Color of Life
FUTURE FUNK
REMEMBER LADY
TYO
太陽がくれたプレゼント (Taiyou ga Kureta Present; Present from the sun)
Stay in my heart
月 (Tsuki; Moon)
SHININ’～虹色のリズム～ (SHININ’ ~Nijiiro no Rhythm~; SHININ’~Rainbow-colored rhythm~)
砂の城 (Suna no Shiro; Sand castle)
Angel
LUV PARADE
We Are The Music
Song For You
星の銀貨 (Hoshi no Ginka; Silver star coin)
SEA OF DREAMS
The album starts off with the African-esque Color of Life. I more often than not find myself absolutely loving Misia’s album openers, and this is no exception. Misia really comes up with some great beats and arrangements, I think I actually heard a flute in here, and the flow of the song was very airy and really made me think of Africa. The African dialect at the beginning had nothing to do with it, the whole song screams it really. The vocal performance from Misia was good as usual, I really never have a problem with her vocals. The ‘color of life!’ part of the chorus had to be the best part of the song.
The next track is the infectious and up-tempo FUTURE FUNK. When I first saw the title to this song, I was like please don’t let this be some psychedelic acid-trip. I knew I was going to love this when the beat started and the repeated, ‘lady!’ and ’shake it, shake it!’ bled through. Misia really has some damn good dance tracks, and this is top five. I love everything about this song, it’s so old school yet still has a modern flare to it. I mean Misia doesn’t really take advantage of this song on her tours, which is a shame, because this is a really good concert song and is more than guaranteed to get the crowd up and moving.
The next track on the album is the lovely and down-tempo REMEMBER LADY. It starts off with a beautiful and rather familiar piano solo, (like I seriously have heard this before in another song, but I can’t put my finger on what that song is). There’s also a snap, clap beat that becomes the dominant sound as the piano fades more into the background. Misia’s vocals were soft and smooth, and I loved how she sang, ‘remember lady’ it just came across so sad and longing like to me.
The next track is the utterly forgettable TYO. I have no idea what it stands for, and personally I don’t really care. It’s another up-tempo track, but in this case it doesn’t make you want to get up and dance as much as it makes you want to get up and change the song. I mean the beat is very static, I hardly cared for it, and thought it sounded like a whole bunch of noise. Misia’s voice was very loud in this track, and the background vocals were a little irritating. I don’t know this song isn’t all bad, maybe its pretty good live–because I didn’t like Ishindenshin at first, but when I heard it live, it blew me away and now I love it. Though I don’t think I will ever truly like TYO, it’s just not memorable at all.
The next track is the rather mellow 太陽がくれたプレゼント (Taiyou ga Kureta Present; Present from the sun). I don’t know why I didn’t like this song at first, maybe because at first listen it just seemed so boring to me. Misia doesn’t do much vocal wise, I mean her voice stays pretty consistent and at the same somewhat slow-pace, only changing a little towards the end when she starts aud-libbing. The arrangement has a really lovely Island beat to it, that makes it very calming and sweet. The atmosphere of the song is very intimate and peaceful, which makes this song a very nice listen.
The next track on the album is the down-tempo Stay in my heart. It starts off with Misia singing in acappella, which was rather nice and then it goes into the song. The song doesn’t try to do much but what it should, and I think that’s why I like it so much. The arrangement is very consistent and goes along perfectly with Misia’s strong and sincere vocal performance.
The next track on the album ups the pace just a bit, but is still relatively slow-paced. 月 (Tsuki; Moon) is similar to the previous track in which I can’t really say much about it, other than it’s a good song. I mean both songs were good while they played, but were forgotten once they ended. Tsuki features a good vocal performance from Misia, she put a lot of depth in her voice, mostly during the chorus, and it really made you feel it. I also like how her voice got high, and how the arrangement was there, but not intrusive.
The next track is the irritating SHININ’～虹色のリズム～ (SHININ’ ~Nijiiro no Rhythm~; SHININ’~Rainbow-colored rhythm~). This song is very hit or miss with me, but mostly miss. The arrangement is nice, the drums make everything very homely and Misia’s vocals are good as usual, its just that the song is just really annoying to me, mostly when Misia cries: ’shinin’ in my life!’ or something to that effect, its just really grating, that and the fact that the song isn’t really all that interesting.
The next track on the album is the lukewarm 砂の城 (Suna no Shiro; Sand castle). I liked the whole waltz of the arrangement, very beautiful and atmospheric. Misia’s vocal performance was strong as well, but very underwhelming and I’m not sure why that is so, since I did think she sung this song very well. I guess I was just hoping that it would be a power ballad or something, since the whole flow of the song just screams that. It seems very anti-climactic; I was hoping for some sort of climax and there just isn’t one–plus the song is very boring and forgettable.
The next track is the down-tempo and underwhelming Angel. You always have to have one of these. Anyways this song is pretty unimpressive, the arrangement is basic but nice I guess and Misia’s voical performance was a little much. This song is rather slow-paced, and it seemed like Misia was doing more than what was necessary which made the song impossible. It also seems to go on forever, or should I say drag on forever, which makes this song very dull and incredibly boring.
The next track on the album is the somewhat up-tempo LUV PARADE. For some reason this song in the beginning sounded very awkward to me, almost like Misia was singing either faster than the arrangement or slower and it was all very odd. The arrangement is rather up-beat and somewhat fun. Misia’s vocals seem to get back on track towards the second half of the song, and it does get a bit interesting, but the song is also pretty tedious and that sort of ruins it for me.
The next track is the charming We are the music. The arrangement isn’t anything special, but it does work, it has a sparkle like quality to it that is very nice. Misia’s vocals were good as well. The song isn’t really all that interesting, but it’s still a song I rather enjoyed listening to, especially the–’we are the music’. The arrangement is also a lot nicer than I gave it credit for.
The next track is the down-tempo and wistful Song For You. The arrangement is very slow, and melancholy. Misia’s vocals are really good in this song, though towards the end she hits what should have been an impressive Mariah-esque high note, but when it was over she continues singing the way she had been singing previously, as if she had never hit the high note. I felt awkward and the feeling was weird. It seemed so out of place. Anyways, I really liked this song, it was nice in a sad kind of way.
The second to last track on the album is the somewhat up-tempo 星の銀貨 (Hoshi no Ginka; Silver star coin). This has a bit of pep in it, which is very refreshing, and hasn’t been heard since Future Funk. I love the arrangement its so infectious, even though it doesn’t really do much. The chorus is catchy, and engaging and Misia’s vocal performance is great.
The last song on the album is SEA OF DREAMS. Its actually the Tokyo Disney’s 5th Anniversary theme song, and what a good and somewhat epic theme song it is. I just love the title, ’sea of dreams’ the arrangement is very Disney-esque and makes me very nostalgic. Misia’s vocal performance in this was just wonderful and really brought this song to life, making it nearly magical.
-GRADE: B+
Rating: ** stars
Misia’s seventh album Ascension is a solid album. I was very indifferent with this album when I first heard it a couple years back, because honestly I didn’t listen to it much, because it didn’t really strike my interest. The song I was most likely to listen to was of course Future Funk and that was really the only song I found myself repeatedly listening to–but when you take the time to actually listen to an album you realize how good or how bad it actually is. I found myself liking songs I didn’t at first like such as Stay in my heart and Tsuki, and disliking songs I liked at first such as Suna no Shiro and Angel. The arrangements are a little downgraded compared to what I’m used to from Misia, I mean normally when I don’t like a Misia song I always find myself loving the arrangements, but then again Misia unfortunately has a way of making an already boring song, even more boring or an already annoying song even more annoying. I really wished that Misia would have had more up-tempo songs on here, to round out Future Funk and Hoshi no Ginka. I mean I love down-tempo and ballads as much as the next person, but not when they come right after the other and seem to get worse and worse instead of better and better. Misia does display some great vocals, though I felt at times she tended to do more with her tones than what was necessary and it came off very long-winded. I still like this album, It’s not bad at all and to repeat what I said at first a really solid album, with a bit of variety. However I did expect Ascension to be a lot more ground-breaking than it was.
