On the special occasion of the European tour, SAGA will release a EURO MIX CD with all songs they have made so far. It will also be the first release of the music trio: NO BORDER WORLD TOUR, with a compilation of all songs they’ve made since their debut earlier this year.
Tracklist:
01. TOGETHER
02. Life Is…
03. I Love You
04. Xinjie
05. Give Me Five
06. NA LUNA
07. Rainbow
08. Traveling
TOGETHER is a song that has been used in a Chinese drama series. The song, sung in Chinese (Mandarin), builds up tension from the very first moment through the voices of Ramy and Kevin, which come together beautifully in a duet. In the refrain, the tension gets released and the song takes a melancholic turn. The song is really cheerful and if you would know the lyrics, it’s a great sing-along too! And if you don’t know the lyrics, you can always just sing along during the parts where they go “woowoowoo”. I personally think it would have fitted perfectly as an anime intro as well!
Life is… Is a ballad entirely sung in Korean by Ramy. At the start of the song, the lyrics are accompanied by just a guitar, but later on an entire orchestra joins in. Throughout the song, you can clearly hear the pureness and softness of the voice of the singer. When listening to this song I want to get a lighter and swing it back and forth softly like you would at a concert. Ramy wrote the song herself, making it feel more personal and emotional.
I Love you is the second ballad on this CD sung in Chinese by Kevin. The ballad is accompanied by the sweet notes of a piano, making the song a little lighter and smaller. Kevin shows through this song he too has a great voice, but overall, I missed some high and long notes to give it that little extra power.
Next up yet another ballad. In Xinjie both vocalists join together again. They start off one after another singing a soft and small song, but as the song goes on it becomes bigger when an orchestra joins in and they start a beautiful duet. For this one too, it wouldn’t feel out of place getting that lighter back out of your pocket again.
When you get to Give Me Five, they’ve left the ballads behind and you’ll get a heavy drum sound followed by both vocalist with auto tune. The song, which feels like a great dance song, reminds me of a famous song by a very famous English Rock band, only with an electro twist of their own. This song was a real treat for my ears.
NA LUNA continues where Give Me Five left off. It’s a great dance track with an electro twist to it. But the trio steps it up a notch, making the electronic sound more prominent, giving the track even more of a dance vibe than Give Me Five. It’s almost impossible to sit still on this one!
Rainbow starts off as a cheerful up-beat song, but after the vocals jump in accompanied by a piano and later on an orchestra, it turns into a somewhat slower song. What I clearly noticed was the somehow heavier voice Kevin used for this track. It doesn’t hinder the experience though, and in the end, it’s a really sweet and cheerful song. I just missed the upbeat part.
When I got to the last track of the CD, the ballad Traveling, I got the feeling I was listening to a movie soundtrack. In the short song, Kevin shows his true colours once more with some beautiful long and high notes. And he’s not scared to make the song feel softer soon after, making the ballad nicely fade into a smaller song. It feels perfect as an ending track for the album!
The most fun part about this album was how the two vocalists both get their moments and made some beautiful songs of their own. This made for a nice variety on the album, both in sound, the music and even languages. The album will be available during the European tour of SAGA. On November 6th the group will perform in The Hague.
Rating: 80/100
