Artist: Lyrico
Album: Flavours
Release Date: May 12, 2004

1. Now & Forever
The harmonies at the beginning of this track is absolutely gorgeous. It starts off with a multi-layer vocal, then goes into some of Lyrico’s strong vocals one again. Lyrico sings emotionally and with excellent phrasing. Plucked acoustic guitar accompanies her with some light xylophone and strings. The light pizzicato strings in the verse really adds a bit of bounce to the smooth mid-tempo R&B track. Lyrico delivers this song with elegance and power.

2. ESCALADE
Lyric makes the album more upbeat with this next almost-disco sounding song. It has strong piano chords supporting her with occasional brass driving along the song. Lyrico sings with a nice amount of emphasis and really pulls this song off. The song itself is pretty repetitive, but in a rather catchy way. Lyrico delivers edge in this song, and the electric guitar bridge is rather fun to listen to.

3. 瞳をとじて (Hitomi wo Tojite)
This is the first ballad of the album, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. The accompaniment has a nice ethereal sound to it with the smooth, echoed strings, and the light xylophone bouncing around in arpeggios in the background. Lyrico’s voice rings out in a gorgeous fashion, and as usual she delivers a magnificent performance. The light crescendo at the end is well done and really shows a nice progression throughout the song.

4. トパーズ (Topaz)
Dreamy keyboard sounds start off this next song before it becomes an acoustic guitar centered accompaniment. This upbeat song is catchy and creates a unique experience with the acoustic guitar and the bongos. The melody is extremely pleasant, and as a whole the whole song flowsi mmensely well. I especially love the chorus as she sings “Doko e”. This song is calming, upbeat and very pleasant to listen to. The spanish guitar solo in the bridge is gorgeous and really works with the mood of this song.

5. 風の行方 (Kaze no Yukue)
A piano ballad follows, and the piano here has a slight odd tone to it. In any case, strings are added to the song, and Lyrico sings wonderfully. This song really has a wind-like quality to it as the song is gentle and has a wonderful flow. Lyrico voice soars beautifully in this song, and the accompaniment has a beautiful blend in its song.

6. 恋 (Koi)
Soft piano arpeggios start off this song, and they’re played in a gentle manner. I love how Lyrico comes into this song with a subtle tone that works well with the beautiful piano accompaniment. The high notes a points sound a bit under supported as it gets a bit forced-sounding at first, but she quickly fixes this problem. From there, her voice works so well with the flowing, gentle accompaniment and she never oversings it. Instead, she focuses on a more subtle sound in the overall product of the song and succeeds.

7. Mirage
Bass guitar drives the Mirage as a mid-tempo R&B song. Lyrico starts lightly, but with flavour, although a bit lighter than I would have expected from this kind of song. She does fall a bit flat at points of this song, but she seems to flat a bit of sensuality in this kind of song and the result is a bit boring without much personality from her vocals. The song itself isn’t bad, but the vocals seem to be lacking flavour, even if she sings well.

8. Livin’ Breathin’ Feelin’
I love the edginess that Lyrico shows in this next song. This definitely has an active disco sound to it from the brass to the bass, to the jazzy elements of the song. The guitar adds a lot of emphasis in the beat, and Lyrico sings with accuracy and lot of sass. I absolutely adore how she presents this song because it’s catchy and she makes this really upbeat, diva-ish song work for her well. The accompaniment is absolutely addictive.

9. Lost Wing
If anyone was wondering where I got the title of my blog, it’s because of this song. This is possibly one of my avourite ballads. It has an elegant feeling to it from the slight acoustic guitar and piano playing at the beginning, to the nice rests that go between the phrases. Lyrico sings with so much skill and musicality in this song that it makes it ever so gorgeous and heartbreaking. The light accompaniment of the piano adds a lot of flavour to the song. I like the background vocalists “wooo”-ing in the background and added lovely harmonies in the chorus. The digitized voice singing “Aishite” and “I lost my way” doesn’t distract from the product and only adds to the result to make it even more heart wrenching.

10. まいにち (Mainichi)
An acoustic guitar song follows and shows a bit of simplicity at the beginning of Lyrico’s voice soaring with the guitar at the beginning. More accompaniment comes in later on and makes the accompaniment a bit louder than before, and putting less emphasis on her subtle vocals. Her voice is still clear and she has a lovely tone at the same time. The song itself continues an air of simplicity as Lyrico charmingly sings on without having to belt or sing that much louder. Quite lovely of a song.

11. Burn Out
Burn Out is a bit more dramatic than the previous song and has a bit more of an upbeat sound to it. Lyrico performs with a lot of flavour and personality in this song and the guitar and piano do well in the background. This song shows a bit more of Lyrico’s stronger singing as she starts to belt a bit in the pre-chorus. The chorus is catchy and Lyrico emphasizes the chorus nicely.

12. Heart Of Mine
Yes, this is a cover. Lyrico does a decent job, although I personally think she could have done this so much better. Some of her singing is a little undersupported and lacks emotion and nice phrasing. The chorus feels choppy and I find Lyrico has trouble adding musicality to this particular at times. She still sings well, but I think she can do so much better.

13. enclose
Lyrico sings beautifully on the first line: “I love you”. Piano chords accompany her, and she sings just so much skill and emotion, which is such a big improvement from the previous track. This song is pretty simplistic in accompaniment and melody, but Lyrico packs an amazing emotional vocal in this and it makes such a gorgeous track. I especially love the acoustic guitar solo in the bridge of this song. Truly a very calming ending track for this album.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Lost Wing (by default, lololol)
Lyrico’s third album was the first album I heard from her, and I absolutely adored it from the moment I listened to it. It probably helped that Lost Wing is on this album. In any case, I love nearly all the tracks on this album. Lyrico’s singing is solid and emotional and it really shows that she’s developed into a more polished singing on her third album. There are points where her vocals falter a bit, but overall, this is a solid album from her with some beautiful music and singing, and one of my favourites.

Artist: Lyrico
Album: Voices of Grace
Release Date: November 20, 2003

1. Intro: the encounter
The opening of this song is basically strings playing long notes, and a small beat slowly creeps up onto the song. There’s a nice crescendo in the beat before it disappears. It’s quite a nice introduction.

2. Goodbye for Love
The strange instruments at the beginning really don’t sound nice to me, so once Lyrico comes in and they dissapear I’m happy. Lyrico’s singing is strong and quite gorgeous on this piano track. A loud percussion adds beats over the gentle piano and makes it much more upbeat sounding, although the tempo is rather slow. This is a gorgeous opening song for this album and really shows off her emotive, powerful vocals well. The accompaniment is solid and I love the flow of this song and how Lyrico’s voice floats through the song.

3. Interlude : long time ago
More interludes! I hate excessive interludes, but at least these are pretty so far. Soft sound that blends into the next song.

4. キセキノハナ (Kiseki no Hana)
I’ve always really liked this song. It’s possibly one of her most gorgeous song. Her voice has a slight echo added at the begining when she’s singing over the simple piano accompaniment and it sounds absolutely gorgeous. This song continues the kind of light, floating atmosphere of Goodbye for Love, but with a different sound. Lyrico pulls off the melody well with control, tone and emotion. Breathtaking.

5. You’re the Reason
Quick, dissonant string flourishes start off this song and the dissonance works better this time, even if the song itself is not very dissonant at all. It’s another smooth ballad from her. After awhile, the sounds do get rather annoying and overwhelming for the song. Lyrico, here, starts singing with an airier sound and sometime struggles with some of her notes to get a decent sound out. Either way, the vocals are decent, but I don’t quite enjoy the song this time around. It find it rather on the dull-side and the instrumentation annoys me a bit.

6. Interlude: o.k.
This interlude is actually really cute. It has a muffled singing in the background like a radio sound, and Lyrico singing over it, and there’s water sound in the background, so it is made to sound as if someone was singing in the shower. It’s quite interesting for an interlude.

7. Holiday Kitchen XXX
The melody from the previous interlude is integrated into this upbeat pop-dance number. This is probably the first very upbeat song I’ve heard from Lyrico, and it’s absolutly catchy. She has airy singing here again, and it’s kind of disappointing that she isn’t using a fuller chest voice. In any case, I suppose she wanted to make this song lighter sounding. She hits the pitches, so it’s solid vocals either way. The music itself is rather infectious and it makes me want to dance, although I would like a bit more emphasis from Lyrico at times.

8. Interlude : subconciousness
Clock ticking sounds, with an eventual beat thing that comes in. It’s a pretty boring interlude that I could have done without.

9. Scarborough Fair
The title of this song is pretty self-explanatory. Lyrico covers it well, although she doesn’t really add anything new to it. The song is enjoyable, however, and all the vocals she sings throughout this song is excellently in tune. The harmonies are well done and don’t sound off. Quite a pretty rendition of Scarborough Fair.

10. Interlude: melody in a shellfish
This light interlude features the sound of the beach with the waves flowing up and down the shoreline and the wind blows. Cute xylophone sounds are added at parts of the song and Lyrico hums quietly near the end.

11. Voice of Grace
The next song starts off with a plucked instruments and light but quick moving strings that float through the song before Lyrico comes in with her strong singing once again. The song itself is rather light in sound aside from the accompaniment which is constantly playing the same note (but changes in accordance to the progression of the chords). The song is rather nice with nice songing, although it really lacks any development and more or less repeats over and over for awhile.

12. キレイ (Kirei)
Yet another light song. The song kind of reminds me of lullabyes as Lyrico sings with lightness and the tempo kind of makes you sleepy like it was made to have that kind of feeling. It dosn’t really have a dragging feeling to it; it rather feels as if it as written to have this kind of calm, floating feeling in the verse. The chorus has the same tempo, but it’s slightly more dramatic. Lyrico sings well as always, but the song kind of puts me to sleep after awhile. It achieves a rather pretty sound at the same time, however.

13. Flowers (Album Version)
Lyrico laughs at the beginning of this song and I wonder what on earth is happening. Apparently it’s disco time. XD In any case, this song starts off in a catchy manner as the piano plays syncopated chords and the synths happily play along with crazy disco sounds everywhere. This song is rather catchy, and I like the line “Flowers blooming in your heart!” because it amuses me. In fact, this whole song amuses me quite a bit, although I’m still a bit sleepy from the last song and Lyrico could use a bit more belting in this song.

14. Interlude: in complete sadness
More interludes! Yayyyyyy….? Something’s happening here and I’m not really paying attention to this particular interlude. Next.

15. コイビト (Koibito)
Something about the melody doesn’t really attract me at all. Lyrico doesn’t have her usual vibrancy in her voice, and the melody, accompaniment and everything about this song just falls flat. Even Lyrico singing nicely in the chorus and the better melody line in the chorus doesn’t make up for how dull this song is in all aspects.

16. Eternity. (Album Version)
Lyrico starts off with a choir sound as they sing “Woooo” and harmonize nicely. Lyrico comes back in this song with her string, vibrant voice and sings well. The melody here definitely stands well with Lyrico’s vocals. I love how she sings “I know you are my destiny” and her voice floats nicely over the slightly dry accompaniment. Regardless, Lyrico sings magnificently to make up for some of the really robotic accompaniment that comes with this song. The key change is excellent and I really enjoy Lyrico’s belting. Good, solid performance from Lyrico.

17. Dear ～届かない手紙～
Although the verse is well-sung, the melody is just a bit too choppy and has too many gaps for me to actually enjoy any of it. The chorus is better with the more legato melody, but something about this song is rather lacking in presentation. The presentation just feels very choppy and lacking emotion in the verses, while the occasional singing-out of Lyrico in the chorus barely saves me from falling asleep in this song.

18. Outtro: farewell
I really don’t get this outtro as it’s basically almost 11 minutes of hearing waves after a short final musical bit.

Overall -
Favourite Track: キセキノハナ (Kiseki no Hana)
Lyrico’s second album is a much more enjoyable album than her first album, although cluttered with a lot of useless interludes and such tracks. The interludes/intro/outro count up to seven tracks, and most of those really aren’t necessarily, although some of them are pretty. キセキノハナ is basically what I’ve been waiting from Lyrico since the beginning: a beautiful ballad that shows just how good of a vocalist she is. It truly is a gorgeous, breathtaking song. She even surprised me with an upbeat song: Holiday Kitchen XXX. In addition, I really enjoy her cover of Scarborough Fair, as it is very pretty. There are still quite a few tracks that I found rather boring, but most of them had solid melodies but lacked in the accompaniment department. From Lyrico, this is a decent album but lacks a lot in the actual songs for the most part. キセキノハナ fed my urge for a beautiful, epic ballad, so I was happy with that track.

Artist: Lyrico
Album: Tender Lights
Release Date: February 20, 2002

1. True Romance (Album version)
Lyrico’s first album starts off with some really add sounds that sound really bad, but once Lyrico comes in, she comes in with a very strong vocal. She’s got a nice voice, but parts of the song are a bit off on her part and could have been sung better. As a emotional vocalist, Lyrico’s got it. She pulls off the dramatic chorus expertly and uses both her belting voice and a light airy sound on some of the notes of the song. This opening power ballad shows off Lyrico’s vocals well and makes for a solid opening track. It even features a strong whistle note in the bridge of the song (although it’s not as high as some of the other one I’ve heard before, it’s well supported). Although Lyrico’s voice isn’t totally polished at times, she performs magnificently in this song.

2. I Say I’m Sorry
The next song starts off like a piano ballad with strong ab libbing from Lyrico. She starts off in a lower register and her singing is strong and well-suported and adds little moments of increasing dynamic before bring it down again to the softer singing. When she goes into “I Say I’m sorry” the first time around, she stays at the same dynamic, but she goes for belting further down into the song. And she sounds really good. The song itself is on the boring side, but Lyrico sings well despite the lack of development in the song itself.

3. Tender Rain
Like the title, the song uses rain effects in the beginning of the song, while Lyrico starts off with a softer voice than usual. This song is rather pretty and Lyrico does a good job with this soft ballad vocally. I personally do not like this particular tone for Lyrico as if feels kind of awkward sounding and it really lacks development and vocal variety in this particular song. The song itself is quite nice, however.

4. Game
The next song comes in with some more interesting accompaniment with the fast, staccato string line over the percussion beat and Lyrico’s excellent ad libbing. This song is by far one of the more interesting tracks on this album. Lyrico sings with flavour and complements the song nicely. The transition into the chorus is awkward and the flow isn’t quite there into the sound of the chorus and it feels abrupt. The song itself has a lot of flavour, but the flow is interupted when the chorus comes in.

5. Immortality
This song was on the Celine Dion Tribute album awhile ago. Lyrico starts off well with an airy tone and a rather pretty sound. The song itself I’ve never really enjoyed, and I find the melody of the pre-chorus really awkward sounding. The chorus sounds better than the pre-chorus as it flows nicely. Lyrico sings well but the song is really dull and uneventful.

6. Lies
The next song comes out with a more R&B and even has a random man talking in a low voice: “I’m so sorry.” Blah blah. In any case, this song attempts to make an edgier sound for Lyrico to sing, but the melody never really fits into the accompaniment and as a result the entire song feels awkward and unpleasant until she sings “Don’t tell me lies” that the melody starts to flow a bit more, but after that the melody is lost in a mess of accompaniment.

7. Kiss Me Again
The seventh track starts off with a more laid-back kind of lounge sound to it. The accomaniment isn’t particularly interesting, but the acoustic guitar does drive the song forward a bit more. Lyrico’s got a solid vocal, but the melody and her singing of the melody really doesn’t catch my interest at all. My mind kind of fades until she works a crescendo near the end of the song. Terribly boring.

8. 空 (Sora)
Lyrico pulls off this song beautifully. Unlike many of the previous tracks, the song starts off beautifully with a nice melody, and an accompanying piano that works with the song. There’s still a few questional note movements in the melody, but overall, this song is much more pleasant than a lot of what I’ve heard so far. This particular song has a hint of traditional sound at points of the melody and the singing. A small echo effect is added to the song and makes it slightly more majestic. A marvelous, emotive song.

9. You’ll Be Alright
Lyrico brings in a gospel sound at the beginning of this song, and she sounds marvelous. She really does well in this genre. However, when she comes in with the verse, it’s much less gospel, and more pop. Thankfully, the melody sounds nice and she’s not a nice tone while singing. The choir comes back in during the chorus, and they add nicely under Lyrico’s voice. Her voice seems much more suited for this song than usual. There are parts where the melody fails a bit, but overall it’s quite a decent song.

10. Tears in Christmas
The final track of the album is a Christmas song with really weird vocal lines singing detached, high notes and sound a bit awkward as they seem a bit out of tune with each other. However, it does also start off with a gorgeous violin solo. This track shows the Lyrico that I know and love. Her vocals are gorgeous, well-supported and emotive. She’s got a gorgeous, full tone and supports the pretty melody of this song quite well.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 空, Tears in Christmas
Lyrico’s first album was definitely a disappointment for me since I absolutely love her third album (the one which contains “Lost Wing”). I really do not enjoy the Shiro Sagisu compositions on this album (Lies, Kiss me Again), but the rest of the compositions I either loved, or I met with indifference. Lyrico, herself, is a solid performer and has a gorgeous voice. Unfortunately, the material on this album fell short and left me less than impressed, while Lyrico’s voice does make up for it in some ways.

Artist: Various Artists
Album: Tribute to Celine Dion
Release Date: September 26, 2007

1. Ito Yuna – MY HEART WILL GO ON
Sometimes I wished Ito would sing more like this in more of her songs instead of that thin, breathy voice she usually sings in. The starts off nicely in this song with a breathy, but well-supported sound. I particularly like her voice in the chorus where she sings somewhere in between the breathy tone and a nice chest voice. Vocally it’s a bit weird when she comes in for the second verse as she sounds a bit too harsh. I particularly like her voice when she comes to her fuller chest voice near the near, albeit a few sloppy notes here and there at times. She does the dynamic crescendo decently throughout the song, although there’s still much to improve on as she sounds a bit mechanical throughout the song.

2. K (feat. Aki) – TO LOVE YOU MORE
The next song starts off with a bit of an R&B beat. K comes in with a bit of an echoey sound, but he sounds really breathy from the beginning, and it doesn’t sound all that good in my opinion. I really like the harmonies aki adds in the second time around the first verse. The harmonies are really gorgeous throughout the chorus. I don’t particularly like K in this song at all as he sounds very hesitant due to all the breaks in between each line of the melody. The echo effect added to the song makes them sound distant. K sounds much better when he starts singing out in the bridge though.

3. JUJU – THE POWER OF LOVE
This acoustic guitar version of the power of love is quite nice. I don’t know who JUJU is, but she starts off really nicely with a subtle sound. Her tone is rich and quite nice, and pulls off the chorus quite well. While JUJU sings very well throughout the song, I personally would like a bit more vocal variety in this song the song quickly becomes quite dull as she does the same thing for all the chorus. We’ve heard what she can do the first time around, so the next time around it’s not as impressive.

4. SOULHEAD – BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
The SOULHEAD duo pulls off this classic song wonderfully. The harmonies are excellently executed through the chorus, and the verses are really well done. I quite like the change of sound following the first chorus in terms of arrangement as I find it quite pretty. I think they should have changed their vocal style the second time around as well though.

5. Fukuhara Miho – BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME
Who is this? She’s actually really good, as well as having really good English, aside from random moments in the song when she changes back to a Japanese pronunciation which kind of puzzles me. Anyways, as uninteresting this song is musically, Fukuhara is amazing throughout this song and just pull it along simply with her vocal performance in this song.

6. Hoshimura Mai – IT’S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW
The next song starts off with an organ sound before the song starts. Hoshimura has a really unclear english and possibly the most unclear pronunciation thus far in this album. Vocally though, Hoshimura does a decent job with the vocals. It’s nothing really impressive though, but then again the song itself isn’t very interesting. I do like the little piano interlude halfway through the song.

7. Lyrico – IMMORTALITY
I love Lyrico :D. However, I don’t like the echo sound added to her voice, and the song itself is a little awkward melody-wise. It’s a little dull until she comes in half way through and actually starts to sing out a bit more. The song iself is possibly one of the dullest songs on the album and I’m unimpressed with it.

8. LISA – BE THE MAN
The next song is an acoustic guitar song and LISA pulls it off well with her voice. She sings well with emotion and makes the song quite pleasant to listen to. Her voice mostly spot-on throughout the song, and the melody is sung with sensibility and makes it one of the best songs off the album.

9. Kato Miliyah & Shota Shimizu – I’M YOUR ANGEL
This is a nice duet, although nothing compared to the original. Maybe it’s because I really liked the original and it was probably one of the songs of Dion that I put on repeat. XD Both Kato and Shota can be uncomprehensible at time, but they have nice tone, especially Kato. However, the both of them are an absolute snore throughout the song.

10. Hirahara Ayaka – THE PRAYER
Hirahara’s version of this song is kind of boring as it drags on and on through the song. Hirahara doesn’t really show off vocally in this song either. The arrangement of this song is just dull and doesn’t go anywhere.

Overall -
Favourite Track: BE THE MAN
The tribute album isn’t a bad one. Many of the vocalists performed quite well throughout the songs. However, I felt like a lot of the accompaniments for the songs were really dull and lifeless and didn’t really help the song. Not something I would listen to again, aside for a few tracks though.