Kikkawa You Cover Album - "Vocalist?"

[tsukinobyouin]

At AWA someone actually asked Kikka "Since you covered two Moritaka Chisato songs already, are there any other artists you'd like to cover?" She answered that she preferred to cover solo artists like Goto Maki or Mano Erina, because group songs are harder for a soloist to sing (no breathing breaks). She must have known about this album when she answered, and there are definitely some group songs on here. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' />



Album description from the staff email (my translation):

The album "Vocalist?" (ボカリスト?) will be out 11/7!!

And!! "Kikka Fest" #5 will start 11/17!





Kikkawa You has tried out singing 1970's~2000's idol POP sound produced by super popular Vocaloid Producers!

A new style of cover album!





Kikkawa You's new album is a unique cover album of 1980's~2000's idol pop sound produced by a great group of "Vocaloid Producers" popular on sites like Nico Nico Douga!

It's called "Vocalist?"!!

Songs that everyone knows have been transformed by the "Vocaloid Producers" into the electro pop and digital rock style.

(Yes, they do actually say 1970's in one place and 1980's in another)



Tracklist:



01　Watashi ga Obasan ni Nattemo (Sound Produced by Hachioji P)

02　Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokorotsuyosa to（Sound Produced by. Darubisshu P）

03　Kaze wa Akiiro（Sound Produced by. KEI）

04　Secret Base～Kimi ga Kureta Mono～（Sound Produced by. Nishizawa-san P）

05　Maji de Koi suru 5byou Mae（Sound Produced by. Junky）

06　Sabishii Nettaigyo（Sound Produced by. Yairi）

07　17sai（Sound Produced by. Hachioji P）

08　Daite HOLD ON ME!（Sound Produced by. MSR）

09　Shoujo A (Sound Produced by. MSR)

10　Natsuiro Nancy（Sound Produced by. colete*）

11　Sotsugyou（Sound Produced by. Kameria）

12　LOVE Namidairo（Sound Produced by. T-Pocket）





First Press Limited Edition DVD:

- Koko Kara Hajimarunda! (MMD Ver. Music Video)

- Darling to Madonna (MMD Ver. Music Video)



LE also comes with a 28 page (approximate) photo booklet. The RE comes with a illustrated jacket drawn by TNSK (who/whatever that is).





I'm hopeful that this isn't all autotuned to hell. If 17sai is the same version we've already heard that sound was fine. This also explains her doing "Daite Hold on Me" in Atlanta. She says they choose a few "well known" songs for her to cover because people probably didn't know her music well, but if that were the case I would have assumed they'd used one of the golden era standards.



I'm excited for Secret Base and Shoujo A *_*

[masa]

Official



If you don't know these songs, please listen to the original. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... umbsup.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



01　Watashi ga Obasan ni Nattemo (Moritaka Chisato, 1992)

02　Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokorozuyosa to (Shinohara Ryoko, 1994)

03　Kaze wa Akiiro (Matsuda Seiko, 1980)

04　Secret Base～Kimi ga Kureta Mono～ (ZONE, 2001)

05　Maji de Koi suru 5byou Mae (Hirosue Ryoko, 1997)

06　Samishii Nettaigyo (Wink, 1989) (W, 2004)

07　17sai (Minami Saori, 1971) (Moritaka Chisato, 1989)

08　Daite HOLD ON ME! (Morning Musume, 1998)

09　Shoujo A (Nakamori Akina, 1982)

10　Natsuiro no Nancy (Hayami Yu, 1983)

11　Sotsugyou (Saito Yuki, 1985)

12　LOVE Namidairo (Matsuura Aya, 2001)



As for "Sotsugyou", I cannot specify it because there are a lot of songs named "Sotsugyou".

[roddyreta]

^



Awesome post. Thanks so much.

[Melon]

That post gives me life. Thanks masa!

[Ajisaitea]

I am really looking forward to this ablum. She as of right now can do no wrong in my eyes.

[rob]

Brilliant idea, I'm not Kikka fan but I'm totally going to get this...



and masa... post of the year!!

[aisasami]

[quote name='masa' timestamp='1349452560' post='135251']

As for "Sotsugyou", I cannot specify it because there are a lot of songs named "Sotsugyou".

[/quote]



It is mostly likely the Yuki Saito song. Yuki Saito's Sotsugyou is popular in the idol world.

[Solarblade]

like ive said on H!O, I kind of wished Yuu stopped with the VOCOLOID crap...I really didn't enjoy these last two singles...and it's like putting her voice through auto-tune/vocoder....it's just not fitting for her voice (sounds really off). I hope some of these songs lack the vocal manipulations...especially secret base and Daite! HOLD ON ME

[ObsidianSet]

The tracklist is amazing I'm getting it, but I also hope they limit the vocal effects apart from anything else it'll be more interesting to hear VOCALOID producers working with 'real' vocals...but I want to hear Kikka. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/wub.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wub:' />

[tsukinobyouin]

[quote name='aisasami' timestamp='1349492072' post='135305']

[quote name='masa' timestamp='1349452560' post='135251']

As for "Sotsugyou", I cannot specify it because there are a lot of songs named "Sotsugyou".

[/quote]



It is mostly likely the Yuki Saito song. Yuki Saito's Sotsugyou is popular in the idol world.

[/quote]



You were right. Kikka's staff confirmed it on twitter.

[AEUGNewtype]

This could be kind of interesting, given these vocaloid producers don't fuck up the songs. Though, this really is far from the most interesting or creative list of cover songs, we'll see how it turns out. These are all either H!P songs, Moritaka songs, or stuff that EVERY OTHER IDOL ON EARTH has covered already.

[freezingkiss]

^ I agree. I was like, jesus that's a boring tracklist. :/

[Shoujo Q]

I don't see how that is a boring tracklist. Perhaps if it were full of songs she'd already covered and then slapped on an album, yeah. But I'd rather her cover a group of songs I already know, then a group of songs I've never heard of before. No one would buy that album.

[AEUGNewtype]

The idea is that these songs have literally all been covered by more than one artist, even the H!P ones. Usually quite a few more than one artist, for most of these. That's when it gets boring, when you've already heard 10 different covers of the song.



This rides a fine line of possibly making these songs interesting or making them absolutely terrible. Her last 2 singles were produced by some of these vocaloid people who are making this album, and while the songs are great and well-written, there are elements of them that almost ruin the song (namely autotune.) Her voice is just perfect the way it is, so it annoys me when they do it for "style" and its completely unnecessary, it just comes off as trendy, lame, and superflous.



I don't know if its possible to make these songs terribly interesting anymore after they've been done in so many styles by so many different artists, but we'll see. It also doesn't help that the two H!P covers are some of my lesser favorite songs from their respective artists, so I'm not terribly enthused about that.

[Banana]

[quote name='TnB' timestamp='1349443172' post='135238']

04　Secret Base～Kimi ga Kureta Mono～

[/quote]

I would be so excited for this if it was just normal. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':sad:' />

[masa]

Radio rip of Daite HOLD ON ME!

[Shoujo Q]

Not bad. I think it will always be weird to hear one person sing that song, only because I'm use to it being a song for a group.

[Banana]

That was pretty nice. If they continue to not cover up her vocals with weird stuff, this album will be fine.



Does she always sound that hoarse when she's speaking?

[Shoujo Q]

I thought that was Haruka speaking. D:



Not all vocaloid producers rely on the autotune. But what can you do, when your main vocals come from a computer? I like that these record companies are giving these vocaloid users someone to actually work with that isn't a computer.

[neshcom]

Ooh, I like it. Thankfully it isn't just the original studio instrumental. The new electronic sounds and verse beat are really cool. This actually makes me want to check out this album now.

[Mukuro]

Oh this version sounds really cool! I wanna hear the full version now.

[Pucchi-Mo]

I didn't really follow her, but I see why she is a big deal now.



Maybe it's the radio preview, but on certain lines, it sounds sort of like Maki is covering Daite! HOLD ON ME.

So now, I will definitely listen to her older songs. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /weeeh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':weeeh:' />



The part that works so well is that she uses a mature tone for the song, when Sakura-Gumi covered it, it was just too damn high.



I mostly blame Kamei, because she sounded so weird back then. They had Yossi & Risa, they could have EASILY balanced the low vocals in the song.

[Shoujo Q]

[quote name='Pucchi mo' timestamp='1350237683' post='135798']

I didn't really follow her, but I see why she is a big deal now.



Maybe it's the radio preview, but on certain lines, it sounds sort of like Maki is covering Daite! HOLD ON ME.

So now, I will definitely listen to her older songs. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /weeeh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':weeeh:' />



The part that works so well is that she uses a mature tone for the song, when Sakura-Gumi covered it, it was just too damn high.



I mostly blame Kamei, because she sounded so weird back then. They had Yossi & Risa, they could have EASILY balanced the low vocals in the song.

[/quote]



Back then Risa was still in the "trying to find her voice" stage so I don't know how well it would have sounded.

[Farrah]

Yuu continues to kick ass and take names.



Her voice reminds me so much of Kamei's mixed with... someone else. She doesn't really have the sultry voice I prefer for this song but she still sounds awesome, and the new instrumental is a jam, the rap section sounds especially nice. I like the synth/rock instrument combo.

[Shoujo Q]

MV for Watashi ga Obasan ni Nattemo.





I didn't realize this was getting a MV?

[NekoKaiSai]

^It's really cute, and the "Kikkado" controller was clever, if not somewhat random.

[ObsidianSet]

Kikka, Tetris, Vocaloid production, Moritaka...I can't ask for anything else, they also aren't editing her voice out of existence. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' />

[Melon]

I really can't wait for this release! :D

[AEUGNewtype]

Really not liking what they did with Watashi ga Obasan..sounds way too overproduced and they fucked around with the melody and progressions which is the #1 no-no for me when it comes to covers most of the time. The main driving rhythm of the song is terribly downplayed and just sounds underwhelming in the chorus, and that's also when her vocals become a little too digitized and irritating.



Daite HOLD ON ME sounds a lot better, though its not even close to being one of my favorite MM songs to begin with, at least they did a good job with the cover, keeping all of the important elements intact while also changing the arrangement enough to make it interesting.



This album could still be a big hit or a miss at this point.

[rob]

[quote name='The☆AEUGNewtype' timestamp='1351482755' post='136581']

Really not liking what they did with Watashi ga Obasan..sounds way too overproduced and they fucked around with the melody and progressions which is the #1 no-no for me when it comes to covers most of the time. The main driving rhythm of the song is terribly downplayed and just sounds underwhelming in the chorus, and that's also when her vocals become a little too digitized and irritating.

[/quote]



I always thought with covers, there were no rules. You can copy it closely, change it a little or change it a lot, isn't that the fun part of cover versions?



I sometimes like to listen to Me first and the gimme gimmes, those cover versions are fun.



The other day I heard a metal version of John Lennon's Imagine