Mini-Album, Big Sound. Shigi – Kyomei (review)

In November, we saw the release of Shigi’s latest mini-album, entitled 共鳴 (Kyomei), which features both the the ending theme to the anime Kurozuka, as well as her contribution to the soundtrack for the Japanese action film Chamelon. Having seen the promotional video for her latest single “Kagayaita,” released last month, I had high expectations. Aside from being well written and beautifully produced, the latest single left me craving more. Unfortunately, this mini-album doesn’t entirely live up to those expectations.

Listen, and find out why after the jump.The CD opens with the single “Shoumei,” which was used in the motion picture Chameleon. It’s actually quite a fitting song for the film, conveying a sense of confusion and frustration. Much like the film, the piece provides an energetic feel with bursts of sound between sections. Compositionally speaking, it’s well written. The major issue I have comes in the form of the production itself. This track in particular features a wall of sound produced by layering guitars, acoustics, strings, etc. As a result, her voice tends to get lost in the mix, and listening to the song on anything but decent monitors makes it more obvious. Strangely, the second track “Omoi no Mama” seems beautifully produced. It features a string section and pop vocals, layered over guitars and drums. While I actually enjoyed this piece more than the first, it’s pretty much your standard fare for a pop/acoustic rock ballad.

“Shiroi Yami” is a high energy piece that features Shigi belting out lyrics with almost no regard for tonality. On one hand, I want to congratulate her for pointing out to us that she doesn’t rely on pitch correction— though I’d like to point out to her that the road goes both ways, almost jarringly so at times. The next track “Hanare Banashi” is a fresh arrangement of a piece she had released in 2003. As mentioned earlier, the piece was used for the anime Kurozuka. Both her singing and the arrangement remind me of something you may have heard from Do As Infinity, circa 2002–Of course, being a fan of Do As Infinity myself–I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

“Boku no Taiyou” features a similar instrumentation to “Omoi no Mama,” but includes a piano, written in 6/8. The production can come off as busy, and the instrumentation crowded at times, though the music itself is again fairly solid. Rounding out the album is an acoustic guitar arrangement of “Shoumei,” and like “Shiroi Yami,” suffers from a lack of pitch correction. Again, some of us may find this refreshing– at this point in album, I don’t. Still, the song itself is actually pretty good, and at least this arrangement allows you to hear the vocals quite clearly.

Glancing over the liner notes, I took note that Shigi wrote both the songs and lyrics, though a different producer was credited for almost each track. This leaves me wondering if the producer credit is used in both a production and arrangement capacity– it certainly explains the sometimes vast differences in production on each track. Though I was happy to see that Shigi wrote the music herself, had I heard this mini-album before her latest single, I might have decided to pass it up altogether. This mini-album dissapointed me, but her latest work gives me hope that her next album will be better– and auto-tune or not, I look forward to hearing it.

You can pick up the single on either CD Japan or Play Asia.