Music Review: Kra / 星空列車の汽笛を聞きながら (Hoshizora Ressha no Kiteki wo Kikinagar
1. 時の列車 (Toki no Ressha) [watch]
2. 街の灯 (Machi no Hi)
3. ﾀﾞｲｱﾘｰ (Diary)
4. 行方知れぬ時 (Yukue Shirenu Toki)
5. 天の川逃避行 (Ama no Gawa Touhikou)
1. 時の列車 / The melody is absolutely beautiful. The arrangement sounds simple, yet perfectly suitable. Just as I was getting into the track, however, Keiyuu started singing. Keiyuu's voice is dull. It also lacks the finesse and clarity of tone needed to pull this one off. I'm not saying his vocals is bad, just entirely average and therefore uninteresting. This song might have become one of my all-time favorites if only it was done by a better vocalist. Though, I'd like to see Toki no Ressha arranged into an orchestral piece. I'm certain it'd sound freaking amazing. ♥
2. 街の灯 / This is a quite pretty jazz-influenced track. Yet once again, I'm not taken with Keiyuu's vocals. It's entirely too restrained. He needs to sing with a fuller voice and not hold back.
3. ﾀﾞｲｱﾘｰ / 4. 行方知れぬ時 / 5. 天の川逃避行 / See my comments above about the vocals. All of these songs suffer from the same problem. I'm not going to bother typing it out again. I also feel that these songs lack harmonic complexity, as if the band's cutting corners when putting the music together. While it was okay with Toki no Ressha because the gorgeous melody made up for the arrangement simplicity, this simplicity is a defect in these songs.
It's a shame. This otherwise promising mini album is held back by the mediocre vocals. There's a lot of room for arrangement improvement, too. I'm considering not touching Kra's releases again until either Keiyuu improves his singing or the group gets a new vocalist. However, that wouldn't be fair. So instead, I'll give them more chances in the future.
Rating: Tolerable
