Hi Everyone,

I have been listening non-stop to her new CD "Hayley sings Japanese Songs" and cant seem to put it away and turn it off. The songs and lyrics are real good and Hayley's voice is different but amazing!!!  It hard to pick favorites but I find myself listening a lot to track 2 - Hanamizuki (Dogwood), Track 4 - Shiroi Iro Ha Koibito No Iro – White Colour is for lovers, Track 6 - Flower, Track 8 - Tsubasa Wo Kudasai – Wings to fly, Track 11 - I Believe and Track 12 - Shiroi Iro Ha Koibito No Iro (sung in Japanese) - White Colour is for lovers.

I think that this CD is one of my favorites together with Pure. How do you all like it?  Look forward to any feedback!

Thanks

Ferry

 Hello Ferry,

I am listening to it now  lol   I do love it but need to be in a certain mood not usually a fan of easy listening, but it is after all Hayley.

Great job Hayley!!

Monte

Cool CD, just got Delux Edition, and its very good. different, but I like it

 Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......................

this is a gorgeous album, perfect for a cold night in beside the fire.

It is a warm album, I'm particurlarly fond of White is the colour for lovers but there are no tracks on it I would skip over once they have started to play ..

Most of the Hayley fans have gotten their copies from cdjapan.co. the DeLuxe edition of course !

 Check it out for yourself :
 

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=UCCL-9058

I have no idea why the link above will not work directly, you may have to type in in or copy and paste it.

maybe the mods can help us in this matter ?

Hi Comet Steve here I fixed your link it has to HTTP

Comet,

 well spoken my friend!!!!

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=UCCL-9058

it just needed the http:// in front of it. It should work now.

 Ferry

 Yes, I agree, this album is a masterpiece!  Has there ever been a better album by a solo female singer?  I can think of one.  Why this has only been released in Japan I will never understand.  If this is not a potential major worldwide hit album, my faith in the musical taste of the world is misplaced.  

Martin 

Lord only knows why record companies do what they do, but they've damaged and wrecked careers before.  Which is why I hope Hayley takes a more pro-active approach to writing and touring matters in the future.  I have nothing distinct against Decca or Universal, but Martin makes a good point... why are Hayley's foreign tracks not being promoted worldwide?  No reason not to try, at least.  I come from a country of 300+ million people (not India or China, incidentally), so if even one in just 250 people bought her albums, they would all go over platinum, and in the USA that takes 1,000,000 copies.  Any recording company would beg, borrow, and steal for numbers like that.

We also fancy ourselves as cosmopolitan, so anything non-native is just so cool.  Japanese has a market here.  So why not see some more of Wiegenlied (German in Japan... go figure) and HSJS?  Decca, c'mon, promote this wonderful lady... she's not a Commonwealth star only, not anymore...

 Yes, I agree.  But the downside form their point of view is that promotion costs money, and they want to be sure it will be worth doing before they make that commitment.  It is easy enough to release a record, but without promotion it will probably flop no matter how good it is.  That is what happened to Celtic Woman in the UK, I think there was one TV ad for A New Journey when it came out and that was all.  Also, it is difficult to imagine what radio stations would play Hayley's stuff, unless it is classical - but that is only a UK problem.

I can only go by my own opinion, which is that HSJS is a very very good album, and Hayley's  best yet.  It did well in Japan where the songs are well known, but might do even better elsewhere where they are not.  

What we have here is an album of new songs to most of the world.  All have strong melodies, all have beautiful spiritual lyrics, the arrangements are excellent, the perfornances immaculate, and the songs are sung brilliantly by one of the worlds most beautiful voices.  What more do you need to do to have anything more worth promoting?

Martin 

Mine is on its way! I did order it from CDJapan, as well as Prayer.

I just got it, today, along with Prayer! I'm very happy, and I can't wait to listen to it!

I agree with you all who say this is a masterpiece. We listen to it constantly since we got it (cdjapan, of course).

Maybe the recording company does not want to release it worldwide as most of the songs are japanese, but they are so beautiful!

 I don't get that!  Why does being Japansese prevent it being released worldwide.  Elvis Presley was American and the Beatles English, and most of their songs were written in their respective countries.  That didn't stop them being released and being successful worldwide did it?

Come on Decca!  If you have a reason not to release it worldwide, tell us what it is.  If you don't, you could have a huge worldwide seller on your hands with the right promotion.

Martin

Hello to everyone,

Some of you might remember me from the previous forum. I used to post on their quite regularly maybe 2 or 3 years ago (who knows-time flies!). I just wanted to take a moment to marvel on this remarkable CD that Hayley recorded. I got it used on ebay thinking, "Ok, now I'm a pretty big Hayley fan, but Japanese songs... this is a stretch." I've never been a fan of Eastern culture in particular, and especially not their music. (As part of my job I make several calls to international companies, and I spoke to a lady in Tokyo last night and the music that played when they put me on hold was simply atrocious.) Nevertheless, being mildly disappointed that Hayley's next CD is a "best of," I decided to go ahead and get Japanese Songs and see if there might be a couple songs worth listening to on it.

Wow... was I ever blown away by this CD.

I share the confusion that many do as to how this is a Japan-only release. I know that the Japanese-ness of the songs wouldn't really be felt by outsiders (such as myself), and so to release it elsewhere might be theoretically self-defeating. But as it is, even with English lyrics being listened to by an American this CD has "masterpiece" written all over it.

I honestly can't remember the last time Hayley connected with me through music in quite the same way she has connected on this CD. I thought Celtic Treasures was a fabulous album, but I never actually connected with it in a wow-that-just-sent-tears-to-my-eyes sort of way like Hayley was able to do so effortlessly in Pure. In fact, since Pure there really hasn't been a song that has connected with me in that way apart from her fabulous "Mary, Did You Know?" which is, in my opinion, one of the greatest female vocal recordings ever. Period.

Then I got this mysterious CD called Hayley sings Japanese Songs...

Which song is my favorite? Right now it's Snowflower, but I already know that this CD, like Pure, will be the kind that will see me gravitating from one song to the next calling each of them "my favorite," until I finally settle on one after the 150th time I hear it. That only happens with truly great CDs, and it is 10x better when it happens on one of Hayleys.

 -Stan