Kiara's album - Point of View
The bonus for the physical cd is a Sparks metal remix.
Apparently Spotify is the most helpful place to listen to it:
Criticisms out of the way first. With five new songs, this is basically an EP. I understand the idea of including existing singles in an album, it's done all the time, but the five old songs feel more like a "vtuber character" side of the album, while some of the new songs were a bit more personal and the fit between them wasn't there. Taken as a whole work I feel it would be stronger with just the new songs.
The production and mixing is better than most Holosongs, and you can tell that Kiara had a lot of personal input. On a few short occasions the musical feel seems a tiny bit amateur, not in a fully negative way, but in a "not fully developed sound" way. Of course she's working with vocaloid producers and people who went pro mixing songs for YouTubers, so I get it, and this is a criticism of pretty much every Holosong. Lyrics are mostly good but if I had to nitpick, Monii has a tendency to carry a sentence between measures, which I get is a staple of lyric writing, but if done too much can make a song's natural rhythm and emphasis work against it.
The new songs can basically be divided into the singles that she took on as complete works, and the personal songs. In the first category are Pineapple and Sleep Talking.
Pineapple (
lyrics)- This is the album's single and soon first MV, it's catchy, but if you pay attention there's not much substance to it. Just pure pop-music. Lyrics say nothing, and she said she had no input either, so there's really no meaning. Can you tell it's not my favorite? Still, it's a huge earworm, so it's well-done for what it is.
Sleep Talking (
lyrics) - The kpop-style bop of the album. Musically, the "sleep talking" line and rhythm makes it work. I think it's a better song overall than Pineapple, has a bit more to the lyrics. Even though Kiara says she took the song and lyrics as a complete product, I do think there's a weird metaphor between Kiara's parasociality, her long streams into the evening, and the song about talking in your sleep.
The next three, Kiara said she got on a call with the lyricist, Monii, and specified what she wanted them to mean. And frankly, they're the better songs unless you really love kpop. Even musically I prefer them.
Love Rush (
lyrics)- Very j-pop / idol. Not my favorite genre or style personally but it's done well for the genre. Lyrically, at first glance it's just a normal love song, but if you know Kiara literally every single line of this song reflects some kind of sentiment she's expressed on stream. As she said on her preview stream, "that was my love letter to you guys". Honestly, it's really cute. I was touched.
The Great Wanderer (
lyrics)- Synthwave-adjacent electronic. I think Kiara's voice is really well-mixed here, giving it a presence in both the lower registers and the higher parts that she sometimes doesn't have. Kiara says this song is about vtubing, and the lyrical theme reminds me of the lyrics of Suisei's Ghost. I also feel a touch of normal loneliness, both hers in the past, and anyone who's felt the same. Musically it's fine, the only part I don't like is how it fades out, lacking an ending lyrically. Overall a good song that I liked.
Retrospective (
lyrics)- Emo rock. The music has great moments soaring from lows to highs and from full sound to more minimal. Kiara also sings in a lower key which is a nice change of sound. This song is about struggling with her past failures and how self-doubt affects her. This... is basically a doxx song, which is a weird thing to say. Weird even for Kiara herself, who said it was "about... a friend". I'm happy and somewhat emotional she's confident enough to sing about this now.
If you haven't already blocked me for gushing over Orange Woman, go give Wanderer and Retrospective a listen.