High School DXD OP2
Tracklist:
1. Gekijouron
2. Dokuyoruron
3. Shout to the top
1. Gekijouron
The first track opens heavily, with drums being in the spotlight and a silent piano in the background, before switching roles and unraveling in her signature electronic-pop style. Even though Gekijouron has certain elements from Alteration, the impression as a whole gives off more melancholy and a certain sad tone, especially with ZAQ showing off her deeper registre and great control of it, including even occasional vibrato. The catchy, dramatic chorus is the highlight, employing rock guitars and making up for impact, along with the incredibly chaotic, fast and eargasmic piano solo from the middle eight section, speeding it up just by imagining her play on the piano, coupled with synths moving at the exact same speed. After the slow build up, hearing ZAQ's voice soar in the final chorus decides this as my new favourite from her.
Rating: 9
2. Dokuyoruron
After hearing the fast and exciting A-side, Dokuyoruron comes in as the calmer ballad in the single, and, fortunately, ZAQ's composing skills prevent it from being another generic one. Her voice is, contrasting the first track, this time higher and actually filtered, but the widening instrumentation makes up for the lack of vocal depth, with violins paired with heavy drums and even the choir present sporadically. While the strings are quite subdued in the background, often just playing a single tone, the always-present electronic part bursts in the chorus, completely covering the already hidden bass and other, high-pitched synths present almost all of the time. Wrapping up, everything stops as the vocals climb up for an octave and finish the track.
After hearing the fast and exciting A-side, Dokuyoruron comes in as the calmer ballad in the single, and, fortunately, ZAQ's composing skills prevent it from being another generic one. Her voice is, contrasting the first track, this time higher and actually filtered, but the widening instrumentation makes up for the lack of vocal depth, with violins paired with heavy drums and even the choir present sporadically. While the strings are quite subdued in the background, often just playing a single tone, the always-present electronic part bursts in the chorus, completely covering the already hidden bass and other, high-pitched synths present almost all of the time. Wrapping up, everything stops as the vocals climb up for an octave and finish the track.
Rating: 7
3. Shout to the top
Immediately greeting us with something a bit stronger, ZAQ's much more nasal and cuter colour comes to notice, as well as vocoding, signifying that a usual pop song is ahead, utilizing nothing but synths and even cadences that can recognizably be from A-pop (that's probably what I'll call American pop from now on). Still, it manages to be interesting and catchy, and very much reminding of KOTOKO's BUCANEER. Here, with the presence of so much voice change from the natural tone, a strange difference arises as well, between the "very very high pitch" singing used in the background, presumably also by ZAQ, and the "very high pitch" one used in normal singing. This isn't perhaps varied as the other two tracks are, but it does have the element of fun while listening to it.
Immediately greeting us with something a bit stronger, ZAQ's much more nasal and cuter colour comes to notice, as well as vocoding, signifying that a usual pop song is ahead, utilizing nothing but synths and even cadences that can recognizably be from A-pop (that's probably what I'll call American pop from now on). Still, it manages to be interesting and catchy, and very much reminding of KOTOKO's BUCANEER. Here, with the presence of so much voice change from the natural tone, a strange difference arises as well, between the "very very high pitch" singing used in the background, presumably also by ZAQ, and the "very high pitch" one used in normal singing. This isn't perhaps varied as the other two tracks are, but it does have the element of fun while listening to it.
Rating: 8
I could as well list one of the reasons for having ZAQ as one of my favourite singers the fact that her idol was Minorin, but her self-composing ability is a rare one in today's anison, and is probably a valuable resource in Lantis, the bane of most good musicians. My overall rating is: 8.
The comment box doesn't bite; be careful when feeding it, though.
I could as well list one of the reasons for having ZAQ as one of my favourite singers the fact that her idol was Minorin, but her self-composing ability is a rare one in today's anison, and is probably a valuable resource in Lantis, the bane of most good musicians. My overall rating is: 8.
The comment box doesn't bite; be careful when feeding it, though.
Something I found interesting on track 1 (and you pointed out) was her use of a deeper register. What I thought was different was that when she sung high, her tone was normal but her low notes had a deeper pitch. I was pretty impressed with the second track too. Didn't notice filters though.
ReplyDelete"I could as well list one of the reasons for having ZAQ as one of my favourite singers the fact that her idol was Minorin". Lol ^_^
Also not that I know Japanese, but CDJapan lists track 2 as Hitoyagoto. Might wanna check out a few other sources.
Eh, I always forget to check CDJapan （￣～￣;） What I did was just romanize the kanji part of the first song and leave out "-hitoyagoto-" since it would sound like too much (Hikari no Akari lists the name as 独夜論 -hitoyagoto-, I can 100% confirm the first part is read "Dokuyoruron").
DeleteSince you never reviewed them: what are your thoughts on Alteration and Sparkling Daydream?
ReplyDeleteSparkling Daydream is too cute and idol-pop for me; on the other hand, Alteration comes very close to Gekijouron in terms of quality and composure.
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