Check out the full PV on the promotional site.
The last time, Maaya went 1 for 6, not counting the remixed version of 30 minutes night flight. This time, chances are good she’ll go 1 for 2, but because of the B-side. From the preview, Mitsubachi to Kagakusha sounds like old hat, and I don’t expect it to be anything new, yet I’m expecting it all the same. Why? Because old hat means Old Maaya.
Old Maaya is breezy (but not Easy Breezy), from the bounce in her line to the backing zephyrs. Old Maaya commands a grin and an uncontrollable nodding of the head. Old Maaya is awesome.
When I first heard Saigo no Kajitsu, my immediate complaint was that the accompaniment was just there, and had little relation to her performance. This was easily corrected on my end: I turned up the volume, and Maaya got lost in the wash of sound. Not quite the improvement I was looking for.
Sweeping, upper register ballads demand a sensitive touch and power, one after the other, neither of which I heard from Maaya’s voice throughout the song’s duration. She remains in a narrow dynamic, which is subsequently drowned out. Loudness war at play?
When Yoko Kanno disappeared from the collaboration picture, a lot of the imagination in Maaya’s songs went with it. Dated and simplistic as Old Maaya may sound, she consistently nailed it. This is an acceptable kind of stagnation, but for her own development she needs a better producer.
Just today I saw a description of AKINO’s Lost in Time that billed her as “the next Maaya Sakamoto.” Not so fast; Maaya’s not going anywhere. It just disheartens me to say that knowing it’s true in more ways than one.
2 Comments
So I was the only one who liked Universe more than 30 minutes night flight? Check out the PV for a cross of something between Chobits’ metafiction “A City With No People” and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Saigo no Kajitsu is another matter though. I’m personally of the opinion that Maaya’s doing fine without Yoko Kanno, as the relative strength of her Yuunagi Loop album and Universe can attest to. The return to her old sound isn’t all that great due to how she’s been doing great in her new style so far. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, I say.
Maaya’s ballad-y songs aren’t bad, it’s not that she can’t sing them, but I don’t find much to latch on to.
I find that such songs are best enjoyed while in a rather particular state of mind, so if it doesn’t seize my attention at the beginning, or if I’m not otherwise prepared to listen to it, then it won’t register very high.
There’s only so much to go on given a streaming PV in terms of audio quality, so the balance issues may get fixed. That would elevate the track to just another decent ballad-y song, though.
A listen to Yuunagi Loop again might be warranted, as it’s been a while. I do remember Loop though, having, uh, looped it numerous times. It starts promising, but doesn’t go anywhere. There’s an interlude from a nifty sounding guitar that gave the song a lot of atmosphere, but it doesn’t have a prominent role again.
As for the songs on 30 minutes, the arrangements on most of the tracks felt thinner than they should have been. Enough for a bit of decoration, but that means the melody makes or breaks the song. It was usually the latter.
One Trackback
[...] but Maaya’s voice sounds rather plain, just like in Saigo no Kajitsu. In the context of easy listening, I put less weighting on technique and more on the creation of casual and sunny, the latter being [...]