Kajiuras music quality is dropping?

[Chibi-Chibi]

Ok i kinda hate to open this topic but i wanted to discus this somewhere or just put it out of me.
And before anybody jumps on me i'm in no way trying to insult Kajiura or suggest she sucks in any way.

So this is actually something that started to pup up regularly ever since Kalafinas' seventh heaven.
The album did not impress me as much as i expected it would, even though tracklist wise its build fabulously and there were some new songs that i kinda liked and/or at least surprised me.
So yeah ever since that album i started thinking that maybe Kajiura's creativity is going down. Or that maybe shes just having problems composing something as great as the old works. Or maybe shes to busy/or enjoys the lives to much to bother concentration with the new work.
But since its Kajiura we're talking about i kinda ignored it. And after that new Kalafina singles came and FJ single, which again did not really impressed me. But i have to admit here that most likely i'd really love Gloria if it weren't for Hikaru (yeah i still cant shake my stupid hostility toward that girl). "But hey maybe PH OSTs will be betters" is what i though since in the very basics i think its her OST music that makes me love her music that much. But it wasn't. Some of you were saying that the effort she put into KnK series shows of here as well but i just couldn't hear it. Of course i loved all the songs with vocals, first off Wakana is my fav singer (and i'm pretty sure i can say that without adding "among Kajiura singers") and i don't think i'll be ever able to shake off my love of songs with opera singing. But the rest was pretty much blend for me and seriously; its pretty much easy for me to start humbling at least one vocalless BGM song from each OST but not the PH OSTs. And KnK OST6 was pretty much the same (in fact it was so disappointing i have yet to hear KnK OST7). So by this point i started thinking that i'm probably having just that silly Kajiura hating time that pops up from time to time (it happened in the time of Mai Hime as well) but Histora OST kinda changed that thinking of mine. Histora OST is far from perfect and it doesn't stand out from the rest of her works even a tiny bit, however as a whole i liked it much more than i though i will. But right after that another PH ost came which broke my hope of "Kajiura will start making good music again". And than progressive came, which sucked if you asked me, but at least utsukushisa mad me feel great about listening the song. And than the last two singles came. I don't think its worth losing words about FJ single (accept for the fact that Nohara has (or maybe had) a big potential to be a great song, but somehow i just can't get in to it). And Kalafina's Hikari no Senritsu.... well i think its great song for being different then what we usually get but i'm clearly not listening the song as off then as i should considering what i think about the song. As for the sapphire, as big Wakana fan as i am i think that by now songs like this are so medicore that i can't even listened to them anymore.
So i find myself ordering her stuff getting it but not even caring to see the cover anymore, i'm getting rid the old non-japanese versions of her CDs without even thinking while in the past i sad i wont do that until i have a secure japanese version of the same albums.

So i think that my basic question at this point is: is it just me or does anybody else think that ever since the whole KnK stuff ended Kajiura's overall quality kinda dropped? Or is this just me being extremely picky?
(before commenting please read first paragraph again - thank you)

 

[Kiyoko]

what i'm saying here is totally personal stuff, no offense, i still love kajiura yuki. m(_ _)m


I have the same feeling.
maybe like you think, she's too enjoying her lives to do better than else on the composing, or maybe she's working too much to keep the quality, or maybe she's already reached her composing climax, and thus can't reach another anymore, or that's just she likes such types of music recently.

-> in case of seventh heaven, for me, it's still a very, very good album although i have some ones that i dont like at all.

-> in case of KnK, I ONLY loved 4 tracks among all seven albums. [ M03a+b (俯瞰風景より), M17 (殺人考察 前より), M17+18 (痛覚残留より), M18a (矛盾螺旋より) orz ]

-> lacrimosa and gloria are nice songs for me, but I dont like the two songs from "progressive."
-> "storia" single, it's kind of good; i like the melody of 'lirica' but i really dont like the electric elements in its arrangement (i prefer acoustic).
-> for "hikari no senritsu" single, that's better than "progressive," but I didn't got surprised that much. "sapphire" is kinda too common for me

-> PH ost. they are not bad. but that's all I can say. I didn't find anything more special than her other works from PH osts. yet, i must say I love "every time you kissed me" so much!!!
-> single "parallel hears" is very good for me though xD

-> i dont like new fj single....... it's would not be that better than single "progressive" for me...

-> historia ost is better than ph ost, yet... still not too outstanding for me.

i liked yuki kajiura from her works of 'noir' and './/hack' and FJY. i can't say very accurately, but there's something very special, very unique in those works. that type of music stayed in my mind even though i might listened to them for only one time.
i noticed that her music isn't that impressive as before since "xenosaga III" and "tsubasa chronicle osts" (but i do love a few tracks from tsubasa series); since, Achille to kame," this feeling was getting stronger, and later, i've said above.

so far, my fav kajiura sound track works include: noir, madlax, xenosaga II, .hack series, cossette no shouzou. (all her old works)
songs: too dispersed to write here >_>

maybe you've noticed, i reset my last.fm account in december, and till now, I still haven't got more than 200 plays for yuki kajiura (197 currently)...
maybe because of what i've talked above, i dont have the mood to play her works...

@chibi I think I'm also extremely picky on what I'm listening to! xD

 

[Kizuato]

Hikari no Senritsu was a disaster in my sense. My most favourite part was Keiko's part during the bridge (kasanete....hitori de utatteta toki .......... kimi no moto e)

I LOVED storia.
I disliked lirica.
I'm bipolar with "utsukushisa". Sometimes I love it. Other times, I hate it.
I LOVED progressive. (day so far~~~~)
Sapphire really touched me b/c I related to it to an extent.

If you notice, in Kajiura's later works, the Kajiura-go has kind of died out..........and that's the element that pulls me to her music.

It only appeared for like 5 seconds in Hikari no Senritsu... didn't exist in "Sapphire".... Eh.

 

[Hua Xiao Min]

I was about to post this topic about Yuki's music degrading when progressive broke out.

Contrary to other's opinion, I like Progressive very much.
It is a breakthrough in Rock music.

Although the term "Progressive rock" was coined in the 1970's

Yuki's "Progressive" is arguably the best rock song ever.

As an experienced self-declared composer, I know that Yuki is not takin that much break.
So her musical style is somewhat tired.

I can tell if the composer was refreshed or tired when he/she composed the composition.
As to her compositions, the compositional styles that Yuki uses during the early times such as NOIR and Tsubasa Chronicle has been changed.

YUki might have changed her compositional style, from putting pop beats into putting metals on it.

Drastically, Japanese Music has gone darker and darker.
I would'nt be surprised if your favorite Japanese songs came from 2002~2007.

Since 2007, Japanese Songs have been dark.
You may not know it but there are a lot of songs imitating Yuki's chants.
(ex. The intro song of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni).

Yuki's influences and poor imitation of Yuki's works has degraded Japanese music a little as I observed....

(NO OFFENSE)

 

[george1234]

I think I agree with you Chibi and I will post my opinions without wanting to offend Yuki.

For me her quality of music started dropping since storia, because the seventh heaven album and Lacrimosa single were great for me (althought I dont like Ongaku that much). storia's melody was good as bgm (Historai OP theme) but I didnt like it as a song that much, but lirica is a masterpiece for me.
As for PH osts, I dont know the cause but the fact that Yuki used FJY's blessing's (or Yorokobi ?) melody as one of the 2 music themes in the soundtrack (the other was contractor's melody), instead of creating a new one, and used each of them 2, 5-7 times within the soundtrack made me to get tired listening to the soundtrack quickly (although I absolutely love restrain, refrain, pandora hearts expanded, limits and the 2 saxophone tracks) Also, the fact that she used blessing's melody in every time you kissed me too, made me think of it more as english version of blessing than a new song, while before the ost comes out I was expecting something completely new T_T.
I personally liked all the Kara no Kyoukai OSTs, except the 4th (except its first track which was ), because I found it too repeatitive. My only complain about the KnK ones is that she used Shiki's theme (OST1's M12+13) in all the soundtracks by just rearranging it, while I would prefer if she was composing new battle melody for each movie (like it happened with M19+20 in OST 3).
As for Rekishi Hiwa Historia soundtrack I liked it very much as a whole but I found some some reused melodies, while I was hoping for some something completely new:
- frenetic although its an amazing piece reminded me of M01 from KnK OST 3
- dawn is falling reminds alot of hear our prayer
- complications seems to have part of it's flute melody from Whispering hills of Noir
- into the light reminds of "believe" of Tsubasa.
- Historia closing theme reminds me so much of XS II's Sweet Song that I cant listen to it T_T.

Progressive totally disappointed me as single (utsukushisa too, because the electric guitar in the middle destroys the calming mood the previous part of the song creates)
Hikari no Senritsu had a cute melody as a song and I really liked its long flute bridge but Wakana's part after the bridge is too repeatitive (having her to sing 4 verses of the song with the same rhythm...) if Keiko was singing some of the part too (1 or 2 verses) it would be less monotonous.
sapphire was fine for me .
I shall note here that I have nothing against Wakana and I do appreciate her great abilities in singing, its just that Yuki is using her absolutely everywhere since Kalafina was formed (sings 80% of group's songs, sang BGM in KnK (when in the credits of the osts say Kalafina they actually mean Wakana), PH, and RHH , and now in Toki no Mukou too) so I am kind of tired of her.

About Toki no Mukou Maboroshi no Sora, although the song has more-catchy-than-Parallel-Hearts melody it stills reminds me of it, and to be honest I was expecting something darker and less J-pop-ish this time.
Nohara was a nice song, but I think Keiko should had taken bigger part of the bridge than she did).

Yuki's best soundtrack in my opinion is the one of Tsubasa, bcause all its melodies are completely new and each of them unique (there are no repeatitions except 1-2 rearrangements of a song of storm and fire), and I'd like her future soundtracks to be like that, but it seems that she either has lack of inspiration, or is too busy with lives and her projects that she uses older melodies and/or doesnt put much efford into making new good melodies, to do them faster.
I think she should reduce the lives to half (because they are too many!) and use that time to relax a bit and travel to some exotic location in order fill her inspiration battery. Seeing her getting repeated in her compositions this much makes me sad :(

@ Xiao: Progressive is not rock at all! Its definetely J-Pop.

 

[Yuki88]

Well every composers will find themselves in a static state after a while. They find themselves stucked at some points before going into better/worse state.

I've experienced this kinda of "ah, the music has gone wrong... not as good as before..." feeling, mostly because my other favorite group of composers+singers, I've Sound also has gone into the same situation. As to Kajiura, She has a specific style already and it's hard to make something out of her usual border.

And about Kalafina, honestly, I love their darker songs from Kara no Kyoukai more than their current releases... It's their image and turning them into light mostly doesn't satisfy me... Storia is LOVE though

Drastically, Japanese Music has gone darker and darker.
I would'nt be surprised if your favorite Japanese songs came from 2002~2007.

Since 2007, Japanese Songs have been dark.
You may not know it but there are a lot of songs imitating Yuki's chants.
(ex. The intro song of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni).

lol, I don't think that counts as imitating.
And... not all Japanese songs are dark. What are you listening?? Gothic Rock??
Try listening to Denpa music before saying Japanese songs have been dark since 2007.

 

[Hua Xiao Min]

Re:

Well every composers will find themselves in a static state after a while. They find themselves stucked at some points before going into better/worse state.

I've experienced this kinda of "ah, the music has gone wrong... not as good as before..." feeling, mostly because my other favorite group of composers+singers, I've Sound also has gone into the same situation. As to Kajiura, She has a specific style already and it's hard to make something out of her usual border.

And about Kalafina, honestly, I love their darker songs from Kara no Kyoukai more than their current releases... It's their image and turning them into light mostly doesn't satisfy me... Storia is LOVE though

Drastically, Japanese Music has gone darker and darker.
I would'nt be surprised if your favorite Japanese songs came from 2002~2007.

Since 2007, Japanese Songs have been dark.
You may not know it but there are a lot of songs imitating Yuki's chants.
(ex. The intro song of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni).

lol, I don't think that counts as imitating.
And... not all Japanese songs are dark. What are you listening?? Gothic Rock??
Try listening to Denpa music before saying Japanese songs have been dark since 2007.

Akiko Shikata is one big Yuki Imitator.
So do I.


What is Denpa???

WHat is a good example of a Denpa?

 

[Alphard Sokaina]

Well, I kinda share your feelings guys

I've noticed I didn't like most of Yuki's recent works.
KnK OSTs didn't impress me at all. Nothing interesting to me. Not a single favourite song out of approximately 100 tracks, though I liked the theme songs by Kalafina.

I also didn't like both FJ singles. The a-sides are too pop-sh to my liking. And as for Nohara and Sapphire in addition I agree with Kiyo, they are too common for me.

In case of Kalafina singles, I didn't like Lacrimosa and completely disliked Progressive. But I like Hikari no senritsu and Storia single very much. And at first I was disappointed with Seventh heaven album.

So I was rather sad abouth the situation and I wondered if it was Yuki or me that made me so disappointed, but then RHH OST was released and I absolutely loved it. Kinda the same was with PH OST - I liked it very much too.

Well, I'm still lookong forward to new Yuki's works. I'm sure she will oneday come up with a wonderful OST which will be as good as Noir or Madlax.

 

[Chibi-Chibi]

@Kiyoko: yup... all this thinking made me miss the See-saw & co. times. I know I'm saying this under influence that hack and noir were one of my first kajiura OSTs i heard and i think its natu0alr that for that reason those ost will stay my all time favorite, but still ...

@Kizuato: i was kind of thinking that lack of Kajiura-go might be what is causing this as well. When i was attending the live i though "so where do we have this kind of music now?!" i loved that live so much (as a fan, the critic in me has a lot to say xD) that its rally strange for me to writes stuff like this. But by now i'm pretty sure if it weren't for the Kajura-go i think that Iwasaki Taku or Kunihito Ryo would be my fav composer.

@Hua Xiao Min: i don't dislike rock. In fact if i'd ever have to chose one pure music genre as my fav i'd chose rock. I love rock and i love dark songs as well. In fact if Kajiura would let Korenaga arrange more songs in the style of FJs synchronicity i doubt i'd write this now (Mata kaze kinda got close to what i'm talkging about but its just now it). And even if you're saying that by releasing track like lirica, utsukushisa, nahara is making her music more dark... well yes you are right but it just doesn't sound right. I'm not saying it doesn't suit her style in fact it would make me happy if she'd more of the songs that would be really dark (but i cant name even one song among her creations that would fit to what i'm referring to - well maybe some from Cosette OST) but atm it doent' sound right to me. Like she's trying to go there but she cant, like she's stopping 1mm before braking the wall which would make the song sound absolutely great. But since she stops the song makes me feel so empty and uncomfortable that its just not worth listening again.

@george1234: i quite liked Historia OST like i said but i was shocked when i happened to see one of the episodes at Japan. I think i was paying much more attention to the BGM because of the obvious reasons and here comes the shocking part, i did not hear even one song from Historia OST all that was runing through my mind where the songs that you already mentions in your post. that and i'm pretty sure i hear rearrangement one of the Mai Hime tracks (i think it was It’s only the fairy tale) so yeah this could also be one of the reasons.


Well i'm just glade that i'm not alone in this ..... and this obviously calls for one big break from Kajiura music listening - at least for me (lol.. i'm saying like i'm still listening her music like crazy but i'm not doing that regularly since last years May, i think)

 

[undergroundpyjama]

I have to say that even though I have seen Yuki being repetitive, I don't believe she has changed in a bad way. What I mean is, even in some of her new songs, I have found great pieces which I can't relate to old ones and I even find them better than old ones.

I also believe it depends on someone's taste... Some of you mentioned Kalafina's songs... Have you considered the possibility that with Kalafina, Yuki wanted to do something different that you just may don't like? Same with FictionJunction... I think the songs are very good, Nohara actually being AWESOME.

And something else... Soundtracks are meant to be supporting a movie etc., they are not created as complete pieces that can stand by themselves.

Personally, I find myself liking her new songs more than most of her old ones...
So, maybe a matter of taste?

(even though I'd like to hear something different from her too, she does need some inspiration)

 

[george1234]

Re:

@george1234: i quite liked Historia OST like i said but i was shocked when i happened to see one of the episodes at Japan. I think i was paying much more attention to the BGM because of the obvious reasons and here comes the shocking part, i did not hear even one song from Historia OST all that was runing through my mind where the songs that you already mentions in your post. that and i'm pretty sure i hear rearrangement one of the Mai Hime tracks (i think it was It’s only the fairy tale) so yeah this could also be one of the reasons.

Yes, it was already known even before the show starts airing that they would be reusing music from older Yuki works (eg, in the land of twilight under the moon) and the soundtrack Yuki made would be just an refreshing addition among the reused music.

What i didnt liked is that she reused melodies even in the new compositions for the series.

 

[acid_mouthwash]

Re:

Personally, Kajiura's old works are pretty bleh in my opinion and I've enjoyed most of the new releases aside from Toki no Mukou.

I also find it funny how you guys are expecting Kajiura to be creative.

Yuki's "Progressive" is arguably the best rock song ever.

As an experienced self-declared composer,

Akiko Shikata is one big Yuki Imitator.

Oh Hua.

 

[Maha Jyotiṣa]

Progressive by Kalafina isn't rock at all... i would call it J-Pop. Rock from them are Mata Kaze and Ongaku. And I don't think Yuki uses Metal Rock at all, not in her tracks, not in her songs. Maybe what you mean "metal" is "new gothic"-feeling in Kalafina's musics.

I do agree that Yuki's music quality has been down. but again, there are some factors, i believe :

1. the first of all, I think it is because we have heard her musics too much (she has composed many without resting) and we get bored because... well... her works become to sound repetitive. We need to rest and think clearly.

2. Second factor, which i want to believe but the truth is out there, is that her recent works are for shounen animes. God knows how shounen music works... What attracts me of Yuki's work in the first place is the darkness. her songs sounded melancholy and dark. Now with the newer animes like Elementar Gerad, Mai Otome, Pandora Hearts, Ookami, Sora no Woto and even Xenosaga III, and KnK, her musics sound generic. I have complained about this by the time Mai Otome and Erementar Gerad and Tsubasa OST 3 and 4 came out. Luckily El Cazador was able to reach something new. And Historia? hm... i can't say... (honestly I'm not impressed). And about Xenosaga III OST, while the OST it self still good, it sounds wrong and less dark than Xenosaga II (Well okay, it is still dark, but Xenosaga II has more electronica but it is more unique than Xenosaga III which sounds more like Tsubasa).

And I'm not even impressed by Nohara from KEIKO, although it sounds really nice.
About Kalafina, I don't know. Progressive is totally out of question. It is not very kalafina, that's the main factor of my disappointment. Hikari no Senritsu and Storia sound promising and likeable, but ... the structure is confusing, and the aura is too shonen-ish. Oh btw, I didn't like utsukushisha too at first, but the guitar in the end impressed me after awhile.
But, maybe I'm a fanboy of kalafina. I still say that their songs (except progressive) are very solid and make a good impression.

3. the third factor maybe the true-est or the most ignorant : it is a matter of taste. While the liking of the art itself is subjective, but there should be objectivity within the art itself.


Now maybe something about disagreement with you all, is that ... I find, there are too much kajiuran songs that I feel it overrated. A lot of Yuki's instrumental only musics are loveable, I can mention a lot... but in the case of the newer shounen-ish OST i have mentioned before, Kajiuran songs are clearly superior, as the instrumental tracks are usually sound/noise-effect only. I feel Yuki's newer works are more orchestral.


Hope I've not offended anyone... it is just my thought lately, and the reason why my last.fm is Yuki-free. I'm sure that will change once Red Moon comes out though.
And it seems we are all agreeing that we need more Yuki's dark songs.

 

[Hua Xiao Min]

Re:

Progressive by Kalafina isn't rock at all... i would call it J-Pop. Rock from them are Mata Kaze and Ongaku.

I do agree that Yuki's music quality has been down. but again, there are some factors, i believe :

1. the first of all, I think it is because we have heard her musics too much (she has composed many without resting) and we get bored because... well... her works become to sound repetitive. We need to rest and think clearly.

2. Second factor, which i want to believe but the truth is out there, is that her recent works are for shounen animes. God knows how shounen music works... What attracts me of Yuki's work in the first place is the darkness. her songs sounded melancholy and dark. Now with the newer animes like Elementar Gerad, Mai Otome, Pandora Hearts, Ookami, Sora no Woto and even Xenosaga III, and KnK, her musics sound generic. I have complained about this by the time Mai Otome and Erementar Gerad and Tsubasa OST 3 and 4 came out. Luckily El Cazador was able to reach something new. And Historia? hm... i can't say... (honestly I'm not impressed). And about Xenosaga III OST, while the OST it self still good, it sounds wrong and less dark than Xenosaga II. Xenosaga II has more electronica but it is more unique.

And I'm not even impressed by Nohara from KEIKO, although it sounds really nice.
About Kalafina, I don't know. Progressive is totally out of question. It is not very kalafina, that's the main factor of my disappointment. Hikari no Senritsu and Storia sound promising and likeable, but ... the structure is confusing, and the aura is too shonen-ish. Oh btw, I didn't like utsukushisha too at first, but the guitar in the end impressed me after awhile.
But, maybe I'm a fanboy of kalafina. I still say that their songs (except progressive) are very solid and make a good impression.

3. the third factor maybe the true-est or the most ignorant : it is a matter of taste.


Now maybe something about disagreement with you all, is that ... I find, there are too much kajiuran songs that I feel it overrated. A lot of Yuki's instrumental only musics are loveable, I can mention a lot... but in the case of the newer shounen-ish OST i have mentioned before, Kajiuran songs are clearly superior, as the instrumental tracks are usually sound/noise-effect only.


Hope I've not offended anyone... it is just my thought lately, and the reason why my last.fm is Yuki-free. I'm sure that will change once Red Moon comes out though.
And it seems we are all agreeing that we need more Yuki's dark songs.

I'm not tired of listening to Yuki's works.
I'm tired of being not tired of Yuki.

I found a lot of musical inspiration on Yuki, though.

@everyone:This might sound strange but I have a very strange feeling that Yuki is engaged or have a marriage proposal.

I just feel like in some other way.

 

[silverywhite]

Hmmm, this is a rather interesting discussion. I would say I like some of Kajiura's music, not all. It's really a matter of taste. I started listening to Kajiura's music through the .hack//SIGN soundtrack and by no means have I heard all of her work. There are a lot of OSTs that I haven't heard, so I can't comment on everything.

In terms of Kalafina, their first two songs (Oblivious and Sprinter) didn't really catch my attention, even though I knew Kajiura started the Kalafina project. Then I heard Aria and fell in love with it, and revisited the first two songs to find that they were indeed pretty catchy after listening to it a few times. After that I started actively listening to Kalafina's new works. To me, I really enjoyed Gloria and Storia, even though Hikaru's voice in Storia got kind of annoying after awhile I didn't pay attention to Gloria at first, but realized how lovely it is after relistening. Lacrimosa and Lirica were...so so. Progressive was alright, and I didn't like Utsukushisa >__> It seems like a lot of people have said that they don't like Hikari no Senritsu, but contrarily I love this song. I might have to say that it's my favourite since Gloria. Sapphire is very nice, and though I usually don't like slow songs, I really enjoy this one.

As for FJ, Parallel Hearts and Toki no Mukuo Maboroshi no Sora were both very good songs in my opinion. Nohara - as much as I'm thrilled that Keiko finally has a solo, once again I'm not a fan of slow songs and this one didn't really click >_< The Kaori part in the middle sounds out of place somehow.

Anyway, I guess after all this, I wouldn't exactly say that Kajiura's music is "dropping in quality". It's just that everyone has different tastes and enjoy different songs even from the same composer. Once a classmate of mine commented that Kajiura has some good stuff but it gets repetitive after awhile. I think he may be right and that's why Kajiura is trying out some different styles like Progressive and Utsukushisa. It's definitely not gonna be everyone's cup of tea. Whether it's a good song or not will always depend on the individual listening to the song

 

[Elicia]

Hmm...

Actually, I loved 'Seventh Heaven' and 'Lacrimosa', but I didn't enjoy the albums after that that much, like you.

To comment on Kalafina, I really liked one song of each Kalafina single(that came out after 'Lacrimosa'), but I usually think the other song's boring and I rarely listen to it.
It's just that the other song's not my type, so I won't write any comments or criticism here.



As for 'Parallel Hearts' and 'Toki no Mukou Maboroshi no Sora', the two songs' melodies, choruses are really good, but overall they are a bit boring. Also I think Yuki got too used to composing songs for three people while composing for Kalafina that she now tries to cram four vocals into songs which would be quite OK with three. Here is an example of harmonies that three would be enough(bold text is melody):

Hitori de yuku hazu datta mirai wo
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------(mirai wo-)

Kaeru chikara wo kudasai
--------(chikara wo kudasai)
---------------------(kudasai-)

You only need three people to sing that, and since the chorus parts do not overlap with the harmonies in both 'Parallel Hearts' and 'Toki no Mukou Maboroshi no Sora', three vocals are all Yuki needs for the two songs.
I wish Yuki would compose songs that has more harmony parts for FJ in the future. Or put them all, except for the main vocal, in the chorus, have only ONE vocal sing the harmonies of the melody, and let the main vocal's unique voice stand out, like in FJ YUUKA or like in the album 'Everlasting Songs' or the song 'Nohara'.
After all, members of FJ each all have an unique+beautiful voice.



And last, for the OSTs, I enjoyed them better than most of the previous OSTs, so I won't comment here!^^

 

[Kiyoko]

Re:

storia is LOVE though

dont use this onion especially when you love that song

about Xenosaga III OST, while the OST it self still good, it sounds wrong and less dark than Xenosaga II (Well okay, it is still dark, but Xenosaga II has more electronica but it is more unique than Xenosaga III which sounds more like Tsubasa).

agree. i ever searched the song "godsibb" in tsubasa osts lol

And I'm not even impressed by Nohara from KEIKO, although it sounds really nice.

same <_<

and the reason why my last.fm is Yuki-free.

well, in my case, i'm trying to scrobble my whole Bach/Mozart complete collections XD

 

[Yuki88]

Re: Re:

storia is LOVE though

dont use this onion especially when you love that song

 

[Nick Hunter]

Actually what we are talking about is no news - first, Yuki said in an interview that she was aware of the increasing difficulties to come up with new ideas with time (they're pretty much common for all creative people), and she also said that she was thinking of shifting her focus from studio work to lives for a while (which is understandable, since lives are enjoyable, too, and we are talking of the musician who spent several years on LOTS of studio works before that). That wasn't so obvious last year - although only two actually new OSTs were released, KnK's practice of releasing OSTs bundled with movie DVDs led to us waiting for new KnK OSTs all year long.
As for music, I'll put my IMHO straight: Yuki's music was never of exactly THE SAME quality in the first place. What has always mattered, though, is the common level. You see, I'm pretty much open-minded, and I can listen to any genre as long as the song itself hooks me up (which is usually downright subjective), but I can still tell the difference in quality. So everyone comes to like some songs by Yuki, and dislike others - but personally, if forced to poke at the WEAKEST of Yuki's songs ever, I'd find that it is still far above the clouds as compared to lots of others released daily. That's the thing about great composers - their works are passably good in THE VERY VERY LEAST - and there's a quality minimum they always uphold. It also can be subjective, I can just speak up my opinion - Yuki's music has that SOMETHING that hooked me up from the start, and I keep hearing it in her works thus far, which keeps away any disappointment.
There were many of her works I would scratch my head about, but most sounded better to me with every next listening. Also, I kep in mind her field of work - usual OSTs are rarely ALL about fantastic melodies that would be pretty much stand-alone not only in an OST, but on a single as well. In Yuki's case, her BeeTrain works can easily be considered her solo albums, for 95% of the tracks there sound like clear, independent songs. But this is the result of the freedom she's given. Outside Bee Train, I only find three OSTs of the same level (pure IMHO here!)- Petite Cossette, Xenosaga 2 and the recent RHH. Other works (and vocal albums, for that matter) don't sound that much worse - they are just not as versatile and - again - "self-sufficient". It derives from the obviously background, supporting nature of many songs (KnK pops in mind - that's a reasonable price for experimenting with utterly SFX music ), but on the other hand, as soundtracks they are of REAL QUALITY and usually fitting the mood of the scene just dandy. That's why in my perspective such albums are divided into nice songs, good songs and always a couple of "OMFG IT ALONE MAKES THE WHOLE ALBUM WORTHWHILE!!! " songs. So you see, I'm pretty much fine with anything Yuki has created up to date, it only ranges from a nod of approval to ill-concealed drooling.
I also don't panic much about repetitions - listening to Mike Oldfield and Elton John for so long gets you accustomed. Actually, it's also common for composers to use similar patterns - it's considered passable as long as the melody itself isn't copied note to note. After all, lots of existing patterns and harmonies have a great possibility to have been used at least once or twice before. Music has a veeeeery long history. And it is actually as tweakable as any language. Change two or three letters in a word, and you'll likely get the one completely unrelated. Use a pattern of "Hear our prayer" with a different approach - and you'll get "Dawn is Falling" which sounds similar, but somehow has a distinctively different mood.
Well, if you want my account on latest works as well (after all that blabbering ), KnK IMHO is a set of songs where some would be most certainly omitted from a regular OST edition (and later pop up in the Internet as "unreleased tracks" ), bundled with a number of masterpieces. I've never heard a song that would make want to waltz around - until I heard M02 from Movie 6. Kalafina IMHO is one of Yuki's best song projects (I place them in one row with See-Saw and FJY), while the current FictionJunction is adorable enough, but stands lower on my pedestal. IMHO Yuki hasn't still found a concrete niche for them - the concept of a project with many different voices was realised in Kalafina, and so FJ that was combined of several "monovocal" projects, doesn't have its share of self-expression aside from lives. And for RHH I already declare my love often enough without repeating it here.
Well, that's what I think, anyway.

 

[Kerahna]

i'd like to copy nick hunter's post and post it as mine XD