grunty
I have reached Yuki nirvana
For shits and giggles since nothing's really happening right now. Part Deux.
Let's refresh our memories with Yuki Kajiura tracks that got MAKEOVERS over time. (Note: expanded to multiple studio versions, rather than just makeovers/selfcovers - more on that below.) I imagine I've not listened to some of these studio recordings in years, as I'm usually going back to versions that I remember liking (or very rarely go back at all if I am satisfied with their YKlive appearances). Excited to revisit them. Would you consider them successes or flops?
In your replies please vote for your favorite versions from choices provided OR say that you don't like any version of the song. Try to be specific with a year/album/performer, if the song title alone isn't enough to differentiate versions. If I somehow missed a studio recording (of a song in discussion) that you like, please specify! (More on that below.) To be honest I'm also thinking we could skip the voting part and just chat about it. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Before I start blogging (there's more of it below), take a look at recordings to discuss this week:
Wall of text:
I originally wanted to make a thread for discussing YK's selfcovers only but then I kept adding more and more tracks and loosening criteria and as of now my list stands at over 50 titles (each with several studio versions to discuss). That's obviously too many recordings to talk about at once so I decided to try making it into a weekly thing for forum engagement. We'll see how that goes - hopefully the thread doesn't die immediately.
I'm thinking of posting 2-3 SETS of recordings in the middle of every week (not more than 7 recordings total) so there's hopefully enough time for everyone to listen & discuss them around weekends. Just to give it a bit of a random feeling, I'm going to try posting one set chronologically, one set alphabetically (alternating asc./desc.), one set random (though it ended up being the last one alphabetically in the first week, lol, some luck); and avoid repeating artists or shows/albums in the same week. You should get the idea from the first set. I know I already went over that aforementioned 7 recordings limit - do comment, if you feel this is already too many recordings to discuss for one week...
Just because we will be moving on to new sets of titles every week, it shouldn't mean that you can't discuss songs that we had already talked about - just be specific in your posts. Previously discussed titles will be listed in a spoiler in one of the following posts.
My current list is a bit of a mess as far as my decisions & criteria go. I'm still on the fence about including certain recordings (with minimal differences compared to the original) but also feel bad about excluding them when I do include a similar version of another song for decent reasons (like comparing to a 3rd or 4th version)... Eh, it is what it is, nothing's ever perfect. I did make the decision to exclude:
Like in the previous poll thread, I will try to provide links to official youtube uploads, which hopefully work internationally - drop a comment if they don't. As some of these tracks are more obscure, there may not be official uploads available unfortunately. I'll try having a version up on mega, if there's absolutely nothing on youtube.
Let's refresh our memories with Yuki Kajiura tracks that got MAKEOVERS over time. (Note: expanded to multiple studio versions, rather than just makeovers/selfcovers - more on that below.) I imagine I've not listened to some of these studio recordings in years, as I'm usually going back to versions that I remember liking (or very rarely go back at all if I am satisfied with their YKlive appearances). Excited to revisit them. Would you consider them successes or flops?
In your replies please vote for your favorite versions from choices provided OR say that you don't like any version of the song. Try to be specific with a year/album/performer, if the song title alone isn't enough to differentiate versions. If I somehow missed a studio recording (of a song in discussion) that you like, please specify! (More on that below.) To be honest I'm also thinking we could skip the voting part and just chat about it. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Before I start blogging (there's more of it below), take a look at recordings to discuss this week:
WEEK #17
Sekai no Hate 2003 / Saeko Chiba 2023 / FJ ver. | fairytale 2008 / original 2016 / with strings ver. | moonlight melody 2017 / original 2023 / FJ ver. | Michiyuki 2005 / Kaori Hikita 2009 / FJ ver. | Hoseki 2004 / Marina Inoue 2009 / FJ ver. |
WEEK #17 BREAKDOWN
Sekai no Hate (2003 "melody" / Saeko Chiba album) Performance: Saeko Chiba listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura Keyboards & Programming: YUKI KAJIURA E.Guitar: HIROSHI FURUKAWA Cello: AYANO KASAHARA |
Sekai no Hate (2023 "PARADE" / FictionJunction album) Performance: FictionJunction feat. Aira Yuuki listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura feat. Aira Yuuki All Keyboard & Programming: Yuki Kajiura Guitar: Koichi Korenaga Drums: Kyoichi Sato Bass: Tomoharu "Jr." Takahashi Piano: Hirotaka Sakurada Hitoshi Konno Strings Violin: Hitoshi Konno Viola: Mikiyo Kikuchi Cello: Arisa Inamoto |
fairytale (2008 "fairytale" / Kalafina single) Performance: Kalafina listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura, Kinoko Nasu Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura All Keyboard & Programming: Yuki Kajiura Strings: Kido Strings Percussion: Tamao Fujii Chorus: Yuriko Kaida, Hanae Tomaru |
fairytale~with strings ver. (2016 Winter Acoustic "Kalafina with Strings" / Kalafina album) Performance: Kalafina listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura, Kinoko Nasu Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Hiromitsu Ishikawa All Chorus Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura Programming: Yuki Kajiura Conductor: Hiromitsu Ishikawa Strings: Hitoshi Konno Strings Violin: Hitoshi Konno, Masahiko Todo Viola: Sachie Oonuma Cello: Masateru Nishikata Piano: Hirotaka Sakurada |
moonlight melody (2017 Princess Principal OST "Sound of Foggy London") Performance: Dorothy (CV. You Taichi), Beatrice (CV. Akari Kageyama) listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura ALL Keyboards & Programming: Yuki Kajiura Strings: Hitoshi Konno Strings, Kiyo Kido Strings Violin: Kiyo Kido Viola: Amiko Watabe Cello: Masami Horisawa, Ayano Kasahara Flute: Rie Akagi Piano: Masato Matsuda Electric Guitar: Koichi Korenaga Acoustic Guitar: Koichiro Tashiro Drums: Hideo Yamaki, Kyoichi Sato Bass: Kenji Takamizu, Tomoharu "jr." Takahashi Sax: Atsushi Tsuzurano Vibraphone: Hitoshi Hamada Vocal: Remi Chorus: Yuriko Kaida Note: Full OST musicians. There's no track specific credits in the booklet. |
moonlight melody (2023 "PARADE" / FictionJunction album) Performance: FictionJunction feat. KAORI/KEIKO/YURIKO KAIDA/Joelle listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura feat. KAORI KEIKO YURIKO KAIDA Joelle All Keyboard & Programming: Yuki Kajiura Guitar: Koichi Korenaga Drums: Kyoichi Sato Bass: Tomoharu "Jr." Takahashi Flute: Rie Akagi Hitoshi Konno Strings Violin: Hitoshi Konno, Naomi Urushibara, Natsue Kameda, Yuri Kamei, Koki Kato, Aoi Serita, Masahiko Todo, Kyoko Ishigame, Shiori Watanabe, Yasuhiro Morimoto Viola: Mikiyo Kikuchi, Mei Mishina Cello: Arisa Inamoto, Yuki Shinozaki Contrabass: Koji Akaike |
Michiyuki (2005 "Tsuki no Curse/Michiyuki" / Reika Okina/Kaori Hikita single) Performance: Kaori Hikita listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Masayuki Sakamoto Chorus Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura (per vgmdb:) Guitar: Nozomi Furukawa Wood Bass: Hitoshi Watanabe Piano & Computer Program: Masayuki Sakamoto Strings: Gen Ittetsu Strings 1st: Gen Ittetsu 2nd: Takuya Mori Va: Crusher Kimura Vc: Kaori Morita Chorus: Mami Ishizuka |
Michiyuki (2009 "Everlasting Songs" / FictionJunction album) Performance: FictionJunction listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura All Arrangement & Programming: Yuki Kajiura Vocal: KAORI Chorus: YURIKO KAIDA, YUKI KAJIURA Violin: Kiyo Kido Violin: Noriyo Oobayashi Viola: Kaori Naruse Cello: Tomoya Kikuchi |
Hoseki (2004 "Hoseki" / Marina Inoue single) Performance: Marina Inoue listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura All Keyboards&Programming: YUKI KAJIURA E.Guitar: SUSUMU NISHIKAWA Bass: MECKEN Drums: MASAHARU ISHIKAWA Strings: KONNO HITOSHI GROUP Vocal: MARINA INOUE Vocal&Chorus: YURIKO KAIDA |
Hoseki (2009 "Everlasting Songs" / FictionJunction album) Performance: FictionJunction listen | Lyrics: Yuki Kajiura Music: Yuki Kajiura Arrangement: Yuki Kajiura All Arrangement & Programming: Yuki Kajiura Vocal: KEIKO Chorus: KAORI, WAKANA, YURIKO KAIDA Guitar: Koichi Korenaga Acoustic Guitar: Susumu Nishikawa Bass: Tomoharu "Jr." Takahashi Drums: Kyoichi Sato |
END OF WEEK
Wall of text:
I originally wanted to make a thread for discussing YK's selfcovers only but then I kept adding more and more tracks and loosening criteria and as of now my list stands at over 50 titles (each with several studio versions to discuss). That's obviously too many recordings to talk about at once so I decided to try making it into a weekly thing for forum engagement. We'll see how that goes - hopefully the thread doesn't die immediately.
I'm thinking of posting 2-3 SETS of recordings in the middle of every week (not more than 7 recordings total) so there's hopefully enough time for everyone to listen & discuss them around weekends. Just to give it a bit of a random feeling, I'm going to try posting one set chronologically, one set alphabetically (alternating asc./desc.), one set random (though it ended up being the last one alphabetically in the first week, lol, some luck); and avoid repeating artists or shows/albums in the same week. You should get the idea from the first set. I know I already went over that aforementioned 7 recordings limit - do comment, if you feel this is already too many recordings to discuss for one week...
Just because we will be moving on to new sets of titles every week, it shouldn't mean that you can't discuss songs that we had already talked about - just be specific in your posts. Previously discussed titles will be listed in a spoiler in one of the following posts.
My current list is a bit of a mess as far as my decisions & criteria go. I'm still on the fence about including certain recordings (with minimal differences compared to the original) but also feel bad about excluding them when I do include a similar version of another song for decent reasons (like comparing to a 3rd or 4th version)... Eh, it is what it is, nothing's ever perfect. I did make the decision to exclude:
- remixes not produced by YK (like old See-Saw remixes);
- efforts like "salva nos ~ dialogue remix ver." or "full size mix" ("kouya ruten ~full size mix" is pretty pointless and do many actually people go back to the shortened edits of "romanesque" or "I have a dream"?);
- lyric/vocal theme song expansions of BGMs, like "let the stars fall down"<=>"Manten". Taking them into consideration would put me in a position of including songs based on melodies/leitmotifs, rather than other full tracks. That means that even tracks like "el cazador"/"cazador del amor" and "Sagitta luminis"/"Hikariful" are excluded as of now.
Like in the previous poll thread, I will try to provide links to official youtube uploads, which hopefully work internationally - drop a comment if they don't. As some of these tracks are more obscure, there may not be official uploads available unfortunately. I'll try having a version up on mega, if there's absolutely nothing on youtube.
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