alan – my life
| alan – my life November 25, 2009 |
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1. reflection ~overture~ 2. Swear 3. One 4. Mitsumeteitai (見つめていたい) 5. Namida (Smooth Jam Mix) (涙) 6. Lost Child 7. Butterflies 8. Essence of me 9. Call my name 10. Shiroi Tsubasa (白い翼) 11. Nobody knows but me 12. BALLAD ~Namonaki Koi no Uta~ (BALLAD ～名もなき恋のうた～) 13. Kuon no Kawa (久遠の河) 14. my life |
I think the majority of people who were fans of alan prior to this album will agree that this album was one of most disappointing products of 2009, but this isn’t always the case for everyone. Straying away from the more mature ethnic music from Voice of EARTH, Avex attempts to produce a pure pop idol with this next album, with mixed results.
The opening of reflection ~overture is really quite stunning, and probably something one would expect to find on her last album. It has an ethereal harp and piano work going on here that is really beautiful and played with a lot of delicacy but also a lot of energy at the same time. It’s all really beautiful until they decide to add alan in with a lot of voice distortions and trying to sing in tune, but failing miserably before the song attempts to transition into a more electronic mode. I suppose if you were to overanalyze this track, this is Avex trying to introduce alan’s “transition from her Tibertan wailing persona into a more mainstream artist”. Too bad the latter half of the introduction is utter garbage.
I still haven’t decided whether or not I like Swear. It’s cute, but it’s so average and uninteresting at the same time. It probably does not help that alan’s singing is sometimes I really bit hard to bear, especially in the way she ends some of her phrases with the little note trill (which isn’t particularly done well) and she tends to be a little sharp and the tone of her voice is really tight and unopened on these notes. She does this way too much throughout the track, to the point where it’s just annoying. One either likes or dislikes the lightness of alan’s tone on this song — I’m particularly impartial to it as I sometimes it sounds nice and other times it just sounds half-assed. It’s a cute song, though?
For some reason, alan’s starting to do R&B-flavoured mid-tempo tracks. Huh. Anyways, we’re talking about One, the next track on the album. The track starts off fair enough: standard beat with a bit of nice piano opening. It’s nice, and alan’s adlibbing isn’t bad — it’s when she actually starts singing the melody when I start questioning who on earth decided to make alan sing the melody this way. She’s basically pushing her voice on the last note, then letting her pitch fall substantially on the note, and it sounds absolutely terrible for her. Her voice is almost toneless throughout the track and when she does have tone it’s usually a really forced sound that lacks any sense of flow in terms of the overall feel of the track. When did alan become such a terrible technical singer? I’m crying in pain on the inside.
The repetitive echoey piano at the beginning is kind of nice — for like the first 15 seconds. Again, alan sings this song in the exactly type of tone as the previous track, but her singing is slightly improved as the notes are much more cleanly done throughout the melody. Although she still has a tendency to push single notes out a bit too much, so we get a random forte note in the middle of a really soft melody, which results in poor flow of the melody. Otherwise, this ballad is done decently and can be quite nice to listen to.
I don’t even remember the original version of 涙, but now we get a “Smooth Jam Mix” version of it. Okay then. And alan basically sounds the same as the previous track, as it’s performed in the exact same manner, which I guess okay for the track, but not okay for increasing the interest in this album. I’m practically falling asleep here because alan has close to no vocal presence in this or the previous track. It’s nice, but nothing more than that. I can say the same about the mix of this track: it’s nice and pleasant but really alan’s performance does absolutely nothing for me as I don’t find it in any way convincing.
Is this album done yet? Finally we get to something a bit more upbeat, because alan is boring me with her generic slow-tempo tracks. Lost Child goes back into something mid-tempo with a more frequent beat. It attempts to do something edgier but still keeping a bit of the chill quality of the past few track, and composition-wise I enjoy it a bit more. It has a more memorable melody, especially in the chorus. alan’s still half awake though. Girl still sounds bored out of her mind, kind of like how I am right now. Wake up, girl!
Butterflies is next, and I’m still bored and so is alan. Again, the introduction is nice wit hthe harp and all, but the accompaniment and alan’s singing is so bland. They try to change things up a bit by having a chorus (as in a group of people) do some background vocals at points of the song, and that’s probably one of more interesting moments in this song, other than alan singing that note that moves around before the chorus (Which isn’t particularly sung spectacularly as she still sounds like she’s struggling to support her own singing). Next please.
Everyone knows by now that Essence of me is an electronic track, and it’s probably one of the more interesting tracks on the album, partially because we can barely hear alan half-ass her singing once again. She spends most of her time sounding like she’s singing underwater and hidden under a multitude of synths. I pretty much ignore her because she’s been mostly boring so far on this album. Then whoever mixed this track suddenly decides to up the volume on her vocal track about halfway through for some reason and look, she’s still flat. The synth accompaniment is vaguely interesting? Oh, Ayu makes a “guest appearance” ;D.
Call my name is the second attempt at electronic music, but this time we can actually hear alan over the track. What was alan on when she sang the introduction of this track? The ending of it is absolutely terrible and something I would expect from someone who doesn’t know how to sing and is absolutely tone deaf. It’s realllyyy bad, poorly supported and really out of tune. Thankfully, alan recovers for the main melody and sings in tune for the rest of the track and, gasp, sounds interested in the actual melody of the track. The repetitiveness of the track makes me a bit sleepy, but overall I like the track.
We quickly leave the electronic back into the generic ballads with 白い翼 and immediately on the first few notes, alan sounds much more interested in what she’s singin and adding a bit of vibrato and more attention to general details of how she’s singing the track. Among all of the generic ballads on this album, this is probably one of the better ones simply because alan sings a little better on this track and she doesn’t sound so bored and her tone is slightly better on this track. The track is still a bit boring because the instrumentalists are still really stiff, but alan’s singing makes this track a bit more bearable.
I quite like the haunting piano line in Nobody knows but me despite its performance being really bland. The track would have done really well with a much better pianist — this one is just dull. Again, alan’s singing sounds more expressive on this track, partly because the melody covers a bit more of a wider range and the chorus allows her to belt out a bit more. alan’s Engrish is really hilarious and her wail was a bit shaky on the first few notes but her tone improves as she goes on. Oh, I like the flute — what a beautiful, full tone, even though it wasn’t even much to play.
It’s funny how one of the singles I completely ignored is actually one of the better ballads off this album. BALLAD ~名もなき恋のうた~, which is a ballad with a name saying that it has not name (*eye roll*) is one of alan’s stronger ballad performances on this album. The melody starts off with a lower range and she doesn’t sound as thin this time around, rejoice! The melody builds up well, and I especially like the gradual crescendo throughout the verse towards the dramatic chorus. Vocally, alan sings well on this track (unlike the majority of tracks on this album). However, the composition of the track isn’t particularly interesting and is generic and a bit bland in terms of alan’s accompaniment.
Like Tsuki, I do prefer the higher key of the Chinese version of 久遠の河 (partially because it shows off her higher tones), but the Japanese version is still equally as good. This is another track that shows off alan’s ability to sing really well if she puts her mind to it and is probably one of my favourite tracks off of alan’s discography. Vocally, alan pretty much as it down and her voice sounds a lot fuller and lively despite the melody mostly holding smooth, long notes throughout. I still would have done without the Tibetan wailing near the end as it really serves no purpose in the overall song other than appease those who insist that they must hear her wail for the sake of wailing. What I really enjoy in this track, other than alan’s singing is the arrangement of the song. Simply said, it’s absolutely beautiful and really capitalizes on the louder moments on the track and the softer moments. I especially love the little oboe solo after the orchestral interlude at around 2:42.
After the drama of 久遠の河, we actually end off with the title track of this album (which is, of course, entitled my life) and after listening to the first few seconds, it’s pretty clear to me why it was the title track (when compared to the rest of the album-only tracks). It’s a simplistic little piano ballad, but this time, it actually works for alan. Her tone is much less forced and has a very natural flow to it on this track, plus she actually attempts to support the ends of her phrases this time around, which results is a really pretty ballad as the final track of this album. She still ends up sharp on some of the long notes, which isn’t particularly pleasant but I enjoy the track overall.
It makes me sad when an artist manages to become worse between albums. Not only does the production and composition work on this album feel rushed, so does alan’s singing for most of the tracks. The style itself isn’t necessarily a problem as one can make a generic album but still make it interesting and fun; it is the lack of effort Avex put into this rushed album, which can be also heard in how similar and uninterested alan sounds like for most of the album tracks and how poorly she sounds as compared to her first album. alan can be a talented vocalist given the right circumstances, but really I couldn’t care less for most of the material on this album.
Favourites:
久遠の河
i have not been really listening to her songs though i really like her vocal. the last song that put me off is the 4th release of the 5 elements singles. too much distortions to her powerful and clear voice. i think fans appreciate her songs because of her unique voice not the additional techno to the background. the producers r not maximizing her talent and market to the mass for what she is but what the crowd wants. it’s a waste of talent.