Dakota Star featuring nangi - Firefly

Dakota Star is a three-piece band consisting of the Japanese vocalist Chiaki, Japanese guitarist Tasuku and the Canadian guitarist/bassist Alan Brey. The band is based in Tokyo, but their music has been released worldwide. Singer/songrwriter nangi is a young but talented woman. She wrote the Japanese lyrics of Firefly. The English lyrics and music are written by Brey and Sacha Skarbeck, a well-known singer/songwriter.

The song Firefly was used as the theme song for the movie yoru no Shanghai, and also for the TV Tokyo program medusa no hitomi.

Firefly is a beautiful song which starts with a piano and Brey singing the English lyrics. Vocalist nangi takes over and sings the Japanese verse. After the chorus, Chiaki sings the English parts. The parts where the male and female voices of nangi and Chiaki blend together are especially beautiful. This song is a great, high quality ballad and it's definitely suited for a movie. The collaboration between Dakota Star and nangi turned out wonderfully.

The second track is the Dakota Star version of the song Firefly, which means it's entirely in English. The first English verse is now sung by Chiaki. Dakota Star gives this version a more rock feeling with the guitar and bass. It's also a bit more uptempo than the original song, but it's still a ballad. Chiaki's pronunciation of the English lyrics is really good, and if you would have heard this song without knowing the band members origins, you'd probably have thought it was a Western band.

The last track is Firefly (Startle Remix), and it's completely different from the first two tracks. It's a dance track with distorted female vocals. The male vocals can also be heard. The music is a bit boring, because of the bass loop, and the sound effects aren't that special. If you have just heard the previous tracks, which are outstanding ballads, this version will be disappointing.

The single has a "CD extra", which is the PV for the title song. The video contains images of the movie yoru no Shanghai.

Firefly is great single, created by many talented artists. The voice of nangi fits perfectly with Dakota Star's music. Even though the last track is a bit disappointing, the first two ballads make up for it.