R&B / Pop loving J-starlet Crystal Kay has released her second 'international single' and has somehow managed to shatter all of the promise I was sold in the behind the scenes video of the video shoot. "Rule your world" is one big let down.
Crystal's previous single "Busy doing nothing" was slated for being too pedestrian, too Summer for a February release and not being a good representation of Crystal musically. Fans for quite some time have also been wanting Crystal to release an R&B flavoured single after abandoning them for several years. It seemed that "Rule your world" would be the redemption, but it falls considerably shorter than "Busy doing nothing", with a lacklustre song which has a horrendous rap and a shitastic music video.
The song is completely anti-climactic. It builds to nothing and there is no sense of progression or organic evolution within the song itself. No additional melodies are introduced. Each run of the chorus sounds exactly the same. There is an utter lack of vocal production and layering to help smooth the song out and play up the seductiveness. In short, the song feels incomplete and a result, underwhelming. Crystal's rap is also awful. She goes from a cooing temptress to a middle aged woman shouting offers at Tsukiji market. It's nowhere near as cool or as niche as Crystal thought it was. Whoever thought it was a good idea for Crystal to throw a rap about set menu specials in a song about wanting to give some good nookie should have their foot in a pair of open toe Birkenstocks run over by a bicycle. It makes Hikaru Utada's 'Your easy breezy and I'm Japanesey' line from "Easy breezy" sound like a classic lyric.
Despite Crystal's body looking on absolute point and parading around a house in lingerie, the video isn't sexy at all. There is no chemistry between Crystal and her milk of magnesia break-off. Their bed scenes were about as stiff as the barricade blocking Crystal from any hint of commercial success. I've seen pigeons sitting in nests give me more sex appeal than I got in this video. The video itself is so badly shot and edited that I thought I was watching brothel re-enactment footage shot for an episode of 60 minutes.
If Crystal Kay wants a hit, then she's gonna have to holla at Solange in an elevator, because she is not catching shit with this song right here.
The song really did fail to meet up to expectations... it seems like ALL Asian artists that try to debut in the U.S. fall so flat and I don't understand why.
ReplyDeleteI have my eyes on a couple of Asian artists who permanently moved their work-base in Los Angeles and New York in the past 2 years and they seem to be making a lot of important industry connections and working with the right people. Give it time, an Asian artist will rise in the USA.
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ReplyDeletei've been wondering when will you write about this! i'm so dying to find out what is really going on! and for the first time i saw what you see in beyonce when you call her android and stuff! she wasscarier than solange in there!! creepy..
ReplyDeleteso maybe jay-z traded solange a hacked pokemon for her genesect?
Wow. I'm a kuri fan but....wow. Like girl, what the hell are you doing? I can get jiggy with this shit. Don't even get me started on the rap. I felt second hand embarrassment. Throwing random Japanese shit in while your rapping is not cute. Did you lose you lose your vision and hearing? cuz the song looks and sounds cheap. How the hell did they make you look like a 40 year old housewife trying to put some some spark back in the marriage with a cheating husband whose banging his secretary. Girl, I want you to win but imma need you to do better. Your Japanese stuff is 100x better. She needs better direction. Rant over.lol
ReplyDeleteI agree that the song was lacking in terms of vocal production and the climax. I was expecting more vocally. It needed more harmonies, vocal layering, and just better vocal arranging overall. Also, the rap was extremely out of place. The subject matter of the song is about how she puts in down in the bedroom, and then suddenly shes talking about Teriyaki and Tempura, unless she's discussing what her p*ssy tastes like I don't see the correlation.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. All of the delusional comments on instagram were annoying too. They all praised this mess!!
ReplyDeleteShe seriously needs to go back to Japan.
If you may share, who are they? I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteAlso you guys are so demanding, CK doesn't have any budget to finance her studio recordings and MV shootings. Who's gonna arrange that and who's gonna refine it, etc, they didn't have much money so they couldn't pay for these things.
I'm not mad at CK for releasing such things. It was expected. At least she's on itunes with average decent songs. In Japan she was backed by her big record label, not in the US, so we can't compare the 2.
I agree. It would be different if she had the big budget etc. then it would be pure incompetence (I'm thinking of the RYW video). Anyway 3/4 or more of the music on top 40 radio in the states is generic and repetitive and by ppl who have established careers and making a hell of a lot of money. All of these songs she's released so far could easily be played on the radio, they just need a little polish. What she's done so far is pretty good considering what she has to work with. Some ppl like what's she done so far, what's wrong with that? Everybody has their own opinions. Don't insult ppl just because you may not like something.
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to make a side comment about this comment system. Sometimes the comments are on the site and sometimes you have to click into the feed. And sometimes I can't I click on the feed and get nothing. I don't know if it's a browser issue or what. I'm curious if others have had issues.
I don't like to hype artists I'm rooting for, it always ends up backfiring on me. The handful that I'm following have signed under major American record labels and seem to have big people backing them. It's all in the songs and marketing now, and hopefully their team know what they're doing (the marketing is what usually frustrates me the most, American record labels are so inexperienced with how to market an Asian artist that right now it's an on-going experiment).
ReplyDelete"Their bed scenes were about as stiff as the barricade blocking Crystal from any hint of commercial success."
ReplyDeleteI stopped the video right after that. I thought I was getting a dance scene and I was being treated to that craziness. That white boy was cute, tho :3 I must commend Crystal on her excellent taste; too bad he wasn't into her (or his paycheck).
Crystal has been in the studio with a bunch of well known US song writers and producers over the past 6 months and has worked with several on her Japanese releases in the past - so money can't be that much of an obstacle in terms of recording material.
ReplyDeleteAs for the video, Marc Baptiste is a well known fashion photographer. Chances are she could have given the budget she must have had to cough up to work with him to a video director in Japan or some other US or Europe based director and gotten a much better music video.
I just think everything concerning "Rule your world" was down to errors in judgement rather than a budgetary issue.
I'm not to sure what you mean about the comments. I have issues with the comments on my phone, but when I'm on a desktop everything works fine for me. I'll keep an eye on them though.
ReplyDeleteIf anybody else is noticing this issue, please be sure to let me know!
Beyoncé didn't even look like she was considering nor entertaining the idea of getting involved.
ReplyDeleteYes but just because she said she worked with several producers doesn't mean that they all worked on the same song. Also August Rigo was pretty much the only one working on RYW (see soundcloud for the credits). There weren't a bunch of producers/arrangers/etc working for that song. That was my point. Hence I talked about the lack of budget. She does have connections in the business but I wouldn't be surprised if she got rejected because they were busy or because they weren't that close to work for little money. Her collab for "Kirakuni" was all thanks to her company who arranged a meeting and all that. Dunno for the other collabs.
ReplyDeleteI don't know who Marc Baptiste is so I'll trust you on that. Honestly, even some of her Japanese videos weren't great but I get what you mean, that's a nice option. I seriously wonder if CK isn't another Asian singer who's not taken seriously in the US by American producers...Anyway, I do think that recording and making music takes time. It needs time, especially for CK to polish her American image and her Yokohama ratchet pop concept or whatever it is. So let's wait.
OK, gotcha. I'll do my search then. Well, I don't understand what needs to be done differently when marketing an Asian artist...they're still artists, like blacks, whites and Latinos. But I guess they want a stereotype or something people could rely on to get them. Sadly.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I have heard cheaper American songs doing quite well there so why not RYW on the radio.
ReplyDelete"Yes but just because she said she worked with several producers doesn't mean that they all worked on the same song".
ReplyDeleteI wasn't saying they did and I don't think it matters whether they did or didn't. How many people worked on a song doesn't equate to how good it is anyway.
The point I was making was that for Crystal to be working with a bunch of them in the first place means that money isn't an obstacle stopping Crystal from recording material.
I'm only ever in here on my phone and I every once in a while will be unable to see any comments or post. DISQUS or however you say it won't show up. Even though it'll say a blog entry does indeed have comments and I've seen them previously.
ReplyDeleteI just figure you took them away like the chatbox. Then they come back. Not the chatbox though.
Some people are just bitter. She's doing a good job -- I can definitely see a brighter future for her if she is doing this without her japanese label. Good luck!
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