Beyond the Sea

SINGLE REVIEW
Ai Kawashima - Door Crawl

1. Door Crawl
2. Iro no Nai Mono
3. Tomoshibi

This is Ai Kawashima’s 15th single and it was released on December 12, 2007. This single reached #20 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and it sold 6,520 copies in its first week. The title track was used as the theme song for the Square Enix video game Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon.

Door Crawl is a pleasant and laid back listen, but I liked the fact that there are additional band instruments. Without them, it would just be another plain Ai Kawashima ballad. The electric guitar chords and drums give the music life and make everything sound less bland. Kawashima’s vocals sounded a little rushed at times, mainly during the chorus, but she keeps them controlled at least.

The first B-side is a little upbeat like the previous track, but it uses minimal instruments. Iro no Nai Mono makes use of drums and acoustic guitar for the calm verses, but adds oddly placed synth and strings for the chorus. Overall, this track is nothing special and the melody sounds rather ordinary.

The next B-side also uses synth, but I thought it was a bad choice for it to open the song, which is a ballad. Tomoshibi starts off quietly but eventually accumulates to a sweeping chorus with pretty vocals and strings. There is also synth during the bridge, which completely ruins it because it sounds so out of place next to the more ”natural” instruments.

Overall Rating

2½ stars

SINGLE REVIEW
Ai Kawashima - Shiawase Desu ka / Suitcase 

1. Shiawase Desu ka
2. Suitcase
3. RAINBOW ~Atarashii Watashi, Hajimaru~

This is Ai Kawashima’s 14th single and it was released on October 3, 2007. This single reached #12 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and it sold 7,967 copies in its first week.

Ai Kawashima is an exceptional ballad singer and she once again proves what she excels at with Shiawase Desu ka. It’s a simple piano and string ballad with very gentle vocals. The thing I like the most about Kawashima is the angelic and pure quality of her voice and she puts it to full use in this song.

The next track is Suitcase, which is a little more upbeat and lively than Shiawase Desu ka. It starts rather simple with just the piano but then adds a steady percussion beat and some strings. The song is rather pleasant, but I would have liked it more without the unnecessary synth segments.

Track 3 is by far the most upbeat track on the single. RAINBOW ~Atarashii Watashi, Hajimaru~ is a nice listen and Kawashima is pretty good at singing faster paced songs as well. Her vocal style changes quite considerably when the music is of a different tempo. In this song, it’s actually a little lower pitched.

Overall Rating

3½ stars