Kalafina 5th album "far on the water"

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All of the FotW tracks are listed as between 0 and 3 plays on my iTunes, personally. That's partially because I rip all my CDs in FLAC to Foobar and iTunes doesn't support FLAC, so I listen to it on there, and partially because I've only actually listened through it as a whole around 7 or so times. I also vastly prefer listening to whole albums when I'm on my laptop. My iPod currently has all of the FotW tracks at... around 9 plays. I've updated it relatively recently however, with the highest played tracks on there capping at 51 (coincidentally that's also a Kalafina track, Tsuioku in this case) whereas I've had playcounts in the thousands before after a huge period of never updating it. I recall checking at one point and my playcount for Sandpiper was 1340. Of course, many of those don't really count as I use my iPod when I sleep, so I don't hear hours of stuff that gets recorded. Oddly enough my iTunes playcount for Tsuioku is also 51, and also my highest playcounted Kalafina song, and my highest playcount in general.

I'm starting to not trust iTunes.

Actively though, I know for a fact that the songs I've gone out of my way to listen to most from the new album are Sorairo, Gogatsu and Usumurasaki. Other than Monochrome I think those are the only ones I've actively chosen to listen to at any given moment when I haven't been listening through the album as a whole. The rest just come up on shuffle on my iPod as I rarely ever have time to listen to a whole album when I'm going anywhere, so shuffle is often the best option. The only thing I can safely say is that I've only listened to Believe once since FotW came out, and that was to re-familiarise it so I could hate it with more articulation during the review I did with my friend. Well, other than when they sang it in Osaka, but that doesn't really count since I wasn't paying attention.

Really though, I should listen to the album more. I'm one of the people who actually likes it as a whole, especially if you switch out Believe for KnGnN. I'm disappointed in it, but I still enjoy most of it.

Also Consolation = FictionJunction? The hell? I've heard all of FJ (and FJ Yuuka) and nothing on Consolation reminds me of FJ at all with the exception of the vocals and the usual Kajiuraisms. FotW does at points, as do some tracks on AE, but Consolation? Not even close.
 
Seasonreaper said:
I'm disappointed in it, but I still enjoy most of it.
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I feel nearly exactly the same way. I believe it had potential to be really good by adding more Keiko parts, but it was still pretty good. A general flow to the album would have been nice as well, instead of feeling like a bunch of tracks randomly placed.

Btw, for those that have attended a live where into the water was "performed" (played is probably the right word), did it still have the sudden, abrupt ending like the studio version?
 
I didn't notice it being so abrupt in the live, actually. Same with Monochrome's ending and Hokage's opening, they all seemed to flow just a little bit nicer. Honestly it actually made Hokage considerably more enjoyable, that extremely sudden opening is possibly the part of it dislike the most and having it a little less abrupt made it sound a lot better. That and Wakana's vocal game was on top form, she really was amazing.
 
Westkana said:
Btw, for those that have attended a live where into the water was "performed" (played is probably the right word), did it still have the sudden, abrupt ending like the studio version?
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Yes it did, but the transition to IEN was so sudden that you would barely notice.

Since we're talking about the album …. I listened to it a lot after Osaka but I've completely stopped aside from the occasional HB lol. I do like the album more after having heard the songs live, but overall it's not my cup of tea.
I also agree that Consolation does not sound like FJ at all…. because #unpopularopinion I don't like that many FJ songs (despite Yuriko's awesomeness) and I love Consolation.
 
FJ songs are too formulaic. Parallel Hearts and stone cold are awesome, but the derivatives like Toki no Mukou and eternal blue are listenable, and good on its own, but meh. I do like FJ's covers though - those are always awesome, with most being much better than the original.

The only thing bringing FotW down is its singles (and Hokage), and that goes for Consolation too. FotW suffers from having hb and believe exist, while Consolation suffers from Mirai, Hikari Furu, ttb and Manten.

FotW is solid, much more than After Eden, I would say. After Eden has some of the weakest album-original songs, particularly Kotonaha, Kugatsu and Mune no Yukue- they're honesty very forgettable, and the only reason why MnY keeps showing up in setlists is because Keiko gets some decent solo time. At the very least, I like all of FotW's album-original songs (except, like I said, Hokage. Live it would be awesome, but still this song...).
 
I really like Manten so that helps in regards to Consolation for me, although I agree that the other singles are pretty much the weakest on the album. The rest is all rather good. I still like TTB and HF to some extent as well, although Mirai is trash.

AE is odd. I don't like snow falling at all and I'm not a fan of Eden or Mune no Yukue, and I'm not too fond of In Your Eyes either. Yet I still enjoy it a lot. I think it's because Sandpiper, DU and Magnolia (and probably Magia and Symphonia as well) are all much better than anything on FotW and honestly a lot of the rest of their discography. Those 3 (or 5) songs are just so good.

FotW may have a higher consistency of decent songs than AE (I prefer Sorairo, Gogatsu, Monochrome and Usumurasaki to the weaker half of AE by quite a bit, and I'd probably put Identify, OL and FotW itself above the four I don't like much as well) but the songs on AE that stand out are individually greater than all of FotW's good parts combined.

I might see if I can stick the best bits of each album together and see what happens.
 
Beside the general quality of the album the thing that still bothers me the most is that FOTW is a 'mix' of all Kalafina's previous album concepts.
 
Am I the only one who has no complains of FOTW CD?? HAHAHA I mean, I would love to erase Believe and RYB but, the CD itself is not bad
 
obbligato > identify
Mune no Yukue > musundehiraku
kiichigo no shigemi ni > hokage
Yume no Daichi > far on the water

Otherwise, I love monochrome, Gogatsu no Mahou, usumurasaki, and sorairo no isu
 
I can't see similarities obbligato - identify, mune no yukue - musunde hiraku... I think that obbligato is another ver. of Kyrie. I like it but obbligato isn't original for me.
Consolation album is the less original album in my taste. Consolation's kajiurago reminds me the battle is to the strong, obbligato - kyrie, hanataba's refrain - gloria's refrain. Signal isn't original for me too - even if I can't find similiar song - but the melody is
hackneyed.

Monochrome, gogatsu no mahou, musunde hiraku (the instrumental is similiar to mirai and it's the same type of song), usumurasaki... they are ORIGINAL. Sorairo Isu - reminds storm from elemental. I like RYB and OL. Believe and HB are boring. One better thing in Consolation - the single A-sides songs.

I think that FOW can be the worst album because it's a lot of sold copies. Yes, I know, Kalafina is much more popular now. But if the FOW is a shit - people won't buy it. E.g. May'n - she is popular - but only a little people are buying it. I've heard the last A-sides of May'n - it's really a shit
 
How is Musunde original? Other than Hokage it's pretty much the most by the numbers remake of a previous song on the album, Believe/HB cloning aside.

High sales make it good? What? Most of an album's sales are in the first week and will be people buying it because it's Kalafina, not because they've heard the album and liked it. Kalafina is often outsold by large idol groups like or AKB48, does that mean AKB are better by nature because of higher sales? Your logic seems to indicate that's how it works.
 
I didn't said that the album is good because a lot of copies have been sold.
The number of copies is a proof that a lot of people like it. In the first week was a lot of sales because it's Kalafina. But FOW is still selling well. And I personally really really like FOW and not because it's good selling album BUT - because I think it's a good album
 
I still don't think that continued sales necessarily means it's good. I think it's their weakest and I own three copies myself, although admittedly one of those is the vinyl. I'll happily buy extra copies of the other albums on vinyl if they decide to release them.

I never said it isn't a good album either. My standing from release until now has always been it's a good album that could've been better.
 
Of course it's hard to compare e.g. Kalafina and Kaori Oda (even if Kaori has a lot of beautiful songs) because Kalafina has another level of popularity and the number of sold copies isn't a good indicator. I think that number of sold copies of One Light and Believe was low. Popular band+popular anime-weak songs= a little people bought it. But if Kaori's single would be sold in the same number of sold copies as One Light, it would be success for her.
 
Well I just received the FOTW vocal score and I have to say my respect for the album has been enhanced! Because behind the scenes you can really see Kajiura using the girls' voices in different ways here and there.

Here are my revelations after reviewing the score:
I noticed for the first time that HIKARU is the lower harmony for KEIKO in "sorairo no isu" at "mune ni okureta wakari no tori ga".. Just wow! Listening to this part after realizing this was just beautiful.

HIKARU was actually the lowest harmony in "musundehiraku" at "atatakai kaze wo"... Lower than KEIKO.

Clearly I dig it when HIKARU goes lower than KEIKO. Kajiura rarely does this (previously in Magia, Alleluia... Any other examples?)

Usumurasaki- WAKANA provides her own upper harmonizations at the end of the two choruses. I know I know I should have consulted the credits before assuming it was KAIDA... Damn WAKANA's head voice in this song is beautiful.

KEIKO has two vocal lines in One Light; I had already noticed at "hitotsudake machigaijanai" there was a third voice singing but I didn't know if it was KEIKO or HIKARU.. KEIKO sings two layers of Lower harmonies below HIKARU. Then at "Yume wo daite" KEIKO harmonizes herself.

KEIKO is pretty busy inOne light, more than I thought she was.
 
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Spirica Rose said:
^ From what I hear, Keiko leads on that part.

The vocal score sounds like a great thing to have. I may not be fond of the album, but I do think the score would be worth getting.
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It surely is! It really gives you a peak behind the voices what is going on... My favorite aspect of this book is the Kajiuran.

I'm really hoping Kajiura does not stop with the Kalafina vocal scores. I actually would like one for the previous albums! Especially seventh heaven. Mmmm all that layering.
 
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