Single Review: Crystal Kay – Love Myself

From the outside, 2024 has been a raggedy celebration of Crystal Kay’s 25th anniversary. She has not gotten a media plan or rollout which is befitting of an artist who helped shape J-R&B and J-pop in the early 2000s. And I think her fans also deserved better than what they (we) have gotten. One single in January and then a second in December? One ‘anniversary’ performance instead of a tour? No televised performances of the classics? So by the time this single was announced, I was already deflated and kinda over it. Kay looked gorgeous on the cover art, but I was just over everything. Then I heard the single and saw the music video and I just threw my hands up.

Girl. What are you even doing right now?

“Love Myself” is pretty cookie cutter and generic, which is unfortunately what Kay’s music shifted to with her 2010 album Spin the Music. We thought we’d made it outta the landfill with the amazing and grossly underrated Vivid. But then Kay’s music shifted back to cookie cutter drivel immediately after.

I’ll be real. “Love Myself” is not a bad song. Kay sounds nice on it, which is a given — she sounds nice on everything she sings. But nothing about “Love Myself” is showcasing Kay in any way. It says so little about her as an artist, despite the lyrics of the song being so relevant and personal to her, as she continues to navigate a career which is in a completely different place from where it was, she continues her journey of self love as a Blaisan woman and pieces popping up online from somebody like me about how her music and career needs to be knocked into better shape. But with how “Love Myself” turned out, it could be any random song from any J-pop artist, which unfortunately seems to be the mandate with everything Kay has released post Vivid — for her music to just be generic and blend in with what everybody else is releasing.

Crystal Kay – Love Myself | Universal Music

“Love Myself” is written by Misako Sakazume, who also wrote one of Kay’s biggest hits “Koi ni Ochitara”. I’m not a big fan of “Love Myself”, but I won’t diss Sakazume’s pen game, because the lyrics of this song are actually really nice and not the issue with the song. It’s the general sound and the production that I do not like. So lemme just drag those instead.

The production of this song is just…kinda bland. This song would sound great as a musical backdrop in a Suntory Horoyoi Grape commercial. But as a standalone song? It sounds too generic. There are elements of this song which I do dig. I like the live feel of the song — the drums, the bass, the horns. But the arrangement is too dry. There’s no soul to it. No kick. No stank. It’s certainly no “Cuff It”, when that’s the kind of energy a song like this with this combination of instruments needed. There was a balance here which easily could have been achieved to serve Universal, serve Kay creatively and capture fans: a song which is catchy and will appeal to mass audiences, but also appeal to fans who have been waiting for something with more of an R&B edge that Kay can sang on — the R&B edge that Kay seems to have been trying to get back to. going by interviews she’s done over the past few years. But, nope. Instead we got this. Going a funkier and stankier route would have also helped “Love Myself” overlap with city pop, which would have helped the song gain traction given that city pop is still having its moment. It’s crazy to me that there aren’t more contemporary Japanese artists tapping into the city pop sound, which is why Kay dipping a toe into it would have been so cool. She would be one of the few. And with the tone, clarity and soul Kay has to her voice, city pop would be a great fit for her. Just think back to how good she sounded singing Miki Matsubara’s “Mayonoka no Door ~ Stay With Me” on the Masked Singer. City pop would be the perfect sound to bridge where Kay;s sound is now and where it was. And “Love Myself” would have been the perfect song to have done it with. This is what the plan shoulda been. But nobody in Kay’s team is on their shit to have pushed for this. So we get this Sega Rally ass sounding music instead.

Girl. Fire the whole management and marketing team.

Actually. Lemme take back my comment on Sega Rally, because that soundtrack was actually great. Kay should cover “My Dear Friend, Rally” and I am not joking.

Crystal Kay – Love Myself | Universal Music

Kay has been very open in interviews about reconciling with being othered throughout her life and finding strength in that. But girl, if you loved yourself, you would release better music than this. You would want more for your career than this. You would want your legacy to be celebrated better than this. “Love Myself” would have been a cute new recording on a Best album. But as a single to cap off the year of your 25th anniversary!? Absolutely not.

“Love Myself” is not a bad song. It’s nice, it’s upbeat and uplifting. But there’s an emptiness to it. And it somehow manages to be so close to being really good, yet so far at the same time. And when it came to the production of the song and the general vibe of it, there seemed to be no effort to centre Kay, her singing style, her strengths and her musical preferences. So, it oddly doesn’t really feel like it’s her song. It sounds like she’s just doing great karaoke over somebody else’s.