Last month, I received a request from Eijing Production, a Japanese music production company, to do a review on a few of their bands. Since I’m into Japanese music ranging from J-rock, J-pop and down to Kabuki, it piqued by interest and I agreed. They sent me sample mp3 for each of their artists for the said review. Though it took me an entire month to do this, because I’m lazy and busy at the same time, I still somehow managed to find time for it.

Before the review, I’ll have you know that I can’t read nor understand Japanese (besides a few words like Konichiwa, Arigato, and such). Therefore, I most probably wont say anything about the construction of the lyrics and such. I’ll be doing this review based only on what I think about their music only by the hearing level of it — melody, voice, and how it blends, etc.

AYAKO – Tanabata

First and foremost, AYAKO is very pretty! She’s someone who’ll really catch your eye and make your head turn around when you see her pass by on the streets. And in her single cover, she’s really pretty too, wearing a summer kimono! ?

I’m listening to a song called たなばた (Tanabata). I think this one is a single. You can get yourself a copy or listen to the sample song here.

Here’s the lyrics to the song, you might find it useful. Though I will skip talking about the lyrics, as I had stated above.

Tanabata

Lyrics: Ayako
Composer: Eidi Kakuno

Yozora no shita akari no nai michi no saki
Yasashiku fuku tanzaku no kaze
Sora wo miage futari kiri de boshi wo sagasu
Yukkuri to nagareru jikan

Tsutaeru koto dekinai
Anata wo omou kimochi

Hoshi ha hitotsu mo naku
Tada yami ni tsutsumarete
Ippo demo ii
Chikadzukitai sou omotta toki

Tatta hitotsu hotaruga hikatta
Kiesou dakedo tashikana hikari
Sou ni mukai te wo nobashite miru to
Todokisou… demo todokanai…
Nandaka kono kimochi mitai…

Yukkuri Yukkuri to nobotteku
Hotaru no hikari ni tsutsumarete

Kokoro no naka de onegai suru
zutto zutto zutto isshyo ni itai to

Review:

On the melody and composition side of it, I really love how this song started off with it’s soft intro. Although the song gives a tender feeling all throughout, the intro is always something that hits it, for me. It’s not too long (how I hate long intros) and not too short either. The song as an over all gives you a feeling of anticipation, peace and of a little sweetness. Something like the feeling of a love starting off and slowly changes to a sweet love story experience kind of thing. I can’t really say, but I think it’s a song of someone in love with someone (or something). And considering that the title is Tanabata, it’s definitely a love song!

In the case of the singer, AYAKO has a pretty nice voice. Her voice range is pretty high, too, I think. I’m not sure about how high her voice range can reach, and I might be wrong though, but I think she uses falsetto over the course of the entire chorus of the song. It might  just be my personal preference, but I’m not fond of the usage of too much falsetto on a song. In this song’s case, it makes the song sound a bit monotonous after the first chorus. I do believe that this song would sound better if she just uses her natural singing voice on it, rather than falsetto and add a bit more power into it.

And lastly, as an overall, I noticed that the background music is louder than the singer’s voice which makes it hard to listen to the song, in which same case that it also makes the repetitive melody very noticeable.

Edit: Regarding the last statement above, I realized that this is only of my copy of the song. The version uploaded in Amazon Japan has the singer’s voice louder than the background.

Other than those tiny detail, I like the song in an overall view. I’ll give this song a 6/10 score.

I’ll probably have my brother listen to this, too. He would probably love it. He likes Japanese love songs. And he’s the hopeless romantic type of guy who watches Twilight (I’m serious!) and other cheesy movies. Though I like love songs too, I more into the tragic love songs type. Like my all time favorite Saigo no Iiwake by Tokunaga Hideaki and Suga Shikao’s Yuudachi.