Country Circus
From Clumsy Media
Country Circus is the third full album after 悲しみ and Liar Liar Liar by Dll Ini. Expectation for this album was hight from the public since the last album was the award winning work that was partly produced by Dll Ini herself along with composer Mini Bus. Many fans thought a full album will not be due out this year since earlier Dll Ini has already released one single and mini album this year, but she surprised many when she announced in the beginning of September that she is in the final stages of planning her first album in 2011. On 13th September, a tracklist was revealed by Dll Ini through her official website. The very next day, a few minor changes were made to the song titles due to last minute changes.
Various teasers were submitted online on 18th September with ten second demo of each song. The album was released online on 27th September 2011 and offline the very next day.
Contents |
Background Information
Type: Normal Full Album
Sale Date: 27/09/2011
Price: US $35.00
Producing: Clumsy Media
Album Information
On 1st September 2011, Dll Ini persoally announced that she is in the final planning stages of selecting songs for her firt (third overall) album this year. It was revealed later that at the very beginning of 2011, a limited exclusive two disc album was planned for release with a total of twenty brand new tracks but it was later cancelled due to the Dll Ini's strike for perfection as she felt more than half of the songs can be improved generally for better quality. Hence, five songs of high quality were chosen and made into the mini album Felix which was released 2011/4/18 with the title track Letters debuting at #1 across all music charts - online and offline. Originally the full album will not be released this year and pushed back into the mid of 2012 but the unexpected completion of all the tracks early resulted in a last minute full album release decision, resulting in the album Country Circus.
As expected, the songs and lyrics are all based on personal experiences of Dll Ini with the core theme of living in a quiet country side life that actually feels like a wild circus when it comes to areas such as love and friendship revenges. In order to produce the exact sound of ballad and semi-pop Dll Ini aimed at, she personally went through many potential composers' under ground work and picked the best to work on this album together, these people merely includes Rainy Days, Acome, sweet potato' and many more.
The album introduce up-coming new producer Dash Note who first caught attention from Dll Ini as a under-ground composer that submitted a CV of the songs made about a tangled web of relationships. Dll Ini described the experience of listening to the song as finding her long time dream coming true, "I knew immediately that this is the type of composer I would like to work with for as long as I am active in music." Dash Note composed five songs for the album and three made it to the end, with one introduction song that he personally sings himself titled The Gentle Wind.
Besides orginal songs by under ground composers, the album also include a accoustic remake and Japanese version of the hit Korean drama soundtrack song Fox Rain from the hit drama My Girlfriend Is A Nine Tailed Fox. Collaborated with Korean singer Lee Sun Hee, the song received a lot of attention once it was revealed to be included in the album.
Critical Reception
The general public gave an average of 62% for the album - the lowest ever for Dll Ini. Many concluded at that the album itself is a satisfactory one but compared to the previous albums created by Dll Ini (namely the second album Liar Liar Liar which received the highest ever average reception of Dll Ini at 87%) the quality was lower than expected. One of the main supposed reasons is because the album was forced to be finished by the end of the year, causing Dll Ini to submit the half completed melody songs.
Confirmed by Dll Ini, the first six songs were completed first and personally felt satisifed with the result with the rets of the three tracks guarded as incomplete (with the exception of Track #7 Fox Rain which is a remake of the Korean orginal ost track). The professional deemed that the last three tracks of low quality compared to previous works and did not suit the overall theme of the whole album just as Dll Ini herself has proposed.
Praises also went to Dll Ini for inviting under ground composers to work with and high remarks were made towards Dash Note and sweet potato. In particular the track Our Wheat Field received great popularity. However others felt that if Dll Ini simply continued to work on the album herself along with previous composing partner and award winning Mini Bus, the album would have been spotless as the previous. The best tracks on the album voted by the general public includes #3 Country Circus, #4 Four Seasons, #5 Our Wheat Field and #6 Coffee which are all composed by Mini Bus, Rainy Days, Dash Note and sweet potato, the teams that fans thought were actually needed.
Others believed that Dll Ini did not have a chance to show case her unique country and R&B voice in this album since the songs did not compliment her smoothing voice. "The songs on this album are great but you don't need to be a musical expert to know that they are not suitable for Dll Ini. These pop tuneable will do a much more better justice for artists like JayMi which has fair singing abilities but has an up beat young voice," explained by the album producer Hitasu Shubianoto. However it has been reported that Dll Ini has wanted to bring a different feel to country music and this was considered as an average success attempt - the lowest remarks Dll Ini has ever received since her debut in 2009.
Particpating Artists
- Dll Ini
- Salt
Involved Composers
- Dash Note
- Unavailable
- Rainy Days
- sweet potato
- YHX-WN
- Mini Bus
Tracklisting
1. The Gentle Wind - Dash Note || Dash Note
2. Silence. Smell. Sit - Dll Ini || sweet potato
3. Country Circus - Dll Ini || Rainy Days
4. Four Seasons - Dll Ini & Salt || Mini Bus
5. Our Wheat Field - Dll Ini || sweet potato
6. Coffee - Dll Ini || Dash Note
7. Fox Rain (Japanese Ver.) - Dll Ini || Lee Sun Hee
8. Mr. Lonely - Dll Ini || Unavailable
9. When Sunset Comes - Dll Ini || Nelson
10. Future Reference - Dll Ini || Dash Note
