Search - Maaya Sakamoto :: Maaya Sakamoto - Easy Listening

A Short Wonder from Sakamoto and Kanno!

mars042 | Cali | 05/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although this album is only a mini-album, it is a wonderful treasure coming from the combined talents of Yoko Kanno (under the name of Hog, for some unknown reason) and Maaya Sakamoto. Each song is in a different style, and she has two songs on here that are in English (she always has obligatory English songs on her albums)As with all of her releases, Maaya's voice is beautiful on this album.
1. Inori- A catchy track, this song has both mysterious lyrics and a mysterious sound; it uses a wonderful overlay of Maaya's voice.
2. Blind Summer Fish- A fairly pop-ish track, but in a good way. This song just makes a person feel good when she/he listens to it; it is both catchy and uplifting. Plus, how can anyone dislike a song that repeats "Blind Summer Fish" in the chorus over and over?
3. Doreddo 39- A song with a heavy middle eastern flavor, it is actually one of my favorites on the album. Maaya really uses her voice to its full potential here and the lyrics are very interesting.
4. Afternoon Repose- Here is the only track that I would actually call "easy listening" on the whole album. The first track in English, it is what I would call "quaint." Not bad.
5. Bitter Sweet- The only weak song on the cd... Yoko must have been attempting to have Maaya try an R&B style song... its not bad, but it is probably my least favorite Maaya song. In defense of it however, Maaya gives her voice a nice mature quality throughout and if the background music hadn't been so distracting, it probably would have been a much better song.
6. Another Grey Day in the Big Blue World- The second English track. This song is beautiful beyond words. Maaya and a piano for the most part, this song features beautiful melodies, excelent English from Maaya, and sad yet powerful lyrics. This one is at times my favorite on the album.
7. Birds- The final track and my other favorite. Using both bag pipes, piano, and guitar for instrumentation, this song is a wonderful uplifting tune with Maaya's wonderful lyrics and voice. It just makes you want to fly when the guitar comes in for the chorus!
All sorts of styles of music are packed into only 40 minutes worth of music; despite the short length, this may in fact be the best Maaya album to be released as of today!"