Crystal Kay is preparing to record a covers album and it might be my fault

Crystal Kay casually let slip that she's gonna do a cover album. Of course, this is not official until somebody in Japan sends out the fax. But it's come from Crystal herself, so...it's coming. We don't know when. She's not even started to record the damn thing. But it's coming ya'll.

Now. I'm not saying that it's because of me. But I did hit Crystal with a comment on her Instagram about doing a cover album a while back, to which she replied that she'd keep it in mind. She clearly did, because HERE WE ARE BITCH.

Credit me unofficially as an executive producer. Unless it's a flop. In which case, I had nothing to do with any of this.

Covers albums are funny, because I'm wholly dubious of them. I always feel as though Japanese record labels treat them as cash-in's or see them as low hanging fruit grabs. It was such a shame to see how this all played out with Beni; who released a Covers album just because and caught the biggest hit of her career to date; the chart performance of which surprised every-fucking-body. Especially Ayumi Hamasaki, whose album Party queen found itself outsold. But then Beni ran her Covers releases into the ground so hard that Nagoya felt the tremors; releasing another Covers album that same year and then another 2 within the next 5. But even so, there have been some great cover albums in Japan over the years. I adored Angela Aki's Songbook. And whilst it slipped under the radar, Kumi Koda's cover album Color the cover was masterfully done, and was of a quality and consistency that not one of her original albums has had. Crystal Kay has performed covers live over the years and done a great job. So much so in fact, that I've wanted her to do a covers album for a while now. So I'm glad that she's finally doing it. It seems to be from a place of just 'Well, I might as well' as I'm certainly not the only person who has posed the idea to her of releasing a covers album. And given Crystal's last 2 releases Shine and For you, I'd certainly take a covers release over another original album, just to have a break from the mediocrity that has become Crystal's original material.

Crystal Kay has thrown the question out to her fans of what songs she should cover. I definitely want studio recorded versions of her covers of Hikaru Utada's "Deep river" and Michael Jackson's "Human nature". She'd first performed these so long ago, so it'd be great to hear her take these on now with a seasoned voice. One of my followers had commented on Crystal's post that she should cover some J-Pop from the 90s and called out Namie Amuro's "Chase the chance", which I think is an amazing choice. With Crystal having worked with Namie, it would be a continuation of her admiration for her and it would undoubtedly get a lot of commercial attention. But generally, Crystal would sound great on it. I'd also love to have a studio recorded version of Crystal performing "Eyes on me" by Faye Wong. I will never forget when I attended a Final Fantasy: Distant worlds concert and she came out to sing it. I almost fell off the fucking balcony because I had no idea she was going to be there. "Eyes on me" is an iconic song and she performed the shit out of it. Ms. Wong lost some inches that night.

My list will probably change and grow. But for now, I'd like Crystal to take on the following.

Deep river - by Hikaru Utada
Human nature - by Michael Jackson
Tokyo love story - by Oda Kazumasa
Smash into you - by Beyoncé
Plastic love - by Mariya Takeuchi
Especially for you - by Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan
Dance in the memories - by Meiko Nakahara
Eyes on me - by Faye Wong

"Especially for you" could be a duet with Atsushi, the only member of EXILE that can actually hold a song. With Crystal being signed to LDH, they'll probably want to throw an EXILE member up in her shit, and to be quite frank, it'll probably help her sales.

Drop your covers wish lists down in the comments so we can all be some bitches and judge. With me and Crystal being best friends now, I'll be sure to send your suggestions along.