MY SHORT STORIES was YUI’s 1st B-side compilation album. It was released November 12th, 2008. It sold 173,741 copies in it’s first week, 243,818 overall and reached #1 on the charts.
Tracklist
1. I’ll be
2. HELP
3. Last Train
4. Winter Hot Music
5. Jam
6. Skyline
7. Free Bird
8. I wanna be…
9. Oh My God
10. Cloudy
11. Driving Today
12. Understand
13. crossroad
14. It’s happy line
15. Why me
I’ll be starts off with a bang by beginning with the thrilling chorus(which has a very memorable melody, may I add) which features awesome acoustic guitar along with your typical rock elements. This song reminds me a lot of SUMMER SONG in that it’s pretty upbeat and fun while having a great melody and an above average instrumental that doesn’t bore the listener. YUI’s vocals are really cute here as well. I love the bit after the second chorus where YUI sings with minimal instrumentals(and even there the song still maintains steady thanks to the nonstop acoustic guitar).
HELP has kind of an awkward rock sound to it at the beginning but it manages to fix itself during the verse where it’s just YUI, some electric guitar rifts and Mr. Acoustic. The chorus is just delightful here! “Baby, Baby” is what make the vocal performance(and the song itself) total win, plus the lighter toned instrumental make this a really fresh sounding song. There’s a nice electric solo after the second chorus as well.
Last Train isn’t as cherry as the other songs but the instrumental drew me into this gloomy song, especially YUI’s lower and more rough vocals during the verse. The chorus is awesome as well and the way YUI sings the lyrics flow so well. I really enjoy this song and it’s tone as everything about is as above average.
Next is the more chill(and believe it or not winter-y!) Winter Hot Music. The song lives up to it’s name as I get a cozy feeling from it, mostly from YUI’s quiet vocals and the way she sing’s over the background vocals during the chorus. This is a really sweet track with a relaxing atmosphere and a great vocal performance.
The more intense JAM begins with some loud rock elements(do I have to mention what else is in the instrumental?) that kind of surprised me at first but as the verse arrived, they settled down to this repeating acoustic guitar and YUI’s solid vocals. The chorus was pretty good but the melody of this song wasn’t very memorable in itself and not that interesting. The instrumental takes the award for the stand out element in the song.
Lovely acoustic guitar opens up Skyline. YUI is cuter than usual during the verse and the instrumentals very minimal since the beginning of the song. The melody is pretty nice as well but the chorus is absolutely awesome as YUI sing’s these awesome “I want to fly away” lines with her reaching some high notes. Another good song, unless the basic instrumental turns you off.
Free Bird has more summer sounding guitars than the other but I was a bit skeptical of YUI’s whiny vocals during the verse. They sounded disorganized and too high pitched for me. The song never reaches a high point except for what I guess is the chorus after two verses but it just doesn’t sound good.
I wanna be… has an interesting bridge as YUI sings some semi-fast lyrics but the chorus doesn’t live up to it due to it’s boring melody and boring vocal’s from YUI herself. Probably the most bland song so far.
The background vocals are nice to hear during the intro of Oh My God with it’s more upbeat instrumental and YUI’s happy sounding vocals. The chorus is also really great as it actually sounds happy and YUI saying “Oh My God” proves to be kinda interesting. Apart from that, the song is catchy and a pleasure to listen to.
Cloudy begins immediately with the verse. It’s actually different due to the strange guitar melody and the way YUI sings along with it but the chorus is my absolute favorite part. YUI’s vocals are what make this song something to listen to, along with it’s bittersweet sound. Another of my favorites.
The mellow Driving today is up. Honestly, this song bored me completely. Even the chorus is a pain to listen to. The only semi-good thing of the song is the electric guitar between the chorus and verse and the “Driving today” parts that YUI sings.
Understand opens up with some strings, giving me the impression that it’s gonna be an acoustic ballad. The verse is just YUI and Mr. Acoustic(plus a boring melody) although the chorus had potential, the lame instrumental just ruins the song as it doesn’t get good until the second half, in which the listener would probably already be asleep.
crossroad finally sounds like something happy. YUI sings with a higher pitch in the verse and the chorus is actually not bad. The melody is interesting but the instrumental is semi-generic and missing anything to make it stand out from the rest.
It’s happy line is kind of… boring. When the chorus arrives, it’s not that bad but it’s pretty hard to tell about my favorite part as there wasn’t anything that made me even go wide-eyed.
Closing this best album is the ever lonely sounding Why me. The verse managed to keep me more interested than the previous streak of bad songs although I would have liked the chorus to step up the instrumental in some way. The potential is there, just not taken advantage of. Nice vocals either way.
I really can’t find anyone who doesn’t like acoustic songs to like this album, AT ALL. It wasn’t such a huge problem with me, though come on, some piano or strings here or there wouldn’t have hurt YUI at all. Well, I guess that’s what make’s YUI’s style her own. The beginning of the album was strong, but as we got to the half way point, A LOT of the songs bored me to death. Remember, we’re talking b-sides here and a lot of them were just that while others were of very high quality.
♥Album Rating♥
