Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Sakai is a talented singer from California with a great style. Her new album, Dream Big, is impressive. It's moving and sexy, reminiscent of the great early 90's R&B. Every song has a soulful musicality about it. You can really get into this album.

Sakai has a great voice. She expresses emotions from tender and strong and sings notes from high to low. In this album, she definitely covers a wide range of emotions. Her voice sometimes reminds me of Janet Jackson’s sexy, smooth and quiet but clear voice. However, she definitely has her own original tone too. Sakai's style is a little more matter of fact.

The lyrics on Dream Big aren’t extremely inventive or poetic but they were definitely relatable. She sings about romance and optimism. I Like is a sweet song. It’s light, relaxing and sexy. Friendship to Love was another of my favorites. This song reminded me of Mariah Carey’s older albums in the sense that it’s sappy content but if you're good enough, you can pull that off. Sakai definitely has the chops to make saccharine songs work. She seems really invested and passionate about the lyrics.

Overall, Dream Big was a great debut. The entire album was enjoyable and well produced. My only qualm is that none of the songs really jumped out at me as being amazing or different. Sakai has talent, no doubt. I think she's capable of having a hit but I'm not sure it's on this album. Nonetheless, I'm excited to hear what she comes up with next. In the meantime, I'll be dancing to Dream Big.