Crystal Kay -- Ex-Boyfriend/Sweet Friends

Happy Monday! The weather isn't too bad for a February day...it's a tad warmer than usual at around the 0-degree Celsius mark, and I think even the sun has come out for a peek.

Commenter Fireminer had come around to give his New Year's greetings when he mentioned the name of Crystal Kay, an R&B singer that I used to hear about regularly in the early to mid-2000s. She's actually represented here on the blog but as part of a couple of articles on compilation albums but she's never had her own article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".

Allow me to rectify this. In fact, I'll start the week with a two-for-one deal. First off, there is Crystal Kay's 6th single, "Ex-Boyfriend" from July 2001. She performs this with Verbal from m-flo, and I find it a bouncy and catchy number reminiscent of some older R&B that I used to hear about a decade before this single's release.

Written by Emi K. Lynn and composed by Kura T., I wish that "Ex-Boyfriend" had gotten a bit more respect on the charts but it got as high as No. 44 on the Oricon weeklies. The song was also included on Crystal Kay's 2nd album "637 ~always and forever~" from August of that year which went Gold as it peaked at No. 19.

Fireminer recommended this particular Crystal Kay song "Sweet Friends" which was from her 16th single, "Kiss",  released in January 2005. Created by H.U.B. and Kazuhiro Hara（原一博）, "Sweet Friends" has less groove than "Ex-Boyfriend" but even more speed. Listening to these two songs, I've read comparisons of the singer with Brandy, but I guess being from an older generation, I also get that Janet Jackson feeling. As for "Kiss", it reached No. 10.