Dai Hirai "Love is Beautiful" (Avex Trax)
Dai Hirai's breezy summer release "Life is Beautiful" was a hit with fans in Japan. His latest mini-album, "Love is Beautiful," acts as an interesting side dish to June's main course.
The six songs seem to be a play for overseas fans, "Love is Beautiful" is sung in English and half comprises acoustic covers of Western love songs. Hirai's take on Eric Clapton's "Change the World" is the strongest. It doesn't have the summer vibe typical of Hirai's music, but by upping the tempo, adding a harmonica and cutting down on backing vocals, there's still warmth —it just feels more like the warmth of a campfire in the desert.
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