School starts in a few days for both Tsuki and I. Needless to say, both of us will be busy and I’ll probably put LW on a sort of hiatus, with occasional reviews (KIND OF LIKE LAST YEAR, BUT POSSIBLY LESS OFTEN).

10/21: Tsuki has technical difficulties and won’t be reviewing for awhile :( – Meg
11/14: Sorry guys, we’ve been busy. Just a note that we aren’t dead XD – Meg
12/15: With Megumi’s assistance, my technical difficulties have been about 75% solved, which is not bad. :) We’re still pretty busy though, but who knows, maybe Megz and I will give you viewers a holiday surprise. – Tsuki

Any new posts will appear under this one!

KOKIA – KOKIA∞AKIKO ~balance~ March 18, 2009
	1. Hananoen (花宴) 2. Usu Momoiro no Kisetsu (うす桃色の季節) 3. +sing 4. Douke (道化) 5. usaghi 6. Yoake~rebirth (夜明け～rebirth) 7. Gematria (ゲマトリア) 8. Hoshikuzu no Vocalise (星屑のヴォカリーズ) 9. life goes on 10. Senka no Hana (戦火の花) 11. この胸の苦しみが愛おしいほどに生きて 12. INFINITY

Of the two Balance albums, I was the most looking forward to reviewing this major released over her ballad-infested indies release. Strangely enough, this major release is where she takes more compositional risks.

花宴 starts off the track with KOKIA’s beautiful high tones and the arrangement brings out a more traditional Asian arrangement with the style in which KOKIA sings and the sweeping strings in the background of the track. I remember falling in love with this opening track the very moment KOKIA opened her mouth. The melody has a rather simple progression and it’s done in a rather slow manner. Nevertheless, KOKIA delivers it with such grace and beauty. Her voice takes hold of the melody and really delivers it with a lot of control, beautiful tone and excellent phrasing. This is a perfect indication of why KOKIA is one of the strongest singers in Jpop; she makes this song sound so easy.

The album brightens up with うす桃色の季節, a mid-tempo track that begins with a bit of acordion. KOKIA’s tone of voice becomes a bit childish, but her voice still remains controlled and light to go with the bright atmosphere of the track. The song is rather acoustic and the composition is simplistic but rather calming. I especially love how KOKIA sings the “I miss you” lines in the chorus; it’s rather breathtaking despite how simplistic the structure of the melody is.

+sing is another acoustic song in a similar vein as the previous one. The opening is nice and simplistic and KOKIA’s tone is a bit more nasally and childish than usual, but she’s in tune and it sounds nice enough. Her singing gets better pass the introduction and her higher tone are really beautiful. Again, she has very good phrasing and nice, clear English pronounciation for the one line in the chorus (she has the less-common accent of pronouncing the ‘g’ in ’singing’). It’s a nice, lovely track and KOKIA sings it impeccably well.

Past the bright tunes from the last two tracks, we get a slightly darker, folkier sound with 道化, which starts with a lovely violin and flute duet above the piano and guitar that opens the track. KOKIA starts off with lower notes; I love how she performs these notes with a slight amount of sorrow and emphasis on certain notes. By the chorus, she’s already captured my attention entirely. This is possibly one of my favourite melodies from my passive listening of this album. Her voice is beautiful as usual, and I love the fullness of her voice and vibrato in the chorus. Gorgeous, gorgeous, and did I mention gorgeous?

I absolutely love the different off-beat melodies on usaghi. This track has a slight latin feel to it at parts of the song and it has a nice haunting feeling to the track. The chorus is particularly interesting with KOKIA singing “Rain” on the off-beats of the melodies. As usual, KOKIA’s singing spot-on with the style of the track and she does phrasing beautifully to have a little bit emphasis on the main beats of the tracks. I like her use of the more emphatic verses to some of the smoother passages in the track. The ending of the chorus leaves a bit of an unresolved sound to it because of the note she ends off on, but otherwise I really enjoy this track.

夜明け～rebirth is a smoother track that never fails to leave me breathless. In contrast with the unique sound of “usahi”, this one has a strong ethereal, almost unremarkable (as in it’s been heard before) arrangement to it (I do enjoy the usage of bells in the background at parts of the song). What really makes this track is the beautiful, flowing melody in the chorus and KOKIA’s spectacular performance of it. Her voice just floats through the entire track seamlessly and I really enjoy her control and musicality throughout this track. The melody seems a little bit slow for me at times, but KOKIA makes it work.

ゲマトリア is the kind of stuff that I always REALLY love from KOKIA because she always does them so well. It contains chanting in some unidentified language at the beginning, which gives a rather interesting rhythmic opening, especially with the percussion in the background and the adlibbing following it. I can’t help but picture some kind of desert or something when I listen to the opening. KOKIA’s beautiful operatic voice is back in this track, and I rejoice. This is where KOKIA sounds the best and this song is proof of her beautiful voice and excellent song-writing skills. The layering of the chanting, the operatic singing and the percussion is excellent. The song repeats the chanting a lot, which makes it seem a bit repetitive, but the different elements around it change quite a bit, which makes it quite a fascinating track.

星屑のヴォカリーズ gives off a delicate feel with the harp playing and the sounds of waves going on in the background. The singing, like the waves, is soothing with KOKIA singing a two-part harmony in her operatic voice. The track eventually goes into a one-part melody with occasional background singing to add a little texture to the melody. This track is absolutely stunning in that it contains no lyrics and the arrangement is absolutely beautiful. I got chills from her performance here. Stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, etc.

We’re back to more poppier, accessible material with life goes on, which features beautiful English lyrics and a simple piano accompanying KOKIA. Do I really have to say that KOKIA’s performance is excellent here? Because it is, once again. Her performance is touching and far from being boring despite the simplistic structure of this track. Her singing is spot-on in this soothing, encouraging song.

We continue with the soothing songs with 戦火の花, which has a simple 5-note piano accompaniment to follow her excellent singing over it. I especially love how her voice has a slight echo in this track, which works particularly well with how simple the accompaniment is in this track. But yeah, you’ve heard me say this already: her singing is excellent, excellent phrasing, excellent musicality, beautiful tone. This song is no exception.

この胸の苦しみが愛おしいほどに生きて has the exactly same feel at the beginning as the previous song with the minimal accompaniment and the beautiful melody. However, it doesn’t mean the song isn’t pretty. The track has a strong emphasis on beat with the piano playing full chords and the guitar playing on the main beats of the track. The song eventually picks up with the full-on percussion in the chorus supporting KOKIA, making the song feel a lot more upbeat. The drums lighten up in the second verse (as in the drum set disapears, although we do still have some hand-hit drums in the background). Another beautiful melody with excellent execution from KOKIA. Oh and there’s a two-part saxophone solo in the bridge and following, which ends up with a small musical “conversation” between KOKIA and the saxophones.

INFINITY is, of course, also on her indies version of the balance albums, with a different arrangement. At first, I really did not like this arrangement, based on the introduction. The strings are far too overpowering and the lower strings are far too accented in comparison to the smooth, relaxing feel of KOKIA’s singing. Of course, I always speak too soon, and the arrangement improves past the introduction into a lusher, fuller accompaniment. The strings still bother me occasionally, but having KOKIA sing out a bit more on this track does help in the overall scheme of things. I’ve always really liked this melody from when I first listened to “infinity”, so my opinion on that really hasn’t changed. I really enjoy the harmonies in the chorus and the beauty of the bridge of the track with everything playing. Following that, we have a few stacatto strings, which add a bit of a punch to the ending of this album and a few extra vocal accompaniments in the background. This is an excellent ending for the album, even if I don’t enjoy the beginning of this track. KOKIA did an excellent job with the ending and eventual build-up of this track to the final moments.

KOKIA∞AKIKO ~balance~ is one of my favourite releases from KOKIA so far. Although it still has its share of ballads, it has a great variety of sounds. KOKIA’s singing is undoubtedly very strong throughout the entire album as she never dabbles in my oh-so-hated child voice and displays a high degree of musicality and technicality in her singing. There’s not a song that I do not dislike on this album. There’s really nothing to say other than this is an awesome album. BRB STANNING.

Favourites:
道化

BoA – IDENTITY February 10, 2010
	1. This Is Who I Am 2. EASY 3. BUMP BUMP! feat. VERBAL (m-flo) 4. LAZER 5. interlude#1 6. is this love 7. Mamoritai ~White Wishes~ (まもりたい ~White Wishes~) 8. interlude#2 9. Neko Love (ネコラブ; Cat Love) 10. THE END Soshite and… (album ver.) (THE END そして and…) 11. Possibility duet with Miura Daichi 12. fallin’ 13. my all

Truthfully, BoA’s albums hardly ever impress me. The closest she got to that was her American debut, though it was tiring to some extent. When I saw what was going into this product, admittedly, I was curious. It seemed like BoA was finally doing what she wanted, writing six of the above tracks, including four compositions. Now let’s see how her first effort as producer fair.

My first thought about This Is Who I Am was, “Not another ‘I’m going to reinvent myself/This is the real me’ piece of crap”. Boy, how right was I? It starts off very intense and promising, but immediately after the intro, it has the unfortunate chord change that comes out of nowhere, and that is when (unfortunately) BoA comes in too. For her first composition of this album, she reminded me of how she needs help in this department. Among the limited aspects I enjoyed about this song was the jazzy sound (which surprisingly suits BoA quite well, and a major improvement from her “jazz” from DO THE MOTION). Sadly, that pretty much covers the things I did like and this song was dominated by things I didn’t (so many that I had to list them).

- BoA’s singing (technique) is terrible. She’s constantly falling out of tune, and it’s partially because she’s too focused on adlibbing to bother singing properly for the rest of the song.
- That being said, her adlibbing is excessive and overdone, as usual.
- The lyrics are so generic that they’re puke-tastic. Every artist has their staple “Real me” type of song, but in BoA’s case, she has about 409385093850 of them, and this is possibly the worst one so far. She’s seriously lacking in the creativity department here.
- The composition! It starts off decently, and it even sounds like she’s learned to put some breaks between most of her phrases, but then as the song progresses, she starts to wail and adlib endlessly, and that’s when you notice that there is no structure to this song.
- Lastly, when she starts to adlib endlessly to a pile of jibberish, or a whole lot of ‘This Is Who I Am” (at some points I can’t even identify the language she’s trying to sing in).

Sorry, I warned you that was going to be long. “THE END……. soshite, and…” (kidding).

BoA composition No. 2! I seriously thought BoA would have composed all ballads, so EASY was a pleasant surprise. I really like the edgy arrangement, and the programming is pretty cool (thanks Gakushi). The song is kind of fun, and not what I would have expected from somebody who just composed the pile of BS (read above). Lyrically, this isn’t any masterpiece, but it’s somehow better than “This Is Who I Am”. It sounds like it was better planned out. You can really tell that BoA’s trying to milk her newfound comprehension of English, though some of those phrases are ridiculous (like the number of times she repeats “You think it’s very easy”). I’m not sure I would really call this a complete composition. Majority of the song sounds like a giant chant or cheer (not even the entire verse is sung), and most of the musical parts actually is focused on the arrangement, which wasn’t even done by her anyway. Anyway, the song sounds like it’d be fun to watch her perform (seeing as she loves to opt to sing-shout some of her current songs during her tours, so it should work out for her…). This song is cool enough though, and BoA doesn’t sound as monotonous as she usually does. I can see it becoming a guilty pleasure type of song in the near future.

When BUMP BUMP feat. VERBAL (m-flo) was first released, it took a few days to grow on me (especially because the video was kind of tacky and weirded me out just a bit). However, it’s not a bad product from VERBAL, and the melody is cute (I’m sure that’s not the effect they were going for, but I can’t help it). It was also the first Jpop single where I’ve heard BoA sing with any touch of emotion. In comparison to the rest of the album though, she sounds somewhat washed out here. I need BoA to be more aggressive and energetic here in order to really sell this song, but it was decent overall.

Following BUMP BUMP, we get yet another VERBAL creation, LAZER. I think this is better than what I’m used to VERBAL producing, so good for him. He really worked to get a character from BoA, and was pretty successful at that. The verses are the best part of the song. BoA does a good job with interpreting the song for the most part. I’m not totally convinced by the chorus though. BoA’s vocals also sound a bit too weak to pull it off. The lyrics are kind of cheesy, but I guess that’s what happens when you work with one-half of m-flo. This song has been getting a bit criticized for being forgettable, but it’s definitely one of the better tracks in this album. It’s not perfect though. It’s a good product, but this song are a prime example of BoA being overly monotonous, especially those spoken parts. In fact, she reminds me of a bored grocery store announcer (“Clean up in Aisle 9″). The nasally quality is enough to drive anybody up a wall. I still like that BoA did capture the mood of the song, but for some odd reason, she opted to sing completely toneless. There is no resonance or life in her vocals. It may also be part of the reason why the choruses didn’t translate as well. She fails to enunciate her words so there’s a ton of slurring everywhere.

interlude #1 = WASTE. OF. TIME.

is this love is outright boring. It’s nice that BoA’s continuing to pursue that light jazz sound, which I truly think works well her. Her musicality is decent here, but I can’t help feel like she’s just ever-so-slightly bored in comparison to what she was doing earlier. The previous tracks had a certain spunk to them (yes, even “This Is Who I Am”), but this isn’t something entirely out of BoA’s league, and she knows it too. I need a bit more sophistication, or smoothness and sass. BoA makes this sound like just another job. She’s already having some trouble with her lack of tone, so it doesn’t help that she sounds bored too. This song could have turned out quite nicely had it not been for everything I mentioned.

We’ve definitely hit the “pop-ballad section” of the album, because Mamoritai ~White Wishes~ follows. In a complete 180 from is this love, this is BoA singing with tone. Granted, it’s not the cleanest performance, but I like it that much more because she puts everything she’s capable of into the song. For once, she’s phrasing, working with dynamic contrast and building the song. Just to push her a little more, I wish she would take down the belting in certain sections ever-so-slightly, so it doesn’t sound like she’s on the brink of shouting, but that’s more of a picky criticism. It would definitely help her control her vocals a bit better though, as she does sometimes lose control of her tone those notes end up coming off wild. That tricky section from high to low during the pre-chorus was a hit-or-miss for her as well. Sometimes she sounded too strained up high, so she dropped down too low when returning, but kudos for her for correcting it the second time around. Vocally, this is probably one of the best recordings by BoA in a very long time.

interlude #2 = 4 seconds I’ll never get back. =(

Anything you would have thought upon reading the title NEKO LOVE, I ask you to forget it. I guess it’s a bit more upbeat and cutesy than the rest of the songs (relatively speaking), but it’s definitely not bubblegum pop. It’s actually a funky little dance number. I won’t lie though, I don’t love this song (though it surprisingly can get addictive). BoA wrote the lyrics to this song (but one of the ones she didn’t compose). As far as her vocals go, she does accents her phrases nicely, and even her light slightly toneless vocals works well in this case, so it’s not as noticeable. She encounters a problem with singing EVERY phrase with the same diction and intonation though. Recall the comment I made earlier about BoA lacking creativity in her lyrics – it applies here again. As if we needed yet another song that exploits her name as can be heard in the repetitive background lines (repeated to the point that makes me want to vomit) such as, “B. O. A. People know my name”. At least she has some other cute lyrics about cats or something, but she really needs to stop plugging herself. I think that technique is exhausted by now.

I’m not quite sure how THE END soshite and… (album ver.) became longer, because as I recall, it was long enough to begin with (I still wonder why it says “soshite and…” o_O). I’m on the fence with this other BoA composition though. It’s a mix between her endless and/or super repetitive phrases, but has some very nice moments. It isn’t as big of a adlibbing mess as the first track, so it definitely has more structure to the overall song. On the other hand, nice as it can be, it’s quite generic and dull. Actually, it’s nice to hear BoA trying to emote in this song (well, she should because she wrote it), but she didn’t really leave herself much room to grow. The entire song is pretty monotonous (I try to tune out the messy adlibbing, although it is a slight improvement to what I’m used to), and she basically keeps her vocals leveled from beginning to end, adding to the boredom factor.

It’s too bad I think of that unfortunate performance at Billboards Japan whenever Possibility comes on. When I get past that though, it’s easily the best song off of this album (go Nao’ymt, even if you have some weirdo creations). Anyway, I like what was done here for BoA and her duet partner Miura Daichi fits in nicely. They both do very well during their solos, and I even think they brought out the best in one another. I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard BoA sing with so much conviction recently (she did even better here than she did with Mamoritai). She really sings out and it’s noticeable in those parts that she does nail (i.e. the parts in her natural range). I’m a bit bothered by Miura’s harmonization parts, because they’re clearly not in his range adding to the problems with tuning they tend to have when they sing together. The song does become a wail-fest towards the end, and there’s a ton of straining and thinning of their tones in both of their higher registers and when they belt, but luckily, neither moments really last that long (though it does elicit a few cringes from me on occasion). The song overall is sweet, smooth and generally well done, so they do tend to overlook the messier parts of the song.

Fallin’ starts off nicely, and this is BoA’s best effort in terms of composition to date. Every part of this song sounds like there’s a beginning and end to her phrases, which she rarely gets right. I’m quite pleased with the overall product of this track. The vocoder/filter or whatever she’s using is rather distracting. There’s a bit too much of it, though I won’t say the song didn’t need it. Some parts seemed to turn out better because it was present, I’m just not sure majority of the song was enhanced by it. I’m still bothered by her skills as a lyricist though. There’s a definite pattern to how she writes, and it’s not necessarily clever or entertaining to listen to. She’s still going for her excessive repetition of one word or phrase, so while I might have preferred a bit more variety (this applies to all her songs), it didn’t turn out so badly here. She just needs to work on knowing when to cap it so it doesn’t get exhaustive listening to her.

It wasn’t too long ago that I heard another ballad that was full of synthesized accompaniment, oh right, that was track 4. my all is a nice ballad though, and has a certain sweetness to it. I like the amount of emotion BoA is putting into this ballad, even though the composition is painfully generic yet again. Even so, it makes all the difference that she’s singing with emotion even for a not-so-special song, than if she had done it with her usual monotony. I wasn’t fond of the arrangement though, and a simple piano/guitar set would have reduced the cheese factor by about 100 times here. I can’t say much about the track, except that BoA’s singing is pretty well here. Though it’s not something I would listen to often, it’s a sweet way to end the album.

When asked about whether I’m for this album or against it, plain and simple, I’m indifferent. It contained both aspects that I enjoyed, but some of her not-so-glamorous moments were also present in this album. BoA’s first attempt at self-producing wasn’t a total failure. There was definitely some of her own personality shown through most tracks, which is what I’ve been asking her to do year after year. I still don’t think of her as much of an artist to be honest. Some of these tracks really are tasteless, or were subjected to poor arrangement (in the case of some of her compositions). Speaking of her compositions, she’s definitely improving, but they do make up a lot of the weaker tracks which makes me wonder if she should really just leave that sort of thing to composers. “Fallin’” turned out decently and was the only one that sounded like a real song and not a giant mess, but the rest were really borderline or worse. All things considered, I really think she worked hard to produce this, but it didn’t really quite meet expectations. No question, the quality of production came up short. I do appreciate the effort she put forth here, and that’s where I see the biggest improvement. I’d like to see her work on her cleaning up her vocals for the future since her technique isn’t that great and she sounded a bit scratchy throughout. Now that BoA’s proven that she’s capable of actually putting some life into her work (particularly her Jpop work), I hope this was a good learning experience and she continues to put this much effort, if not more, in all her subsequent productions, because even though this album didn’t turn out amazingly, it was still refreshing to hear her deliver a performance for once.

Favourites:
Possibility duet with 三浦大知

4minute – For Muzik August 31, 2009
	1. For Muzik 2. MUZIK 3. Hot Issue 4. What a girl wants 5. Funny (웃겨) 6. Won’t Give You (안줄래) 7. Hot Issue (Remix)

4minute is a new addition to the Cube Entertainment family (loosely related to JYP Entertainment), and one of the many Korean girl groups coming onto the music scene in 2009. Coming back into the music business is HyunAh (formerly from Wonder Girls) as the main rapper for the group. For Muzik is 4minute’s first non-single release.

The mini-album begins with a minute introduction entitled For Muzik that introduces the listener to the electronic, rap and vocoder-heavy sound of the group. The track opens with a strong, emphatic rapping section before the rest of the group come in with a half-chanted and half-sung chorus. All of this is done with a lot of strength and energy, resulting in a rather effective introduction to the album.

Like the opening track, MUZIK carries on the high-energy electronic sound of the previous track. I’ve often commented about how a lot of the time using too many effects can deter the music from producing “emotion” in the vocalists, but it doesn’t seem to affect the girls here at all. All of them perform with a lot of energy through the almost-excessive vocoder effects. Nevertheless, the result is an effectively addictive track, especially with the off-beat accents in parts of the chorus. The beats are all effectively accented throughout the song, which is one of the reasons that the track is done well in its genre. The girls are unrelentingly fierce in this track and it works.

In comparison, Hot Issue is a little less exciting of a track but that doesn’t make it any less fun to listen to. Their debut single has a basic beat that is much less frequent than the previous song, which is one of the reasons why it seems a bit “slower” (but it really isn’t). Again, it has a pounding beat happening in the background, although the accompaniment is a little more sparse than the previous song. Nevertheless, the girls still perform with a lot of energy and spunk. I still find the style of the girl group rapping kind of obnoxious at times, but whatever. The singing in this track is extremely minimal as most of it is chanting and yelling — I can foresee listeners having a bit of a problem with this, depending on their tastes. The repetitions of the chorus bits are a bit irritating after awhile for me, though. Nevertheless, the girls work together very well even though they’re yelling and chanting most of the time — the result is still addictive despite it all.

We get a lighter sound for What a Girl Wants, although the song is still rather upbeat and still contains a lot of electronic elements hovering around in the background. Thankfully, we get a little more singing on this track. The “Oh oh oh oh” doesn’t count because it’s more chanting rather than singing. Granted, the girls aren’t amazing, but they’re passable and not terribly out of tune in the verses. However, the rapper is so terribly out of place in this light-hearted track because she ends up sounding like she’s trying too hard to sound ~edgy~ in her rapping, while the rest of the girls are trying to sound more sincere in their singing. Seriously, the rapping is irritating in this song. I do enjoy the chorus because they no longer have the rapping and the girls actually sing out here and they do it relatively well. Again, the track despite being more laid-back is quite well done in terms of accenting and just the style of how the girls perform the lyrics (the rapping aside) in general. Probably one of the weaker tracks on the album, but I like the chorus enough to listen to the track regardless of the out-of-place rapping.

Of course, we need to get back into the heavier, danceable tracks. 웃겨 has a darker sound but the tempo is a bit slower than MUZIK and Hot Issue. The beat is more at a slight walking pace, but again, the girls perform this track extremely well and with a lot of attitude and energy. The girls consistently accent the beats and the singing parts are generally solid. It’s just some of the chanting ends up being a bit too obnoxious at times. This track is a bit more straightforward in sound, but the melody is addictive as usual and memorable.

The final (non-remix) track of the album, 안줄래 goes back into a slower pace as it is the most ballad-like track of the album. Despite this, the girls continue to hit the notes strongly and these notes end up being heavily accented. I’m not quite sure of the context of the lyrics, but the girls are almost yelling out the title of the song at times (in kind of a semi-angry mode). Anyways, the melody is addictive still and the rapping fits a lot better this time around since all the girls are doing this track in a similar vocal style.

I never really remember the Remix of Hot Issue, but this basically places the high-energy faster beats of MUZIK (not the exactly same beats, obviously, but the similar kind of feel) into Hot Issue. In addition, there’s some electronic tune going on in the background playing the same few notes over and over again. I personally think this arrangement fits all the yelling and chanting a bit better. Although that strange section in the bridge where the song suddenly goes techno is a little bit out of the blue and entirely useless.

4minute achieved what I think they were aiming for: addictive, fun danceable music and I like them because they do it well despite all the excessive yelling from the rapper(s) (I kind of assume most of it is HyunAh — I can’t tell any of the rapping apart). Not that there’s a lot of singing involved in some of these songs, but the singing itself isn’t too bad and is decent enough in terms of technical aspects (save a few solo parts in “What a Girl Wants” which are a quite shaky). The slower stuff is a bit of a hit-or-miss for me in terms of their performance, but the melodies for all of these tracks are extremely addictive and memorable. In addition, the girls perform the melodies well stylistically as they put a lot of energy into their recordings. As a result, this album is, well, fun.

Favourites:
MUZIK

G.E.M. – G.E.M. EP October 15, 2008
	1. Dang Yat Goh Ta (等一個他) 2. Where Did U Go 3. Hui Yi De Sha Lou (Mandarin) (回憶的沙漏 (國)) 4. Ai Xian Zai De Wo (Mandarin) (愛現在的我 (國)) 5. Sui Gung Jue (睡公主)

G.E.M. (aka Gem Tang) debuted in 2008 with this little EP, featuring her hit song, “Where Did U Go” which has gotten a fair amount of support in Cantonese-speaking communities around the world. Although it’s been awhile since I actually liked anyone in the Hong Kong music business, I have to say that G.E.M. caught my attention simply with her strong, soulful voice.

等一個他 opens up this EP with an mid-tempo Cantonese track and quite frankly I was surprised just how much I liked it from the first listen. Usually, Cantopop comes off as far too cheesy and lacking a lot of sincerity in the vocals. However, G.E.M. performs this opening track admirably despite it not being a song with a wide range. The vocals mostly do a lot of vocal trills around the corners, and Tang does them with ease. Her voice is very well supported throughout and she makes all the vocal stylings sound easy to do. The production value of the track is kind of empty and low-budget-sounding without much to listen to in the background aside from a basic beat and some kind of lackluster background vocalists. However, somehow I enjoy the track nevertheless. It contains some solid vocal work from the young artist.

Where Did U Go is the whole reason why I started listening to G.E.M. The track is a simple mid-tempo ballad, but it’s absolutely beautiful from the acoustic guitar and G.E.M.’s light vocals. Compared to the opening track, her singing is quite softer and it matches perfectly with the feel of the song. There’s something quite charming about the way she performs this track; she keeps the track going despite the lightness of the whole track. The chorus switches to a bit of English for the title of the song and the melody is extremely pleasant. I quite enjoy the acoustic guitar accompaniment, especially the opening and in-between the first chorus and second verse solo bits. Tang sings this with sincerity and honestly, something that I find lacks in a lot of the HK acts’ vocals.

The third track is G.E.M.’s first Mandarin track. 回憶的沙漏 is a haunting piano ballad with G.E.M. starting off with low-tones as the piano rings in the background. The slight build-up to the chorus is nicely done as the melody becomes a bit more intense with the piano chords and the faster-moving melodic progression of the melody. By the second chorus, the song builds-up with the addition of the percussion to the track and G.E.M.’s voice becoming fuller and stronger as the song progresses. I’m particularly impressed with how cleanly Tang transitions from her low tones to her head voice just before the percussions enter the track. Of course, the latter part of the track has a little bit of belting, which is done in moderation. Quite a lovely ballad.

愛現在的我 is yet another Mandarin track on the album, and it’s an upbeat one. This one has far more obvious R&B influences and I find it ridiculously addictive. It has a strong beat section supporting the song throughout with some dramatic strings and lower percussion going on in the background (and some bass guitar, too!). I find that G.E.M. could put a little more punch into her singing and in her accents to really pull out the beat of this track. However, what she does is sufficient to keep me listening. The melody is addictive and she pulls out the enunciation of the words cleanly despite the quick-moving notes throughout the track. I still find the singing is a bit too light throughout the song, despite the catchy melody and accompaniment of the track.

The final track of the EP goes back to Cantonese. 睡公主 again begins with G.E.M.’s lovely lower register in the verse over the haunting piano accompaniment. The pre-chorus brightens up in tone in comparison to the darker verse as G.E.M. starts to go up to her middle range and builds up to the chorus of the track. The song suddenly becomes all dramatic with the drums and the piano. I’m not too fond of her addiction to those little note trills at the end of her phrases here, especially in the chorus. It’s kind of done excessively and it doesn’t particularly work well in the context of this song. Nevertheless, the trills are in tune anyways, so they don’t bother me too much other than it sounding strange in this particular track. That aside, Tang just kills the vocals in this song. Her performance is dramatic, emotional and totally fits the kind of excessive drama this final song delivers.

My question is: why haven’t I gone out and bought this yet? This is an extremely strong package from this up-and-coming singer-songwriter from Shanghai (although based in Hong Kong). She has one of the strongest female voices in the Hong Kong music business currently and she performs with a lot of soul. Her music isn’t in any way groundbreaking in the overall scheme of things, but seriously neither is the majority of Cantopop. G.E.M. is a breath of fresh air in a music industry plagued with lackluster vocalists, singers singing the same song as everyone else, and just general mediocrity. For once, we get good, solid pop/R&B music with a vocalist that sounds like she cares. That’s really all I ask for, and I’m glad G.E.M. debuted to break my general boredom of the Hong Kong music industry.

Favourites:
Where Did U Go

KOKIA – AKIKO∞KOKIA ~balance~ March 18, 2009
	1. Wasure Mono (忘れ物) 2. Ooki na Senaka (大きな背中) 3. Obaa-chan (おばあちゃん) 4. Crape-myrtle no Yureru Koro (サルスベリの揺れる頃) 5. HOME 6. vintage love 7. bridge 8. Hajimari (はじまり) 9. infinity 10. Sekai no Owari ni (世界の終わりに) 11. Tsumihoroboshi no Uta (罪滅ぼしの歌)

AKIKO∞KOKIA ~balance~ is the indies half of KOKIA’s two-part album Balance releases which were both released on the same day. This album is the more ballad-intensive of the two albums.

忘れ物 is the opening track of this album and is an atmospheric, calming little piece. The background is mostly ethereal little synth sounds in the background. The melody of the track mostly consists of long notes held and holds occasional quick movements through the melodic progressions. Despite the faster-moving notes, the song remains really calm, and about almost halfway through the track, I feel like falling asleep. The whole song just kind of repeats like this for the entire 7 minutes of the first track. It’s a rather pretty track if you plan on falling asleep but you can’t because of insomnia, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with it musically but it’s just really sleep-inducing. At the very least, KOKIA’s vocals are outstanding as usual and her voice floats through the track with ease.

I did warn you, because there’s another ballad: 大きな背中. This has a lovely piano and acoustic guitar arrangement in the background, and the movement in the melodic progression is a bit livelier this time around. The tone of the song is a bit spring-like and the song shows a bit more variety than the last track. About a minute and a half into the track, the tone of the song changes and changes to a piano and string arrangement, so the guitar part disappears. The tempo slows down considerably before going back into the guitar sections. The sections are different, but not so much that they don’t transition nicely into each other. Are we surprised that KOKIA sounds wonderful on this track? I’m not.

Oh god, it’s KOKIA’s kid voice. *hiss* *growl* If there’s any voice I don’t like from KOKIA, it’s this one. At the very least, her attempt this time isn’t entirely out of tune all the time; it’s just very airy. おばあちゃん makes use of a simple piano accompaniment. I can’t help but be irritated by voice every single time she decides to use it, even if she has a reason to do it. In any case, this is a simple, child-like song. I’m not too fond of it, especially because of her singing but it’s not a bad track. It kind of feels like KOKIA was trying for one of those “first song a kid writes” kind of deal.

KOKIA is back to her natural voice for サルスベリの揺れる頃, and it’s another soft acoustic track. Acoustic guitar is the only instrument that accompanies KOKIA, and it works stunningly well for this track. KOKIA’s voice has a bit of an echo, which makes her voice ring beautifully on the track. Her voice complements the guitar nicely with the soft tones of her voices over the simple guitar accompaniment. I still don’t see why KOKIA has to make these songs 6 minutes in length. Any typical person would be bored by the first half of this track. I can only stand the full 6 minutes because I enjoy simplistic acoustic tracks generally. In any case, this is still a pretty track, although a bit too long for the nature of its sound.

We get a bit of pan flute for this track, which adds a bit of variety to the sound of this album for a slight decree. Too bad HOME is really boring. The melody really goes nowhere and KOKIA’s performance from the get go is bland, lacking in any life and she’s flat and not supporting her voice here. She already lost me from the first few lines she sang on the track, so the rest of the song drones on and on without being calming, pretty or inspiring. It’s just dull and six minutes in length. Uhhh… the pan flute is kind of pretty at times? Otherwise, going to go sleep now.

Raindrops and piano. vintage love definitely has a bit of a raw sound to the opening passages with the simplistic piano playing over the sound of raindrops in the background. Unlike the last track, this is actually beautifully simplistic and calming. The piano playing isn’t outstanding, but it’s nicely done so that melody line is enjoyable despite its repetitiveness. Of course, what I wasn’t expecting was KOKIA throwing in her kid voice again after 2 minutes of pretty piano introduction. This is especially painful when she reaches the high notes in the melody and she’s entirely out of tune. Thanks for ruining a perfectly good introduction, KOKIA.

This is why one can sing softly but still be in tune, KOKIA. Sheesh. bridge is entirely in English, and as usual her pronunciation is impeccably good. The arrangement for this song is a bit fuller-sounding than most of the tracks so far on the album, mostly because of the lower strings at the beginning of the track. Most of hte accompaniment otherwise is some guitar and some higher strings. This is an improvement over the melodies of the last few tracks, definitely; however, as a whole song, there’s something a bit choppy about how the song is composed in general, and the guitar seems a bit too accented at points of the track and kind of obstructs the flow of the song in the verses. However, this is still quite a nice song, but not my favourite off this album.

はじまり reintroduces us to some simplistic piano and voice arrangements. This is much like サルスベリの揺れる頃 but with piano instead of the guitar. Again, there’s an echo on her voice, and the piano and her voice work together perfectly in this track. Her voice is very well-supported and she delivers the ballad perfectly with a lot of control and beautiful phrasing. The piano plays a bit more of a role on this track as it gets a bit of a solo at parts of the track rather than just playing a supporting part. I really like how the track pulls into the key change as the piano starts playing in chords to pull a slightly stronger dynamic for the ending of the track.

More simplistic music with infinity. This time, KOKIA goes back to acoustic guitar to support her. Same old, same old for the beginning: pretty melody, pretty singing. The song changes a bit as the strings come into the track and adds a bit of variety to the sound of the track as KOKIA adlibs over the violin solo. The song goes back to the beginning structure, but this time with the strings supporting the main melody in the background. Pretty song with some really nice harmonies from the violin and I enjoy the subtle build-up in this track to the ending of the song.

Can you guess what kind of song the next track is? Yup, another ballad. 世界の終わりに sounds pretty much like a lot of KOKIA’s other ballads. The track is supported by piano and has a bit of bass supporting the track so that it’s not the only thing accompanying KOKIA’s singing. Again, pretty melody, nice singing. I’m starting not to have anything creative to say about these tracks other than they’re nice ballads and KOKIA’s singing is solid throughout the track. Oh, this song has a jazzy saxophone solo in the bridge full of grace notes. There’s your defining quality of this track on this album. But yeah, this is another solid ballad.

FINAL SONG. BALLAD. WHAT A SURPRISE. 罪滅ぼしの歌 starts with soft piano and KOKIA whispering her vocals. So yeah, another simplistic piano ballad and KOKIA stops whispering the melody but keeps her voice supported and soft through the track. Which is good because I don’t have to deal with her trying to sound like a kid once again. Good riddance. Anyways, solid ballad, nice singing, blah blah blah. I’m getting bored of hearing so many KOKIA ballads in a row. I digress, the song is nice. I have nothing else creative to say about this.

I can definitely see why this album isn’t for most people. As someone who really likes ballads when they’re done by competent singers, KOKIA doesn’t quite pull off this album effectively. A lot of the tracks end up sounding very similar in melodic structure and arrangement. Even with KOKIA’s mostly stellar singing throughout this album, it’s really hard to stay awake throughout this album. Individually, the songs aren’t bad compositions and are nice to listen to occasionally. However, as a collection of 11 ballads, this album can be really tiresome to listen through. Not even the addition of the saxophone or the pan flute can save KOKIA’s arrangements on this album. Some of the individual songs aren’t too bad to listen to individually, but as a collection of works, this is seriously lacking in variety.

Favourites:
はじまり

A Fine Frenzy – Bomb in a Birdcage August 28, 2009
	1. What I Wouldn’t Do 2. New Heights 3. Electric Twist 4. Blow Away 5. Happier 6. Swan Song 7. Elements 8. The World Without 9. Bird of the Summer 10. Stood Up 11. The Beacon

A Fine Frenzy, which many have mistaken for a solo act (even wiki has!), has come back once again for another album to follow up their very beautiful debut album back in 2007. If the cover is any indication, we’re probably in for a slightly more upbeat time because of the lack of landscape in the image; this concept was prominent in both covers of One Cell in the Sea. Oh, and that’s not a very flattering picture of Ms. Sudol. But yeah, even Sudol calls A Fine Frenzy a band, not a solo act contrary to wikipedia.

What I Wouldn’t Do introduces us to the familiar: a simple, acoustic track with the usual ambient sounds from the first album. The melody is simplistic, just like the acoustic accompaniment and Sudol’s lovely voice is charming and energetic. The song picks up after the first time around and adds in some clapping in the background. This addition makes the song a lot brighter rather than just mellow. It’s a cute little opening track which I really enjoy listening to. Sudol sounds beautiful as usual and the little arrangement is cute and soothing at the same time.

A Fine Frenzy continues with their atmospheric, ambient sounds with the next track, New Heights, which again could have been from their last album. The only thing different is the guy counting in the band at the beginning. However, as usual, their arrangements are lush and very dreamy. I love what they did with Sudol’s voice and kind of doubled it with the arrangement. The melody is actually quite simple again, but it’s a very soothing simple melody. Sudol’s voice works very well with the dreamy atmosphere of this track, and almost gets buried under all the piano, guitars and whatever other effects there are. As usual, a really beautiful work with the arrangement and Sudol’s singing fits the atmosphere of the track very well.

Electric Twist is our first introduction to the most upbeat side of A Fine Frenzy. The groove of this song is fun by the addictive bass line and percussion at the beginning. Sudol’s voice rings clear over these minimalistic accompaniments and she adds a lot of personality to her singing. Her singing as usual is lively. Eventually we get some more instruments that kind of creep into the track as the accompaniment becomes fuller. My favourite part is the section at around 2:30. I love the little thing she does with the word “Twist” as she accents it at a higher pitch. The rest of the song is a bit too linear for my liking at times as the chorus section isn’t quite as clearly put out to contrast the rest of the song (and the bridge ends up being the section that stands out in the song), but it’s a cute song which I enjoy.

Following is yet another upbeat song that was chosen as the lead single for this album. Blow Away relies strongly on a basic staccato beat to push the song forward, while the melody is really disjointed. In comparison, the legato melody of the chorus is really pretty although really quite short. The song itself is really “bouncy” to listen to, despite the accompaniment not having much other than the staccato beats and some small guitar lines in the background that are barely audible over the basic beat of the song.

This next track is one of my favourites off this track. Happier starts off with a beautiful introduction before transitioning to the slightly bouncy melody of the verse which goes in and out of legato and the more accented parts of the melody. The arrangement is more typical of the band with their ambient sounds in the background and a prominent piano presence. The melody is really pretty and probably one of the most memorable melody lines off this album that I remember off the first few listens of this album.

I’ve always really liked the opening for Swan Song. It’s a really beautiful piano opneing that sets the mood for this track perfectly. While the last track was a bit of a happy track, this is a soft, calming track with Sudol singing is hushed tones over soft, delicate sounds in the accompaniment. These are one of those songs that might bore a lot of people at the beginning because not a lot happens but I find it absolutely soothing. I really like the little bridge around 2:40 where Sudol sings out a lot more and her voice is exquisite and highly emotional as she reaches slightly higher notes.

A little bit of snare marches us into Elements, where Sudol’s voice whispers us into more dreamy pieces off this song. The snare is probably one of my favourite elements of this track as it adds a bit of a punch to this track, which like a lot of the band’s songs are just really pretty. While a lot of the previous tracks stayed in a certain little “cage” of dynamics, this particular piece has no limits as it gets progressively louder its accompaniment and the pure, raw emotion Sudol emits in her vocals. Seriously stunning.

We stray from the balladry to something more upbeat with The World Without. As usual, their arrangements are beautiful (what a surprise). I’m not too fond of the burst of sound that comes in and out of the verses at times, especially when it almost buries Sudol’s voice a bit too much, but it’s interesting to listen to, especially since it comes in right when everything accents the particular note of entry. Nice melody, nice vocals, and a bit too typical of A Fine Frenzy, but it’s a nice track.

It amuses me that Bird of the Summer begins with some little flute notes that sound like birds fluttering. Anyways, yes. Lovely piano opening and more soft Sudol singing. This particular arrangement is very spring and nature-like. The simple melody emphasizes the beautiful piano and flute arrangement in the background and I personally love it. The flute is especially fabulous and played very well to add to the atmosphere of the track. It has a beautiful tone through all the trills it’s playing in the background. Beautiful.

A Fine Frenzy attempts something a bit different at the beginning of Stood Up because the sound becomes a lot darker-sounding from the guitars and bass. At the same time, they keep the slightly dreamy feel in their music, especially with the effects put on Sudol’s voice. I’m particularly fascinated by some of the beats on this track, especially when there’s this one point of the melody where it seems like the rhythms are a bit off at first (this can be heard when Sudol first comes in with the melody) where the strong beat is put on a really unconventional place. The echoes at the end are a bit distracting, and I’m not too fond of that particular section of the song, but otherwise, it’s a strong track. This is probably one of the few times we hear Sudol belt for a section of the track, although she’s under a lot of effects.

It seems fitting to end an A Fine Frenzy album with a soft track. The Beacon is like the opening — simple, with a strong focus on Sudol’s emotive and strong vocals. I’m not particularly fond of the long notes in the accompaniment, but the melody has a lovely hook, which is true for many of AFF’s tracks. Not one of my favourites off the album as the accompaniment sounds rather bland under Sudol’s voice, though.

Bomb in a Birdcage is a more upbeat version of A Fine Frenzy’s debut album, One Cell in the Sea and features a very strong performance from their lead singer-songwriter (and only known member of the band), Alison Sudol. Her voice is beautiful and fits her music perfectly and generally has a more consistent performance on this album than she did in the first album. The music, as usual, is beautiful all the way through and is very enchanting to listen through all the way through. Sudol performance with ease all through the tracks, and it’s something very refreshing to hear. I’m not 100% fond of her more beat-oriented upbeat tracks as they feel a bit too linear at times, but they’re catchy enough for me to enjoy in any case and are unique enough that they stand out on the album. All in all, I loved this album. It features strong songwriting and strong singing from Sudol and is overall like walking through some kind of fairytale.

Favourites:
Elements

alan – my life November 25, 2009
	1. reflection ~overture~ 2. Swear 3. One 4. Mitsumeteitai (見つめていたい) 5. Namida (Smooth Jam Mix) (涙) 6. Lost Child 7. Butterflies 8. Essence of me 9. Call my name 10. Shiroi Tsubasa (白い翼) 11. Nobody knows but me 12. BALLAD ~Namonaki Koi no Uta~ (BALLAD ～名もなき恋のうた～) 13. Kuon no Kawa (久遠の河) 14. my life

I think the majority of people who were fans of alan prior to this album will agree that this album was one of most disappointing products of 2009, but this isn’t always the case for everyone. Straying away from the more mature ethnic music from Voice of EARTH, Avex attempts to produce a pure pop idol with this next album, with mixed results.

The opening of reflection ~overture is really quite stunning, and probably something one would expect to find on her last album. It has an ethereal harp and piano work going on here that is really beautiful and played with a lot of delicacy but also a lot of energy at the same time. It’s all really beautiful until they decide to add alan in with a lot of voice distortions and trying to sing in tune, but failing miserably before the song attempts to transition into a more electronic mode. I suppose if you were to overanalyze this track, this is Avex trying to introduce alan’s “transition from her Tibertan wailing persona into a more mainstream artist”. Too bad the latter half of the introduction is utter garbage.

I still haven’t decided whether or not I like Swear. It’s cute, but it’s so average and uninteresting at the same time. It probably does not help that alan’s singing is sometimes I really bit hard to bear, especially in the way she ends some of her phrases with the little note trill (which isn’t particularly done well) and she tends to be a little sharp and the tone of her voice is really tight and unopened on these notes. She does this way too much throughout the track, to the point where it’s just annoying. One either likes or dislikes the lightness of alan’s tone on this song — I’m particularly impartial to it as I sometimes it sounds nice and other times it just sounds half-assed. It’s a cute song, though?

For some reason, alan’s starting to do R&B-flavoured mid-tempo tracks. Huh. Anyways, we’re talking about One, the next track on the album. The track starts off fair enough: standard beat with a bit of nice piano opening. It’s nice, and alan’s adlibbing isn’t bad — it’s when she actually starts singing the melody when I start questioning who on earth decided to make alan sing the melody this way. She’s basically pushing her voice on the last note, then letting her pitch fall substantially on the note, and it sounds absolutely terrible for her. Her voice is almost toneless throughout the track and when she does have tone it’s usually a really forced sound that lacks any sense of flow in terms of the overall feel of the track. When did alan become such a terrible technical singer? I’m crying in pain on the inside.

The repetitive echoey piano at the beginning is kind of nice — for like the first 15 seconds. Again, alan sings this song in the exactly type of tone as the previous track, but her singing is slightly improved as the notes are much more cleanly done throughout the melody. Although she still has a tendency to push single notes out a bit too much, so we get a random forte note in the middle of a really soft melody, which results in poor flow of the melody. Otherwise, this ballad is done decently and can be quite nice to listen to.

I don’t even remember the original version of 涙, but now we get a “Smooth Jam Mix” version of it. Okay then. And alan basically sounds the same as the previous track, as it’s performed in the exact same manner, which I guess okay for the track, but not okay for increasing the interest in this album. I’m practically falling asleep here because alan has close to no vocal presence in this or the previous track. It’s nice, but nothing more than that. I can say the same about the mix of this track: it’s nice and pleasant but really alan’s performance does absolutely nothing for me as I don’t find it in any way convincing.

Is this album done yet? Finally we get to something a bit more upbeat, because alan is boring me with her generic slow-tempo tracks. Lost Child goes back into something mid-tempo with a more frequent beat. It attempts to do something edgier but still keeping a bit of the chill quality of the past few track, and composition-wise I enjoy it a bit more. It has a more memorable melody, especially in the chorus. alan’s still half awake though. Girl still sounds bored out of her mind, kind of like how I am right now. Wake up, girl!

Butterflies is next, and I’m still bored and so is alan. Again, the introduction is nice wit hthe harp and all, but the accompaniment and alan’s singing is so bland. They try to change things up a bit by having a chorus (as in a group of people) do some background vocals at points of the song, and that’s probably one of more interesting moments in this song, other than alan singing that note that moves around before the chorus (Which isn’t particularly sung spectacularly as she still sounds like she’s struggling to support her own singing). Next please.

Everyone knows by now that Essence of me is an electronic track, and it’s probably one of the more interesting tracks on the album, partially because we can barely hear alan half-ass her singing once again. She spends most of her time sounding like she’s singing underwater and hidden under a multitude of synths. I pretty much ignore her because she’s been mostly boring so far on this album. Then whoever mixed this track suddenly decides to up the volume on her vocal track about halfway through for some reason and look, she’s still flat. The synth accompaniment is vaguely interesting? Oh, Ayu makes a “guest appearance” ;D.

Call my name is the second attempt at electronic music, but this time we can actually hear alan over the track. What was alan on when she sang the introduction of this track? The ending of it is absolutely terrible and something I would expect from someone who doesn’t know how to sing and is absolutely tone deaf. It’s realllyyy bad, poorly supported and really out of tune. Thankfully, alan recovers for the main melody and sings in tune for the rest of the track and, gasp, sounds interested in the actual melody of the track. The repetitiveness of the track makes me a bit sleepy, but overall I like the track.

We quickly leave the electronic back into the generic ballads with 白い翼 and immediately on the first few notes, alan sounds much more interested in what she’s singin and adding a bit of vibrato and more attention to general details of how she’s singing the track. Among all of the generic ballads on this album, this is probably one of the better ones simply because alan sings a little better on this track and she doesn’t sound so bored and her tone is slightly better on this track. The track is still a bit boring because the instrumentalists are still really stiff, but alan’s singing makes this track a bit more bearable.

I quite like the haunting piano line in Nobody knows but me despite its performance being really bland. The track would have done really well with a much better pianist — this one is just dull. Again, alan’s singing sounds more expressive on this track, partly because the melody covers a bit more of a wider range and the chorus allows her to belt out a bit more. alan’s Engrish is really hilarious and her wail was a bit shaky on the first few notes but her tone improves as she goes on. Oh, I like the flute — what a beautiful, full tone, even though it wasn’t even much to play.

It’s funny how one of the singles I completely ignored is actually one of the better ballads off this album. BALLAD ~名もなき恋のうた~, which is a ballad with a name saying that it has not name (*eye roll*) is one of alan’s stronger ballad performances on this album. The melody starts off with a lower range and she doesn’t sound as thin this time around, rejoice! The melody builds up well, and I especially like the gradual crescendo throughout the verse towards the dramatic chorus. Vocally, alan sings well on this track (unlike the majority of tracks on this album). However, the composition of the track isn’t particularly interesting and is generic and a bit bland in terms of alan’s accompaniment.

Like Tsuki, I do prefer the higher key of the Chinese version of 久遠の河 (partially because it shows off her higher tones), but the Japanese version is still equally as good. This is another track that shows off alan’s ability to sing really well if she puts her mind to it and is probably one of my favourite tracks off of alan’s discography. Vocally, alan pretty much as it down and her voice sounds a lot fuller and lively despite the melody mostly holding smooth, long notes throughout. I still would have done without the Tibetan wailing near the end as it really serves no purpose in the overall song other than appease those who insist that they must hear her wail for the sake of wailing. What I really enjoy in this track, other than alan’s singing is the arrangement of the song. Simply said, it’s absolutely beautiful and really capitalizes on the louder moments on the track and the softer moments. I especially love the little oboe solo after the orchestral interlude at around 2:42.

After the drama of 久遠の河, we actually end off with the title track of this album (which is, of course, entitled my life) and after listening to the first few seconds, it’s pretty clear to me why it was the title track (when compared to the rest of the album-only tracks). It’s a simplistic little piano ballad, but this time, it actually works for alan. Her tone is much less forced and has a very natural flow to it on this track, plus she actually attempts to support the ends of her phrases this time around, which results is a really pretty ballad as the final track of this album. She still ends up sharp on some of the long notes, which isn’t particularly pleasant but I enjoy the track overall.

It makes me sad when an artist manages to become worse between albums. Not only does the production and composition work on this album feel rushed, so does alan’s singing for most of the tracks. The style itself isn’t necessarily a problem as one can make a generic album but still make it interesting and fun; it is the lack of effort Avex put into this rushed album, which can be also heard in how similar and uninterested alan sounds like for most of the album tracks and how poorly she sounds as compared to her first album. alan can be a talented vocalist given the right circumstances, but really I couldn’t care less for most of the material on this album.

Favourites:
久遠の河

2009, like any other year, has its share of really good and really terrible albums. I’ve tried to narrow this down to around 5 albums, like I did last year, but as always, I didn’t end up with 5 albums. All albums on this list I would not hesitate to buy despite the ludicrous prices for CDs in Japan. For the non-Japanese albums on this list, I’m basically saying I’d pay $30 for the album even though standard prices are a lot lower.

Albums are sorted alphabetically by artist name, not by preference.

A Fine Frenzy – Bomb in a Birdcage

This band (of which only the main vocalist, Alison Sudol, is known) is one of my recent favourites. Their debut album was pretty, but lacked quite a bit of variety. This album brings in a poppier, more upbeat side to the band while including some of their more signature sounds from their first album.

Samples: Blow Away| Happier | Electric Twist

G.E.M. – 18…

It’s been awhile since I’ve actually liked an artist from Hong Kong (although G.E.M. is technically from Shanghai… but her music is focused mainly in the Hong Kong area). G.E.M. gives the HK pop scene a long-needed revival last year from her EP, which made my 2008 list and her song “Where did u go”. Her music isn’t particularly super original in the overal world music scene, but she boy does she have a voice. While I find a lot of Hong Kong singers really boring, G.E.M. not only has soul, she writes her own lyrics. Her debut album continues her streak of addictive music and lovely ballads. While looking for videos for this post, I just realized I missed her coming to Toronto. :(

Samples: All About U | Game Over | A.I.N.Y. (愛你) | 想講你知

Kalafina – Seventh Heaven

Unlike FictionJunction’s earlier self-cover release, which was a bit of a mixed bag for me, Kalafina’s debut album features a more solid vocal performance from all the members of the group and probably one of the strongest group vocal work from a Japanese group for awhile. Kajiura Yuki plays on the strengths of all three of the girls’ distinctive voices. As usual from Kajiura, we get her distinctive style of songwriting. It’s been awhile since I was THIS excited for a Kajiura release.

Samples: SPRINTER | oblivious (Live) | 夏の林檎

KOKIA – KOKIA∞AKIKO ～balance～

KOKIA makes the list again with another mini-album. Granted, I haven’t listened to this as much as I would have liked, but every time I put it on for background music, I’m always in awe at just how beautiful KOKIA’s voice and compositions are. In my mind, there is no doubt that KOKIA has one of the most versatile voices in Japanese music. There’s really not a song that I can think of at the moment on this release that I do not like.

Samples: 花宴 | Infinity (Live) | 道化 (Live)

Rie fu – URBAN ROMANTIC

Even though my reaction to this album was a little less enthusiastic than her past three albums, I really do love the direction she’s heading in despite needing a little bit of fine-tuning (IMO). Nevertheless, Rie fu still has her usual charm, beautiful music with a bit more drastic experimentation this time around. The result is a lovely mix of her acoustic charm with an electronic feel.

Samples: Romantic | Something in my Head | Money Will Love You (English Version)

Vienna Teng – Inland Territory

Vienna Teng’s fourth album is very unlike her first three (but then again, so was her third album). Part of this is because of Alex Wong’s production. The result is an excellent package of unique songs with Teng’s usual soothing voice and excellent writing.

Samples: Antebellum (Live) | Stray Italian Greyhound (Live) | Grandmother’s Song (Live)

Notable Mentions:
4minute – For Muzik
BENI – Bitter & Sweet
Davichi – Davichi in Wonderland
Dew – Present
LOVE – Confetti Love Songs
MiChi – UP TO YOU
Onitsuka Chihiro – DOROTHY

alan – 心的東方 July 22, 2009
	1. 天女 2. 愛看得見 3. 飛行誌 4. 細節 5. 加油! 你有ME! feat. Wei Chen 6. 三生世 三生路 7. 明日讚歌 8. 心•战 ~RED CLIFF~ 9. 赤壁 ～大江東去～ 10. Sign 11. 愛就是手

I was eagerly waiting for alan’s first Mandarin studio album after her major debut with Avex, thinking it would be epic and beyond my imagination. I was half correct about that, as it was definitely not what I could imagine. I thought any release in Chinese for alan would be infinitely better than her Japanese material because she could max out her potential musicality in a language she is familiar with. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that it was not meant to be… This album features mostly Chinese versions of her original Japanese releases, and I will be making references to them throughout.

The album starts off with 天女, which is exactly how Voice of Earth began. It was evident that they tried to minimize the Tibetan wailing technique that is a characteristic of alan’s voice with her previous release, so I’m quite happy with the fact that they decided to include this in its original form, as one of alan’s best wails is featured in this song. I particularly enjoy the way each part weaves into one section to the other, and it makes for a nice introduction to the album.

The first full vocal song off of this album is the powerful 愛看得見 (a.k.a. Gunjou no Tani). I have always loved this song for its arrangement and composition. It’s an incredibly moving song, with a continuous driving percussion, sweeping strings and a melody that builds (or maintains) intensity from start to finish. Now anybody who knows me knows that as much as I love this song, I hate the way alan performed it. I found her vocal technique absolutely sloppy throughout, despite the suitable nature of this song to alan’s voice type. I believe this song was written for her specifically (correct me if I’m wrong), but she has all these opportunities to play with the phrasing and colours of her voice to really bring out the character of the song. Instead, she opts to belt as much as she can with her chest voice, which isn’t very successful, and proceeds to fall off every single phrase beyond the first part of the song. She started off very strong, and just spirals downhill from there.

飛行誌 (Sora Uta) turned out so much better than the previous track, and it pleases me. I actually didn’t quite like this song overall when it was first released, but the Chinese version turned out well. alan’s tone of voice is a little heavier than the original and is missing that light lilt that really caught my attention the first time, however, she is very much in control throughout this upbeat number. I thought she did a great job with the interpretation of this song, demonstrating some great musicality.

I’m surprised she alan recorded a Chinese version to more of her B-sides, such as “Kimi omou sora”, or ??. Honestly, the Japanese version is pretty dull and not particularly notable. alan definitely turned that song around for this release, and this is more of what I was expecting from her. She effectively delivers a sweet, musical performance here and convinces me that this song is worth my time.

The first original Chinese song off of this album is a duet with Wei Chen called 加油! 你有ME!. You can expect more typical Cpop music from this track, and true to the title, it’s as much cheese as one should be exposed at a time. It is still enjoyable to some extent, but only in small doses. Wei Chen doesn’t really do anything for me, and in fact, is underwhelming next to alan. alan carries tune with good tone throughout. The song doesn’t really do much to convince me that alan can be a pop star though. She sounds almost bored and unchallenged singing this.

When Voice of Earth left “Sakura MODERN” off the album, I was incredibly disappointed. I thought that song would have fit in perfectly, but that makes me even more appreciative of the presence of its Chinese counterpart, 三生世 三生路. I’ve previously mentioned that alan did a wonderful job with this song. She has superb phrasing the minute she begins to sing and sings with a lot of heart (and not so much chest). She has a beautiful head voice, and uses it to the best of her ability here. Gorgeous song paired with alan’s gorgeous voice – this is how track two should have turned out.

I think everybody anticipated that “Ashita e no sanka” would be one of the first major label Chinese songs alan would release. I have been anticipating this release from early on in alan’s career. alan finally presents us with 明日讚歌, and I have to express my disappointment yet again. I have every reason to believe that this Mandarin version was to be more epic than the Japanese, but alan’s vocals is the exact reason why I cannot stand this song. She struggles with tuning throughout, including being ridiculously flat in the verses and fails to impress me with her lack of control in the choruses where the wails are prominent. alan’s tone is horrible in this version, and it sounds like she’s pushing too hard with her “chest” voice, therefore screwing up the beautiful tone she usually carries in her head voice. An ear piercing rendition of her own song, I suggest all listeners to stay far away from this.

There are so many reasons to skip past the previous track, and one of them being a good Chinese song by our featured vocalist. 心•战 ~RED CLIFF~ is a beautiful, powerful ballad. alan really brought out nuances of this song through the melody. I love the way she builds each phrase and structures them with lovely dynamic contrast. There are moments where it sounds like she’s about to turn out flat again, but she quickly fixes them as she’s singing. The way alan performs the verses is so musical and gorgeous. I could have used just a little bit more from her in the lines leading up to, and including, the chorus. Other than those two minor things, there isn’t much to say about alan’s vocal performance here though. She really mastered this song and I definitely prefer this version of the Japanese because the removal of the wail really put emphasis on the beautiful string interlude towards the end of the song.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’ve never really liked the intro of 赤壁 ～大江東去～ song for some reason, at least not the fast part. It sounds detached from the rest of the song. It is something I do look over whenever I listen to this though. I personally love the theme to RED CLIFF Pt. II more than the first, particularly this version. (I am one of the people that thought it was dumb that they decided to transpose the song to a lower key for the Japanese release in an attempt to have alan sound more diva.) Back to this song though, alan does a remarkable job with this song. There is no doubt about alan’s strengths as a vocalist, and she really showcases it here. She really shows that she doesn’t need to be singing folk-like Chinese songs to sound amazing. I’m absolutely blown away by her performance here and believe that it is her best to date.

Sign is sung in Tibetan, and is the same track from her Japanese “hitotsu” single. I’m not really sure I like the inclusion of this song for this album and as the second last track to the album. The song feels like it’s more of an interlude, intro or outro due to the repetition. I like the track itself as it is quite unique and has an enigmatic feel to it. The circumstances under which it was used however, doesn’t evoke much emotion from me, and its purpose to this album seems rather pointless.

愛就是手 is one of my favourite songs by alan overall. It doesn’t have her defining vocal wail, it is simply a ballad. That being said, it is one gem that should not be overlooked. I love the composition of this song, and it has one of the sweetest melodies I’ve ever heard. I really think this ballad is truly heartfelt, despite alan sounding a little congested in the recording. Yes, even though I love this ballad, I have a bit of beef with alan’s vocal performance in this version. I’m actually surprised that she delivered the Mandarin version with less musicality in comparison to the Japanese versions. She doesn’t really seem to grasp the moment with this ballad, though I have no doubt in my mind that she’s more than capable of doing so.

I’m really surprised by alan’s debut Chinese album. I was definitely expecting much more from her. Some of the minor issues with Voice of Earth could be passed off as potential language barriers and unfamiliarity, but I don’t think alan really had any excuse as to why this album did not meet expectations. She had basically the same material from her Japanese discography, so quality of songs should not have been a factor. I still alan is an immensely talented musician, she just needs to learn how to translate that talent into good performances and recordings. Avex also needs to stop making her sound like a pop diva because it is not working.

Favourites:
赤壁 ～大江東去～

BENI – Bitter & Sweet September 2, 2009
	1. Bitter & Sweet Intro 2. Kiss Kiss Kiss 3. Zutto Futari de (ずっと二人で) 4. Koi Kogarete (恋焦がれて) 5. Dakishimete feat. Dohzi-T (抱きしめて) 6. Anything Goes!! 7. stardust 8. KIRA☆KIRA☆ 9. GO ON 10. Shinjisasete (信じさせて) 11. STAY 12. nice & slow 13. Beautiful World 14. Mou Nido to… (もう二度と…) 15. Kiss Kiss Kiss (DJ HASEBE REMIX)

This is originally supposed to be reviewed by Tsuki because she won a coin flip. I am stealing it. Hi Tsuki! That said, most of BENI’s Avex material was horrible. I could barely sit through her first two albums, while the third one was passable but mostly boring. Ever since she’s moved to Universal, I immediately noted her big improvement from what I heard from the debut and gradual improvement from the third album. This fourth album finally places BENI in a position where she’s actually worth listening to, despite still needing improvements musically and vocally.

The intro to Bitter & Sweet is a nice one and not totally useless when it comes to introducing the album to the midtempo R&B style of the album. It’s nice, and is done around some kind of stormy sounds going on in the background while BENI sings over the background vocals. It’s nice and it does its job.

I’m still a rather big fan of Kiss Kiss Kiss. Despite numerous comments about how this track sounds like whatever other R&B track (which can be said about a lot of the songs on this album), I personally find it a rather addictive midtempo song. It’s pleasant with a kind of smooth melody and a nice piano accompaniment over a heavy beat and snapping in the background. BENI’s tone is quite gorgeous on this track, despite it not being a particularly challenging track melodically for her. Nevertheless, she pulls off the song very well and she inserts quite a bit of energy and emotion to what she sings on this track. Her phrasing in the verses is nice and consistent and this smooth phrasing contrasts well with the choppier rhythms of the chorus. Her singing is quite fitting for this song.

I’m not quite as fond of ずっと二人で since it was the single that appeared after a slew of midtempos and ballads for ballads. It really doesn’t stand out as a song on the album, and I still wonder why it was even a single to begin with. That said, it’s not a terrible song either; it just doesn’t stand out very much. The first thing I thought when I listened to this track was that it was total song to show off her “tone”. This track is even less challenging than the previous track. The range is pretty limited and the tempo of the track is pretty slow. Nevertheless, BENI shows off her improved tone and improved control on this track. Musically, this isn’t the most interesting track, but it does show that BENI has improved technically and emotionally on her vocals. She pulls it off beautifully, despite how bland the actual song is.

Universal really went all out when they decided to stack three of BENI’s singles together at the beginning. Seriously. In any case, 恋焦がれて is yet another midtempo track. This one has a stronger usage of the acoustic guitar and a more frequent beat in the background. It’s nice track like the rest of the bunch. This one has a bit of a dreamy quality, especially with the added background vocals in the chorus. I wasn’t really a big fan of this track when it first came out, but I enjoy it enough to listen to it all the way through.

抱きしめて Feat. 童子-T is the first new track off the album, and it’s more of a laid-back midtempo track with a nice bass beat that keeps the song going forward. Again, BENI sings well and bit more in a lighter manner for this particular song. I find the melody quite catchy despite the track being rather laid-back. I also find it amusing that Dohzi-T randomly interjects throughout the song with random grunts. Seriously, what. And his rapping is terrible and monotone. He sounds like he’s half awake and adds absolutely nothing to the track. He could be replaced by a grunting monkey and I wouldn’t know the difference (err assuming the monkey can speak Japanese).

What is this? An upbeat track? Anything Goes!! uses heavy synthesizer beats over a more emphatic melody for this next track. This track is a less smooth and exercises BENI’s ability to accent consecutive short notes, which she does quite well in the chorus. She still has a bit of a habit of making the melody a bit too smooth at points where it could really use a bit more punch. However, she handles this track well vocally. The melody is pretty addictive, although she does get a bit drowned out by the accompanying music and the random chanting in the background. Who is this guy who keeps yelling?

Hello to second upbeat track in a row. stardust is the track that everyone seems to love. I’m a little less enthusiastic, but I still like it. It has a nice mix of electronic elements and R&B elements. I find that BENI’s voice can be a little bit too light at points of this song where she could have sounded a whole like enthusiastic if she didn’t sound like she was avoiding any prospect of belting. Nevertheless she sounds nice, although her voice can feel really thin at times and some of the effects put on her voice really don’t help her in this case. The song itself is really quite catchy, and I like the little answer and reply before the chorus kicks in. She does a good job with the rhythms in the chorus, although again, her voice is a little too light for the beat-oriented track.

Why was KIRA☆KIRA☆ a recut track again? This is another example of her midtempo tracks off this album. Rinse and repeat formula with slight variations. In any case, it’s still a nice song but not very memorable. She has that same kind of light voice (and effects, sheesh) as she did on stardust, which suits this track a bit more, but it makes her voice a little thin in the chorus. She does sing this track well and she sounds nice despite the song being really repetitive. The melody is pleasant and enjoyable and she does a good job not making the song absolutely dull, which seems to be the case for the majority of the tracks on this album.

You know what’s next? Another midtempo R&B track. Like just about very other midtempo R&B track, it’s a pleasant song. It has more of a focus on a heavy electronic backing with a soft piano and acoustic guitar backing. A constant beat occurs under BENI’s nice vocals. Again, the verses are smooth while the chorus brings in a slight more frantic melody as BENI repeats the title of the track over and over again.

What on earth is that sound at the beginning of 信じさせて? And I don’t mean the piano. Anyway, the sound is kind of annoying, but we get another smooth ballad for her. The sound is really, really distracting though. However, again, BENI’s voice sounds nice, although her performance here is a little more bland and linear than I would have liked from her at this stage. Her voice sounds nice, but a little more variety would be nice. I do hear her trying to add a bit more emotion on this track although in how she does some of the ends of her phrasing and there is some hint of a flow in how she does these phrases. Still, not a very interesting song.

The title of nice & slow pretty much sums up this track. It’s nice. And it’s slow. Obviously the title isn’t talking about the nature of the song, but rather BENI’s attempt at sexing it up on the album without being skanky and it works well enough. There’s a whole bunch of electronic stuff running around in the song. It’s a nice track (oh wait, I already said that) but really not one of my favourite tracks off the album nor is it one that stands out that much for me despite it being her ~sexy~ track on the album and it sometimes puts me to sleep. Ho hum, next.

STAY is next, and it’s another midtempo. Yup. It’s pretty catchy though, and it was one of my early favourites off her singles. Not even the random dude yelling “HEYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!” in the background can distract me to liking this track. BENI’s vocals are nice and the melody “stays” in my mind (Oh hur hur).

I pretty much agree with everyone that Beautiful World is the best track off the album. For one, it actually sounds different from the rest of the songs off the album with some random dude singing. Next, it’s absolutely beautiful and pulls out a bit more belting from BENI. I adore the atmosphere of this track as it has a bit more of a ethereal, dreamy quality to it, while BENI’s singing sounds really nice with the echoes and the male background vocalist. This is one of those moments where even though BENI doesn’t have a strong belting voice, her belting actually works for the song to add a bit more of a dramatic effect to the song. Beautiful track.

もう二度と… is still my favourite ballad out of her first era. It brings out BENI’s improved singing and really shows how much she’s improved since she’s started off. Her tone is beautifully supported and she displays emotion really well through her light voice at the beginning and nice vibrato. Her voice is controlled and soars through the track almost effortlessly. Granted, she’s still improved vocally since this track, she still sounds really nice on this simple ballad, which demonstrates her ability to emote on a simple melody.

I really don’t mind BENI’s remixes. The final track, Kiss Kiss Kiss (DJ HASEBE REMIX) is a cheery remix of the single with acoustic guitar and an addictive bass line. The drums are far more frequent, although the melody itself hasn’t changed, the song sounds a lot more upbeat for this version. It’s a nice remix, though, and I really don’t see a lot of problems with it.

Bitter & Sweet demonstrates BENI’s consistent performance on all the material given to her. Despite a bit of the nitpicking I had with her voice at times, I must really say that she’s really improved from her earlier days. The album itself is nowhere close to being groundbreaking in any way and lacks variety in the overall sound of her music; however, it is a solid, consistent piece of work both musically and vocally. Unfortunately, this may cause her not to stand out that much because her music doesn’t really pop out, but her work is pleasant to listen to and the tone of her voice is quite pretty. Her ability to emote has improved and this ability is displayed through the simplicity of a lot of these tracks. Although the music isn’t complex and doesn’t change much, her singing is what keeps a lot of these tracks interesting and as a result, the album is enjoyable.

Favourites:
Beautiful World