Cityrama

AMG Review of Cityrama

Ian Martin
All Music Guide

Cityrama sees Yukari Fresh traveling the world and collaborating with more than a dozen different artists, but in contrast to her earlier work, the album is far more cohesive. Partly this is due to the more band-oriented, less electronic sound and the warmer lo-fi recording, but -- more importantly -- the fact that nearly every track is a song in its own right leaves Cityrama feeling like a far less disjointed piece of work. Despite being largely comprised of new versions of old songs, it's also a far better album than anything she has done previously, with the improvement in quality perhaps best evidenced by the way the song "Paul Scholes," a paean to the Manchester United footballer, has evolved from a cheaply thrown-together electronic track on previous album New Year's Fresh into the Swinging '60s groove (complete with a Stereolab-style "ba-ba-ba-baa" chorus) featured here. Another old song, "Lost and Found," takes the opposite path, with Kaji Hideki recrafting it around a simple dance beat and embellishing Yukari's simple melody with Nintendo-esque electronic sounds. The end result is an album that retains the quirkiness and eclecticism that Yukari Fresh fans know and love, but also -- through the judiciously chosen collaborators -- is a fine collection of songs in its own right.