Erika - FREE [Single]

Release Date: 4 July 2007

Tracklistings:
1. FREE
2. Fantasy
3. Time to go home
4. FREE (Instrumental)

Erika 1st Single

Sawajiri Erika's (沢尻 エリカ) 1st single under her name, after the success of her previous single under her alias, Kaoru Amane for the Jdrama 'taiyou no uta' (タイヨウのうた). This single actually peaked #1 in the Oricon Singles charts on the day of its release, and it sustained its spot for the weekly charts.

'FREE' is quite a nice song sounding like pop rock. I believe Erika's voice actually improved since her previous single. Must have underwent loads of training since then *chuckles*. It's either that, or the noisy background music actually covered for her mistakes.

I don't quite like 'Fantasy'. Anything which sounds techno style is out of my playlist. And this song is one of them. It's too techno style, Erika's voice was digitalized throughout the whole song. I wonder, is that a tactic to cover for her not-so-professional voice? Another thing is that I can't actually distinguish between the verses and chorus. Monotonous song, if you ask me.

'Time to go home' also is more towards the pop rock genre so it's a green light for me. But I still find 'FREE' a little better than this song, though. Yet again, perhaps it's just a personal preference thing.

Definitely an improvement from Erika so you guys can give it a try if you're a fan of hers or if you liked her previous single :)