Artist: Fukuhara Miho (福原美穂)
Album: Rainbow
Release Date: January 28, 2008

1. CHANGE
Fukuhara Miho starts off her first album with her upbeat debut single begins immediately with her strong, belting vocals that are somewhat reminiscent of Christina Aguilera’s voice. The arrangement is pretty simple with a heavier electric guitar sound in the chorus, and percussion. I love the jazzy piano mixed with the brass sounds, and Fukuhara pulls off this song pretty well throughout with lots of power and emotion. The melody grabs me right away from the beginning and Fukuhara keeps it interesting with accents. I personally would have liked a bit more variation from her vocals, but I guess from this kind of full-out belting song, it kind of calls for this kind of singing. Nevertheless, she sounds controlled all the way throughout, and I like her little addition of a softer tone in the bridge, despite the fact that the moment only lasts for about one line. Her voice feels a little rough nearing the end as she seems to be forcing her voice a bit there. Nevertheless, this is a fun, upbeat track to open the album and shows off her ability to belt nicely.

2. ANYMORE
ANYMORE marks the first album track, and it starts off with a slight synthesized sound before changing the sound completely with a more pure pop sound with the introduction of the percussion, guitar and piano, and the synth disappearing altogether. Fukuhara’s intro is slightly strained; this is particularly noticeable right before she goes into the verses and her voice ends up being under supported when she’s reaching for the high note. The verses are much nicer as it goes to the middle range, and her tone isn’t quite as rough. While I enjoy the melody of this song, I find that Fukuhara’s vocals aren’t as polished on this track and for a lot of the time she sounds like she’s straining a lot and sounds slightly unnatural as she forces her voice a bit too much. I think this particular track would have done without the poorly done oversinging from Fukuhara that is both unpleasant and unmusical.

3. Lose Control
I absolutely love the saxophone and the jazzy feel of this song right from the beginning. The saxophone introduction line is excellent, and the percussion keeps the beat going really well. Fukuhara, as usual, as a lot of energy, and her voice doesn’t sound as strained in this song, and she pulls this off better than the previous song. There are points in her vocals where she has to make a quick, higher-note jump, and does it really poorly, but otherwise, her singing is much better supported. The melody here is really catchy, and the accompaniment is really fun. The saxophone soloist is definitely my favourite part of this whole song. Admittedly, Fukuhara goes over the top in this song and over sings this quite a bit, but she definitely sounds a lot better while doing it in this song. In addition, she pulls off the style and mood of this song quite well despite the over singing.

4. 雪の光
After several tracks of Fukuhara just pure-out belting, a ballad is severely welcome from here. She shows off a more tender side of her vocals and sounds excellent while doing. Fukuhara does a nice gradual dynamic crescendo throughout the song, and she performs this song flawlessly. The arrangement is rather typical of a ballad with the strings, but they complement her nicely throughout from the beginning to the end. She sings this song legato all the way through the song, but the notes are done with ease and she keeps it interesting by using various nuances in her voice. Fukuhara’s execution of this song is full of emotion and musicality, and almost makes up for the lack of musicality in the two previous tracks.

5. Everybody Needs Someone
Fukuhara pulls in a mid-tempo guitar track and sounds nice while doing it. Again, she starts off in her middle range, and personally, I’m glad to her out of her belting voice because she’s got quite a solid voice. This track definitely shows off she can do more than belt everything she’s given. Her voice shows off a really nice, rich tone which is really quite pleasant. The song isn’t really spectacular, but it’s a smooth, pleasant R&B-esque track and has a really lovely flow to it and small brassy undertones. Fukuhara really pulls this rather average song along really well with her excellent vocal performance throughout and using various sides of her voice to keep the song interesting.

6. ON TOP OF THE WORLD
ON TOP OF THE WORLD is the first full English track from Fukuhara, and she shows her very clear English pronunciation here without any moment where she falls back into a Japanese accent in the track. I’ve already talked in previous reviews about her near-perfect English pronunciation when she sings. This mid-tempo track starts off with a really rich, delicious tone from this singer. She’s really got a spectacular voice, and it’s more evident when she’s singing something that you understand. The track itself is also another track that is a bit generic at times, but Fukuhara, like in the past track, presents this in an interesting way. I also really like the soft piano notes in the background. The bridge is really nice with the solo piano in the background, and her voice ringing over it. It’s almost haunting when she starts ad libbing over the added dramatic strings a little bit afterwards.

7. ひまわり
Fukuhara’s second single is a gorgeous piano ballad. The opening has a lovely flourish of strings, guitar and some kind of synth over it before heading to a pure piano verse. Fukuhara, as expected, sounds really nice. The verse here goes a bit lower, and she sings in this lower range quite well as well, although she begins to sound a bit too breathy. The build-up to the chorus is quite nice, and I like how she starts off the chorus with a powerful “zutto”. Her voice here makes the melody sound easy as she notes through the notes with ease and her delivery is rather smooth. The arrangement and melody are both rather pretty to listen to and everything works rather well together.

8. LOVE ~winter song~ (album version)
Like many wintry songs, this song uses a nice amount of xylophone. This particular song starts off with some soft xylophones before the percussion comes in to make the song much more upbeat than before. The song continues with an uplifting melody and excellent vocals from Fukuhara. The song is a bit more forceful sounding than a lot of Christmas songs, but the celebratory sound of this song is done well as it ends up being a nice, upbeat fanfare of percussion, bells and xylophone. The chorus has a stronger choir sound as it has a group of people singing, rather than Fukuhara herself. Either way, this is a strong, fun song.

9. Getting There
I like the nice a capella sound at the beginning with the repeated line and the clapping before the guitar comes in. It’s a rather catchy introduction, and I really like the harmonization in there. This is another upbeat song, but the verse focus a bit more on the acoustic guitar as the main accompaniment. The song ends up being upbeat, but rather mellow sounding as a whole. I personally really like the melody with the nice leaps in the chorus and the line descending from there. The repeated line can get a bit annoying after awhile, especially after four minutes of it coming in and out of the background of the song, but overall, I quite like this track.

10. ドリーマー
While the previous track had an upbeat, but mellow sound to it, this midtempo track leans more on the mellow side with its simplistic acoustic guitar accompaniment, and Fukuhara’s voice over it. I also really like the flute in this track quite a bit as it kind of floats its way into the song very nicely, and matches the calming mood of this song. Again, it’s really nice to hear Fukuhara in a softer, more subtle tone. Her vocals here are singing in the lower range for most of the verse, while the chorus is in the middle range. This song doesn’t really push any of her vocal boundaries, but she sings quite well nevertheless. I think her high, airy notes could use a bit more support, as they tend to sound a bit too thin. Nevertheless, this is quite a pretty song.

11. ICE & FIRE
Her voice sounds a bit different at the beginning of this song, but it nevertheless sounds good at the same time. It’s a bit thinner than I’m used to from her, but it’s not a bad thing since still sings well in this thinner, lighter tone. This particular song is quite a mysterious sounding one. It has a haunting electric guitar background that’s quite ambient-sounding, and Fukuhara’s different tone of voice fits quite well with the atmosphere of this song. This song is probably my least favourite song on the album, however, due to the uninteresting accompaniment. I personally think this song would have benefited from some more interesting light synth echoing in the background or something more interesting than the constant percussion beat and soft sounds in the background.

12. 優しい赤
Fukuhara’s debut album ends with a ballad, which, unfortunately, doesn’t really stand out that much. It’s a nice song to end the album in terms of the kind of “ending theme” kind of sound it has with its dramatic strings accompaniment and full kind of accompaniment with the guitars and bass. The melody is quite lovely, and Fukuhara sings well, but I can’t really pull out anything extraordinary with this song. It’s placement at the end of the album is quite nice as it’s a bright pop song, but as an individual song, it doesn’t really connect to me.

Overall -
Favourite Track: CHANGE, 雪の光, ひまわり, Getting There, ドリーマー (I kind of like those five equally… ^^;; )
Fukuhara Miho’s debut album is a collection of solid music. Fukuhara Miho’s voice is somewhat reminiscent of Christina Aguilera’s voice at times, and like Aguilera, she has quite a set of pipes and her power was one of the reasons why she first caught my attention on the Celine Dion Tribute Album. It is doubtless that this girl can sing. However, as with quite a few people who can sing very well, she has the tendency of oversing some of her material and push her voice a bit too much. Thankfully, most of her album did not have this problem, but there are moments where she does decide to overdo the amount of belting in a song, which can be rather unmusical and unpleasant to listen to. That said, I only noticed this near the beginning of the album, but the rest of it showed more variety in her singing dynamics and showed different characters and tones of her voice, which I quite enjoyed. I don’t find that the material on the album stands out that much from albums of a similar pop-R&B genre, but the songs are pleasant and it has memorable, fun melodies. Nevertheless, this is a solid album with good to average songs and a very good vocalist.

Artist: 福原美穂 (Fukuhara Miho)
Album: Step☆Out EP
Release Date: October 11, 2006

1. 恋はリズム (Koi wa Rhythm) -Believe My Way-
The opening track for Fukuhara Miho’s indies EP is an upbeat pop song with a strong brass and a catchy guitar riff in the background. The accompaniment for this song is excellent as it keep a very catchy, and upbeat sound to the overall song. Fukuhara shows up her excellent vocals in this song as well (although I find the version on the “CHANGE” single seems to have a crisper sound and Fukuhara sounds more energetic on it). The song can get rather repetitive after awhile, but Fukuhara pull the song off with her strong, well supported vocals. I personally would have like to see a bit more vocal variety, but she sings well throughout, although there’s not much progression in the song. The song is still a strong opening track that shows off some fun mix of strong, soulful vocals with a strong accompaniment. The last note seems a little bit questionable — I would have preferred a belted note over the breathy thin note she produced.

2. KISS THE SKY
The next song starts off with a tacky synth progression. I don’t particularly like it because it sounds a bit dated, but either way it doesn’t sound bad. Fukuhara here starts off with a softer side of her voice, and she continues her near perfect English accent (although she doesn’t quite pull off the English ‘r’ at times). I don’t particularly like the accompaniment of this song, although the melody is quite nice. I enjoy how Fukuhara does not show off her belting in this song as the previous song was mostly belting; it makes a nice contrast to hear a lighter side for most of the song. As for the song itself, it’s not that interesting and the production is kind of cheesy sounding although there are points where I like it.

3. Release
The next song is a ballad, although the production seems a little bit weird as the vocals don’t blend that well into the accompaniment music. While the accompaniment is nice, and the vocals are well done, there a bit of an alienation between the two parts of the song. Fukuhara’s vocals don’t quite fit into the music and it feels like an amateur production. Nevertheless, Fukuhara sings quite well in this song. The accompaniment is nothing extraordinary, and I even find it a little bit dreary.

4. Hard to handle
I love Fukuhara’s vocals here. They’re full of energy and sass. The accompaniment has some rather catchy guitar riffs and the song is rather catchy to listen to. This song is entirely in English, and you can’t hear an accent at all, possibly because this is a cover (and Fukuhara has probably listened to this song to death and learned the pronunciations). Either way, a really catchy track and a very good cover.

5. 絶え間なく (Taemanaku)
Fukuhara closes with a Japanese ballad, and I adore it. Her voice here is gorgeous as she sings in a lighter, subtle manner. It really shows off her tone nicely without having her belt. Fukuhara’s vocals just float through the notes effortlessly, but with plenty of emotion. The arrangement is quite nice (although typical), but it works well with Fukuhara’s vocals. A very pretty song to end off the mini-album.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 恋はリズム -Believe My Way-
My reactions to Fukuhara Miho’s indies mini-album is a bit mixed. While I didn’t find some of the music all that amazing, one thing that Fukuhara has is amazing vocals. Throughout the five tracks, she demonstrates what she can do with her vocals from belting to subtle, light singing. If you enjoy good vocalists, I would suggest you check out her major debut single from SONY: “CHANGE”. This release itself is not a bad one, but Fukuhara’s already done better.

Artist: Various Artists
Album: Tribute to Celine Dion
Release Date: September 26, 2007

1. Ito Yuna – MY HEART WILL GO ON
Sometimes I wished Ito would sing more like this in more of her songs instead of that thin, breathy voice she usually sings in. The starts off nicely in this song with a breathy, but well-supported sound. I particularly like her voice in the chorus where she sings somewhere in between the breathy tone and a nice chest voice. Vocally it’s a bit weird when she comes in for the second verse as she sounds a bit too harsh. I particularly like her voice when she comes to her fuller chest voice near the near, albeit a few sloppy notes here and there at times. She does the dynamic crescendo decently throughout the song, although there’s still much to improve on as she sounds a bit mechanical throughout the song.

2. K (feat. Aki) – TO LOVE YOU MORE
The next song starts off with a bit of an R&B beat. K comes in with a bit of an echoey sound, but he sounds really breathy from the beginning, and it doesn’t sound all that good in my opinion. I really like the harmonies aki adds in the second time around the first verse. The harmonies are really gorgeous throughout the chorus. I don’t particularly like K in this song at all as he sounds very hesitant due to all the breaks in between each line of the melody. The echo effect added to the song makes them sound distant. K sounds much better when he starts singing out in the bridge though.

3. JUJU – THE POWER OF LOVE
This acoustic guitar version of the power of love is quite nice. I don’t know who JUJU is, but she starts off really nicely with a subtle sound. Her tone is rich and quite nice, and pulls off the chorus quite well. While JUJU sings very well throughout the song, I personally would like a bit more vocal variety in this song the song quickly becomes quite dull as she does the same thing for all the chorus. We’ve heard what she can do the first time around, so the next time around it’s not as impressive.

4. SOULHEAD – BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
The SOULHEAD duo pulls off this classic song wonderfully. The harmonies are excellently executed through the chorus, and the verses are really well done. I quite like the change of sound following the first chorus in terms of arrangement as I find it quite pretty. I think they should have changed their vocal style the second time around as well though.

5. Fukuhara Miho – BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME
Who is this? She’s actually really good, as well as having really good English, aside from random moments in the song when she changes back to a Japanese pronunciation which kind of puzzles me. Anyways, as uninteresting this song is musically, Fukuhara is amazing throughout this song and just pull it along simply with her vocal performance in this song.

6. Hoshimura Mai – IT’S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW
The next song starts off with an organ sound before the song starts. Hoshimura has a really unclear english and possibly the most unclear pronunciation thus far in this album. Vocally though, Hoshimura does a decent job with the vocals. It’s nothing really impressive though, but then again the song itself isn’t very interesting. I do like the little piano interlude halfway through the song.

7. Lyrico – IMMORTALITY
I love Lyrico :D. However, I don’t like the echo sound added to her voice, and the song itself is a little awkward melody-wise. It’s a little dull until she comes in half way through and actually starts to sing out a bit more. The song iself is possibly one of the dullest songs on the album and I’m unimpressed with it.

8. LISA – BE THE MAN
The next song is an acoustic guitar song and LISA pulls it off well with her voice. She sings well with emotion and makes the song quite pleasant to listen to. Her voice mostly spot-on throughout the song, and the melody is sung with sensibility and makes it one of the best songs off the album.

9. Kato Miliyah & Shota Shimizu – I’M YOUR ANGEL
This is a nice duet, although nothing compared to the original. Maybe it’s because I really liked the original and it was probably one of the songs of Dion that I put on repeat. XD Both Kato and Shota can be uncomprehensible at time, but they have nice tone, especially Kato. However, the both of them are an absolute snore throughout the song.

10. Hirahara Ayaka – THE PRAYER
Hirahara’s version of this song is kind of boring as it drags on and on through the song. Hirahara doesn’t really show off vocally in this song either. The arrangement of this song is just dull and doesn’t go anywhere.

Overall -
Favourite Track: BE THE MAN
The tribute album isn’t a bad one. Many of the vocalists performed quite well throughout the songs. However, I felt like a lot of the accompaniments for the songs were really dull and lifeless and didn’t really help the song. Not something I would listen to again, aside for a few tracks though.