Single Review: Crystal Kay featuring Yoonmirae - Only One

It’s been kinda rough for some of us Crystal Kay fans. Because for quite some time it has felt like Crystal’s music releases were not always reflective of her talents and the career she had built over the years. And even in the few instances where we did get something good, it came with no promo or was followed up with foolishness or something which felt like a step back. The best album celebrating Crystal’s 25th anniversary didn’t even feel like the celebration or retrospective that it should have been, because of the omission of certain songs and the humdrum re-recordings. And the damn thing releasing a year after the year of her 25th anniversary was also a mess.

Girl. Fire the whole management and marketing team.

So, it sure is nice to have a new single from Crystal Kay which feels so right for her now. I will try not to think too much about what comes after this potentially fucking things up, and just enjoy that we have something really good right now which is a HUGE step in the right direction.

Crystal is not giving us the cookie cutter shit that Universal seemed intent on ruining her legacy with over the past decade — songs which seemed to have little trace of the Crystal many of us fell for in the early 2000s.

Crystal is back on her shit with a 2-step jam which has a nasty lil’ bassline and VIBES. It feels like the kind of thing she would have cut with M-Flo or if she were to work with Sumin & Slom. It just feels very CK, which reaffirms that she does have a sound. And this is what was so frustrating about some of the foolishness she was releasing over the course of the past decade.

Crystal Kay featuring Yoonmirae - Only One | Universal Music

For the past few years, Crystal seems to have been on a journey of self rediscovery. Sporting her natural hair and rocking Blickitty-Black protective hair styles. Doing gigs and a whole tour in North America. Making appearances on South Korean television. It’s been really heart-warming to see Crystal reconnect with herself and channel her reconnections through her artistry and her career. And I’d wager that in doing so, that Crystal perhaps snapped herself out of whatever funk had her accepting the way in which her career was being mismanaged. Or at least I hope this to be the case. Because Crystal is too fine and too talented to not have a team around her who can see the obvious potential and not set her up to have the bigger career she deserves. And she has been in the game for too long to not be able to put out music which feels reflective of who she is and present it in a way which feels true to her. YES, bitch. Rock the fro. YES, bitch. Swing the braids.

Crystal’s journey of self has also put her back with a familiar face and name, as “Only One” is produced by T. Kura of Giant Swing Productions.

Lawd. We have been waiting for this day.

Crystal Kay featuring Yoonmirae - Only One | Universal Music

T. Kura has a long history of working with Crystal Kay — having first produced her single “Girl’s Night” back in 2001 when she was only 15 years old and his last production for her being “Forever” and “Be Mine” from Crystal’s 2012 album Vivid. And now, here they are 14 years later, working together again. T. Kura’s partner in crime Michico isn’t back this time around, unfortunately. But it’s still cool to see T. Kura back in the fold with Crystal again.

T. Kura had been producing songs for Crystal consistently right up until her 2012 album Vivid — so, he’d even made it through Crystal’s label change from Sony to Universal. But, after Vivid his name stopped appearing in album credits. I will never know for sure exactly what happened. But it did feel like there was a purging after Vivid. I am temporarily pretending that Spin the Music doesn’t exist. But in all honesty, this purging kinda started from that album. So, to have it happen at Sony and then have it happen again so quickly at Universal? A mess. It made no sense. And this flip-flopping into a period where Crystal’s music felt flat, characterless and felt like an undoing of all the work that was done to build her sound really hurt her music and her career. Sure, she had a couple of moderately successful singles in this time, but it felt like they came at the expense of Crystal having to be somebody else. And I can imagine that it felt weird for Crystal and those around her in terms of trying to navigate this. Vivid went triple Lawson’s egg sandwich on the Oricon, so there was a pivot from the sound of that album, despite how great it was. And whilst Crystal had a moderately successful single tied to a high profile Ryoko Shinohara drama with “Namdo Demo” and the album that song featured on sold more than Vivid — it still sold badly. And then For You came along with a Summer version of “Nando Demo” and went double Family Mart sports socks. Then there were years of nothing and then eventually a cover album, which was fine. But it had no real creative stamp or point of view which could help Crystal and her team decide on what the future of her sound should be. We got a really nice EP with Start Again. But despite the title and the EP providing Crystal a blank slate on which to actually [turns and looks into the camera]✨start again✨, she released a string of singles which felt like Crystal just throwing shit at a wall to what she sticks. And we were right back to there being zero direction. And this was all over a period of 10 YEARS. Just wasted time and potential.

Crystal Kay featuring Yoonmirae - Only One | Universal Music

As a fan it was so frustrating to see Crystal in this place where there didn’t seem to be any real guidance, nobody to shake a bitch and remind her of who she was and where she should be. She was just put into this place where nobody was taking care of her sound and nobody was treating her legacy with the reverence she deserved. Crystal HAD a sound and an identity and it felt like they were being disregarded. And even with her 2025 best album (which should have released in 2024) and the setlist for her 25th anniversary gig — it felt like nobody in Crystal’s team (or even Crystal herself) saw the value in what she had built at Sony and no effort was being made to continue to build on it. It almost felt like there was disdain for that entire period of her career.

So to finally have a Crystal Kay song which is not just ‘good’, but GREAT and feels like it has a clear direction, a sense of who Crystal was and who she is now — I can’t help but smile. It’s such a long overdue moment. And it’s so cool that everything about “Only One” feels reflective of Crystal’s self rediscovery. A girl born to a Black American father and a Korean mother, raised in Japan, releasing a song where she sings in English, Japanese and Korean and features an American Korean rapper. All on a song which is produced by a Japanese guy, and written by Crystal herself and a team of Korean songwriters. It’s so incredibly cool. And none of it feels calculated. It feels like such a natural thing for Crystal to do, given where she’s at in her life right now. Crystal is kinda back where she started — doing music which feels right for her for where she is at in her life. And this is what music and artistry should be. A product of who you are as a person.

My only nitpick with this song is that I wish it had some of those classic Crystal Kay vocal arrangements. When you know that T. Kura produced this song without Michico’s involvement, you really feel her absence. Vocal production and arrangements was a big thing for her, and she always really pushed it on Crystal’s songs because she knew how good a singer she was and how good her ear was. It’s a very small thing, and it by no means ruins the song. But I do miss it.

Crystal Kay featuring Yoonmirae - Only One | Universal Music

“Only One” is such a great introduction to Crystal Kay for those who are new to her. But it’s also a reminder to her day ones that she still has the sauce when it comes to music. I mean…we always knew that Crystal still had it. But it’s nice to see it put out in the world with a song which feels uncompromising. I hope she holds onto this energy and channels it into her next studio album — which is LONG overdue.

Also. Crystal sweetie? Get Sumin & Slom on the phone.

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🎛️ CK mashups: Crystal Kay x Janet Jackson | Crystal Kay x Jordan Knight | Crystal Kay x Janet Jackson, AGAIN

💿 CK album reviews: C.L.L. ~Crystal Lover Light | 637 -Always & Forever- | Almost Seventeen | Crystal Style | 4Real | Call Me Miss... | All Yours | Color Change! | Spin the Music | Shine | Vivid | For You | I Sing | All Time Best 25th Anniversary

☕ CK tea: The ways Crystal Kay influenced and impacted J-R&B AND Japanese music that not enough people talk about