樹海の月 (Moon of the Sea of Trees) is lela's second mini-album and was released by Sony Music Entertainment on the 22 June, 2010. All the lyrics were written by lela and all music was composed by Hiroaki Ohno.
受胎の月 (Pregnant Moon)
月光 (Moonlight)
snow fairy
空～カラカラ～ (Sky (Dry))
国 (Country)
紫陽花 (Hydrangeas)
樹海の月 (Moon of the Sea of Trees)
時間 (Hours)
樹海の月～traditional folk version～ (Moon of the Sea of Trees (Traditional Folk Version)
01 受胎の月
Jutai no Tsuki, which means "Moon of Conception" or "Pregnant Moon", is our first track and begins ethereal singing. lela's music tends to have this cluttered feeling and there are many sounds for you to hear. Jutai is no different with synths and acoustic guitar. lela's singing is, of course, is very nice. I rather like the line "Without light, truth shines here".
02 月光
Gekkou, a cover of Chihiro Onitsuka's song was lela's first single (which was released digitally) and the only single of the album. When I first heard this song, I wasn't too sure about it, but it has grown on me a lot. I still think however that her voice doesn't have the power to support such a song. Musically this song was fantastically arranged and that is a redeeming feature; lela truly made it her own song.
I like how the song crescendos towards the end.
03 snow fairy
This song opens with a lovely flourish and violin notes. This is very beautiful and although lela's voice is processed it isn't to the point where it annoys me. The music is gorgeous and I can see myself really liking this song. Even though I can't understand what she's singing, I just know that this song is full of emotion and lela's voice transmits this exceedingly well. At the end of the song, the music, to my surprised, becomes very upbeat. I have to say it works very well! I do like this song!
04 空～カラカラ～
Sora (Karakara) comes next and is probably the most surprising thing so far. The music is light and acoustic and there's an air of joy in lela's voice, something I haven't really heard before so this is very refreshing! I can see myself singing along to this song sometime in the future. It's very jovial and I'm glad lela is branching out her sound.
05 国
Kuni starts with an electric guitar and is oddly infectious, but we seem to be back to the melancholy already. It may just be me, but this song is rather jazzy and rather minimalist compared to other songs we've heard so far.
06 紫陽花
Ajisai (the Japanese name for hydrangeas) is the shortest song on the album at just 1:17 and is an instrumental. The strings carry this song beautifully and at points lela ad libs to the melody. Bravo!
07 樹海の月
Jukai no Tsuki (don't confuse with the similarly titled Jutai no Tsuki) is the title track of the album and the one I've been waiting to hear the most. It opens up quietly and ominously. The music is very dark as is lela's low, gliding voice. I really enjoy listening to the guitar work in this song and from what I can hear, the lyrics are absolutely stunning. I love how she sings the bridge. The song ends with her lyrics being sung backwards, creepy!
08 時間
Jikan is the final song on this album and we are greeted by some mediaeval wind instruments, strings and a harpsichord. It then turns rather quiet and melancholy as lela's voice is accompanied by solely a piano. After the chorus more instrumentation comes in but it doesn't take from the songs simplicity. Again, I love how lela sings this song. Surprisingly the song again explodes into the mediaeval melodies of the intro and it all meshes together perfectly. lela's composer deserves to win an award!
09 樹海の月～traditional folk ver.～
Like with her previous effort, the title track gets a remix and this time it promises "tradition folk" (the last one was "dub step"). Instantly we can hear this is different. There's just lela singing to an acoustic guitar and the feeling is very unplugged. In the chorus, a flute(?) enters, but the main focus is on lela's voice always. I think I prefer this version's arrangement to the original due to its exquisite simplicity!
Although I can't judge the lyrics, I can definitely hear that for Jukai no Tsuki, lela has progressed sonically. The songs fit together well even though they have their own sound whereas on her previous album the songs were forgettable and seemed to mesh into one.
I enjoyed hearing lela experiment with her singing techniques and I do love how well she conveys emotion.
Hits:
snow fairy, 国, 紫陽花, 樹海の月～traditional folk ver.～, 時間
Misses:
月光
No comments:
Post a Comment