Castella
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== Tracklisting == | == Tracklisting == | ||
| + | <small>*Note: Highlighted in bold are title and single tracks.</small><br><br> | ||
| + | 1. Welcome to My Heart <br> | ||
| + | 2. Castella <br> | ||
| + | 3. Sweet State <br> | ||
| + | 4. Beautiful <br> | ||
| + | 5. Red Prince <br><br> | ||
| + | 6. Foreign Languages <br> | ||
| + | 7. Black Tears <br> | ||
| + | 8. Time is an Enemy <br> | ||
| + | 9. Sweeping Love <br> | ||
| + | 10. Cold and Clean <br> | ||
Current revision as of 13:30, 21 August 2015
Castella is the eighth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter JayMi. It was released on October 16, 2015, through Clumsy Media. The album was prepared extensively in advanced for two years, and during a period when JayMi experienced significant amount of media attention over her private life. Over the course of the song writing period, she primarily collaborated with producers Mini Bus and Moving Ghost who are both long time collaborators and served as the album's executive producer alongside JayMi. The album's title is taken from a popular Japanese sponge cake made of sugar, flour, eggs, and starch syrup, known domestically as kasutera.
The album represents a sonic departure from the pop and R&B music of her previous albums, and is described by Swift as her "first documented official soul and jazz album." In contrast to Swift's previous work, the production of Castella consists of drum programming, synthesizers, pulsating bass, processed backing vocals, and guitars. The album received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics and it was ranked as one of the best albums of 2015 by numerous publications, including Nihon Women, Japan Daily and NEW.
After debuting at number one on the Oricon Daily Chart, Castella sold 1.087 million copies during the first week of release. Four singles have been released from the set: "Shake It Off", "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, while "Style" peaked at number six.
Contents |
Background
Swift released her fourth studio album, Red, on October 22, 2012.[7] The album marked a change in Swift's musical style with the experimentation of heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop.[8][9] Red was a commercial success and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies. This was the highest opening sales in a decade and ultimately made Swift the first woman to have two albums sell more than a million copies in their first week.[10] To promote the album Swift embarked on the North American leg of her Red Tour, which ran from March to September 2013. The tour visited arenas and stadiums in North America, New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany and Asia.[11] In the Red era, Swift's romantic life became the subject of intense media scrutiny. Gawker remarked that Swift had dated "every man in the universe."[12] The New York Times asserted that her "dating history has begun to stir what feels like the beginning of a backlash" and questioned whether Swift was in the midst of a "quarter-life crisis."[13] During both the Red Tour and media scrutiny, Swift began work on 1989.[14]
Writing and Recording
Following the release of her fourth studio album, Red, and its corresponding tour, Swift was "six months deep in the songwriting process."[14] In November 2013, the singer told Billboard: "There are probably seven or eight [songs] that I know I want on the record. It's already evolved into a new sound, and that's all I wanted."[15] During the promotion for the album, Swift said that she "woke up every single day not wanting, but needing to make a new style of music than I'd ever made before".[16] Swift explained in a January 2015 interview that she was "very proud" that she made a pop album because she "wanted to," and "there was no-one else influencing" her.[17] Recording sessions for the album took place at Conway Studios in Los Angeles, Jungle City Studios in New York, Lamby's House Studios in Brooklyn, MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden; Pain In The Art Studio in Nashville, Studio Elevator Nobody in Göteborg, Sweden and The Hideaway Studio.[18]
In February 2014, Swift confirmed she was again working with Martin and Shellback, with whom she had collaborated for the writing of three songs on Red. This time, they were writing "a lot more than three songs together."[19] Swift's friend Jack Antonoff,[20] with whom Swift had previously collaborated, and Ryan Tedder[21] also worked on the album. Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced the songs "Out of the Woods," "I Wish You Would" and "You Are In Love," with the third track only appearing on the United States Target, Target Canada, and international deluxe version. The band Fine Young Cannibals was identified as an influence, by both Swift and Antonoff, and the latter explained in September 2014:
The moment when we shifted from friendship into working together was when we were talking about the snare drum on Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy" … Taylor [Swift] brought it up first, and I was like, "Holy shit, you're not going to believe this: I just sampled that snare in a track." I played her one second of it on my iPhone, and she was like, "Send me that track."[20]
The track that Antonoff recorded on his iPhone eventually became "I Wish You Would," while Swift believes that the Fine Young Cannibals song is "timeless."[20] Tedder co-wrote and co-produced two songs with Swift—"I Know Places" and "Welcome to New York"—after she contacted Tedder through a smartphone voice memo. The pair scheduled studio time on the day after Tedder received the memo and recorded "I Know Places."[22]
In September 2014, Swift told Rolling Stone that one of the songs on the album was taken "straight from the pages of my journal"; although the name of the song is unknown, Swift mentioned "Out of the Woods" as part of her interview response. In regard to "Out of the Woods," Antonoff said: "Part of it reads like a diary, and parts of it read like something 100,000 people should be screaming all together. It's got these very big lines that everybody can relate to, which are given weight by her being really honest about personal things."[20] "Out of the Woods" marked the first time that Swift had written a song over an existing track—Antonoff sent an early version of the song to Swift, who then added vocals and lyrics within a 30-minute time frame.[23]
Music and Lyrics
Swift first announced the album on August 18, 2014. She described it as her "first documented, official pop album," stating that she was inspired by late 1980s pop during the recording period.[5] Musically, 1989 is a synthpop and dance-pop album[2][3] that features more electronic production than her previous releases. The album contains drum programming and synthesizers provided by Martin, and the production is backed by a pulsating bass (Yamaha DX7), processed backing vocals, and guitars, the latter of which provide "texture," as described by Jem Aswad of Billboard, who states that "an acoustic [guitar] is audible on just one song."[25]
Swift described 1989 as the most "sonically cohesive" studio album she has ever made.[16] In an interview with Kiss FM (UK), Swift confirmed that the title was inspired by the music developed in her birth year, 1989, which she had re-discovered.[24] In September, Swift told Rolling Stone magazine that Martin, New York City, her journal, Fine Young Cannibals and a sense of experimentation were the key influences underpinning the album. In relation to experimentation, Swift elaborated on the music of the 1980s:
It [the 1980s] was a very experimental time in pop music … People realized songs didn't have to be this standard drums-guitar-bass-whatever. We can make a song with synths and a drum pad. We can do group vocals the entire song. We can do so many different things. And I think what you saw happening with music was also happening in our culture, where people were just wearing whatever crazy colors they wanted to, because why not? There just seemed to be this energy about endless opportunities, endless possibilities, endless ways you could live your life. And so with this record, I thought, "There are no rules to this. I don't need to use the same musicians I've used, or the same band, or the same producers, or the same formula. I can make whatever record I want."[20]
The songwriter explained in an October 2014 television interview that, in terms of lyrics, she was inspired by the process of self-discovery that occurred during the two years prior to the release of 1989.[26] Her songwriting was described as "unmistakably Swift", by Aswad, who noted Swift's "polysyllabic melodies and playful/-provocative lyrics". However, Aswad noted that Martin and other key collaborators helped Swift's lyrics become more "seasoned and subtle … than in the past." The album's lyrical content, in accordance with Swift's signature style, is concerned with love and relationships, with an emphasis placed upon the complexities of both.[25]
Reception
Tracklisting
*Note: Highlighted in bold are title and single tracks.
1. Welcome to My Heart
2. Castella
3. Sweet State
4. Beautiful
5. Red Prince
6. Foreign Languages
7. Black Tears
8. Time is an Enemy
9. Sweeping Love
10. Cold and Clean
