Tracklist

1. Ashita e no Sanka (明日への讃歌; A Hymn For Tomorrow)
2. Sakura Modern (桜モダン; Modern Cherry Blossoms)
3. Ashita e no Sanka (Instrumental) (明日への讃歌; A Hymn For Tomorrow)
4. Sakura Modern (Instrumental) (桜モダン; Modern Cherry Blossoms)

This is alans’s debut single and was released on November 21, 2007. It reached #69 on the Oricon Charts and has sold 2,062 copies. The lyrics were written by Nojima Shinji, a famous movie/TV drama scriptwriter in Japan.

Ashita E No Sanka opens up very suddenly with alan singing in a very soft heavily accented voice, and automatically I am turned off. However, the song suddenly redeems itself when I hear, surprisingly, Chinese music. For me, I’m a sucker for Chinese music, which is why I absolutely loved those instrumentals during the song, as awkward as it was considering that this is a Japanese song. However, I am yet again turned off when alan starts singing again. Her voice is just so…regular, dull, heavily accented (although she did originally speak Chinese so I’ll give her some slack) and I can barely make out what she’s saying. But then suddenly, as soon as the chorus comes, in, I am suddenly back in love. GOD DAMN. This woman knows how to hold those notes. During the chorus, alan definitely gets to show off how good her voice is. She reaches those amazing high notes with ease, and she can definitely hold them, while still keeping the volume constant. In fact, it’s kind of surprising how much noise can come from her little body. Overall, Ashita E No Sanka is a semi epic debut. Semi epic because the verses seriously lack anything interesting, but the amazing chorus and the wonderful Chinese music make up for it.

Sakura Modern is not as epic as Ashite E No Sanka. Alan is back to singing in her regular heavily accented voice, but I’m happy to say you can actually make out what she is saying because she sings much louder. The music also seems to be Chinese influenced, with a slight Japanese feel to it. There’s a slight “dark quirkiness” to it that is really evident during the bridge, but other than that, this song isn’t too special.

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)