“Holidays In The Sun” – YUI

She looks so pretty! We've got a serious font-strosity going on, but its beyond forgivable.

Track Listing:
1. to Mother
2. again
3. Parade
4. es.car
5. Shake My Heart
6. GLORIA
7. I do it
8. Please Stay With Me
9. SUMMER SONG
10. Cinnamon
11. Driving Happy Life
12. It’s all too much
13. Kiss me

I loved the placement of To Mother. Such a gentle song.

Again is still just as good as always.

Despite being short, Parade is a bright and happy song. Perfect for this time of year. I’ve never heard her do anything as light as this cute little song.

I don’t understand es.car at all. It makes me think of MegaMan for no reason. I liked the melody but I just wasn’t feeling anything in YUI’s voice. I will give this one a few listens because its not bad at all. I just don’t feel any energy in her delivery.

Shake My Heart is an interesting, gospel-sounding piece. I haven’t heard YUI tackle something this soulful before. (I like that this album has so much experimentation, by the way) Her voice is so full of air and… well, soul! The people singing along with her on the chorus all sound happy so I feel good listening to this! The horns are also a nice touch.

GLORIA sounds so good coming right after Shake My Heart.

I was excited from the start when I heard YUI would be doing her own version of I Do It, originally written by her for Stereopony. Its like she rips Stereopony’s rendition apart saying “this is how it was meant to be done!” The arrangement of this song rocks, to say the least. The guitar and drums sound epic and YUI sings it with such power that you begin to feel a little afraid of her greatness. Wonderful.

Please Stay With Me is terribly sad, yet relaxing. I would play this long late on a summer night. You can feel the plaintive sadness in this song from the first few notes on. YUI has created an excellent song here because it literally breaks my heart. *sniffle*

Forgive me if this sounds bad or mean, but the fact that Summer Song is on this album reminds me of how long its been since YUI released an album! The fact that Summer Song is on an album that, in fact, came out in the summer and has a very strong summer theme is great though. It fits here perfectly.

Cinnamon, like Parade is very short. This song doesn’t cut corners, partly because it doesn’t have enough time to! I like that the song maintains a steady pace throughout. I feel energized!

From reading the title alone, I had pegged Driving Happy Life to be a total throwaway song. Sadly, it is. Its happy-go-lucky but it doesn’t have much else going for it. Its still nice on this album.

Its All Too Much is back! YUCK! Why didn’t she put Never Say Die instead? Seriously? I never liked Its All Too Much, and that’s something I’ve always felt sort of bad for.

Kiss Me is a wonderful way to round out the album. Its considerably more sultry than any other song on the album and makes you feel like you just listened to the greatest album in the history of the world.

In Conclusion: Without a doubt, this is YUI’s magnum opus, her best album to date. Every track, save for a couple, is pure gold. Dare I even say that ALL of these tracks can be considered a-side material? YUI has done things right by waiting so long to release a new album. She’s proven she’s still fresh. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. I have a feeling this album will be making up a major part of my summer soundtrack. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

~Alisa~

“To Mother” – YUI

YUI swaps her guitar for a piano. No, you're not dreaming.

YUI is back with her newest single “To Mother!” The single’s release date is June 2, 2010. For this single, or for the a-side at least, YUI trades in her guitar for a fancy schmancy piano. What I liked about this single before I had even heard it is that YUI was willing to step outside her comfort zone and try something new. Interestingly enough, Angela Aki traded in her piano for a guitar for her most recent single, making it feel like she and YUI swapped identities. Both singles were a success in my eyes. Artists need to change it up every once in a while!

The Review:

To Mother is a touching piano ballad. From the start, I get very strong Sea vibes. Remember Sea? The song a lot of people liked even more than Again? It has that “graduation” or “going-away” feel that I’ve seen many people describe Sea as having. Its fitting because it is graduation season after all! The piano is beautiful, YUI sounds great, and the song sits at a comfortable three minutes and fifty seconds. This keeps it from having the cursed “ballad overkill” that has ruined many a song for me due to my impossibly short attention span.

YUI’s gained a lot of fame for her b-sides that often rival her a-sides, and Tonight falls into that category perfectly. Every time I get a YUI single, I feel like I’m getting a double a-side even if that isn’t the case because her b-sides might as well be a-sides. She doesn’t disappoint. Tonight is like a flashback to Rolling Star. Its not quite as hard and the song suffers from a case of “Never Say Die syndrome” in that it is too short! Overall, a great piece. Placing it with To Mother was a little awkward to me, but who cares? Its YUI. She can do what she wants.

As fans can predict by now, YUI has included an acoustic version of her most recent song, this time being GLORIA. The song doesn’t sound much different from the original. All I can hear is that the percussion is stripped away. The difference wasn’t astounding enough for me, but it’s a great inclusion for diehard fans of YUI.

In Conclusion: YUI proved to me with this single that she can go outside her normal realm of music and still create something magnificent. I highly recommend this single.

~Alisa~