whole song gets really annoying because they really did try for something so ridiculously dramatic that it sounds more cheesy than anything else, then put together with her weak vocals, it just didn’t turn out as emotional as it needed to be.

6. Say U Love Me (Guitar Version)
This is the theme song with a cute twist put to it. It surprisingly made for a good guitar solo song.

7. 靠近一點點 (Lara)
Lara is back, and actually, she does sound like a kid. She has a very light voice, but without all the layering this time, she sort of has a pleasant (but cute!) voice. She doesn’t carry through well though, and she sings in a very unsupported way. The song suits her voice well and with better technique, it would have turned out better.

8. 能不能 (Jason & Landy Wen)
Funny, I don’t really remember this song being played in the series. I really love Jason’s voice for some reason. It has a very soothing tone to it. Once again, I like how he incorporates his singing and rapping (though his singing isn’t the strongest). Landy sings her parts decently and gets the job done, but I think Jason once again is the highlight of the song. Jason really feels the rhythms of the song, so in comparison, Landy tends to sound like she’s simply singing her part, and doesn’t seem to be trying very actively to work herself into the song.

9. 全世界的人都知道 (王俞勻)
I really like the keyboard part in the opening of this song. It’s very gentle and nice. The vocalist, like many of the vocalists on this album, has very little support and fairly weak vocals. She sings with a very light, airy voice, which makes her strange in the higher register, and makes her lower range sound breathy and weak. This is a good ballad musically, and keeps the cute sound this album has carried throughout.

10. 和平世界 (guitar version)
I like the Latin-flavour of this song. It has a very laidback feeling to it, and not nearly as short as the previous two instrumental tracks.

11. 後悔 (何書宇)
This song was a little overplayed in the drama itself, so I don’t like it much, plus it has the typical overdramatic C-pop sound to it too. It is better than “聼見” though not by a lot. The vocalist doesn’t have the best voice, but he’s not as unsupported as most of the other vocalists that have already sang. Even though the song is dramatic as well, I can’t help but like the choruses. The verses are pretty dull, but lead well into the emotional chorus, and I think the vocalist does a pretty job of capturing the mood.

12. 惡作劇 (王藍茵)
I really, really like this ending theme. It stays along the lines of the cute mid-tempo ballad stuff that was predominant in album, but it’s much more pleasant I find. The vocalist isn’t amazing, but she sounds like she has the most control over her voice out of all the female vocalists featured here. To make up for her lack of vocal ability, she performs with attention and presents the song. Had she worked on her singing (adding in vibrato here and there), it would have turned out really nicely. The key change seems to come out of nowhere towards the end, but it’s the highlight of the song and the vocalist tries to pour more emotion and power there.

13. Sky (葉慶龍)
I don’t really like this as the closing track of the album, because it’s too much like the rest of the album, so there’s not much to make it stand out. It is sung entirely in English though, and as a treat, it’s by the best vocalist on this album. His English is quite good too. He does a good job with this song as well, but he has too many melismas everywhere, so it kind of takes away from the song quite a bit.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 惡作劇, Sky
For an OST, this turned out to a surprisingly good pop album. A little more variety wouldn’t hurt, but it was a solid album nonetheless, considering it was just a collection of the themes and insert songs from the drama. I was impressed with the vocalists featured on this album, save for one person, but most of them got the job done at the very least, decently.

Artist: Various Artists
Composer: Stephen Sondheim
Album: Sweeney Todd Highlights
Release Date: December 18, 2007

1. No Place Like London (Sweeney Todd, Anthony Hope)
Bower has a really pretty tone right at the beginning of this song in the brighter, major section. The oboe at the beginning is absolutely gorgeous in addition to the rest of the accompaniment. I love the song suddenly becomes darker when Depp’s character comes in. While Depp isn’t a great singer, he illustrates his character’s darkness well. There’s some really pretty stuff in the accompaniment. It’s absolutely gorgeous and well written with some of the call and response stuff between the oboe and flute in the background. Depp’s vocals get a bit better when he gets to the “Barber and his wife” as he starts to sing out a bit more. I really like how clear Depp’s enunciation is in this song; it’s crystal clear what he’s saying.

2. The Worst Pies in London (Mrs. Lovett)
Bonham Carter isn’t a very good vocalist at all, but she acts very well in the song in terms of the style she sings in. This song is very bounchy and fun to listen to, however and highly amusing considering the subject matter. I love the little pizzicato bits in the strings for the accompaniment.

3. Poor Thing (Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd)
Mrs. Lovett sings decently at the beginning of the song, even if she doesn’t have much resonance to his voice. I don’t particularly like how she does the “poor thing” lyrics, especially her thin high notes. The song itself starts off simpler with minimal accompaniment, but as the story goes along, Sondheim adds a bit more dissonance to go along with the story.

4. My Friends (Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett)
This is probably one of Depp’s move impressive vocal songs. He adds a bit of vibrato at parts of the songs and he resonates a lot more here in this particular song. Of course, his singing is steps better than Bonham Carter’s vocals as he actually supports his vocals much better. I really like the duet parts of the song though, even if I’m not a fan of Bonham Carter’s vocals. The interlacing of melody lines here is really interesting and they are really well composed. The floating accompaniment is gorgeous in this song. I’ve already found the “my arm is complete again” line really amusing. I love how it ends back into the initial theme of the movie with the dramatic orchestral bit.

5. Green Finch & Linnett Bird (Johanna Barker)
This is probably one of my favourite songs. It starts off with little bird-like grace notes. Wisener, the actress for Johanna Barker is surprising a pretty good vocalist compared to the rest of the cast. She’s a high soprano in this song and sings with a lot of resonance and vibrato. The higher notes are a bit pitched, however, but nevertheless, her soft soprano voice carries this song well.

6. Johanna (Anthony Hope)
This song features long sweeping melodies and some gorgeous string bits. The lyrics aren’t really complicated. Campbell Bower is a pretty decent vocalist, although parts of his vocals aren’t as supported as it could have been. His tone is quite nice though.

7. Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir (Tobias Ragg, Signor Adolfo Pirelli)
Sanders’ child voice really performs well at the beginning in terms of his enthusiasm in this song. He may not be extraordinary, but he carries the role well in the song. The song itself is really catchy. The layered vocals in this song are really well done again.

8. The Contest (Adolfo Pirelli)
Baron Cohen is absolutely hilarious and awesome as Pirelli. He’s actually an amusing vocalist and supports fairly well throughout the song. The falsetto at the end always makes me laugh. The exagerrated vocal style that Baron Cohen has works really well in this song.

9. Wait (Mrs. Lovett)
To contrast the previous song, we go back into an ominous opening before going into a slightly dissonant lullabye with Bonham Carter. I love the instruments after she sings “brighten up the room” as the melody line gets transfered to about three other instruments after she sings it.

10. Pretty Women (Sweeney Todd, Judge Turpin)
I love the harp-like notes at the beginning. The song itself is interesting with the ongoing harp, and some of the flute parts that play with the melody they sing over it. Rickman seemingly a bit flat in parts of the song. The various parts of this song are really facinating to listen to. I especially really like the main one with the “pretty woman” with the smooth melody and the call and response. The harmonies are really quite nice. The parts where Depp whistles and Rickman sings the “bum” parts (XD) is really amusing for some reason.

11. Epiphany (Sweeney Todd)
Depp is extremely creepy in this song. I love how Sondheim brings back some elements from previous songs into this next piece, and interlaces them flawlessly into the song. He brings back part of the first “No place like London” song as well as Mrs. Lovett’s “Wait” as her attempt to calm him down. The dissonant in this song is really creepy. Depp doesn’t really do well vocally in this song, but his acting is really well done. I love the speaking parts of this song, they’re really well done and really creepy. It’s kind of interesting how his tone clears up (he doesn’t do the growling thing he’s been doing with this voice for the majority of the song) when he sings “My Lucie”, though.

12. A Little Priest (Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd)
This song is creepy. I find Bonham Carter’s performance of this to be a little flat and emotionless considering its content. She doesn’t really reflect the dark humour of this song well. The song is ridiculously bouncy considering the content. The result of the song is fairly monotone and lacking the energy it needs.

13. Johanna (Sweeney Todd, Anthony Hope, Beggar Woman)
This song with the duet parts are much better than the initial version. It has the initial theme with added bits by Depp and Kelly. I really like the added melodies by Depp. The insane bits by Kelly is always amusing. The highlight of the song is definitely the parts where both Campbell Bower and Depp sing together with different melodies.

14. God, That’s Good! (Mrs. Lovett, Tobias Ragg, Beggar Woman)
Sanders repeats his initial melody with Pirelli for this next song and the change of lyrics work ridiculously well with Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies. Other than that, the song has a lot of speaking dialogue in it, and again I enjoy the two melodies going on at once. This song just isn’t the same without the chorus, however, and it ends up being kind of dull.

15. By the Sea (Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd)
This song is absolutely adorable. I really lke the flute and oboe bits in the song. The melody is light and fluffy and a nice contrast to the rest of the musical. Bonham Carter’s singing is still rather painful at times.

16. Not While I’m Around (Mrs. Lovett, Tobias Ragg)
I absolutely love Sanders’ vocals in this song. He’s ridiculously good in this soft ballad song. The song is gorgeous. I like how they have the change of roles with Bonham Carter’s character singing the main chorus once, and the added dissonance when she sings it.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Green Finch & Linnett Bird
While some of the vocalists are less than stellar, the music in this musical is top notch. I particularly like how Sondheim repeats some of the previous themes from various songs into later songs. It sometimes gets repetitive but it’s done effectively. Stephen Sondheim delivers creepy, but well-composed music for this soundtrack.

Artist: Various Artists
Album: High School Musical 2 OST
Release Date: August 14, 2007, 2007

1. What Time Is It? (HSM Cast)
This is an amazing opening track for both the soundtrack and the movie. There’s so much energy in the performance of this song from everyone. I love the call and response in the chorus. Plus, everyone more or less sounds pretty good throughout this song. I also really like the Hudgens and Efron duets during this song as their harmonies are quite good

2. Fabulous (Sharpay Evans)
This song still annoys me, from the vocals to the composition. Tisdale sounds awful all throughout this song as she twists her vocals all the time and the melody isn’t pleasant at all and don’t flow all that well. To me, this whole song is a mess.

3. Work This Out (HSM Cast)
This song is so whiny, and my general annoyance begins around this sections of the soundtrack. The song also doesn’t have a melody that flows well with the strong percussion in the background, although I do like the banging of the kitchenware in this song; it’s a nice interlude. The melody itself just doesn’t work that well and sounds awkward.

4. You are the Music in Me (Kelsi Nielsen, Gabriella Montez, Troy Bolton)
While the actress for Kelsi is a nice addition to the beginning of the song to tie in the story of te movie to the song, she really has no resonance at all at the beginning and fails to even reach some of the notes at the beginning. The song, however, sounds a lot better once Hudgens comes in. While not as good as some of the other Efron and Hudgens duets, it’s a decent song and flows decently throughout. I like the addition of a background chorus of vocals near the end.

5. I Don’t Dance (Chad Danforth, Ryan Evans)
This is probably the equivalent to “Getcha Head in the Game” from the first soundtrack, except it’s between Grabeel and Bleu. It’s not as catchy as its predecessor; however, it’s still is rather catchy with it’s strong bass line. It does get very repetitive after awhile, though, and my attention quickly wanders off as I’m listening to it, and as I was watching the movie.

6. You are the Music in Me (Sharpay Version)
Tisdale continues to sing off keys in this song. The beginning is extremely horrendous, and while the transformation into an upbeat song is quite decent, the vocal lines in this song are jus horrible to listen to, aside from the Sharpettes’ background vocals. Efron’s vocals lines just don’t match with the main melody for the majority of the song (although I believe this could have been done intentionally for the movie’s storyline).

7. Gotta Go My Own Way (Gabriella Montez, Troy Bolton)
This is probably the second time in the movie where I actually liked the song. The melody for this song is gorgeous, as is the accompaniment for it. Hudgens actually pulls off the solo parts of this song quite well, although sometimes not reaching the pitch completely. Efron starts into this song quite strongly, although the little additions between Hudgen’s main melody that he does later on are lacking energy and emotion. They sound soulless in between Hudgens’ emotional performance.

8. Bet on It (Troy Bolton)
As Efron’s solo song, it’s extremely catchy. He sings with plenty of pulse and although the song is repetitive, he adds lots of accent throughout the song. Efron does alright with his vocals, although I don’t like his falsetto much near the end, and his singing seems a bit tense and doesn’t seem to have much resonance to his singing.

9. Everyday (Troy Bolton, Gabriella Montez)
Efron sings well at the beginning and with a nice vibrato at the beginning, although Hudgens starts off a bit off with a really thin voice. Her singing remains thin and empty throughout the majority of the song, while Efron has a stronger, fuller tone here. Hudgens sticks out in a bad way in this song. The song itself is quite nice, although nothing outstanding. I really love the ending of this song with the addition of the rest of the cast. They sound really good and they blend quite well.

10. All for One (HSM Cast)
… Why I’m I thinking of Hello!Project whenever I see the title of this song? *fails* In any case, this song as a closing isn’t as strong as the first movie’s closing song. It’s an okay song, but the vocals don’t contain as much energy as I would have expected from a closing song. The melody itself is pretty catchy, but the vocals don’t reflect the level of catchiness at all.

11. Humuhumunukunukuapua’a -Bonus- (Sharpay and Ryan Evans)
I don’t even know if I typed the track name correctly XD. Seriously, leave it to Tisdale and Grabeel to pull out an amusing song out of this movie. It has a bit of a Hawaiian sound of it and it amuses me. The song is seriously kind of weird, but the level of amusement is higher than the weird. I want to seriously watch this scene. Somehow.

Overall -
Favourite Track: What Time is It?
Right after I watched the movie, the first thing I thought was that the music is nowhere as good as the first album. Upon listening to this album, it reaffirmed my reaction to the movie: it’s just not that good. While the first album was loaded with some pretty energetic, fun music, the second album let me down in many ways with dull songs. While there are a few good songs, the majority of the album was pretty much forgettable.

Artist: Various Artists
Album/Single: CLAMP IN WONDERLAND 1&2 Collection – PRECIOUS SONGS
Release Date: October 24, 2007

1. action! / 坂本真綾 (Sakamoto Maaya)
Initially, I disliked this song because I felt it was much too cutesy for Sakamoto, especially after some of her more recent, mature works. In the end, this song completely grew on me, and now I find it adorable and fun to listen to. Some parts of the accompaniment are awkward and random, but I love the treble synthesizers that play the melody and countermelody. The verses are the main source of the cutesy atmosphere, but choruses are nice to listen to. Even though this doesn’t showcase Sakamoto’s vocals well, I think she captured the mood well which ended up with a fairly good result.

2. Oh! Yeah!! / ROUND TABLE featuring Nino
I remember liking the song this band did for Chobits way back when, but this doesn’t seem to have the same charm of their older CLAMP theme song. ROUND TABLE is fairly loud with a prominent guitar part, but Nino doesn’t seem able to keep up with the rest of the song. She sounds drowned out and overshadowed by the rest of the participants of this song. The song as a whole just seems to be rather lacking in every aspect, so while it isn’t bad in any way, it just doesn’t seem to stand out either.

3. あなただけのWONDERLAND / 広谷順子 (anata dake no WONDERLAND / Hirotani Junko)
This song has a very 90′s feel to it, which makes sense since it was the theme for the first CLAMP IN WONDERLAND series. Hirotani has a very lovely voice, but she seems kind of overpowered by the dance-like stylings of this song. Everything about this song is very typical of 90′s anime theme songs, but I half wished that they had chosen another vocalist. Hirotani’s voice seems better suited for easy listening type of songs.

4. 「あなた」が「しあわせ」であるように / 広谷順子 (anata ga shiawase de aru youni / Hirotani Junko)
Another very typical 90′s sounding song. This ending is much slower than it’s opening counterpart, and already you can hear how Hirotani is more comfortable here. I still think the programming isn’t complimenting her voice well, and she probably would do quite well with less electronic programming, and more acoustic sounds. While Hirotani is a lovely vocalist, she has a soft, gentle quality about her singing that would be highlighted in songs that aren’t completely arranged with synthesizers.

5. action! (without maaya)

6. Oh! Yeah!! (without Nino)

Overall -
Favourite Track: action!
I found this mini-album to be rather weak, but it’s a nice collection of the openings and endings to both CLAMP IN WONDERLAND series. The songs themselves aren’t too amazing, but they can be fun to listen to. I kind of wished they did more remastering to the first opening and ending to give it a more updated sound. The sound quality for the songs aren’t as good as their successors. It also might have given some CLAMP fans more of an incentive to actually buy it. Sadly though, the collection was a tad disappointing.

Artist: Various
Album: High School Musical: The Concert
Release Date: May 1, 2007

1. Start of Something New (Cast)
“WHAT TEAM?!”
“WILDCATS!”
Ok, I’m done (on with the song). I think it’s kind of interesting how they start off the show. They give little tidbits of each song in the musical, but highly altered before getting into the real song. Drew Seeley has a very strong tenor voice, I’m quite impressed. Vanessa Hudgen’s singing is pretty clean, and she harmonizes well with Drew, but her voice is a little on the thin side. The only moment she uses a fully tone is during the bridge and when she chooses to use her vibrato. You don’t hear the rest of the cast very much, since Drew and Vanessa are the highlights of this song (as it is their duet). Great opener.

2. Stick to the Status Quo (Cast)
The thing I love most about this song is the sheer “musical theatre” feeling it gives. While most of the songs in this musical can easily become simple pop tunes, this one really sets itself apart and makes me think of the musical as it’s being played out. For most of the cast, they’re just singing the chorus after each mini solo goes by (but the mini solos are played from the movie itself). I love the first soloist. I like the intensity of his singing. The second soloist is a little flat, but she’s not bad either. The third soloist is also pretty good but once he hits the higher notes, he kind of loses control and he ends up sounding strained. Going back to the chorus, they sound like any chorus, but the male voices seemed to be drowned out by the females because I can barely hear them. More balance there would fix that problem. I’m very impressed with Ashley Tisdale’s solo here. She actually sounds better than her recording. When she begins to harmonize with Lucas Grabeel, they don’t seem to be completely in tune. That all being said, this is a great song nonetheless, and very fun to listen to (and to perform I’m sure).

3. I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You (Cast)
New song (and no, it’s not a cover of the one you’re probably thinking of). I believe Drew starts off the song (whoever it is, starts off nice and smoothly). Vanessa still sounds a bit weak in her singing. I definitely like Lucas and Ashley’s duet more. The way they nailed the vocal switches between themselves was amazing and they never let a beat slip. Ashley’s voice sounds pinched for some reason though, so it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb at times. Once again, this was a catchy song, but the vocals seem somewhat shakier than the previous two performances.

4. When There Was Me and You (Vanessa Hudgens)
First (and only) solo of the actual musical. I don’t like how she’s consistently under the tone when she’s singing quietly or in her lower register. She makes the mistake of not supporting herself enough and ends up not singings the notes on pitch. She improves at the song progresses, but that’s because as the song becomes more intense, she starts to open up her voice and sing out with more support. I think she needs to learn to support her singing at all times, and she won’t sound a monotone during the moments where she isn’t belting. Her tone is amazingly inconsistent in this song, so once again, a very thin tone during most of the song, with some strong moments. It’s a very nice ballad for Vanessa, and definitely showcases her vocal range, so with some more improvement, this could have been breathtaking.

5. Get’cha Head In The Game (Drew Seeley, Corbin Bleu)
I always thought this was one of the less appealing songs of the musical. I like this arrangement for the concert version. I like the live band accompanying them. I can’t really hear Corbin Bleu, other than his “What team?!” moments, even though he’s creditted as a soloist. Again, catchy song, but it has a pretty low key vocal performance from Drew. This probably would be better if it was seen performed live than listening to it on a CD.

6. What I’ve Been Looking For (Drew Seeley, Vanessa Hudgens)
All the music in high school musical is rather good, especially the duets between “Troy and Gabriela”. This is longer than the soundtrack version and the piano accompaniment is better and stylish (the original accompaniment sounded very choppy and dull), so it’s definitely a treat for the hardcore fans. Once again, Vanessa’s singing is very light and thin. I think she would blend a little better with Drew if she sang with more tone (as evident in the second verse/chorus). She also has a tendency to sing out of tune, particularly when she’s not taking the melody. Drew is still singing well, but not as well as he was for the opening and he is scratchy at times. He also allows himself to be drowned out especially when he has the melody and Vanessa is providing the harmony. This isn’t a vocally challenging song for either of them (so it seems), so I don’t know why they didn’t take advantage of it and concentrate on their tone to improve their overall sound.

7. What I’ve Been Looking For (Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel)
Finally, we’re getting some new vocalists. I guess it was more convenient to have consistent vocalists instead of changing them too often. This is the more upbeat version of the nice ballad that was preceding it. There’s dancing involved too so it’s a fun performance overall. I like how Lucas is actually singing out and matching Ashley’s voice. Ashley has a much higher pitched type of voice, so she’s going to sound more prominent, but Lucas is not letting himself be drowned out. I really don’t like how lazy Ashley’s singing is. She slurs all her words excessively, it comes off a little too amateur. She’s good at keeping in tune when she’s singing alone, but she has a little trouble holding her own when it comes to the harmonizing. I would like to see Lucas use more vibrato on his solo parts. Otherwise, this is a cute rendition of the ballad with a great ending, and it was stronger vocally.

8. Bop To The Top (Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel)
This seemingly cheesy song is actually quite catchy and fun. Both Ashley and Lucas’ solo parts were sung with more flare and turned out much better than the previous duet. The unison parts were pretty rough, but the harmonizing parts turned out better this time around. I really like how they nailed the random syllables (the technical term seems to elude me at the moment). Those could get potentially confusing. They were also right on for the last note and Lucas did a great job belting it out. I was much more impressed by their performance here.

9. Breaking Free (Drew Seeley, Vanessa Hudgens)
Another duet from our lead characters, and a very good one at that. It’s so addicting and catchy that I can get it stuck in my head for days on end. I find it’s more challenging and suitable for our vocalists here. There’s a lot of opportunity for the two of them to show their strengths. The unison parts could be a bit more together coming in and out of their words and syllables, but their tuning is clean. Drew pushes it a little too much during the chorus, because his voice cracks a few times. Plus, it would be better if he didn’t give it 110% on the first chorus so that he could leave himself some room to build towards the key change or last chorus entry (but thanks to the highly responsive audience, he was saved). Amazingly, Vanessa is letting herself be drowned out this time and she has the melody. Vanessa sounds a bit subdued, especially next to Drew. She eventually sings out more towards the end though. It would also be nice if they could make a decision when to sing “So, we’re breaking free” and “Yeah, we’re breaking free” instead of both at once. This is a really nice song, but it had a rather rough performance. It started out pretty well, but seemed to run out of momentum by the end of the performance.

10. We’re All in This Together (Cast)
Alright, 7 minutes, brace yourselves. I’ll admit right now, it is not my favourite tune from the musical. I find it pretty annoying and once again, it’s catchy, but I hate having it stuck in my head. Drew sings well in his solo here, after his shaky “Breaking Free” performance, so that’s one relief. Vanessa’s solo was a little monotone, but it was fine other than that. I dont’ think Lucas has his best moment here because he pushed a little too hard in this singing, so it turned out a bit wild. Ashley’s solo was so short, I don’t even want to comment on it. I find the adlibbing from Vanessa happening during the chorus is so unnecessary and distracting (it isn’t because of her singing though) . The Wildcat’s portion of the song I can do without, but the movie and song cannot, so I won’t complain. I like how the cast voices blend during the choruses overall. They produce a nice sound. The band solos at the end are pretty exciting too. A great performance overall, even if it isn’t one of my favourites.

Bonus Concert Tracks-
11. Push It To The Limit (Corbin Bleu)
I have to admit, Corbin’s voice is much higher than I had expected. His lower register is on the weak side. I have a hard time hearing him whenever he has to sing the lower notes. This is a very powerful song and full of energy, but I feel that Corbin lacks the energy to project and keep up with the band. It’s highly repetitive, so I have to say that it does get a bit boring towards the end. More power from Corbin himself would make this a perfect song for him. A song like this requires the vocalist to carry the song through with less dependence on the band.

12. Say OK (Vanessa Hudgens)
This is a big disappointment in comparison to Vanessa’s works as Gabriella, so I was a taken by surprise by how many things went wrong here. First of all, I don’t understand a single word from her. She isn’t enunciating her words and especially with a melody that doesn’t travel, I eventually tuned out the verses. During the choruses, many of her high notes she sings with an airy tone and barely gets them out. Her low notes are all under the pitch because she comes down on them hard. There is barely any dynamic contrast in her singing, and perhaps her most mechanical performance yet, with the exception of that one note she strains to reach. She should really stay away from songs like these until she learns to sing with more musicality, but there’s no denying that this song was boring to begin with.

13. Dance With Me (Drew Seeley)
Drew is having a similar problem with enunciation, but he seems to forget the consonants at the end of some of his words (yes, it’s very important to sound them out or else you’re stuck with a song with funny lyrics). This song suits Drew very well. For the most part, he sounds good while singing this song, except for the lack of detail and technique during some moments of the song. He comes across as a very dynamic and energetic person, and I like how that shows through his singing.

14. We’ll Be Together (Ashley Tisdale)
This song is a nice slow pop song. I really like the acoustic feel to it, but Ashley’s singing kind of ruins it for me. Once again, I liked Ashley more singing as Sharpay. I dislike how she twists her words even more, and sings notes that shouldn’t even exist in her song. She has a breathy tone and it keeps changing throughout the song, with no control. She seems to have a rhythm problem and speeds up every now and then. Her low notes are rather weak and unsupported. Of the four solo performances, I liked this one the most, and if Ashley could sing with more support and phrasing, this could have been very well done.

Overall -
Favourite Track: N/A
This was a very long album. I can’t say that I liked it all that much, and I probably would have preferred watching the concert (there’s a DVD too) instead of listening to it on a CD. It lacks all the visual aspects of the concert, and leaves a lot of the songs feeling as if they lack something, particularly the more musical theatre dependant tracks. What I do like about it, that would make any fan happy, the extended version of “What I’ve Been Looking For” by Drew and Vanessa. The solos are a nice bonus as well. It’s good to have this to complete your collection, and maybe to have to listen to on the road (or elsewhere) without being limited to the DVD.

Artist: Various
Album: High School Musical OST
Released: January 10, 2006

1. Start of Something New (Gabriella & Troy)
This opening song is excellent in terms of its composition and the vocal performances from both Drew Seeley/Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. I really like the harmonies in between the two voices. The song itself is typical of pop songs but it has a nice drive, and sweet melody and a nice introduction to the soundtrack.

2. Get’cha Head in the Game (Troy and the Wildcats)
This song is EXTREMELY catchy. I love the introduction to this song with all the basketballs bounching in that rhythm — kind of reminds me of Stomp. The song itself has a very strong bass line going on to add a strong pulse throughout the song.

3. What I’ve been looking for (Sharpay & Ryan)
I love this version of “What I’ve been looking for”; it’s upbeat, and the piano in this song is excellent. The harmonies between the two vocalists are very good as well. Both singers bring out excellent energy in this song.

4. What I’ve been looking for (Reprise) (Gabriella & Troy)
The slower ballad version of the previous song. I wished they did a full version of the song, because this version is very good as well. The accompaniment is simply a piano in the background and is quite pretty. Loving the harmonies as well.

5. Stick to the Status Quo (HSM Cast)
This song is amusing beyond comprehension. As much as the lyrics tend to annoy me at times; the song is just so freakin’ catchy! This brings out the “musical” aspect of the movie’s title. This song in itself lacks a bit of energy for it to be totally effective in terms of the audio recording of it. If you watch people perform it, it’s not as obvious because the people are moving and dancing, but the audio by itself can’t stand by itself. Ashley Tisdale’s (Sharpay) bit near the end is a little awkward when she first comes in… in terms of the strange key she comes in.

6. When there was me and you (Gabriella)
Vanessa Hudgens’ weaknesses as a vocalist is evident in this song. When she sings as a duet, it’s harder to notice and her pitch kind of corrects itself a bit because she’s listening to someone else sing with her. But this song really shows some of the lack of vocal ability she has. The song itself is nice, but Hudgens’ vocals can’t do this song justice.

7. Bop to the Top (Sharpay & Ryan)
Tisdale’s little random stuff at the beginning is HILARIOUS. Like WTF hilarious. Grabeel and Tisdale are such an awesome pair though; if you ever see them perform this… they’re such little bundles of energy. This song is short but full of energy and some “latin” flavour.

8. Breaking Free (Gabriella & Troy)
I’ve never really understood the greatness in this song. Anyways, this is a decent song but I like “Start of Something new” better than this song. In any case, Drew Seeley’s vocals on this track is a little over the top at points, in my opinion. But generally, this is a decent song.

9. We’re All in this Together (HSM Cast)
Group numbers are always a great treat. I love this song and the beat to the song adds a pulse to this song. This fares better than the other group number on this track. Good energy overall from all the vocalists.

10. I Can’t Take My Eyes off of You (Gabriella, Troy, Sharpay, Ryan)
This is the weird song out of the album; it has a different sound to it, but I really like it. Again with the nice harmonies between two vocalists. The song here has a lot of percussion going on in the background.

11. Get’cha Head in the Game (Pop Version) (B5)
I personally prefer Drew Seeley’s version of this song B5′s version because of the introduction and Seeley’s vocals have more energy than this version. This is like a watered down version of Seeley’s other version.

12. Start of Something New (Karaoke Instrumental)

13. Breaking Free (Karaoke Instrumental)

Overall-
Favourite track: What I’ve been looking for (both versions)
This is a very catchy soundtrack for a less than stellar movie. Most of the tracks on this album have the ability to get in my head for hours. While there’s also quite a bit of what people would call “manufactured bubble gum pop”, there’s quite a few excellent songs. Both versions of “What I’ve been looking for” are excellent in composition and the harmonies. While the vocals aren’t excellent throughout the album, they are decent for the most part. A pretty good soundtrack for the movie. It could do without the extra karaoke versions though.