YeYe sprinkles earthly folk melodies like a wood sprite in her folksy pop album Asa wo Akedashite, Yoru wo Tojirumade.
YeYe’s vocals are fairy-ish, and it’s as if all of nature’s little critters surround her for backup vocals. She has an almost cutesy voice that sounds like a loud whispery mix of Frente! meets Bjork that is entirely enchanting.
Even the instruments YeYe chooses to accompany her acoustic guitar are non-conventional, and create a magical sound. The first track “Morning” tinkles with the xylophone and blows forth a train whistle from the weirdly wind instrument the Melodica. The xylophone sounds more chimey in the cafe popper “You are Singing Always.” We also get a southern rock backing organ in “であう、わかれる.”
YeYe shows her range as an artist as she ventures into a weird Weezer cover of “Buddy Holly.” The track is a stripped down acoustic guitar plucked cover with out 0f left field puckery whistles. Another surprise is “Woo lino sunte on lino.” This upbeat number jangles along with a killer funktified drumbeat and even busts out the Melodica again. Both are must-download tracks.
“Uminami” parades an early morning ant march and is probably the most sunshine-y of tracks on the album. If you are into Starbucks folk rock, and need the right soundtrack to start to your day, YeYe delivers your cool iced latte.
Solid 8 out of 10. Buy Asa woAkedashite, Yoru wo Tojirumade from CDJapan released 12.19.2011.
[...] Still, the camera folks and editors can put together a stunning video of this UStream performance. It also helps that “言う” is such a beautiful song. Also of note: I reviewed her album not to long ago, so trust me, it’s good. [...]