Kalafina 5th album "far on the water"

  • Thread starter Thread starter sprinterXkyrie
  • Start date Start date
This album is good but I remember that consolation was more "sensational" when I listened it the first time (perhaps thanks to accordion on Signal and Hanataba). But I really love Gogatsu no Mahou, Into the water (for the ambiance), Sorairo no Isu, Hokage (I'm agree it seems to could be an ending for Kuroshitsuji) and Usumurasaki. Identify and One light are pretty fun. Monochrome is weird but I like it ( the "aaaaah" of Wakana <3). I don't like very much Musunde Hiraku because this track is like Mirai. Far on the water is like Symphonia and Yume no daichi, pretty but not my favorite tracks of Kalafina.
I think Keiko has not enough song in this album, she could be sing more couplet instead of Hikaru or Wakana (for example in Gogatsu no Mahou I think she could be have a couplet after the first refrain like in neverending) and not enough flute too xD
 
It's only been a couple of days, and I've already read an (unsubstantiated) report from someone who claims they can hear autotune being used on this album. I'm assuming whoever made this assertion is, well, full of crap because I'd have expected it to have been mentioned in this thread if that were the case.

I find this impossible to believe, so unless I hear it from someone who actually knows what they're talking about I'll put it down to just another stupid thing said by a random person on the internet. It would be absolutely gutting if it's true though.
 
People said autotune was used on Mahiru too (or was it Samidare?) but that was just a case of a filter used on the vocals, presumably for a specific reason. It's not exactly a new concept. I suspect it's the same here.

My copy has been shipped by EMS but my tracking number isn't working, which is worrying. The other order I had today that's going via SAL works fine though :@_@:.
 
@Martin I would have to agree with whoever said autotune was being used on it. From what I've heard so far (I've been trying to not let myself listen, so it would just be FotW, Gogatsu no Mahou, Monochrome), Wakana sounds a bit autotune-ish in some places, if that makes any sense. I feel like the biggest place where this is evident is at the "sazanami o egaite" part in FotW's chorus. However, I feel like it has been used a little in both of their A sides this year, at "kakushi te ta" in RYB (hopefully line is right) and "hikari no sasu" in OL.

Why must they resort to autotune :cry:
 
Two things:
The anisongs are an absolutely ruin the mood of the rest of the songs specifically composed for this anime because they have tow COMPLETELY different sounds, OL and RYB kinda fit though
Secondly, about the auto tune most of the time it sounds like filters to me. Interestingly in the consolation lives I thought Keiko was auto tuned the entire time since her sound wasn't as raw as previous lives, perhaps it's how the harmonies come together:confu:
 
Into the water: Like it. Wish the phrases were longer. Ends kinda abruptly. Doesn't really represent the whole album. Soundtrack with Kalafina when? Or FJ.

Monochrome: My favorite of the new tracks. Wish it was longer. It could use a solid vocal bridge to climax. Wakana sure sounds like Yuriko at the end.

Gogatsu: second favorite. Verses do remind me of Distance, but it doesn't really bother me. Love Wakana's voice in refrain and bridge. I hope she can replicate it live.

Usumurasaki: Bretty good. Keiko's voice would've been perfect to lead this song. Some Arabian style singing (by Keiko) would've been cool.

Identify: Like it, but the refrain stills bothers me. I like that the verse changes after the bridge. Should be pretty good live.

Hokage: Least favorite song. I agree that it needs some sort of instrumental intro. Feels kinda over dramatic.

Musunde Hiraku: Surprise of the album. Based on the sample, I thought I was going to dislike it, but I found it pretty enjoyable. I like it more than Mirai and Misterioso.

Sorairo: Lovely, but I wish the harp (or whatever instrument it is), had more spotlight, instead of STRINGS in the bridge. The structure reminds me of Kajiura's old soundtracks, like this song could be BGM. In a good way, of course.

Far on the water: Love Keiko's intro. Don't like Hikaru's verses. Needs a good transition from verse to refrain. Bridge sounds like it should be BGM for the soundtrack. Not sure if I like it more than Symponia. Yume no Daichi is still best RHH ending!


-With that title and cover, I expected more Celtic style in the album. Celtic album ala "Kokia meets Ireland" when!?
-The singles kinda ruin the mood at times, but it's fixed if you add b-sides between some songs.
-Out of the five albums released so far, I'd put it at #4 above AE.
 
Yeah, it's amazing what that swap does to the listenability of the album.

On subsequent listens I concluded:

Love: Gogatsu no mahou, Identify, Usumurasaki, sora no isu, ring your bell, into the water
Like: Monochrome, Musunde hiraku, far on the water, One Light
Meh: Hokage, Believe
Ew: Heavenly blue

So overall, it's a good album :) I feel like unlike Consolation, which had spectacular songs at first listen, there are a lot of songs here that you need to listen to many times to notice little details that make them great.

Still for me: SH > Consolation > RM > AE > FotW
 
Nobody likes AE, it's like the Milhouse of the Kalafina albums :(

To me is SH=RM > AE > C > FOTW
Actually it should be AE>RM, but when I started listening to Kalafina I watched the Red Moon live, so I mixed all the songs and couldn't see them separatedly. To me they're like an "era" together, so...

I really hope for more Keiko (and Hikaru, yes) in the next songs (and not only in b-sides!). I love Wakana, but this is making me get tired of her voice, and since I'm not the only one, that worries me :(
 
I have said that I liked it! About five times now. lol It has great songs, magnolia is awesome imo. DU sandpiper and Kotonoha brilliant. I liked in your eyes, neverending, Kugatsu and Mune no (though I liked this better live) and the others are all right. But I am going to hold off on listening unless I can't get the album until the last minutes before we leave on Wed. My tracker still says 'label created' and the EMS for Chiaki's is still unavailable (I think season that it takes a couple of days, like it said. But I got EMS before two days later sometimes. So here's to hoping this one will too for us!)

And with Yuki, I don't know. I think she knows her songs pretty well since she plays them probably before even sending them to the director. (Though in the case of Kara no Kyoukai she composed the music while she watched the films.) So I think she could go "oh, that one sounds waaaay too similar to the other, and not just a little bit like last time" is what I am imagining her saying. heh I love that she's working with the girls more and asking what they want (like with the case of Mahiru and wanting just piano. But then I guess there's another just piano one. Hmm.) Still, it's nice. But yeah, are they still going to sing Heavenly Blue and Believe (not that I am saying I dislike this song HB, yes, not believe) in the set list? I understand ring your bell and One Light, since they are newer. But the other two were on their best lives already. I am hoping for a Koibito and Tsuioku live please!
 
@Sofia you aren't alone! I love after eden too!

1. FOW (yes, I think it's the best album of Kalafina, I don't like only 1 song!)
2. Red moon - only haru wa and intermezzo
3. After Eden - only kugatsu and kotonoha were weak
4. Seventh Heaven
5. Consolation - is the weakest for me. When I first time listened it, I was thinking that Kajiura-san lost her inspiration. Melody of signal was very generic (only some verses was interesting), hikari furu boring, mirai (bleh!), kichiigo no shemi ni - I don't like so sad mood, yume no daichi - bleh.. Good songs: consolation, moonfesta, door, manten, ttb. Neutral songs: hanataba.

You can think that I have wrong taste but Consolation was the weakest for me.
And what is wrong that songs of one composer are similiar? It's absolutely normal. Kajiura isn't a machine but human and she has limited number of ideas. Don't expect impossible things. If the song sounds good for me, has a soul - it's ok.
 
nodame89 said:
@Sofia you aren't alone! I love after eden too!

You can think that I have wrong taste but Consolation was the weakest for me.
And what is wrong that songs of one composer are similiar? It's absolutely normal. Kajiura isn't a machine but human and she has limited number of ideas. Don't expect impossible things. If the song sounds good for me, has a soul - it's ok.
Click to expand...

what are you talking, I don't feel anything from fotw new songs. Maybe that's because the girls also sound like they're singing for the sake of singing. the only song where I can feel at least the girls were enjoying themselves is identify (and after giving the album another try, only this song and the middle part of usumurasaki I can find listenable, even though identify sounds like love come down). Sorairo no Isu has the potential to be great but Kajiura pulled the same old trick again, the best part of the song is actually that 89 secs of the sample. I can't fully enjoy monochrome for the same reasons as grunty (plus the song reminds me of Gaika lol). Gogatsu no Mahou is slightly better distance02 (and I really hate the distance-bridge-ish ending). Hokage is just a piece of shit.

About Kajiura. The fact that her songs are now almost all similar is actually a proof that she's lazy to venture out of her comfort zone and sticks to the same melodies over and over again. She only created songs with the melody she likes forgetting that she has used them before. If she really likes those melodies, she could try to give the song a different structure. I mean, hb ryb ol has the same structure of verses-pre-chorus-chorus x 2 with key change at the end of chorus 2-kajiurago bridge-vocal bridge-chorusx1.5. Or the very least she could do is to make it less noticeable :p not listening to her own songs (at least at her free time) isn't helping her to have fresh idea either. She'd create the same melodies without noticing that she has used them before.

I also have the issue of Wakana and Hikaru don't sound like they used to be. I can almost fully accept Wakana's new voice (I'm still sad whenever I listen to seventh heaven and Red Moon songs) but why does Hikaru have to follow Wakana and get her singing technique changed. She doesn't sound as good as she used to be on hitting those middle notes, resulting in Kajiura giving her part that is actually on Keiko's range but since Keiko can go lower, she has Keiko do all the lower harmony. Their songs aren't as good as they used to be. Save for Keiko, their voices don't sound as good as they used to be. Their voices aren't the same with the one I fell in love 7 years ago. More than enough reason for me to quit Kalafina. I still want to see if this fotw tour will get a DVD/BD release, though. Can't wait to see Wakana straining her voice, even though most likely they'll edit her voice lol. Even in Mezamashi 2015 live with 4 songs setlist with 2 MCs in the middle, her vocal control got worse as the song went (ryb's final chorus is bad) and she went completely flat on fotw final lines.

I'm still quite attached to them even though listening to their newer songs only make me go "why can't they be like what they used to be". That's what 7 years following a group will do to you.

tldr: adieu, Kalafina and Kajiura. now for real.
 
Just received my album! Will take pictures and post them unless someone beats me to it. Might take an hour before I actually put anything up.
 
I love AE too :)
My ranking could be: SH > AE = Conso > RM > FOTW.
A random comment: I'd loved if the intro and Monochrome could have been "linked", with no long silence between them. Into the Water's end being abrupt could make an interesting effect if the music resumed just in continuity.
 
Just dumping Kajiura's comments on each song. I'll translate after my brain has properly booted up (once I can get some work done), unless someone else jumps in and volunteers.

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643709244601069568
01 into the water：音楽を作る現場（スタジオとか）って水の中に似てる。楽しく自由に泳ぎ回って、でもやっぱり地上に戻ると、ぷは〜っ、あれ、結構疲れてるなっ て。異世界に遊ぶ感じ。この曲は「Kalafinaの世界へさあ、どうぞ」的なovertureですね。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643709552509124608
02 monochrome 「なんかこの人徹夜して歌詞書いててちょっとぶち切れてるみたいですよ」(　´д)ヒソ(´д｀)ヒソ(д｀　)←そんな。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643710267973505024
03 五月の魔法：まだ色の見えないモノクロ世界から、少しずつ音楽を作り上げて行って……やがて色彩がぱんと花開く感じ、にしたくて、一行目に「水色の」と敢えて「色」を入れました。ある意味アルバムはここから。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643710541131681792
05 うすむらさき：ごめんなさいウソ吐きましたぜんぜんうすくないですかなり濃いですごめんなさい……。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643710845675945984
identify；「じゃーじゃーじゃ！」←と、正式タイトルが付く前にみんなからずっと呼ばれていた曲である。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643712111328124928
07 灯影：本当に何気ないことなんだけど一人じゃ出来なかったことを補って貰えたり、ふとかけてくれた何気ない言葉が、ひどく琴線に触れる事ってある。相手はもう覚えてさえいない事かもしれないけど、自分はきっと一生忘れないなって。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643713157949599744
09 むすんでひらく：ひととひとが分かり合うのは確かに難しいけれど、でもそういう事って（気のせい上等）確かにあって、そういう瞬間を実感として知って初めてひとは恐れを捨て心を開く事が出来るようになるのではないでしょうか……。むすんでこそひらく的な。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643713474946662400
11 空色の椅子：本能曲。アルバムの一番最後に、歌詞曲ほぼ一日で書きました……あれ、前のアルバムでもそんな曲あったな……とデジャヴ……。

https://twitter.com/Fion0806/status/643714728980692992
13 far on the water：漕げ漕げ漕ぎまくれ m9っ｀Д´) ！波をおこすんじゃ！さざ波上等！
 
yuki.n said:
Just dumping Kajiura's comments on each song. I'll translate after my brain has properly booted up (once I can get some work done), unless someone else jumps in and volunteers.
Click to expand...
Go ahead. I won't be doing this one so I'll leave it to you. This feels more like a preview than an actual insight into the song. I'll wait for the eventual twitter event she said she wants to do for the juicy stuff. :D
 
Alright, here's a vague-and-loose translation:

Into the water: The place where you make music (like a studio) looks like
being inside the water. You swim around happily and freely, but when you get back to
earth you feel tired (but happy). It's like playing in a parallel world. This
song feels like an overture "welcome to Kalafina world".

Monochrome: "This person is staying up all night writing lyrics, she must be a
bit crazy" (add the smilies of people secretly talking to each other)

Gogatsu no mahou: From the monochrome world where colors aren't visible, you
create music little by little, and soon it feels like colors blossom in a
"boom", so the first line "mizuiro no" (water-colored), the word "color" is
there on purpose. In a certain sense, the album starts here.

Usumurasaki: (light purple), Sorry, I lied, it's not light at all, it's rather
deep, I'm sorry....

identify: Everyone called it "ja-ja-ja!" before it got its official title.

Hokage: It's truly an unimportant thing but, to compensate for some things we
can't do alone, sometimes someone suddenly tells us something unimportant, and it touches
the strings of our heart very strongly. Sometimes we might not even remember
how it feels like to have a partner, but we won't forget this for all our
life. [Can't figure out whether she's talking about herself, or generally
about people, or (most likely) both?]

Musunde hiraku: It's really difficult for people to understand each ther, but
such a thing (even if it's just our idea) really exists, we get to experience
such moments, and for the first time in our life we throw away our fears and
we are able to open up our hearts. Hearts are tied together, and that's why they open
up [That's what the title basically means: tying together and opening]
EDIT: For an explanation of the title, see https://forum.canta-per-me.net/threads/far-on-the-water-lyrics.6096/page-2#post-274359

Sorairo no isu: An instictive song. At the end of the whole album, the lyrics
were made in about one day... huh, there was such a song in the previous album
too... some deja vu...

Far on the water: Row, row, row, keep rowing! Don't make waves! Ripple on!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top