Crystal Kay - For You (2018)

For the past 10 years Crystal Kay's albums have caused nothing but problems and divided her fan base like Moses parting waters. Every album since her 2008 release Color change! has made an attempt to change Crystal's sound with varying results all of which have to us ending up with non-album we have here.

Color change! saw Crystal dabble in Pop. To this day I have no idea what the fuck Spin the music was. Vivid saw Crystal marry chart pop with R&B for one of her most consistent, commercial and global ready releases to date, but was a commercial failure. Then Shine came along and unravelled Crystal's sound completely, something that her 12th studio album For you seems to have picked the torch up on.

I have to hand it to Crystal Kay. I didn't think it was possible for her to put out an album that's more underwhelming than its predecessor Shine, but a bitch managed to deliver just that. For you is one of Crystal's worst albums to date. For you isn't her worst album because the songs are bad. It's her worst because the songs are so bland. Nothing within its 11 tracks jumps out, captures your attention or wows. The album is just a 45 minute flat-line.

After a 3 year wait, especially after the disappointing release of Shine, For you doesn't cut it. There is no song on this album which stands out as being particularly great. No song on this album is completely terrible, but nothing on here is of the high quality that Crystal has given us in the past. As much as I didn't like Shine as an album, there were songs on it that I genuinely loved and played the shit out of. There is absolutely no song on For you that I can see myself playing. I can't even name drop "Waiting for you", because the song is 2 years old and I've played the hell out of it already.

Smartly, the album avoids obvious trend band-wagoning, but there are a couple of instances of songs which do cater to popular chart sounds. However, the end results sound far too cookie cutter and never go full throttle in their commitment to the sound. "Summer love" has a nice island vibe to it, but it lacks any real punch. "I just wanna fly" is nicely produced, but never truly takes off. "Can't stop me" just sounds really outdated; plucked from the early 00s when Japanese producers were trying to emulate sounds in the US and not really finding their own footing with it.

Crystal is at a point in her career where she should be working with producers who can nail the sound she's after. After all, she's been in the game long enough and has worked with some of J-Pop and J-R&B's best, and access to US and European producers is not something that's off limits to her. If she wanted a pop tinged Island banger, she should've just worked with Stargate or Daisuke Imai. If she wanted a horn and percussive heavy stomper, she should have worked with Rich Harrison of Amerie "1 thing" and Beyoncé "Crazy in love" fame or T. Kura, the man responsible for Namie's "Can't sleep, can't eat, I'm sick" and "Copy that". If she wanted a zippy EDM number, then bitch, just book studio time with Zedd or hit up Nakata Yasutaka. There's no excuse for these songs sounding so second rate.