音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

I was really out! I didn't know anything about Yuki Kajiura's new release "FICTION II", until this morning I saw from my google reader. :cry: Like what I've complained before, my fondness for Yuki Kajiura was decreasing seriously. Yet, I do like her album "FICTION", so I hoped this vol.2 would be better than her other recent works.

Before I began to listen to this album, I was also a bit afraid of what if I don't like it. Well, that emotion flied away as soon as I tried the first song.

"L.A."

I didn't know more information about "FICTION II". I thought it was similar to "FICTION", which contains both of new songs and old re-arranged songs. That's why I tried "L.A." at very first. I love Yuriko Kaida's voice, you know. :megane:

But immediately, I found something weird. This "L.A." sounds the same as the one in "EL CAZADOR OST"... how come? Aren't all songs supposed to be new or re-arranged? I was not 100% sure about it, anyway, I haven't played Yuki's works for such a long while, so I compared the original version and "this version". Hmm... the same... no matter how many times I tried to find something different, my trying was just in vain. Then, I compared other songs that have been released before. God, there are 5 out of 14 songs are completely repeats! Yuki, it's unfair to your "FICTION II"... :gloom:

So here, I'll post the cover (which is nice) and the tracklist (got from JVC):

Fortunately, those repeats are all my loves. :tea:

After confirmation of repeats, I tried the song after "L.A.", which was "March".

Oh My God!

That voice, Emily was back!!!!! Kyaaa~~ You know how much I love her voice? xDD More than any one from Kalafina, more than any from FJ series (except for Yuriko :P). Really! It seems every song she collaborated with Yuki was an epic one. Like those from ".hack", or "forest", or "everytime you kissed me". Yes, those songs do have similar style, but that is the style I can love forever.

After "March", I copied this album into my digital player and played it all day in lab. Then, I found the one I love the most. "my long forgotten cloistered sleep". Like what I said, all these songs sung by Emily are similar, but, I just love them. Who cares about the similarity? At least I won't. :bubble2:

While looping "my long forgotten cloistered sleep", I had never realised that I could be so concentrated to my RNA works. My efficiency reached the highest point this afternoon. That song was a bit sad yet had such a beautiful melody, plus the working screen I was facing to was in dark blue... what a superb match! (do I sound hyper-excited? Or maybe not, because I don't know what word I can use to describe my feeling at that time.)

For other new or re-arranged tracks, they were also good! The old songs are in my favorite list, and the new ones, though they lacks the very point I love, they were much, much better than her other recent works. Plus, is that only I felt "lotus" is like "aura"?? o_O

No, no, I'm not gonna write any review for her new album today!!! And that's all what I wanted to express. Just, I regained my fondness of Yuki Kajiura and her fantastic music, her nostalgic melody. Since this morning, without any premonition, the small piece of happiness fell in front of me.

Today, March 20th, I finally remembered to listen to Yuki Kajiura's newest (?) releases – forgive me, I really didn't pay more attention to her works since last year – "the Garden of sinners －劇場版「空の境界」音楽集－" and "The Works for Soundtrack". I played the two releases (5 CDs in all) in a row, and I was very dissatisfied. KnK was more like a "best collection" of all KnK tracks, with new titles and some minor rearrangements, and out of my expectation, there was no new KnK tracks. Her "works for soundtrack" were not impressive to me as well, although it contains some of her recent works (satoyama & 15-sai).

I was already very dissatisfied by previous KnK series; only few tracks really attracted me. I even felt some KnK tracks were like that of "Mai-Otome" orz... come on, how could you make so similar tracks??? T_T

I don't mind a composer has his/her own fixed style, really, if it can attract me. Yuki's style is changing, though it's not that obvious – her change in style is consistent. I liked her music since "noir", and as time went by, I followed her releases, ".//hack" series, "MADLAX", "See-Saw", "FictionJunction", "Kalafina" and a lot, a lot of others that I didn't mention here. I ever loved her so much, but my interest toward her music was decreasing, especially after Kalafina's second album "red moon". That album itself was... sort of average. I know, Yuki likes to use lots of electric elements in her music, but as Kalafina released more songs, her music (songs and soundtracks) are tending to be more "noisy". Since that time, I was thinking, "what happened to Yuki's music? I'm not impressed that much as how I ever felt before". I realised something eventually after played "Mai-Otome", "KnK", "Pandora Hearts" together. Yes, those soundtracks are nice, but they are not unique to each other, which is completely different from her old works, that you could distinct them just by the very first seconds of listening.

Depressing. I don't know how to describe my feeling, it's too hard and complicated. After realised the similarity, I listened to her music less and less. Each time, when I tried her newest release with a small excitement, everything ended in vain. That's not the style I ever loved. I'd better quit, just wanted this love to stay calmly in my memory.

This morning, when I was listening to the newest "KnK'" collection, I heard a piece of pretty familiar melody. The instrumental version of "fairytale", from KnK vol.6, track 1. I remembered how excited I was when first listened to it, because there is no individual instrumental version of that song. Before, I could always sing with the melody, but this morning, I couldn't.

I've forgotten how to sing that song, even the very first phrase.

Suddenly, I was very sad. How I loved that song before? How many times I've looped it before? And, how touched I was when I played it again right now? A tiny voice was echoing in my mind, reminding me my old adoration. "fairytale", I still love this song. I can still loop this song for tons of times, but, at the moment when I found I couldn't sing it, I understood, we are all being changed as time goes by, you'll never know what is going on in next minute.

――私たちみんな、変えていく。
we are all changing.

Yesterday night, I was organizing my download folder – the last time I did it was 3 months ago – and I noticed a few folders.
Songs by Annabel.
Nice! I almost forgot them. I only listened to them for once, probably. So that was time to feel them again.
"Noctiluca" and "autonomia". Both are calm and relaxing, and what I more love is the second one, which was one from "ABC" project by Annabel and Yanagi Nagi. :moe:

autonomia
I loved track 4 "melodia" immediately, and after a few times of playing, I also loved track 2 "autonomia". About track 3, I keep my words; that song was not that impressive to me, yet that is a good song for relaxing.

"melodia". At first, it gave me a strong feeling of Ali Project; no matter from the melody, the arrangement, or the entire ambience. To confirm that, I was even looking for its composer and more information – wishing to see the name(s) from AliPro. When I finally knew my thinking was wrong (though I guessed so), I was still very surprised. I've never seen myu having such a gothic song! Well, not bad, I love that song so much!

"autonomia". The beginning is very peaceful and quiet, which fits Annabel's typical slow type (?). But the real part that attracted me was the middle part, where the percussions got strengthened. I even sort of reminded about I've. Weird, they're completely two styles... :question:

Anyway, both songs are my loves, and they made me feeling like to draw, to write, to imagine... maybe I should try to cover both of them in future, and that's true that I've decided to draw something based on them (well, when I'm not busy TA-ing xD).

The second thing happened on that night, related to those songs...
Foobar 2000 had its version 1.1.5 released!!!
I didn't know that until I opened its website – because I was staring at my foobar when I was organizing my playlist for those Annabel songs. I clicked on the "help" menu, wished to see "check for update". I was so lazy to open the website each time – I even didn't know if there was a new version.
However, good news for me. Version 1.1.5 was out, and now, foobar has the feature to check for updates, being integrated in the "help" menu! :clap:

↓

... and I was listening to A.T. musical vocal best! :P

Another change of it was the icon. Hmmm... to be honest, I'm not very accustomed to the new icon yet. Before, it was a white alien in a black square, but now, it's just a white alien standing alone. orz, that's... creepy!!!
Anyway, I'll be used to it... I hope... :sweat: