Crystal is getting better at the Vlogging shit y’all. Her YouTube user ID is still random as hell and her channel name still isn’t in English, as it should be. But we are at least getting more of what I THINK should always be at the heart of these vlogs, which is Crystal’s music and her performing it.

Crystal did two performances in L.A., both of which sold out. And whilst I would have liked some professionally shot footage with some cinematography of both shows, what we did get was better than what I thought we’d ever get. I’m cool with somebody crouched down on the stage with an iPhone and hearing chunks of songs over 480p quality videos from the second tier balcony, which is what we got for Crystal’s Christmas gig last year. But Crystal really does need to get herself a professional videographer. Guerrilla style shooting is fine for the life vlogs and ‘days in the life of’. But for performances? Gurl, we need Renaissance World Tour levels of directing and cinematography, because it is what YOU deserve.

Crystal Kay – Live in L.A. (at Hotel Ziggy)

Crystal Kay – Live in L.A. (at The Stowaway)

As much as I have wanted big stage and dome tour productions for Crystal (more for her to experience that level of production and energy than for me to see as a fan) it’s great that Crystal is a type of talent and performer who can just sit on a stool with a guitarist in cosy lil’ room and still deliver something special, because not every artist can do that. And logistically it is a setup which is far more feasible for Crystal to tour at this point in her career, which is why I really hope she does something with this setup in 2024. A Crystal Kay Lounge tour, where she tours Japan for the Spring, does a couple of gigs in the U.S. for the Summer, maybe a gig in London, and then hits Japan again for Christmas with a more festive set is the way to go. Just doing small Christmas shows at the end of the year is not it. Especially when there is never any new music releasing to coincide with them. Where is the follow up to Shining? Why I gotta be out here unofficially putting it together?

Gurl, fire the whole management and marketing team.

I really do hope that Crystal Kay felt the love her fans at the L.A. gigs had for her, and that she realises that people do want to see her. If she can sell out to gigs in L.A., than she can make good on ticket sales for a Japanese tour. But her team needs to promote it and work new releases in and around it.

And I’mma be real. As raggedy as a lot of Crystal Kay’s material post Vivid has been (and also as bad as Spin the Music was), I don’t think she should ignore it all. Some of the songs are great. But because the albums were not, the good songs got tarred with the same brush – which is why it is important to PUT OUT GOOD ALBUMS that you are proud of, so shit like this doesn’t happen. And I imagine that from Crystal’s perspective, she thinks nobody likes or even knows any of the songs from those albums, because they didn’t sell particularly well. The same goes for Vivid. A good album which went triple bottle cap on the Oricon charts. But GURL. That’s the power of a good live performance. Live performances can transform songs and breathe new life into them, and also allow an artist an outlet to rework songs they’re no particularly fond of into something they like. This why Crystal should release an album of self covers which spans her entire career.

In this day and age of streaming (for better or worse) it makes it easier for fans to jump back into discographies and rediscover songs. So Crystal should really lean into that. Her discography is so much more than just Almost Seventeen, 4Real and Call Me Miss….

Me? Not completely cussing out Shine and For You!?

I know.

But artists do themselves somewhat of a disservice when they don’t acknowledge the entirety of their own discographies. Because even if they didn’t like it when they released it and they still don’t like it years later, they can always change it up in some way into something they do like and enjoy performing. So hopefully Crystal Kay will start to honour her full discography. Something which is hard to do when the only shows you do in your home country are Christmas shows.