Keys to Everything

1. 5:09a.m
2. Haneari Tamago
3. Biidama
4. SMILY
5. U-Boat
6. Neko ni Fuusen
7. Cherish
8. Ramen 3 Fun Cooking
9. Tokyo Midnight
10. Planterium
11. Birthday Song
12. LOVE MUSIC

Despite downloading this aeons ago, I’ve never listened to it properly, but I wanted something to post so here it goes.

5:09a.m is very pretty. The song feels quite detatched musically with the main melody being pretty laid back and the percussion doing some very interesting things in the back ground. Ai’s voice is very tame during the verses, and though her voice is usually quite childish, her natural tone makes the song a lot stronger. I was never expecting what happened halfway through. Suddenly the sound just explodes at you and Ai’s vocal is like I’ve never heard it before. Unfortunately the song just ends. I think that the sound explosion should have been repeated at least once before we had to say goodbye to 5:09a.m. But, oh well, can’t win them all.

Track Rating; A-

Haneari Tamago follows 5:09a.m. by being as laid back, musically and vocally. I’d never really appreciated Ai’s slow song voice until Hoshi no Tango on the Love Piece album (I know, I’m doing everything backwards) but now I realise how strong her delivery is and how much of a great listen it is. Soft and subtle with a simple chorus and sensitive instrumentation. I can’t believe how flowery that last line sounds.

Track Rating; A-

Biidama is a bit more poppy than the previous two tracks and it definitely works. Ai’s cuter voice comes through here, not as much as songs like CHU-LIP but along the same lines. I love the little organ pieces, they add a slightly Sesame Street feel to it… Well, at least that’s how it feels to me Biidama is a cute song, for a cute word and a cute singer.

Track Rating; A

SMILY . I don’t really think much of the chorus here, I find it a little off the path that the rest of the song seems to be going on and I don’t think that the instrumentation really fits the vocal that Ai’s offering. SMILY follows well after Biidama but I’m inclined to listen to the previous track more. I like it more and SMILY leaves me kind of not-caring.

Track Rating; B

U-Boat definitely has an interesting title, and a fitting one, considering I just had a History exam today. U-Boat leans more towards pop-rock than the others and I really like it. Ai varies her vocal tone beautifully from normal to cutesy and back again and the little interjecting effects during the chorus are nice. U-Boat has the tendency to get stuck in my head, even though it’s not really the usual addictive, get stuck in your head type song.

Track Rating; A/A+

Neko ni Fuusen reminds me a lot of a British artist, KT Tunstall. It has an aura around it that feels quite chill-downy and comforting, like most of Tunstall’s work. The verses are slow-ish but they allow Ai to inject some great vocals into it. I think the thing that impresses me most with Neko ni Fuusen is the intelligent use of strings here and there. They add a lot to the song and I get the feeling that this paragraph would read a lot differently if they weren’t there.

Track Rating; A+

Cherish sounds very futuristic in the beginning, a little bit Perfume, a little bit Enigma. The introduction is brilliant and a real standout of the track. The rhythm section feels as if it should be something from the score of a Resident Evil movie for the first verse, which is good, because the first RE had a really innovative score. Once again, there’s a strong intelligent use of stringed instruments which can only add to the track and Ai shows her simply brilliant passive-yet-strong vocals. In other words, Cherish is pretty damn epic and one of the songs you need to hear at least once before you die, even if Otsuka Ai is not usually your style.

Track Rating; A*

Ramen 3 Fun Cooking is definitely very different from Cherish! The telephone thing is just amazingly random. Only Otsuka Ai could make a song this random but still be stupidly addictive. She hardly lets the guy get a word in edgeways though! It’s got a very strong style which is really quite hard to explain, but it throws a lot of things together doing their own things and somehow it manages to come out sounding pretty organised. But only if you don’t concentrate on the instrumentals too hard, then you get a real feeling of ‘How the hek could this ever work?’ I think the only problem with this track is that it sounds a little…. unusual (understatement) after Cherish.

Track Rating; B

Tokyo Midnight hits on 30s nightclub jazz to open and then randomly goes into Reel Big Fish type ska! Ai sounds a little bored though, I’m not ordinarily one to fault Ai’s energy, but this time time it seems like she’s just singing the song and not really getting that involved with it. Which is quite an accomplishment, considering the usually hyper nature of ska in general. Despite all that, the melody is great and gets you bobbing your head along, for sure.

Track Rating; B+

Planetarium has a beautiful introduction. Hands down, one of the best uses of woodwind in a pop song ever! The melody is truly haunting, with its ups and downs, but the strength of the song truly lies in the entrance into the chorus, it’s such a strong line. And again, during the chorus a truly awesome use of woodwind. It makes it sound a little Celtic (probably why I’m fixating on it so much)

Track Rating; A*

If I thought that the organ in Biidama sounded a little bit Sesame Street then I swear Birthday Song is from Sesame Street.  I love the happy-bluesy harmonica things and the overall instrumental, Ai sounds like she’s having fun at least! My only real issue with this is probably the amount of times she sings ‘happy birthday’ goes into the hundreds I’m sure. I realise that those two words do make-up almost the entirety of the chorus… but it does get a little excessive by the time you hit the second chorus.

Track Rating; B-/B

And finally LOVE MUSIC. Ah. Finishing an album with a ballad/slow-song. By now you should realise how much that does not suit me. I have nothing against the song… In fact it’s one of my favourites… it just irritates me if most of an album is made-of slow/mid-tempo-ish songs and the last song is a ballad. But anyway, back to the song. One word; Strings… I’ve said it all before. I adore Ai’s voice in this, it sounds mature and fits the tune so well!

Track Rating; A+

Overall…. I believe I like this album a lot more than Love Piece. Where Love Piece had it’s incredibly strong tracks (CHU-LIP, Frienger, Hoshi no Tango) and some weak ones, relatively or in execution, (Katori Senkou springs to mind) Love Cook is very, very consistant. Though I am aware that many people loved songs like Katori Senkou I just don’t find them appealing and Love Cook, on the whole seems to be my kind of album.

Overall; A+