Ghost Reaper
Bowl of Yuki-shaped cereal
I thought I'd start this thread for single impressions and cross comparisons between the many vocalists that work with YK.
Overall Impressions of Vocalists Solo Work (Hikaru, Kaori, Keiko, Wakana, etc)
- Thread starter Ghost Reaper
- Start date
Ghost Reaper
Bowl of Yuki-shaped cereal
As a first effort and not being a song writer (or at least not publicly) I think Keiko is doing okay with her new single. Let's wait for her album in the fall to see how well she progresses.
I expected Hikaru to hit it out of the park on her first try. She's always had that lyrical quality in her blog posts.
Wakana... well... I like her album and EP. Nothing standnig out for me right now.
Kaori's Flowers album didn't excite me either. I like it. Just no home runs in it.
I expected Hikaru to hit it out of the park on her first try. She's always had that lyrical quality in her blog posts.
Wakana... well... I like her album and EP. Nothing standnig out for me right now.
Kaori's Flowers album didn't excite me either. I like it. Just no home runs in it.
Atlas Star
El Cazador de la Yuki
Did Keiko confirm an album release in the fall?
Hime_Wakana
I have reached Yuki nirvana
Yess true!!
Hikaru as a lyricist is stellar. You wouldn't even be able tell she's an amateur with how she writes super catchy lyrics also convey meaning. I already like her lyrics more than what Kajiura-san has put out in the last few years, though Hibari and Haru wa Yuku are very good lyrically. Wakana has a ways to go(like with "breathing", where you can tell that the lyrics are very amateur-ish), but she's steadily improving, with my favourite being Happy Hello Day, lyrics-wise. I need more of Keiko before I can give an opinion, but Inochi no Hana was fairly generic.
In terms of debut singles, Hikaru's the most appealing with a catchy hook and her signature rough-around-the-edges rock voice, followed by Wakana and Keiko who I'd say are equal - Wakana has the better songs, Keiko has the better voice.
In terms of repertoire, Hikaru's is more diverse, though steadily in the realm of Jpop. Avaricia, fili and Existence from her first album are all A-grade songs, IMO. Wakana has more songs overall (2 full albums within the span of a year is a lot), but there's a lot of hit and miss material (the misses being a lot of her slower songs). I'm praying for Keiko's album to be a lot better than her debut. She had the potential to dominate, but this music is ehhhh.
In terms of debut singles, Hikaru's the most appealing with a catchy hook and her signature rough-around-the-edges rock voice, followed by Wakana and Keiko who I'd say are equal - Wakana has the better songs, Keiko has the better voice.
In terms of repertoire, Hikaru's is more diverse, though steadily in the realm of Jpop. Avaricia, fili and Existence from her first album are all A-grade songs, IMO. Wakana has more songs overall (2 full albums within the span of a year is a lot), but there's a lot of hit and miss material (the misses being a lot of her slower songs). I'm praying for Keiko's album to be a lot better than her debut. She had the potential to dominate, but this music is ehhhh.
ritarudandoo
Yuki is my reason for existence
Tbh Hikaru's lyrics for alternate is very in your face about the anime content and i always laugh at certain parts due to how blatant spoilerish it is. On other songs her lyrics are pretty good tho tbh they're fairly generic shounen-animeish as well.
About songs, Hikaru's songs are very anime-ish. While the other two seem to steer away from their anisong singers root, Hikaru seems to embrace it as she's also the biggest otaku between them 3. Tbh music wise Hikaru's songs are kinda boring in a sense that they all sound almost the same. Hikaru's very limited range ever since 2015 also hinders her capabilities as a singer because it makes me feel like almost all her songs don't have certain oomphs, vocal-wise. They're all carried by the instrumental or how the songs are arranged. It feels like she can only sing G4 at highest. Anything above that she strains or simply failed. Sad.
Wakana's music is actually more of my taste and magic moment album shows how much she's improved as a solo singer. In her first album there are some pretty good songs that are hindered by her vocal issue, like Yakusoku no Yoake (very sloppy vocal performance but the song is fairly hard and kinda out of Wakana's also very limited tessitura, though hers is not as limited as Hikaru's). Kinmokusei(?) and some other songs also have this issue. On magic moment album though, she showed excellent songs choice. The songs are pretty much in her tessitura, she sounded more relaxed singing them (though relaxed is a loose term as Wakana tends to constrict her throat when singing), and Wakana successfully belted in some of them. Girl needs to work on her head voice though, she still sounds like chicken whenever she tries to use them. magic moment album itself is imho excellent and is much better than Kalafina's fotw.
Keiko just needs to work with better producers and composers. I'm waiting for her album in September that hopefully will have some good/decent songs. be yourself showed that she has the range and inochi no hana showed that she's great at singing on the register people know her for, but both songs are just very mehhhh.
Kaori is the same with Keiko. A fairly good singer stuck singing meh songs. I don't hate her songs but I don't care for 90% of her discography. They're almost all fairly forgettable.
Yuriko's solo is snorefest at its finest. Sad. They're all kinda good when you're trying to sleep though due to how sleep inducing they are. I don't think I liked even one song from her Kaiida mini album and her other one mini album. I'll give them another try tonight and refresh my memory.
About songs, Hikaru's songs are very anime-ish. While the other two seem to steer away from their anisong singers root, Hikaru seems to embrace it as she's also the biggest otaku between them 3. Tbh music wise Hikaru's songs are kinda boring in a sense that they all sound almost the same. Hikaru's very limited range ever since 2015 also hinders her capabilities as a singer because it makes me feel like almost all her songs don't have certain oomphs, vocal-wise. They're all carried by the instrumental or how the songs are arranged. It feels like she can only sing G4 at highest. Anything above that she strains or simply failed. Sad.
Wakana's music is actually more of my taste and magic moment album shows how much she's improved as a solo singer. In her first album there are some pretty good songs that are hindered by her vocal issue, like Yakusoku no Yoake (very sloppy vocal performance but the song is fairly hard and kinda out of Wakana's also very limited tessitura, though hers is not as limited as Hikaru's). Kinmokusei(?) and some other songs also have this issue. On magic moment album though, she showed excellent songs choice. The songs are pretty much in her tessitura, she sounded more relaxed singing them (though relaxed is a loose term as Wakana tends to constrict her throat when singing), and Wakana successfully belted in some of them. Girl needs to work on her head voice though, she still sounds like chicken whenever she tries to use them. magic moment album itself is imho excellent and is much better than Kalafina's fotw.
Keiko just needs to work with better producers and composers. I'm waiting for her album in September that hopefully will have some good/decent songs. be yourself showed that she has the range and inochi no hana showed that she's great at singing on the register people know her for, but both songs are just very mehhhh.
Kaori is the same with Keiko. A fairly good singer stuck singing meh songs. I don't hate her songs but I don't care for 90% of her discography. They're almost all fairly forgettable.
Yuriko's solo is snorefest at its finest. Sad. They're all kinda good when you're trying to sleep though due to how sleep inducing they are. I don't think I liked even one song from her Kaiida mini album and her other one mini album. I'll give them another try tonight and refresh my memory.
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BuradoChi
I adore Yuki
I for myself do not care that much for the text but how the song is performed. About the three Kalafina Girls i cant say that much except that i liked Hikarus "Determination" and i loved Keikos "Nobody Knows you" since her deep voice was good in display. About Kaori, i think she could have been more successful if she had decided to make for Brilliant World and Calling atleast a PV or started her Solo-Career a bit later and went to another Label than Team Entertainment (one that makes you known to a larger audience with maybe ten times of Fans then the Label she is now). I mean the looks and vocal talents for kinda succesful Jpop does she have, so why not. Is she really so much worse than most Japanese Singers and even most Westerners are not that good. But maybe my Bias speaks out. I find it kinda funny, that every singer that worked with Yuki before they get a bit known does not be succesful when they are without Yuki, although the Kalafina Girls i think did not start too bad. PS: I think there are some songs per Kaoris Albums that i think that stood out for me (Place: Honki no uso; Colors: Addicted, Escape, Grasps; Make it: Change, Trap; Gift: Working, mindscape, savanna no hayate, stole my heart, theatrium, run-limit; Flowers: Alstroemeria, Inori Megurite, Cleome, Blazing Star. I also liked some of her songs that were not that much related to her Team Entertainment Songs like her Onizuka Songs or the Gunslinger Stratos Songs etc..
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Now that all 3 have solo albums (technically Hikaru had some but they were strictly limited releases), I can compare their works so far, since it's also been, what, 4 years since Kalafina's disbandment.
Hikaru has some my favourite songs among the 3 (granted I'm a big fan of anison so that's not a surprise), but on a whole her discography is dragged down by the same-y boring indie songs she releases on YouTube, and her vocal technique. Her first album is a solid 7/10 but it could have been a lot better with more album-original songs instead of recycling her singles and B-sides. While she's singing in a much lower tessitura than during Kalafina, she can't control her voice with dynamics (it's either a terrible soft voice or a terrible loud voice) and her lack of range prevents her from singing better songs since there are only so many melodies you can make with one octave. I like her vocal performances in Avaricia, Ambient Border, Alternate (acoustic) and Gira gira especially, but the rest is a big miss. She either needs a complete vocal reset, or just get surgery for her nodules. Some great songs, most of them being decidedly meh, vocals need a lot of work.
Wakana is overall more consistent. Lots of ballads and with the occasional upbeat song. I like both her albums (Ruriiro no Sora and Ai no Hana from her first album are 10/10 songs, with where and magic moment in her second album take the cake). Even the acoustic album is fantastic (Rain is gorgeous). Her voice has certainly gotten a lot stronger (that belt during the magic moment live actually gave me goosebumps), but her head voice, oy it has declined so much. She doesn't even use it, opting for her much weaker falsetto instead. She just needs to not place her voice so high in her nose, changing vocal placement is singing 101, so I don't get why she still chooses to sing so honkily, on top of losing her vibrato completely. She does this annoying thing at the end of her lines where she drops the note - once you notice it, you can't un-hear it. Overall, her songs are good, vocals are so-so, it could be a lot worse.
Keiko...it's really sad looking at her solo career. While it didn't sell as badly as Hikaru's (I blame that on a complete lack of promotion), Keiko showed the most promise with a solo career since she had it all - the looks, the vocal chops, the stage presence. It's really sad that 95% of her songs are downright bad, either from terrible vocal choices (Hajimari wa and Ray) or just being bad songs themselves (Be Yourself is a walking disaster, every one of her rock songs are some of the worst I've ever heard). The other 5% are great (Tameiki, Tooriame, lost - that's it). She suffers from an identity crisis, since she has no direction or genre she wants to pursue. She has the technique to be amazing in all of them, we've seen that from Kalafina and FJ, but her composers are, for lack of a better word, incompetent. I've read somewhere this is what Keiko likes to listen to, but she can't be serious - her discography is a far cry from the Kpop and Jpop she listens to (she has said she likes Twice and SNSD, but their songs are FAR better despite being mainstream). None of Keiko's songs would even be considered mainstream since they're neither catchy nor listenable. If I had a choice, I'd want Kajiura to be her composer, but not in the vein of Nanairo no Finale, that was bad. Kajiura's recent singles from Lisa, Aimer and Hinano have been so good, like, 2007 Kalafina good. If Keiko sang those kinds of songs instead of...whatever she's doing, she'd be way more successful.
So, overall, Wakana > Hikaru >>>>>>>>>>> Keiko
But vocally Keiko >>> Wakana >>>>>>>>> Hikaru.
Hikaru has some my favourite songs among the 3 (granted I'm a big fan of anison so that's not a surprise), but on a whole her discography is dragged down by the same-y boring indie songs she releases on YouTube, and her vocal technique. Her first album is a solid 7/10 but it could have been a lot better with more album-original songs instead of recycling her singles and B-sides. While she's singing in a much lower tessitura than during Kalafina, she can't control her voice with dynamics (it's either a terrible soft voice or a terrible loud voice) and her lack of range prevents her from singing better songs since there are only so many melodies you can make with one octave. I like her vocal performances in Avaricia, Ambient Border, Alternate (acoustic) and Gira gira especially, but the rest is a big miss. She either needs a complete vocal reset, or just get surgery for her nodules. Some great songs, most of them being decidedly meh, vocals need a lot of work.
Wakana is overall more consistent. Lots of ballads and with the occasional upbeat song. I like both her albums (Ruriiro no Sora and Ai no Hana from her first album are 10/10 songs, with where and magic moment in her second album take the cake). Even the acoustic album is fantastic (Rain is gorgeous). Her voice has certainly gotten a lot stronger (that belt during the magic moment live actually gave me goosebumps), but her head voice, oy it has declined so much. She doesn't even use it, opting for her much weaker falsetto instead. She just needs to not place her voice so high in her nose, changing vocal placement is singing 101, so I don't get why she still chooses to sing so honkily, on top of losing her vibrato completely. She does this annoying thing at the end of her lines where she drops the note - once you notice it, you can't un-hear it. Overall, her songs are good, vocals are so-so, it could be a lot worse.
Keiko...it's really sad looking at her solo career. While it didn't sell as badly as Hikaru's (I blame that on a complete lack of promotion), Keiko showed the most promise with a solo career since she had it all - the looks, the vocal chops, the stage presence. It's really sad that 95% of her songs are downright bad, either from terrible vocal choices (Hajimari wa and Ray) or just being bad songs themselves (Be Yourself is a walking disaster, every one of her rock songs are some of the worst I've ever heard). The other 5% are great (Tameiki, Tooriame, lost - that's it). She suffers from an identity crisis, since she has no direction or genre she wants to pursue. She has the technique to be amazing in all of them, we've seen that from Kalafina and FJ, but her composers are, for lack of a better word, incompetent. I've read somewhere this is what Keiko likes to listen to, but she can't be serious - her discography is a far cry from the Kpop and Jpop she listens to (she has said she likes Twice and SNSD, but their songs are FAR better despite being mainstream). None of Keiko's songs would even be considered mainstream since they're neither catchy nor listenable. If I had a choice, I'd want Kajiura to be her composer, but not in the vein of Nanairo no Finale, that was bad. Kajiura's recent singles from Lisa, Aimer and Hinano have been so good, like, 2007 Kalafina good. If Keiko sang those kinds of songs instead of...whatever she's doing, she'd be way more successful.
So, overall, Wakana > Hikaru >>>>>>>>>>> Keiko
But vocally Keiko >>> Wakana >>>>>>>>> Hikaru.
CloisteredFlame
Sailor Yuki
Kaori is actually a more versatile singer than I think she's given credit for, and she has incredible stage presence and good vocal stamina (and always knows where the camera is, and gives to it, i.e. to the non-live audience).
She also has the best pop mix voice in FJ, period! And let's forget her heady mix and voice (listen again to her high harmony supporting ASCA and ReoNa singing SnF at the NHK Japan World show). Her register switching abilities are delightful.
What do you think about this "identity" issue, now? Is she better defined or does she need to release another album to prove that? Her most compelling recent work (though not too groundbreaking stylistically) track was from Kajiura once again...
I think Keiko is more of a singer that is excellent (and confident) at working within and shaping a pre-existing vision given to her, i.e. Kajiura's music, or the classic Japanese covers she does on her channel.
What is obvious is that her songs must be written firmly in her middle range, with limited belting still in that range and only open up for some high parts in the chorus maybe the 2nd or 3rd time around.
In "Yuyami no Uta", her high parts were in strong head voice but not really belted - I'm sure Kajiura worked that out with her. The song is anisong but Kajiura-style and includes two (low and high) harmonies: not common in solo anisong, I think.
Being able to create multiple tracks in the same style and genre is important for an artist's identity, unless they're musical freaks like Ringo Shiina.
I think that range limitation is actually a challenge for her to overcome (if it's going to be a permanent state) through quality music and creativity.
I mean, she sang Kalafina music with this same voice (though progressively worsening) and really it was the quality of the melody/harmony she was singing that allowed her already-strained voice to still shine in parts (together with her own strong stage presence) within the songs' framework.
Great music always elevates the singer to a higher level, in my opinion, especially with beautiful surrounding instrumentation. That's the reason why I'm obsessed to hear Joelle and other new singers sing Kajiura's music, to hear how their voices play in her playground.
When I think about Hikaru and the range challenge, a singer/artist that often comes to my mind, from another country (The Philippines) who also lost her ability to sing high notes in her teen years (due to over-use and poor technique leading to getting polyps), but since reinvented herself is “KZ Tandingan”, an incredibly talented performer. She cannot seemingly belt above a C5, though she was a high belter when she was younger.
Hope you don’t mind, but I’ll just share a couple of her covers from a Chinese show “Singer” back in 2018. She's known for her genre- bending covers of well known hits that are as good as/sometimes outshine the originals.
https://youtu.be/wIJC5N4MEZk?si=aMaYLNthVfalHGhz
Rolling in the Deep (Adele).
[Bear with the beginning section with autotune
].I'm not saying she is equivalent to Hikaru. They are very different in terms of voices. personality, stylistically, and maybe influences, though there might be a little bit of overlap from listening to American divas.
The similarity: They are both open to being experimental and they seemingly come alive on the stage (as if they have stage personas!).
My point is: I feel Hikaru needs to tap into all the depths and aspects of her creativity and personality to craft a compelling artistic identity since she cannot be a high belter for the JPOP market. She needs creative composers and a brand team who can see her potential (and she should never dye her hair gray ever again - talk about brand confusion).
Is it possible that the anisong focus could have actually been limiting Hikaru?
Both Kajiura songs written for Keiko were pretty garbage, ngl. Nanairo no Finale is straight up one of the worst songs Kajiura has EVER written, while Yuuyami no Uta is the same 5-note melody repeated to high and hell. Keiko's voice is great in the song, but the song itself is not good.
There's a difference between an artist successfully pulling off many genres (Kalafina, but even many other artists like Park Ki Young, Sohyang, Ali) and an artist who tries to sing songs in different genres but doesn't nail any one of them (Keiko). The most recognisable thing about Keiko is her voice, but that simply isn't enough to make her songs listen able. It somehow manages to be simultaneously forgettable, generic and confused all at the same time.
She has:
- garbage tier rock songs (Michitte Kakeru, Nobody Knows You and the like)
- garbage tier pop songs (the entire Cutlery album, Be Yourself omg that's trash, Sakura wo Goran)
- okay-to-alright ballads (Tooriame, Inochi no Hana, Yugao)
- try hard "easy listening" songs (latte,
I think that range limitation is actually a challenge for her to overcome (if it's going to be a permanent state) through quality music and creativity.
I mean, she sang Kalafina music with this same voice (though progressively worsening) and really it was the quality of the melody/harmony she was singing that allowed her already-strained voice to still shine in parts (together with her own strong stage presence) within the songs' framework.
Great music always elevates the singer to a higher level, in my opinion, especially with beautiful surrounding instrumentation. That's the reason why I'm obsessed to hear Joelle and other new singers sing Kajiura's music, to hear how their voices play in her playground.
When I think about Hikaru and the range challenge, a singer/artist that often comes to my mind, from another country (The Philippines) who also lost her ability to sing high notes in her teen years (due to over-use and poor technique leading to getting polyps), but since reinvented herself is “KZ Tandingan”, an incredibly talented performer. She cannot seemingly belt above a C5, though she was a high belter when she was younger.
Hope you don’t mind, but I’ll just share a couple of her covers from a Chinese show “Singer” back in 2018. She's known for her genre- bending covers of well known hits that are as good as/sometimes outshine the originals.
https://youtu.be/wIJC5N4MEZk?si=aMaYLNthVfalHGhz
Rolling in the Deep (Adele).
[Bear with the beginning section with autotune
].I'm not saying she is equivalent to Hikaru. They are very different in terms of voices. personality, stylistically, and maybe influences, though there might be a little bit of overlap from listening to American divas.
The similarity: They are both open to being experimental and they seemingly come alive on the stage (as if they have stage personas!).
My point is: I feel Hikaru needs to tap into all the depths and aspects of her creativity and personality to craft a compelling artistic identity since she cannot be a high belter for the JPOP market. She needs creative composers and a brand team who can see her potential (and she should never dye her hair gray ever again - talk about brand confusion).
Is it possible that the anisong focus could have actually been limiting Hikaru?
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grunty
I have reached Yuki nirvana
Not to be defensive but Kajiura only provided the basic music and (presumably) melody, the rest was up to Keiko and her producers. Interestingly, as you are pointing out, they sadly can't seem to do much with other tracks either.
CloisteredFlame
Sailor Yuki
I think I'm with @grunty on this, and even from a defensive place as he put it.
No vocal direction or arrangement from Kajiura. No counterpoint (I imagine Kajiura could have incorporated some). No swelling Konno strings. Basically no life added to the "simple" melodies she gave to Keiko.
Keiko's team didn't know what to do with the basics Kajiura gave them - she wasn't gong to do their with for them! I mean, she even put in her usual key changes from pre-chorus to chorus.
You're not wrong in your basic premise. Sohyang for example works with a strong musical team (and is a music professor herself) so there's a lot of arrangement work done for her covers of classics. Same with KZ Tandingan (she's not a professor as far as I know).
Keiko (and I suspect Wakana too) still need strong direction and a vision from a producer/mentor to get the best from them. It's Hikaru that seems more independent in that sense.