Crystal Kay covers Fujii Kaze’s “Kaerou” and it’s her song now

For some reason or other, Crystal Kay continues to elude The First Take. Or The First Take refuses to have her on there. I don’t know what the situation is, but it’s a mess. They even had another artist show up to perform “Koi ni Ochitara” with M-Flo. Crystal Kay shoulda cussed Verbal and DJ Taku out for that mess. But that’s okay. Because now Re:Re:Re:TUNE is on the block — another YouTube channel where (for now) Japanese artists pull up to perform. But the difference here is that they perform covers.

Crystal Kay performing “Kaerou” | Re:Re:Re:TUNE

Crystal showed up to perform a cover of Fujii Kaze’s Help Ever Hurt Never album closer “Kaerou”. A great choice of song. Not just because it’s a great song. But because Kaze is popular, and covering one of his songs is a sure fire way to get a whole bunch of YouTube views. And the timing of the release of this performance couldn’t be any better — with Crystal Kay promoting the release of her best album, All Time Best 25th Anniversary and Fujii Kaze having recently released a new song, news of a new album and currently being on a European Tour.

Needless to say, Crystal covered the absolute shit out of the damn song.

I am not gonna go into a whole rant as to why Crystal Kay has not released another cover album yet, despite performing an album’s worth of new covers since I Sing dropped 4 years ago. Nor will I go into a rant as to why Crystal sounds so amazing covering somebody else’s song, yet sounded so dry and sanitised re-recording her own songs for her best album — I’ll get into that mess in my album review.

Girl. Fire the whole management and marketing team.

Crystal Kay performing “Kaerou” | Re:Re:Re:TUNE

Crystal’s voice continues to age like the finest wine. She sounded amazing here. But it’s not just that Crystal technically sounded great, but that she evoked so much feeling when she sang.

“Kaerou” was a highlight for me on Kaze’s debut album, Help Ever Hurt Never. Not only was it a fitting album closer, but it was nice hearing Fujii on a ballad with full blown strings and big production, because it was a shift for him compared to his other songs. But I do prefer Crystal’s cover. As much as I liked the production on the OG “Kaerou”, it does work better when it’s just stripped down to a piano and given a softer, more delicate vocal. I really hope Fujii Kaze sees this performance and shares it with his 2.8 million Instagram followers. And it would be amazing if Crystal and Kaze both performed this song together, with Kaze on piano.

Crystal’s voice and style of singing was such a good fit for “Kaerou”, that I would actually like Kaze to write for Crystal. A Crystal Kay single penned by Fujii Kaze and him popping up to accompany her on piano for live performances would be a great look, and is the kind of punch Crystal needs for a single at this point in her career, where she’s not had a single chart on the Oricon since 2016.

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