Wakana solo career

I dont like how frail her voice sounds and the chorus is kinda eh but I do like the verses and prechorus quite a bit. Who knows itll probably grow on me
 
When your fanbase fell in love with you from power-pop like Kalafina, why release such bubblegum music for your solo career?

grunty said:
Kinda pretty but her voice has such a weird super fast vibrato now at times.
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Hasn't she always had that weird fast vibrato? To me it's kind of proof that her voice is flat. It's almost like the reason it's so fast is because there isn't enough depth to her vocal cords to vibrate fully. I heard it in almost every single song she's performed in old Kalafina songs and soundtrack songs. Maybe it's just more noticeable in her new songs because there aren't better vocalists to back her up & disguise it, or expertly arranged instrumentation around her vocals to dress it up properly... ? For example just listen to the first few stanzas of Ashita No Keshiki, it's very noticeable there.

(I'm sorry to be a hater 😢😢)
 
TRal55 said:
When your fanbase fell in love with you from power-pop like Kalafina, why release such bubblegum music for your solo career?
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Because this is what she enjoys singing, it would seem. And going by her lives, it really works better FOR HER than singing Kalafina/FJ.

TRal55 said:
(I'm sorry to be a hater 😢😢)
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Lol. You don't have to apologize to me (of all people) for comments like that, lol.

Iunno. It doesn't strike me as much in Ashita no Keshiki as in this. Maybe because the singing is not that delicate there and it's not on every other syllable short or long like here... Or maybe I was used to her voice texture back in the beginnings and this is just ???...
 
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TRal55 said:
Hasn't she always had that weird fast vibrato? To me it's kind of proof that her voice is flat. It's almost like the reason it's so fast is because there isn't enough depth to her vocal cords to vibrate fully. I heard it in almost every single song she's performed in old Kalafina songs and soundtrack songs. Maybe it's just more noticeable in her new songs because there aren't better vocalists to back her up & disguise it, or expertly arranged instrumentation around her vocals to dress it up properly... ? For example just listen to the first few stanzas of Ashita No Keshiki, it's very noticeable there.
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Her vibrato was fine pre AE. It was slightly faster than the other girls, but it was still vibrato. It had a slight change in pitch. Hers was probably the least stable, though, as she couldn't always produce it.
After the voice change it started to become tremolo, and it slowly got worse.
Her tremolo is one of the reasons why I can't stand her singing most pre-AE songs.
 
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Wow that is one of the lowest budget PVs I've ever seen. Song is kinda meh, and yeah it does sound like she's trying to sound lighter and brighter.

Keiko and Hikaru have very good, even vibratos. Keiko's in particular is some of the most consistent and beautiful vibrato I've heard, but it only ever started becoming that way from Consolation onwards. Hikaru has always had good vibrato, though with more variation in pitch. Wakana had an okay vibrato pre-AE because she had good breath support and wasn't singing from her throat and through her nose, but now it can't even be called vibrato. That tremolo is just part of her voice that I now just accept and move on. It's really caused by either tension in vocal cords, uneven breath support or straight up trying to fake a vibrato by choosing to vibrate her vocal cords super fast. It's a bad habit that singers will have trouble breaking out of without retraining from the ground up and work on breath fundamentals.
 
Code: 
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71TLfaEyILL.jpg
You know, I still like this cover and the other one - not so much.
 
EP is out on Spotify.

Eve is too short, which is a shame because it's the best track on the EP. It's only 1 minute but it's absolute bliss. Wakana should definitely keep to this classical style, and I'd be way more interested in her as an artist if more songs of this style are made.

Aki no Sakura is boring. Next.

Koi wa Itsumo sounds exactly a Twice song I can't remember. Like seriously, it's got bubblegum KPOP vibes all over, and I'm not sure I like it. Catchy, at least.

Orange is your standard mid-tempo pop ballad with a fairly out-of-fashion harmonica solo in the middle. It's better than her album tracks, though, and besides the harmonica, I quite like it.

Yuuyake is sleep-inducing like her album, but it's at least nice and gives me Saiunkoku Monogatari vibes. Not sure if that's a violin or erhu, but it's pretty.
 
Yuuyake is SO pretty, the instrumental reminds me of a relaxing town theme from a jrpg or something, and i really like her vocal delivery here a lot too
 
Eve: Would be better as an instrumental. I don't dislike her voice here, but the vocal part feels extra.
Koi wo itsumo: Reminds me of Justin Bieber's Baby, kek, and not because she says baby. Pretty unexpected for Wakana. I like it. It's catchy.
Orange: Meh. Don't really care for it.
Yuuyake: cozy vibe, but too boring.
 
So Wakana had travel from 80s to 2019 :dote:

From top to least favourite:

Eve - Make it longer please~~ Reminds me of some online game (Login screen music)
Koi wa Itsumo - A very catchy song, imagine a group of dancer behind her while singing this song live, with lots of bubbles flying around..
Aki no Sakura - Like how Wakana sounded here, sweet and romance.
Orange - Sounds like a standard b-track
Yuuyake - Ok-ish, chill and relax..

Eve became my second favourite song from Wakana. *(Kinmokusei still the best)

Please make Eve into a longer track plssssuu~~
 
"eve" is lovely and all but her voice is so all over the place...

"koi wa itsumo" -- cute! i think of bubblegum colours for a music video for this one.

Her head voice in "Yuuyake" is muy yuckie. Also her low notes do NOT NOT NOT work well with the instrumentation.

So I would really love it if she took her music towards the direction of "eve" and "Yakusoku no Yoake". Like some Celtic Women kinda shit. Mmph. Think her voice works better with more worldly genre instead of this poppy feel she's trying to get at.

Just my opinion! What do you guys think?
 
Atlas Star said:
L
So I would really love it if she took her music towards the direction of "eve" and "Yakusoku no Yoake". Like some Celtic Women kinda shit. Mmph. Think her voice works better with more worldly genre instead of this poppy feel she's trying to get at.

Just my opinion! What do you guys think?
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I agree with this 100%.
I think Wakana actually has a really unique voice that lets her make some really otherwordly sounds - we have all her works under Kajiura for example.

I feel that the problem with her solo career work is that it's made it very apparent that she's more a unique instrument that needs a producer who can use her properly rather than an artist with her own awareness of how to make the most out of her voice.

I've always thought Wakana sounded like a bell or a chime. Lots of ring, piercing but blends into accompaniment, but delicate. Her whole thing, all these years, have been that her tone is really fantastical and tragic - when used well.
So her voice always did the best at songs like Urumurasaki, Koibito no etc, and blendy Kajiurago chanting in overtures.

Now in her solo career, she's going down the basic pop route where her voice doesn't shine at all...

Even in her LIVE... you can see all the production points are so similar to the Kajiura lives - all the plain aspects of it all like not doing much on stage, random supermarket outfits etc - but she's missing what Kajiura LIVES had that made all of that acceptable: depth of sound, harmonies, and world building with the music, and general direction in any of the melodies and chord progressions.
The moment Musunde Hiraku, HikariFuru and Oblibious came on it was painfully obvious that they were a Kajiura songs. And the way she sang them without trying to phrase Keiko and Hikaru's parts really showed that she doesn't know how to interpret a score. She just delivers it.

She/her team just doesn't have a vision.
When you compare her work with Hikaru's youtube songs as H-el-ical... you can really feel a difference in vision. I guess it does help that Hikaru is such an otaku so natually all her work will have some worldliness to it.

I really didn't want to be such a hater. I love Wakana's voice. But I never realised how spoiled we were with Kajiuran Wakana until she started singing basic things...
 
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I like this album more than the 1st. She is getting more comfortable singing alone I think, even though in Aki Sakura she is kind of weak/shaky. I think it's still a pretty song. It's happy and there weren't too many of those for Kala. I mean, there were, but this style probably suits her more too.
Eve: I was waiting for lyrics but it's just ahhs like a prelude to something
Koi wo itsumo: I like this song a lot. It is catchy and yes, kind of pop-ish, but still good.
Orange: It's a nice relaxing song. I like the chorus a lot.
Yuuyake: It's so soothing. I can see Keiko coming in later in the song too, with her soothing voice. (Just a dream though)

I think she did a lot better with this one. :dote:
 
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