''CK5'' is a compilation album by

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhythm ...

singer

Crystal Kay is a Japanese singer, songwriter, actress and radio host. After releasing her first single, "Eternal Memories" (1999), Crystal Kay gained fame for her third studio album, '' Almost Seventeen'' (2002), which debuted at number 2 on the Japanese ...

, released on June 30, 2004. It commemorates the five years since her debut as a musician in 1999. On the same day, ''CK 99—04 Music Clips'', a video album compiling her music videos was released.

Background

In 2001, Crystal Kay started to collaborate with the hip-hop/R&B group

M-Flo is a Japanese hip hop group consisting of record producer DJ Taku Takahashi, Verbal and Lisa. Lisa left the group in 2002 to pursue a solo career and the remaining members then started the M-Flo Loves... project working different vocalists fo ...

, with Verbal featured on her single "Ex-boyfriend", and

Taku Takahashi is a Japanese hip hop recording artist, DJ and record producer who debuted in 1997 as a record producer of the hip hop group M-Flo. The group rose to prominence in the early 2000s, with hit singles such as "How You Like Me Now?" and "Come Agai ...

producing her singles "Hard to Say" (2002) and "Boyfriend (Part II)" (2003). In 2003, Crystal Kay collaborated on with them on two singles, "Reeewind!" and "I Like It". November saw the release of an Asia-wide English language album ''

'' (released as ''Natural'' in Japan) and her fourth studio album '' 4 Real''. In May 2004, Crystal Kay released "

Motherland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...

",a ballad written for the anime ''

Fullmetal Alchemist is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. It was serialized in Square Enix's shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology magazine ''Gangan Comics#Monthly Shōnen Gangan, Monthly Shōnen Gangan'' between July 20 ...

'', which became her second top ten single. In June, she announced on her official website that she had graduated high school.

In April 2004, Crystal Kay's official site ran a poll to find out what the most popular songs of Crystal Kay's were for her fans. The resulting top 10 songs became the basis for the track list of ''CK5''. Three songs that were not on the list made it onto the album: "Motherland", which was the preceding single for the album, " Over the Rainbow", which was used in commercials for Tokyo Mode that featured Crystal Kay personally, and "Lead Me to the End", which had been used as a theme song for a

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

new years drama, ''Guchi 2''. The album compiles songs from her previously released studio albums, as well the single "Motherland". Half of the album is taken from her fourth studio '' 4 Real'' (2003) which had been released seven months ago, as well as two songs from ''

Almost Seventeen ''Almost Seventeen'' is Crystal Kay's third album. It is her second R&B dominant album and is produced by a similar team as worked on ''637: Always and forever''. A large part of the record was written and produced by Michico and T-Kura of Giant ...

'' (2002) ("Think of U" and "Hard to Say"), three from '' 637: Always and Forever'' (2001) ("Ex-Boyfriend", "Tsuki no Nai Yoru, Michi no Nai Basho" and "Lost Child") and one from ''

C.L.L Crystal Lover Light ''C.L.L Crystal Lover Light'' is Crystal Kay's first album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were develop ...

'' (2000), her debut single "

Eternal Memories "Eternal Memories" is Crystal Kay's debut single, released on July 1, 1999. Kay was thirteen years old when this single was released. The title track was written by Yoko Kanno is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer best known for ...

" (1999).

Promotion and release

The album was announced in early May, 2004. To promote the release, Crystal Kay made appearances on radio stations throughout July, and was featured in magazines such as ''Nylon Japan'', ''What's In?'', ''CanCam'', ''Blenda'', ''Woofin'' and ''Teen Girl''. On May 29, Crystal Kay made an appearance on the red carpet for the MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2004. On July 6, Crystal Kay performed an in-store acoustic live set at HMV Shibuya for 150 applicants who had purchased both the album and the DVD. The album's June 30, 2004 release is one day before the five year anniversary of "

", which was originally released on July 1, 1999.

Track listing

Charts

Sales and certifications

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:CK5 2004 compilation albums Crystal Kay albums Japanese-language albums Pop compilation albums Contemporary R&B compilation albums