So back in 2013, 1st Place Co. was one of the sponsor for Super GT. With its sponsorship, they released a compilation album, CiRCUiT BEATS SUPER GT 20th ANNIVERSARY, featuring vocaloid IA. There are 16(+1 bonus) track in the compilation album, and each song (except for track #1 and #14) is suppose to be a theme song for one of the Super GT racing team.
Enough with the useless info, on with the review
1. America ~We are all right!~, Jin feat.IA
Music: Like most of Jin’s music, ‘Merica ~We are all right!~ have a great instrumental, with amazing guitar/drum backing.
Tuning (Voice manipulation): I am not the biggest fan of Jin’s kagerou project albums, but he is a pretty good composer. On the other hand, he seems to have no idea how to use V3 or IA’s voice bank. Lucky, this is one of his song with better tuning.
A great song overall I’ll give it: 1776/IA
2. RACER’S HIGH, Nanahoshi Orchestra feat.IA
Music: Another song with good guitar backing/solo
Tuning: This song takes advantage of IA’s mid-high range, with most the the song sang in mid range voice and it hit a higher pitch on the beginning of each verse.
This song is the theme song for the racing team: Cars Tokai Dream 28 with their car painted purple and green, named, EVA01. I’ll rank this song: 初号機/IA
3. Setsuna Drive, 9mm Parabellum Bullet feat. IA
There is actually a cover of this song using IA ROCKS and with Ciel as the voice manipulator. Not to say the original version isn’t good, IA ROCKS is just better for a song with fast tempo. And Ciel is Just IA’s best voice manipulator.
Not as good as the cover I’ll rate it: IA ROCKS > IA
4. REAL, LeftyMonsterP feat. IA
Music: REAL
Tuning: REAL
REAL IA
5. LIVEDRIVE, Jin feat. IA
Typical Jin song, good guitar solo, meh tuning.
6. Over Drive, TeddyLoid feat. IA
Music: turn up the bass/treble and enjoy the wub wub, or not. Electro music is like pizza, you either like it or you don’t. Everyone have their favorite pizza place, and there is no such thing as a bad pizza (unless is really fucking bad).
Tuning: It’s very rare for a electronic song to have good tuning, since the focus of the song is on the beats rather than the singing. That being said… this is not one of the songs with good vocal…
Lyric: TeddyLoid really overused the word ‘Drive’… hahaha get it?
DriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDriveDrive, my least favorit TeddyLoid song.
7. DREAMER’S HIGH, KNOXX feat. IA
Music: KNOXX is a Drum and Bass DJ, this is a Drum and Bass song, let’s go back to that pizza analogy…
Tuning: It’s surprisingly good
Lyric: the word count for ‘High’ is pretty high, not as overused as ‘Drive’ tho…
8. Sympa, baker feat. IA
Music: Another electronic song, I don’t like it.
Tuning: A mix of robotic voice and less robotic voice.
Worst song in the album, Meh/IA
9. HEAVENLY PLAY！, Nakanishi Ryousuke feat. IA
Music: This song use a sample of the famous James Bond Theme , the producer added some simple drum & bass with a bit of remixing. Just a perfect balance of Jazz and drum & bass. This is one of the most well done vocaloid song when it comes to the instrumental.
Tuning: while not as impressive as the instrumental. With a higher pitch tuning, IA’s voice fits this song very well.
This is the theme song for Team Arnage Racing, with the Exe Aston Martin as their car. Hence the reason for using the James Bond Theme. This is what I imagine a James Bond movie opening with IA would sound like. Best song in this album, by far: 007/IA
10. Summer Queen, Ishifuro feat. IA
I don’t like Ishifuro, I don’t like the music nor the tuning. I can see why some people would, I just don’t.
11. OVERTURE, ORYO feat. IA
Ok rock song with good electric guitar solo and really robotic and flat tuning. Meh/IA
12. God only knows, devilishP feat. IA
Music: I love devilish P, he is my favorite Vocalrock producer. Him and Jin make some of the sweetest guitar solo.
Tuning: Like most of his songs, the majority of God only knows is sang in a mid low pitch, and he use a higher pitch during the climax. The tuning strike a good balance with his hard rock style.
Not my favorite song by devilishP(DEADLINE from IA THE WORLD ～紅～ is my favorite, but that’s another reivew), but still a great track from him.
13. 軌跡に uzP feat. IA
Another Vocalrock track, pretty similar to God only knows in terms is style. I feel bad for this song’s placement within the album, it’s sandwich by 2 of the best vocalrock song in the album.
14. Over the limit, Yuyoyuppe feat. IA
Music: Another good Vocalrock.
Tuning: The song takes advantage of IA’s wide vocal range.
15. Circuit DISCO, Komatsu Kazuya feat. IA/16. Summer Songs, Komatsu Kazuya feat. IA
Music: I can only describe his style as upbeat/happy, and I like upbeat/happy songs
Tuning: His tuning style matches the music very well, I like how he drag out the last syllable at the end of each verse.
His song never fail to put me in a good mood.
17. America ~We are all right!~ IA GIRLSTARS Version
Eh… no
Welp, this is the end… thanks for reading my first review. This this my Schiity audio equipment:
DAC: Schiit Modi 2 uber
Amp: Schiit Magni 2 or Schiit Lyr 1
Headphone: Audio-Technica ATH-M70X
Program: MusicBee with songs in FLAC format
Your listening experience may differ depends on the audio equipment.
Murica pew pew. Also good luck! Don’t be nervous about this, you’ll be great at it! SO KEEP ON MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the words of encouragement. >.-
Welcome!
You sure like IA a lot, don’t you ?
I am the biggest IA fan in America, and that is a fact.
I enjoyed this review, i appreciate the pizza analogies too, keep going, you’ll do great. shame all my music is 320 mp3 files, i like flac but my god i cant handle the file sizes on my poor poor laptop, they take way too much space.