I've Girl's Compilation Vol. 8 LEVEL OCTAVE was released this August 31, 2012. After two years, the group finally released the 8th installment on the I've Girl's compilation saga. A hit or a miss?
LEVEL OCTAVE comes out with a bang, with one of the ancient, senior I've artists coming back to provide the titular track for the compilation. LEVEL OCTAVE sounds so much like a material MAKO and I've would come up with in the earlier years. The dark trance style once again from Takase Kazuya blended well with MAKO's light and jazzy vocals, taking us on a journey all the way back to the second compilation verge.
At first, MAKO's sudden comeback, after her participation on I've Sound's Tribal Link cover album, raised a brow. An irregular utahime providing vocals for the titular track seemed too much and unfair for the rest of the team. But with the way things turned out in the end, it was probably not so much of a bad idea, after all. The Larval Stage Planning girls may not be ready yet for such a task, MELL is currently out of the picture, and Mami Kawada is busy with her own releases. This, perhaps, makes Kaori Utatsuki on top of the list of candidates for the titular track. It should have been Kaori but again, this is one of the times when I've Sound tends to ignore the regular utahimes. Looking at it on the brighter side, the decision to give MAKO such a glorious task was astonishing indeed, yet not a disappointment.
The compilation offers far more surprises than just that. The shocking appearance of the all time crowd favorite Light colors from Lia and the inclusion of three songs from Kaori Utatsuki for the very first time somehow show that I've can still do right. However, the nightmare that is U make Ai dream opening up the compilation was undoubtedly a wrong move. Too lame, boring, and bland in itself and is just utterly unfit for the job.
Luckily, the rest of the tracks make up for it. There are inevitable hits and misses, of course, generic and bad songs here and there but overall, the interesting mix and variety in LEVEL OCTAVE is a nice treat for the fans.
Different moods, aura, and genre. The darkly satisfying and impressive Genzai no Requiem, the pop-ish and midtempo Presto, and the pure eroge feel and goodness in *bloom* were all nice works from KOTOKO. LSP's cheery yet dishearteningly boring debut release Rolling Star☆彡 still made for a nice addition to the compilation, nonetheless. It was also great to see the debut songs of Rin Asami and Nami Maisaki on the compilation: the fluffy, generic lead to the smile, and the outstandingly excellent piece of my heart. Airi Kirishima was an early favorite among the LSP girls for her two HeaRt debut song on the previous compilation EXTRACT. This time though, Airi steps back behind the other two with her trying-to-be-badass-but-not-quite vocals on IN MY WORLD. Mami Kawada's INITIATIVE, the modern-day counterpart in popularity of her hit eroge songs IMMORAL and eclipse, was then among the highlights of the compilation. Also, Kaori's songs were all much welcome and were almost equally great in their own respects.
As a whole package, LEVEL OCTAVE is a great compilation with its diverse selection. The positives outweigh the negatives, and the feel is more consistent and smooth-flowing than the haphazard EXTRACT. However, it was sad to see a couple of MELL's songs not making it into the compilation such as Noblest love and Start of the strongest ~Ware ima, Saikasou ni te~ among others.
At this rate, it seems MELL is permanently out of the group. Sad and disappointing, yes. I've is letting go of yet another great vocalist without revealing much detail about it but then again, this has always been the way they handle things. This is only a possibility. Having said that, there's still a chance that MELL will be coming back and will recover from her supposed sickness. Who knows?
The absence of MELL's songs, and the not so KOTOKO-centric tracklist this time seems to show how I've Sound is slowly progressing towards a new generation of vocalists. That idea alone is a refresher, that I've is still on its feet, up and kicking after all these years. Having lost some of its best vocalists, it would be great to see MAKO coming back and be with I've for good. She would be a nice differential to the group, an addition badly needed to strengthen up the roster. Otherwise, I've should just utilize and develop the regular vocalists. Nonetheless, LEVEL OCTAVE is a great start to a new I've Sound generation.
Light colors? Man, that song was awesome, one of my favorite Lia songs (along with Tori no Uta), but then again, I have a crush on Tomoyo Sakagami from Tomoyo After and CLANNAD, so there's some bias there, although it's still a great song. Another thing about Light colors (and Tori no Uta) is that it was arranged by I've founder Kazuya Takase, who also composed my favorite Mami Kawada song, triangle, so again there's some bias (but then again, he composed Re-sublimity, which in my opinion is I've Sound's best song ever, only JOINT comes close).
ReplyDeleteNow, onto MELL. I'm quite worried about what's happening to her these last two years or so (although I only discovered her last year, and learned about her "illness" this year). Yes I know that I've Sound is unusually secretive about their utahime (we don't even know her real name or age), but they could at least acknowledge what happened to her. She has lots of fans and is quite popular (possibly even more popular than Mami), even in the United States, so obviously her fans are worried. They should at least say something. I'm just hoping for the best that she'll return soon. I just hope that the nightmare scenario won't happen. And by nightmare scenario, I mean going to Anime News Network or her Wikipedia page and seeing some horrible news that no I've Sound or J-Pop fan would want to hear.