"Toki no tsubasa" is the long-awaited new original album from ZARD, released on the group's tenth anniversary. The album covers singles from both 1999 and 2000 with a few new songs. This album is long overdue and it shows. Some of the singles covered are so old they are already considered classic. It almost feels more like listening to a best collection, rather than an original album; that's how old some of the music seems now. It's difficult to believe, but such classic ZARD songs as "sekai wa kitto mirai no naka" and "itai kurai kimi ga afurete iru yo" have not been released on any original album until now. So before we even consider the merits of the music contained on the album, you can see that we're already coming up against some problems with this album concerning the lack of original content. This issue is very real, and it is magnified by the last three tracks of the album. The first song on the album is their 2000 single, "Get U're Dream", which was the NHK TV network's theme song for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, if you can remember that. Track 2 is their single, "kono namida hoshi ni nare", which is the group's 31st single, from 1999. This is a fine encouraging song. Track 3 is the latest single, "promised you". This is the "with P-edition", so it has a piano introduction, but isn't different from the original version otherwise. (The P means piano.) Next is another classic 1999 single, "itai kurai kimi ga afurete iru yo". This song has always been a special one from ZARD because it's a little different from what you would usually expect from the group. Underneath the very bright and happy main melody, there is a dark, dramatic tone with a hip hop beat. An excellent song. Track 5 is finally the first new song on this album, "mado no soto wa MONOCHROME". There's nothing real special about it to separate it from the pack. It has similar backup vocalists to "promised you". Some of the vocals performed by Izumi aren't quite as great as we'd like them to be - There are some apparent vocal problems in the chorus that were a bit unnerving, like the part where the lyrics say "story". Otherwise though, it's another great new melody, as you would expect from ZARD. Quite uplifting. Six is a nice track called "o mo i de". This was the coupling-with song from the "kono namida hoshi ni nare" single, so again it is not a new track. Track seven is the second new song so far on the album, "ashita moshi kimi ga kowaretemo". The song is okay, but the main melody is very generic, almost cliche. It's otherwise well-performed and fine. Next is our old favorite ZARD song, "sekai wa kitto mirai no naka". This is a great classic rock track from 1999. The album has a new version of the song, with a new arrangement, but the end result is a track that is only slightly different from the original version. We should still give points for effort. It's still a tremendous song at any rate. Track 9 is the third new song on the album, "hero". It's a slow, beautiful track. Everything seems to be in the right place on this one, as it is a very pretty song with a truly heartfelt melody. Thumbs up for this new track. Track 10 is a remix of the old classic ZARD song "yureru omoi". Everyone who knows anything about ZARD should know what this song sounds like. The remix is very generic and plain by today's standards. It's a standard dance remix offering little of anything unique or new. All we can say is it's a new version of an old song, which is fine. This track is over ten minutes long, occupying a large percentage of what might otherwise be a fairly short album. Track 11 is another remix track, "Gomi's 10th Anniversary Special Mix" of "makenaide". This one is a little better, and also not as long as the previous track. This is sort of a disco remix of the song. Multiple remix tracks are a miserable edition to any original album, so having these two tracks on the end like this is not necessarily a very good thing. Track 12 has the same name as the album. This song fades in and plays for just over two minutes. It's not a complete song. It just has a chorus and nothing else. I see no reason why they couldn't have gone to a little more trouble and made this fine melody into a complete song. It couldn't have been that hard; they already have so much made here. Or maybe there is a full version but it's just not on the album? This song is used on a TV commercial, so maybe they even just decided they would only write enough for the commercial. That would suck. Anyway, it certainly would have been good to get a full song on this track, but it seems to be mysteriously incomplete. We weren't sure if we should include an audio sample of this track or not, but we decided to go ahead and do it. The sample may make it seem like a perfectly decent song because it hides the fact that it's an incomplete track. "Toki no tsubasa" is a long-awaited original album because it has been two years since the previous one, "eien". Unfortunately, it doesn't really fill the gap. It would have been nice to have more than the surprisingly nil amount of new songs (three). Also, remixes of old songs are a poor excuse for new tracks. There's still a void to fill with new music, that will hopefully be answered within another year with another original album. Until then ZARD fans will have to wait. This one should at least keep you occupied for a while. The album is otherwise good, so if you're a ZARD fan and you want this, you had might as well buy it. For everyone else, there are better choices if you want a ZARD album.
Buy it here.
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