Many, many moments of stunning brilliance packaged in an album that sadly feels a bit directionless. Or rather, it feels like three slightly but resolutely distinct records smushed together in an odd alternation of tracks. Least interesting to me are songs like 3 or 8, which are very nicely instrumentated (?) ballads, but ultimately still ballads, in English, with less of that magic to them. Another type of tracks are the (all stunning) 1,2,5, and to a degree 7 which stands out a bit with its mild autotune, plus 9 which is far less compelling than those four, which are tracks much more in line with AA's Vulture Prince, but with more faeric chamber-like instrumentation and a touch less subdued, similarly to Ichiko's Adan No Kaze in a way. Finally 4 and 6, and to a slight degree their DNA is also shared by 7, see AA explore much jazzier, snappier tunes, with some guest vox even. This is a genre that I find cool, to the point that I greatly enjoyed 6 even though it is "just" a reprise of a track from the LP just prior, but it still does not mesh very well with the rest. It'd be interesting to see her expand on that sound more. This should have been three EPs truth be told, but still lots of gem moments to be found. 3.7
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