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Artist: Aragaki Yui
Album: Sora
Release date: 2007.12.05
Highest Ranking: #3
Label: Warner Music
Limited Edition.
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In 2007, she debuted her singing by contributing the song “Memories” for her movie Koisuru Madori. Later that year, she played the main role of Mika in the movie Koizora and contributed the theme song “heavenly days.” The movie debuted to terrific success and made her into one of the most popular actresses of her age. It was announced that Aragaki Yui would officially debut as a singer by releasing her first album, Sora. The album did well, selling over 100,000 copies and well into 2008.


Song Review.

1. heavenly days “heavenly days” is the ballad theme of Koizora - the movie is the main focus of the promotional video. The song starts off with a simple synth piano melody that is joined by guitar, a slow beat, and orchestra. Yui’s voice starts off thin and breathy, almost sounding like crying, but gains power in the first chorus as the song also gains momentum. As a whole, the song is terrific - the simple instrumentation complement the melancholy power ballad and Yui’s voice, which although thin, hits all the notes on spot and emotionally.

2. Orange

“Orange” shifts the mood into a more high spirited mood with a mid tempo pop rock song. The tune is nice and the sound is pleasant. Yui’s voice sounds a bit weaker in this song, sometimes failing to match the excitement of the song, but does a good job for the most part. Overall, “Orange” is well done; it’s upbeat and fun.

3. Hi no Kageru Oka

The tension of the level lowers again when “Hi no Kageru Oka” starts with a hauntingly melancholic synth melody. This is a ballad, but much more mellow than “heavenly days.” Tune-wise, the song isn’t as challenging and is a little monotone at parts, but Yui’s vocals are good in here. The song is pleasant although it isn’t very special or particularly memorable.

4. Memories

“Memories” is the song used for Koisuru Madori. It is another ballad with piano, guitar, and orchestral, and there’s something that sounds like a ukulele too. It has a sweet tune that Yui sings in a middling register, and her voice sounds very clear. It’s very low tension and has a swingy, catchy tune.

5. Hikari

“Hikari” lowers the tension even more with an acoustic guitar ballad. Yui’s voice sounds fairly strong here, even with the higher notes, although it retains her distinct breathiness. The addition of orchestral strings and a very slow beat fill out the song so that it sounds complete without being overpowered by the instrumentals.

6. Sign of the moon ~interlude~

“Hikari” smoothly flows into “Sign of the moon ~interlude~”, a quiet,melancholy ballad interlude of the same instrumentation style the rest of the album has used. A melody is provided through a flute through the later part of the song, but mostly is just piano, guitar, and orchestra. It’s a pretty sounding song, but it doesn’t bear much of a purpose as an interlude. The song could easily have been sung vocally or omitted and it would not have caused differences in flow and structure of the album.

7. Starlight

“Starlight” stars the album off anew with a brisk piano refrain and a snappy beat. The song takes quite awhile to really get started, but when it does gain its power it has a wonderful piano-based instrumental. However, Yui’s already fairly weak voice sounds worse than usual, lacking energy and sounding raspy. Despite the name of the sun, her tired vocals are overpowered by the strong and energetic melody and never really lives up to the excitement the instrumentals promised.

8. Pairing

Still on the high from “Starlight” but slowed a bit, “Pairing” is a jumpy midtempo. Yui’s vocals have recovered from the lapse in the last song; her voice is stronger and she sounds crisp and clear again. The song is cheerful and has a really catchy tune.

9. Ai wo Shiritakute

Again, the ballad returns. The song starts with a wistful tune in the lower registers paired with almost no instrumentals; it sounds nice for the most part, but she can’t seem to quite reach the lowest note. However, the chorus is sweet and heartfelt and sounds great. The entire song is very simply accompanied.

10. Sora

“Sora” starts off with a gorgeous synth and piano sequence that turns into a fairly cheerful mid-tempo ending to the album. Yui’s vocals are pretty spot-on, and the song itself is fairly catchy. It ends the album on a good note.

Conclusion: Sora has very similar instrumentation and style for every song on the album. Probably because there were no singles that needed to be compiled into this album, it sounds like a concept album. Aragaki Yui’s voice isn’t that strong, but she seems to have defined mellow pop as her genre of choice - and luckily, the slow and soft songs she mostly choose to sing work very well with her vocals. Only a few songs in Sora are standout songs, but there is enough variance so that the songs do not at all sound repetitive.

As a whole, this debut album sets a great mood that lasts beautifully throughout the whole ten tracks. Since Aragaki Yui is a well-known actress and model, I did not expect that her music would be as intricately crafted as it is and was pleasantly surprised that it highlighted her voice so well. Sora is a great album with beautifully arranged songs that mesh well into each other.

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