Kalafina 5th album "far on the water"

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Like:
monochrome: Part of it sounds like kouya ruten... not really a bad thing though.
usu murasaki: Yes.
hokage & sorairo: I'm a sucker for the ballads. Love the acoustic guitar in sorairo.

Ask me in a few months:
musunde hiraku: It's definitely a mirai 2.0, but much better. I hated mirai with a passion.

Eh, no.
identify: Love come down does it better.
gogatsu no mahou: Wasn't a fan of distance. To the song's benefit, I like Wakana's vocal acrobatics here.
 
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Well, I did like the album. I don't know if I'll like it more (I have already told you what happened with Consolation), but right now I'm listening some songs again and again, and that's good.

Into the water: I do like it, but I'm not sure if it fits the rest of the album. I mean, someone already said this, it fits Red Moon. I don't think we will see this sung, so that's all I'll say about it.

Monochrome: This is like a mix of things, that sounds good but... I can't figure out the word in English. If someone knows Spanish (?) I find it entreverado. I imagine like a car and the girls waving in the windows singing like in a parade. Weird, noisy and funny. Might be interesting live.

Gogatsu no mahou: I love it. This is so beautiful! I want to hug the melody. Like I've said, it's similar to Everytime you kissed me and Blessing, but with a lovely twist. I already loved the other two, and now I love this one.

Ring your bell: Still don't like the beginning, but the rest of the song is nice. Not WOW, but nice. I won't write much about the single songs.

Usumurasaki: Someone already said that this is a "I have to be in the mood for it" kind of song and I fully agree. I love the eastern sound, and the atmosphere is great. Another song I can't wait to see live. After the minute 2 everything is love, love, love.

Identify: At first I didn't like it, but after the sample I found myself singing and humming it. After that powerful solo, it gets really better and even made me dance a little in my chair. I'll wait to the live, still, because I had the same still-no-feeling with DU and now I love it.

Hokage: Not much to say. It's nice, yeah. I might like it, but I can't separate its sound from the previous Wakana-piano-sad-ballads yet. Maybe with time (or after reading a translation of the lyrics). 1:08, the melody is kinda similar to Lilium (from Elfen Lied). Just a little bit.

One Light: It has grown on me and I enjoy it a lot. Now I think that, in a way, this chorus and the chorus in identify more or less follow the same logic. I don't know how to explain it.

Musunde Hiraku: Yeah, maybe it's like Mirai, and I know few people here liked Mirai, but I love it. I didn't find anything particularly special here though (hey, some Keiko!), until the minute 2 (like Usumurasaki). It gets better and makes me "fly", and that's what I love about Mirai in the first place.

Heavenly blue: I enjoy this song a lot. Maybe I got used to it and forget that I didn't like it at first, but now I sing it passionately (?) and adore the kajiurago here. Anyway, I would have changed it for IEN (before knowing how Usumurasaki was) or lapis. Those songs are too good and need to be performed.

Sorairo no isu: This is beautiful too. The music, this Wakana... Gaves me the same feeling that Natsu no ringo. I'm disappointed though, because I was waiting for real Hikaru (and had little but existent hopes for Keiko). They would have been great in this song and I feel like it was a missed oportunity.

Believe: I don't dislike it, but don't love it either. I always see it as a softer HB, and although I also sing it, it's like meh for me.

Far on the water: Now that I hear it at the end, I like it as the closing song. I listened to it in the bus today and it was so nice to go through the city with it... It can be put in the Symphonya/Yume no Daichi shelf, but still is different. I really want to see the Best live version (and RYB too).


Overall, this is a Wakanafest (I've already used the term and I kinda like it). There's some Hikaru and few Keiko, and I have to agree that this is not enough. Kalafina is not only Wakana and I (we) want to hear the other two voices. I imagine that Kajiura has her reasons for this, though. I love Wakana anyway and she is great here. I loved her a lot in Gogatsu no mahou and Sorairo no isu.

Still don't know if I like it more or less than some of the previous albums, but the feeling I have is good. I'm not disappointed (and some of the singles even grew on me), and I'm looking forward to a live version of EVERYTHING.

I'll quote this, because I can't say it better:
Kirito said:
I at least hope, given the sheer amount of B-sides this time around, that it will be performed during their FotW tour. Also because Keiko would receive some lead vocal time as well since this album is a bit too Wakana-heavy.
Click to expand...
 
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Gah. I need to contain myself not to listen. Ugh. But yes, Kala is Wakana, Keiko and Hikaru, though I thought far on the water balanced the three nicely. I mean, Keiko was in the background a lot, but we know that she's in it because of the Mezamashi live version. And the opening of course. I can't wait to hear the full, good version. I like your review Sofia! The part about Musunde making you fly is definitely how I feel when I think of this song. And a bit with fotw too, but mainly songs like that and storytelling, and Samidare, like you're riding in the car listening to the music (which I do a lot with these ones.) heh.

Crap, I just saw that the vinyl doesn't release until Sept 30th (kind of a bummer since I wanted to hear it next week *sigh*) but I just changed my order and it says in stock on CDJ for fotw! So hopefully it'll ship tomorrow still and I'll get it Tues. I am glad I saw that though on the main page.
 
I get a very big tetotetometome / red moon feel from the album. I JUST WANT LIVES SO BAD
 
Some nice tracks on this album, but nothing amazing. This album is their weakest so far-AE excluded since I haven't listened to it yet.

The anisongs are really out of place and totally break up any kind of mood established by the originals. This actually brings up a problem I have with this album: there isn't really any kind of thematic thread holding it together. Looking at the past, each album had some kind of concept or theme behind it.

SH had a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere floating throughout each track.
RM's divere tracklist felt like a trip around the world.
Consolation balanced a harsh, dark mood with light hopeful songs to create that bittersweetness that comes with consolation.

Far on the water is just...all over the place. Some tracks do evoke that feeling of being on a journey, but it's just broken up by the rock tracks which really don't feel appropriate here.
 
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into the water: Who sings ? Yuki and Yuriko ? Gives off a vibe of RHH leftover, works really well as intro to monochrome. The pipe it had for some secs surprised me, I guess it was sample ? However it doesnt seem connected to "far on the water" in any way, as the title makes you think.

monochrome: I really liked the mix of accordion and classic guitar, and also Wakana's high notes, and that the song didnt stop for the bridge but the 2 were kinda mixed together (nice transitions)

Gogatsu no Mahou: Same note for Gogatsu, it had a nice flow and loved the hight notes throughout and song, and especially at the bridge. Like I said for the sample. The strings in this song arent in your face as in older songs (eg ring your bell), and leave space to concentrate on the vocals.Also the backing vocal makes the song quite powerful even though it ballad. It could be a great OP.

Usumurasaki is like serenato x Yume no Daichi. Dramatic Wakana singing and middle eastern melody :XD:Also is it weird that the voice are kinda echoing in this song. How will they reproduce this in live ?

Identify: Really energetic, and hikaru sings really well in it, i believe that Keiko should have used her deeper voice for this one. Love come down cant get out of my head on the verses :desksweat: Also the guitar solo in the bridge is very cool but the drumming is so repeatitive >_< what "walk by walk? means?

Hokage: Reminds alot of Gloria in style, both in melody (chorus), and that the piano uses those lower notes. It is after all, nicer than I was expecting. I love how the strings sound in the bridge, its not that far away/epic sound that you hear in the upbeat songs.

Musunde Hiraku: It started so suddenly, and the fact that uses almost same instruments as One Light makes you thing it is it's continuation in a way :XD: It has a boring stings transition between the chorus and the second verse. It think it could nicely be a Chiba Saeko song. Is the chorus Hanae Tomaru ? Oh Keiko actually got the main vocal in half the bridge, ugh, why Wakana has to take a second half ? It could be Keiko's without problem. Easily the weakest song of the album for me.

Sorairo no isu: Really sweet and relaxing :dote: Best ballad in a long time! Strings repeat same melody, and give off an idea of how the track would as bgm. The bridge vocals, wow! Hikaru nosed in the end as if saying "Let me/ sing a bit/too" :XD:

Far on the Water: After all, this, and identify are the songs of this album where Keiko gets some vocal. The PV of the song manages to make the song much more entertaining somehow. wtf @ 01:57 is like a song ended an a new one started, until about 03:00. So this song does have flute, but im not sure it fits since it appears in the bridge only. Its like Kajiura made the whole song and left for later to decide what instrument to use at the bridge.

Overall, these songs a quite nice, but not mindblowing like previous album's Hanataba obligato and signal. Also in this one Kajiura broke the electronic / club type song tradition we had on every album so far. In my rating now: #1 Seventh Heaven, #2 Red Moon, #3 Consolation #4 Far on the Water #5 After Eden. The "old" album songs didnt helped either, since, ring your bell and believe really fitted in, but I cant say the same for heavenly blue and One Light. I would easily switch heavenly blue to Lapis, so Keiko can have a bigger portion in this album ( like it had happened with "Door" in Consolation)

After reading previous comments, I agree that there will be a serious issue in the lives since Wakana gets 90% of the album, so they will have to add previous songs between this album's songs because otherwise Wakana's voice will be dead before the FtW Tour ends.
 
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^usumurasaki has also quite long keiko's line.

Overall this album has typical anime song feeling, except monochrome usumurasaki, sorairo and hokage which sounds out of place.

Best song: usumurasaki
Bad song: hokage. It is just like sapphire, haru wa kogane, kugatsu, kichigo. Boring and forgetable.

Seventh heaven is still the best albuM. The rests are blah.

Random: i miss see saw, yuuka and even saeko chiba. or maybe yuki need a new project.
 
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dunno. I dont listen to a lot of japanese music except some game osts, yuki kajiura and susumu hirasawa.

Btw, really like keiko's voice in usumuraki. Yuki should make another album for kalafina like in seventh heaven, where each member has at least one lead song.
 
george1234 said:
what "walk by walk? means?
Click to expand...

I think it's "one by one"

On my thoughts for Gogatsu no Mahou, since I didn't talk about it much in my last post: I would agree that this has an FJ feel for it, and for a second I thought Kaori would come in :XD:. Very pretty, and can't wait to see it live, and how Wakana handles all the difficult notes.
 
Thoughts on the new songs:

Into The Water - This was an unexpected album prelude. Has a nice, mysterious air to it. Sounds like it came from the Tsubasa Chronicle OST xD.

Identify - Yaaay Keiko! :dote: I wasn't a fan of the chorus from the sample, but the more I replay this, the more I like it, though I admit it feels a bit out of place with the other songs.

Musunde Hiraku - This sounds like an improved version of Mirai and Misterioso. I liked this during my first listen. I would've preferred Keiko to use a deeper voice at some parts, but that's a minor nitpick.

Hokage - "Uhuuu sad depress melancholy waah" was the impression I got lol. Didn't expect Wakana's vocals to start so early in the song. I do like the instrumental though.

Usumurasaki - Dark, enigmatic. Like Signal, it's not the type of song I would spam my replay button on, but it's still solid. Not as good compared to its counterparts (Tsuioku, Serenato) though.

Monochrome - Probably the most interesting track on the album, imo. I'm a fan of the accordion and the classic guitar.

Gogatsu no Mahou - Vaguely reminiscent of FJ's Distance, but I love this much better. The melody isn't anything special but the verses and choruses transition really well imo, compared to some of Kala's recent works. Wakana's vocals are lovely in this one too, and the strings manage to create a powerful sound without being overwhelming. I think this is my favourite of all the new tracks.

Sora no Isu - Very pretty song. Brings up a peaceful, garden-like image in my head.

Far On The Water - Hm this track was just okay. It's lovely and has a tone of finality as the last track on the album, but it isn't very memorable (maybe I need to replay it more lol).

Overall, fave tracks: Gogatsu no Mahou, Sora no Isu, Musunde Hiraku
Least fave track: Hokage
 
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I tossed out believe and heavenly blue from the album and put in Tsuioku, lapis and RYBITS.

Much better.

And I just noticed how monochrome and Gogatsu no Mahou is straight up stealing the melody from Kouya Routen and blessing. So now Kajiura has resorted to recycling even older songs eh? XD
 
^ blessing is an old favourite for stealing melody, both everytime you kissed me and Kagayaku sora no shijima ni wa, are based on it

about kouya ruten, monochrome has a short similarity in some notes but not to the point you can say she stole the melody from it (plus everything else in arrangement is different)

so according to posts so far we got
monochrome ~ kouya ruten
gogatsu no mahou ~ blessing / distance
identify ~ love come down
hokage ~ gloria

:XD:
 
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I rate from 0-10 points:

Into the water => 3
Monochrome => 9
五月の魔法 => 9
Ring your bell => 6
うすむらさき => 6
Identify => 7
灯影 => 6
One Light => 7
むすんでひらく => 6
Heavenly blue => 7
空色の椅子 => 7
Believe => 7
Far on the water => 7
 
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Oooo like I said before I wouldn't mind sapphire 2.0 and if another serenato 2.0 and Gloria too. I love all these songs. (Still not going to listen, I hope I get an email today instead of tomorrow, since Wed I will be gone so not a lot of time to listen to it, except in the car.) I really wanted the vinyl right away. *Sigh* And @sora: You should listen to After Eden! Don't be swayed by what some people say. There are really nice tracks like sandpiper, Kotonoha (one of my favorite ballads, even though it's so short. I think this is what george was saying about the echoing sound, but they've only sung it in After Eden live (which they didn't sound that echoey, just watched it now. Wow forgot how much Wakana used to sweat. Glad she got over that a lot. heh) But they could just play the echoes, like they did in fairytale a bunch of times. And also there's magnolia, destination unknown, in your eyes (probably one of the only people who like it) Kugatsu and symphonia. And of course the tie-ins. But yes, I know it has nothing on SH and red moon (really liked this album too actually.) Consolation had nice songs but I did not like the title track all that much or signal, although those grew on me after going to ACen and they sung them there. I was hoping for another obbligato, since it is my favorite song so far. But yes, listen to AE. And listen/watch the live. It is really good imo.
 
Some tracks will sound better after live. Usumurasaki and identify (I can imagine how Kalafina perform it!) are great songs for live.
 
I ordered the vinyl first as soon as it went up, as I knew I wanted it and I'm still hoping that if it sells well enough they'll rerelease the other albums on vinyl too.

I then ordered the BD version along with supercell's Today is a Beautiful Day as CDJapan had a poster bonus going on for TiaBD. I forgot that I set shipping to RSAL for that though.

Then I ordered the DVD version because I wanted it fast :omgz:. That'll be EMS so hopefully it'll arrive some time next week and I can finally listen to it. I'll probably do what I said a while ago and stick the BD disc in the DVD edition because I prefer the cover :goodjob:. Then I might give the BD edition (with the DVD disc in it) to a friend or something. A little sneaky and all but I really don't care for the BD edition cover.

From what people have been saying, I'm expecting this thing to be on the same level as After Eden, a good album but not their best. Hell the patterns I can discern from the comments seem to be similar. Of course this isn't final since I haven't even heard the tracks yet.

1 dull ballad (Hokage/snow falling)
2 songs I don't like much (Believe, Heavenly Blue/Eden, Mune no Yukue)
1 uplifting song that I'll listen to occasionally and enjoy but won't usually go out of my way to hear (Far on the Water/Symphonia)
5 great songs I'll listen to regularly (Identify, Monochrome, Gogatsu, Sorairo, Usumurusaki/Sandpiper, Magia, Destination Unknown, Magnolia, Neverending)
3 songs which are pretty good but nothing standout (Musunde Hiraku, Ring Your Bell, One Light/Kugatsu, In Your Eyes, Kotonoha)
1 other (Into the Water, and I'll put Kagayaku here although it'd probably fit into the above category)

If this is true to my tastes then I guess I'm happy. If only they'd put KnGnN and Alleluia instead of HB and Believe then maybe I'd not have much to really complain about. I just hope my predictions are accurate and I do indeed enjoy most of the album to some degree.
 
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