Filed under: ikimono gakari, reviews | Tags: blue bird, ikimono garkari, review
Blue Bird
Tracklist
- Blue Bird (ブルーバード)
- Natsuiro Wakusei (夏色惑星)
- Blue Bird (instrumental) (ブルーバード)
Ikimono Gakari’s 10th single. Blue Bird is used for the opening of Naruto Shippuden.
A friend sent me the opening of Naruto Shuppuden asking me if I knew the artist of this song. No one he already asked knew. So I’m like “fine I’ll look”. *click*
And I recognized the voice immediately as Yoshioka Kiyoe’s and it was okay now that it was a Naruto opening. I liked the opening a lot so I got my hands on the single to review it. So here I go!
Blue Bird
This song rocks. It stays interesting because of the vocals, which are really good by the way. Almost a cappella at first and then pretty much all the instruments kick in. It’s a really catchy song and it’s a bit odd. It reminds me of Hanabi and Sakura. Aoi Aoi Anooo soraaaaa, yeah the lyrics are really beautiful. This song full of energy and optimism is like Naruto himself.
You just have to listen to it and get hooked yourself.
my rating: 9/10
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Natsuio Wakusei
The B-side. It contains less energy than Blue Bird. It’s time to calm down people. The song opens with fun guitar chords. A boom boom boom and then the vocals kick in. I love the drums in this song. I find this song rather fast paced, eventhough it’s much calmer than Blue Bird. I don’t like the way the song ends.
my rating: 7/10
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Overall: 8/10
SAKURA
- Tracklist
- SAKURA
- Hot Milk
- Sotsugyo Shashin
- SAKURA -instrumental-
This is Ikimono Gakari’s first single and if my information source is correct, and duh it is correct, it reached 17th on the Oricon charts.
SAKURA
It starts out with Yoshioka Kiyoe singing very softly with, what it sounds like, piano and guitar chords. The song is quite slow and ballad-ish. I really like this song. It gives you a strange feeling. Like everything’s over with a happy end. The song lasts for five minutes and fifty-five seconds and wasn’t hard to listen to at all. A very cute song and though it may sound a bit sad, it lifts your spirit.
8/10
Hot Milk
Yoshioka Kiyoe starts singing at the beginning of the song. I like the simple intro that develops into an upbeat song. This song is faster and lasts 5 minutes. Like Sakura, I like this song a lot as well. One other thing that I noticed listening to this song: how hard it must be to play the harmonica and guitar at the same time. I admire the guy.
8/10
Sotsugyo Shashin
This song starts with ‘magical’ twinkles followed by the harmonica. When the music stops for a second, Yoshioka sings her first words in this ballad. I personally don’t like this song. Nothing I can say about it. No bad things or good things. I guess, that’s always a pass.
6.5/10
SAKURA (instrumental)
Beautiful, that’s all I can say. Some things I haven’t heard before are very clear now, for example, the melody and the beat. I wish I was a bit better with musical terms and such, so I could explain clearly what I mean. I guess, you just have to listen for yourselves.
9/10
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Overall: 8/10
