Biography Discography Interviews Lyrics Angela's Blog
Return Home

Here you'll find my reviews of Angela's released singles and albums. Obviously, these are just my opinions, and you are welcome to share yours! Please email me your thoughts, and I'd be glad to post them! :)

This Love
Released: May 31, 2006
Review: This single was pretty much golden from the get-go, given that it was the This Love single, and This Love is really one of Angela's stronger songs, IMHO. Kiss From a Rose and Jiyuu no Ashiato are like...icing on the cake. I wasn't instantly impressed with Angela's rendition of Kiss From a Rose, but it very quickly grew on me, and I was especially impressed by her piano treatment of the song. I love the last few moments of the song where Angela plays the piano out, I think it works very well in making the song more...organic and natural, and it definitely ends her rendition on a high note. Jiyuu no Ashiato is an enjoyable, more upbeat song (melodically, of course, I wouldn't call the lyrics "upbeat"), though it reminds me a great deal of Kiseki, which isn't a bad thing, but...it doesn't really stand out to me as something different and new the way Kiss From a Rose and, of course, This Love did. Still, I have yet to hear a truly bad or disappointing song by Angela, so it's not a big issue at all.

Kiss Me Good-Bye
Released: March 15, 2006
Review: Ah, now I think this is the single that everyone was waiting for, from Angela, in large part due to the fact that it contained the much-anticipated vocal theme for Final Fantasy XII. I think this is possibly Angela's best single, not because her best songs are on it, but more because each one of the songs on the single sound like they could have been A-Sides, themselves. Obviously, both versions of Kiss Me Good-Bye are the headliners here, and though each is wonderful in its own right, I enjoyed the arrangement of the English version a little more. Angela's voice sounds...different in the English version, clearer, I think. Anyway, both versions are beautiful, no doubt, and well worth the single on their own. But both Santa Fe and Aoi Kage are exceptional songs, as well. Santa Fe is a bit different from Angela's usual style, a little more off-beat and funky, both in melody and lyrics. It took me a little bit to get used to, but it's a very fun song to listen to, and especially to sing :3 Aoi Kage is IMHO a very, very good rendition of an average song. I was never a huge fan of the original (maybe it was the organ...), but Angela's simple, very faithful (musically) cover of the song is just wonderful to listen to.

Kokoro no Senshi
Released: January 18, 2006
Review: Despite being the first Angela Aki single I ever heard, and what made me love her music, I find "Kokoro no Senshi" her weakest single so far. Of course, "weakest" in Angela-land means very little, because the songs are still a few bars above the music of other artists, but compared to "This Love", "Kiss Me Good-Bye", and even "HOME", I think it falls towards the back of the pack. With the exception of Eyes on Me. I'm incredibly fond of that song, because it was what got me into Angela's music. I think she did a fantastic job on the song, which I'd never been very fond of prior to her rendition (maybe it's her alterations to the grammar ^_^). I think she sings it the way the song should be sung, very passionately and with a great piano back up. It's really sounds like the sort of song you'd hear from a musician in a little bar :D Today is a nice song, as well, one of Angela's better covers, all the better for her very enthusiastic performance of the last few lines. Those really make the song :) For their part, Kokoro no Senshi and Sora wa Itsumo Naite Iru didn't thrill me at first. I found Kokoro very...loud, from the get go. Unlike many of Angela's songs, which build up to the power vocals, Kokoro starts out kinda beating your eardrums into submission ^^; It was Sora's melody that threw me off a bit in the beginning, and I used to skip both songs in favor of getting to more loved ones like Eyes on Me, but, as they tend to do, Kokoro and Sora grew on me. :) Still, this single still ranks fourth under the other three for me ^^;

HOME
Released: September 14, 2005
Review: I've always been fond of "HOME" as a single, since all three songs are exceptionally good. HOME itself stands out for me more because of its lyrics than its music, though the piano intro flows very nicely into the song (maybe because it seems vaguely familiar to me...^^;) The chorus is where HOME really gets great, though. The lyrics and music are both particularly enjoyable there :) Kiseki is very catchy, with a great rhythm that's very easy to get into, and, y'know, bop around to ^_^ Then there's Will You Dance, another great cover by Angela, and it's just pure fun. The piano melody is perfectly timed, the lyrics are very sweet and hopeful, \ and it's a song that immeadiately puts me in a good mood, even in just the first few notes.

HOME
Released: June 14, 2006
Review: Home is a very strong first album from Angela. Six new songs, six old, I'm curiuos to know how she decided on which of her older songs to put on the album. The singles were a given, obviously, but I wonder what made her decide on Kiseki and Rain? Two good songs, for sure, but I guess I was sorta hoping to see Santa Fe. :) Then again, I guess one all-English song is enough on a Japanese album, right? ^_^ The new tracks are the real thrill here, anyway - most of them decent, very typical Angela, but I have to say, the standout tracks, to me, have got to be Uchuu and Your Love Song. Uchuu is fantastic, a very unique, piano-driven almost rock song, with great story-lyrics and a nice message. The thing about Uchuu that I really enjoy most is how it is almost like three songs mashed in to one. You've got the piano-rock through the verses, that flow into the somewhat mournful and "soaring" stanzas in between verses, and finally the bouncy chorus, which is closer to the feel and speed of the other tracks on the album. Your Love Song stands out here because of Angela's voice, in my opinion. For the verses, the piano melody is soft and steady, which allows Angela's voice to shine front and center. She's very clear, and the song has a very intimate quality, more so than the other songs on the album, where Angela's voice and the music vye for attention. The piano finally takes over for the last two minutes or so, almost like a duet partner taking its turn at the mic, and it ends like a nice instrumental piece. Angela really does play and write music for the piano very well, and as someone incredibly fond of instrumental piano music, that's always a huge bonus. :) At any rate, as a whole, the CD can get a little repetetive at times. Even if you know the songs by heart, they are very similar, and it's easy for them to blend together after a while. But that makes stand out songs like Uchuu even more precious, and all in all, it's an immensely enjoyable album.

ONE
Released: March 9, 2005
Review: Now ONE is a great mini-album. Angela does a great job on the covers she's chosen, which make up one half of the album, and the original songs on here are good as well. I'd have to say that her cover tracks outshine the originals, in my opinion, especially We're All Alone and Never is a Promise. We're All Alone is one of my favorite Angela songs, period. She does an excellent job singing the verses, and building up to the beautiful chorus, and the inclusion of the English chorus mixed with the lines in Japanese is a wonderful touch. Never is a Promise is exceptional for its feel, to me. The song sounds very emotional in the way that it is sung, very quiet and sincere, and the lyrics are sort of sad and very honest. Angela's take on the song is quite good, and really, its here take on the classic covers that make ONE such an enjoyable album. :)

These Words
Released: January 04, 2000
Review: These Words serves as a good example of how much Angela has grown as an artist in the last five years. This is her very early US indies album, with 11 tracks that are musically enjoyable, and actually reasonably diverse (piano accompaniement is actually pretty scarce), but whose lyrics can sometimes fall on the repetetive side, though they're rough enough to be honest and heartfelt in the way that artists' early demo-type songs are. The songs are nice enough to listen to, in general, and there are a few, such as Magic (and it's hidden track, which is very worth the wait between the two), with its gently uplifting quality, that stand out from the rest, both musically and lyrically. April Sun is another such track, with mysteriously bittersweet lyrics and a perfectly complimentary soft, melencholic guitar-driven melody. The CD seems to put Angela's faith at the forefront of most of the songs, and it's an interesting change from the predominately ballads that she releases now. It definitely isn't a bad CD, though it is very different from her Japanese releases, and Angela has definitely had a few years to mature as an artist since. But perhaps as an example of her roots and the songs of her early years, it's an invaluable album to have.

Go Back