Album review: Crystal Kay - Vivid

Let's not beat around the bush. Spin the music was not that great an album. In fact, it was a little bit shit. Sales indicated that fans didn't care. And the quality of the music kinda showed that Crystal didn't either. A new label jump gave fans hope. Hope that she had woken up to her senses and realised that Sony did not care about a bitch. It also somewhat justified the quality of Spin the music. That maybe Crystal stopped caring, because she honestly didn't at that point and already had one foot out the door. Crystal's follow up puts her in an interesting yet dangerous position. Fresh off the flop of Spin the music, many were eager to see where Crystal would head musically. Would Vivid be a re-invigoration of Crystal's sound or would it conclude that Crystal had lost sight of it?

Vivid is Crystal's first album at her new home, Delicious deli records. In a metaphorical sense, Vivid feels like Crystal's first album. For 10 years Crystal had worked the same sound and rarely ventured out of it. You don't realize how much Crystal was being restrained until you listen to this album. 13 songs of Crystal giving it to us with the shackles off. Breaking out of the mould Sony had set her in, and that she had complacently allowed herself to be in up until this point. It wasn't all that clear from "Superman", but "Delicious na kinyoubi" marked a new lease of life for Crystal. The energy in both the song and video set much of the tone for Vivid and all it encapsulates: that Crystal is a woman who is in a good place in her life. That spark which wasn't there for the past 3 years is reignited.

The great thing about Vivid is that it isn't trying hard to be one thing or the other. Creating a more pop driven album was clearly the name of the game here. But it doesn't feel like a complete bastardisation of what Crystal is already known for. It feels like a necessary step forward. A broader showcase of Crystal's musical capacity than anything she had released prior. Crystal runs through a bunch of genres and styles on this album, and has all of the lines blurring by the time you hit track 10. Vivid is the first album in Crystal's discography where a risk feels as though it's been taken and seen through to the end. Color change! and Spin the music took risks here and there, but their attempts to do so felt completely half-arsed in comparison to what Crystal gives us here. Vivid not only sees Crystal re-writing her own sound, but doing so with confidence. There is no air of uncertainty about anything Crystal delivers on this album, because she's 100% sure of it and she sells it.

Part of growing with Crystal was hearing her vocals flourish and get stronger with every album. The potential strength of it was realised with All yours, which featured some of the most intricate vocal arrangements and the strongest vocals of CK at that point - the versatility of which was played with on Flash and Spin the music. But what Crystal gives us on Vivid is scope. She really plays with her voice on this album, you realise how many facets of her voice were going untapped. You always got the feeling that Crystal has no idea just how good her voice was. Singing pretty much the same way on every song and in the same keys. That all changes here. Crystal goes high, she goes low and she raps. The most distinctive aspect of Crystal's vocals on Vivid is that she works her lower registers a heck of a lot more and sounds stronger for it. Accustomed to hearing her sing light, sweet and airy for so many years, it truly takes you aback when you hear her drop into a drawl. We're not listening to the same girl on those previous albums. Crystal is grown and taking the reigns of her vocal ability. Something the warbling banshees of Avex should take note of. If only Ayu had 'vocal ability'...

Vivid is Crystal's most varied album yet. Dipping in and out of a range of styles and genres. It was clear from Color change! that Crystal was moving into a more pop driven space and Flash was the confirmation it had already happened. Vivid marks Crystal's first album which cannot be defined as R&B. The easiest category to sling it in would be 'Pop'. But it's easy to overlook 'a pop record' with the connotations which are attached to it. Samey songs. No vocals. Nothing new. Fans and newbies may overlook Vivid because of this based on the likes of "Take it outside" and "Delicious na kinyoubi", but it'd be a crime to do so, as you'd be missing out on some great songs.

Crystal managed to hold off of the dance bandwagon longer than most. Often dabbling in it for B-sides and bonus tracks, but never anything more. I was a one man army policing for people to like "Over and over", because it showed that Crystal slays a house beat how Buffy slays vampires. "Haru arashi" translates to English as 'Spring storm'. Named as such, because the song will blow wigs clean off a head and send that shit so far away that you'd have to call a global rescue party to get it back. It's great that Crystal is embracing dance on an album and no longer sweeping them under tatami mats as bonus tracks and B-sides, because she sounds great on them. House suits her voice. It always suits women who can sing. The Black eyed peas-esque "Take it outside" caught a fair bit of flack when Crystal first leaked it. I didn't hate it when I first heard it, but didn't love it either. Within the context of the album though, I now love it. When that chorus drops, it makes me wanna put on some ripped jeans, a leather jacket and throw elbows. It would have made a great single and won over a lot of the haters had she shot a hot video for it - as it's a song which works its magic when it's within a context and a package.

Typical J-pop ballads are seemingly no longer cool, with many artists shunning them completely on albums, when 5 years ago no album in Japan (aside from Namie Amuro, who was doing what the f**k she wanted and was hard on that R&Bandwagon) would have released without one. If you want that slow J-ballad type shit, you'll need to cop that "Superman" single and hit up "Love road". "Come back to me", "Memory box" and "Rising sun" are as close to ballads as you're going to get on this album. Initially you feel cheated that this album doesn't feature a "Kitto eien ni" or "Kaerimichi", until you begin to ask yourself why it ever needed one. And what exactly constitutes a ballad nowadays? The true meaning of ballad was lost years ago, so what gives?! Crystal sings the absolute shit out of all three songs and gives me more emotion on each of them than "Kitto eien ni" and "Kaerimichi" combined. "Come back to me" and "Memory box" both feel like spiritual sequels to "Journey ~Kimi to futari de~" pulling from different strands. "Memory box" is the warmest and sweeter of the two. Whilst "Come back to me" is haunting, cold and very Jeff Bhasker (think Alicia Keys "Try sleeping with a broken heart" mashed with a bit of Enya). It's easy to forgive Crystal for not delivering a typical J-ballad when she gives you so much for these two songs. "Rising sun" is the weakest of the three and the weakest song on the album. It's pretty boring and sounds like a Tina Turner leftover. It's a shame the album ends with it, as it causes the whole thing to end on a whimper when it should have ended with a bang. "Haru arashi" or "Delicious na kinyoubi" would have been the perfect album closers in its place.

Spin the flop was a mess. But Crystal going into a funk, disco direction with the likes of "Konya ha no.1" was a move in the right direction, as it highlighted the stank and soul in Crystal's vocals. Showcasing a delivery from Crystal that very few females in the J-game could give. Crystal taps into this a little on "What we do" and does so in English. If Delicious deli want to test the waters with an international single, they've got one here. Written and produced by Norweigan based Dsign music and easy to mistake for a Stargate production (guess there must be something in the water in Norway), "What we do" is primed for radio. Mums and Dads will get caught in the 70's groove and young girls will have pyjama parties and sing into their hairbrushes about their deadbeat boyfriends.

Despite fans getting into a twist that Crystal had abandoned R&B completely, it's hard to take the R&B outta the girl. Long term CK collaborator Bachlogic are on hand to bring R&B to the table and bring it correctly. Janet Jackson-esque "Superman" features dashes of pop and a typical J-melody on the chorus, but the verses are distinctively R&B. "Superman" to me is a classic. Immediately familiar and as smooth as silk. Despite being the albums' first single, it's a song I refuse to skip when playing Vivid all the way through. "Fly high" is straight R&B with a hint of some 36 Mafia type shit. Crystal sounds so good on this song, delivering the whole thing that lower register I mentioned earlier. "Fly high" is a middle finger to anybody who said Crystal had abandoned R&B and that she could no longer do it. You just got served. CK gave this shit to you in a doggy bag. This is the type of shit other J-R&B chicks try to do and fail to. The only one coming close being Beni. But Crystal even threw her wig in a toilet with this.

Crystal's sweet tooth for pop reared on Color change! then manifested into the likes of "Step by step", "Never say goodbye", "Flash" and "Love game" for Flash and Spin the flop. But many of CK's pop efforts on this album shut all of these efforts down, because Crystal sells them better. Album opener "Forever" is light, breezy and so sweet that it should come with a warning for diabetics. The chants and percussion which underlie the pop melodies and house synths bring on an overwhelming sense of the Serengeti, strobe lights and Rafiki holding Simba whilst a trio of women in leopard print bras pop their p***sies in the background. "Be mine" may garner some eye rolls due to it featuring a wub-wub bassline, but it's a great song. And it feels like the type of song Crystal would have dropped regardless of whether dubstep was a thing or not. T. Kura and Micicho have worked with Crystal for many years, so they know her sound better than most. And it's great that between "Forever" and "Be mine" they managed to craft songs for Crystal which bridge the gap perfectly between her old sound and the new sound Crystal is going for at this stage in her career. Both songs coming in first and second on the tracklist respectively act as a nice segue into the new sound CK exhibits for this album. "Delicious na kinyoubi" comes at the tail end of the album, bringing the sound of Vivid full circle. "Delicious na kinyoubi" feels like celebration, and in an odd way feels like every uptempo Crystal has done, compacted into one amazingly tight song. Crystal sounds unrestrained and completely free, which gives the song an irresistible charm. The beat knocking harder than a debt collector and featuring a catchy chorus doesn't hurt neither. "Yo yo" is the love-child of Kylie Minogue and Donna Summer. The album features a Japanese and English version of this song. Both are hot, but I find myself leaning more towards the Japanese version. There's just something about the way Crystal's voice slinks in-between the additional word count and syllables in the Japanese version I like. Where-as Crystal sounds almost too controlled on the English version. The only shitty aspect of the song is that the bridge feels incomplete and this was the one point of the song which everybody was stoked about hearing Crystal ride when the demo leaked, because it was SO her. But there's way too much silence.

Where-as Spin the music was plagued by a complete lack of aural focus and shitty songs and Color change! was hindered by a tug-of-war of new and old, Vivid is a departure for Crystal Kay, but without compromise. But when she is dabbling in dubstep lite, disco and house, the sound still remains unmistakably Crystal Kay. There is never a sense of her selling out. Vivid is scarce on R&B and is a huge risk for an artist who came up on this genre. But after 10 years of doing pretty much the same sound, I think Crystal is allowed to break the mould and do a pop record. The end result is so f**king good, that to cry over the album being 'too pop' would be stupid. Please remember this chick sung the theme song to Nodame cantabile and a Pokémon movie. The only hurdle this album trips at is the track order. The album doesn't flow as well as it could have done. You roll with it because up until the final track, everything you're listening to is so good. But a revised tracklisting could have made this package even tighter. And if it were better placed in-between the right tracks, even "Rising sun" could have been more tolerable.

Vivid is a defining moment in Crystal Kay's discography. If All yours is the polished and refined package of Crystal's sound up until that point, then Vivid is the polished and refined package of what Crystal was trying to do with every album which came after. But what makes this album stand out amongst CK's discography is that it marks the first album where Crystal sounds assertive. The confidence in her delivery shines through like a beacon. Having written 80% of the songs, there's never been an album which features more of Crystal in it than this one. Crystal didn't just bring it with this album. She Fed-ex'd it to bitches and included a copy of that shit on USB for them to give to their mothers.

VERDICT: DELICIOUS SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SAT-UR-DAY

Album highlights:
■ Forever 🔥
■ Be mine 🔥
■ Take it outside
■ Yo yo
■ Come back to me
■ What we do
■ Superman 🔥
■ Memory box 🔥
■ Haru arashi 🔥
■ Fly high 🏆
■ Delicious na kinyoubi 🔥