Artist: JUJU
Album: Wonderful Life
Release Date: October 10, 2007

1. 奇跡を望むなら…
A lovely mix of acoustic guitar and piano start off this gentle opening song for JUJU’s album. JUJU’s vocals are just lovely here as she sings emotionally through this lovely song. Her tone tends to be rather rough around the edges and not as smooth as I would imagine a jazz singer to be, but she’s a good performer. The song is quite lovely, but I expected much more from JUJU, especially from the first track. She’s a good singer with a gravelly tone, but she’s capable of better performances. This recording felt repetitive and had no progression in the song at all, so the delivery felt the same for the same parts of the song. I really do love the light accompaniment, but the singing could have been done with more variety. It is, nevertheless, a pretty track.

2. rush hour
Rush hour sound start off this song. And a lot of honking. Apparently people have road rage. Not until the nice, calm jazzy sounds come in, that is! A synth plays a smooth tune with the strumming acoustic guitar. The song is pretty much like this for the rest of the song, but JUJU sounds nice in this song, with some wild notes put at times. She doesn’t really catch my attention here, but the melody of this song quite nice. Her pitch isn’t as good as I remember, and she’s still disappointing me from what I’ve heard from her.

3. Song For You
A more upbeat comes next with the constant guitar strumming, and the nice keyboard progression. JUJU starts off with constant breaks in the melody, but it sounds good as it focuses a bit more on the guitar background. The chorus isn’t as explosive as I would have liked, but JUJU sings well there. I absolutely love the brass part after the chorus, and the instrumentation for this song is quite nice. Soft strings play in the background while the brass continue their syncopated blasts of sound. JUJU’s singing really doesn’t stand out at all, but I absolutely love the song and the arrangement of the song itself.

4. あこがれてた関係
A brighter laid-back song. JUJU’s melody features faster-moving lines as the guitar strums lightly in the background. She does a good job with the emphasis on the melody and really drives it forward, but keeps her vocals light at the same time. This is a rather enjoyable song as JUJU puts a lot more life in her vocals on this track and the mid-tempo sound of this song is quite nice.

5. Lost & Found
Ambient tones start off this song with long, held notes to create a nice echo feeling to the song. A little bit of bongo creeps its way into the song and eventually starts playing a constant rhythm with light electric guitar pickings. JUJU’s pitch isn’t as accurate as she usually, and I find the melody itself not that appealing at all as it has poor flow. The sound of this song quickly gets quite uneventful and unmelodious. Unpleasant to listen to.

6. 笑顔の残像
Windchimes, strings and piano start off this song nicely. It sounds slightly Christmas sounding. JUJU starts with a lovely tone here and sings quite nicely while the piano plays a chord accompaniment in the background. This ballad has a nice melody going for it. The accompaniment tends to has a bit of tension in the progression, especially in the chorus were the sounds kind of clash against each other, and JUJU lacks vibrancy in the chorus. Her voice falls a bit off the notes and doesn’t deliver the chorus as well as she could have.

7. MIS
The little staccato organ-sounding notes add a lovely little bounce to this more upbeat mid-tempo song. It has a nice groove to the song, and, again, JUJU starts off nicely here, although falls from the notes a bit when she hits them. However, the chorus falls under expectations, as her tone becomes harsh once again, and fails to fit into the accompanying melody. The final note of the chorus has no sound of finality and keeps unfinished and awkward sounding.

8. me against the material world
I absolutely love the sound of this song, even if JUJU is definitely flat in the introduction. The song has such a groovy sound to it. The brass and the overall beat of this song really drives this song nicely and JUJU sings with sass here. The chorus is less impressive as the song flows very poorly into it, and JUJU sounds terrible there. The verses really make up for it though as it has some kind of Pink Panther-esque jazz sound to it. The saxophone solo in the bridge is absolutely awesome; the player plays with energy and preciseness.

9. ｷﾐに会いに行こう
I love how she sounds at the beginning of this laid-back sound under the filters. Her voice soars through the opening with the minimal instrumentals. This is the JUJU I’ve been waiting for since the beginning of the album. Her voice here has so much more vibrant and isn’t harsh like in the previous tracks, and the minimal instrumentation really makes the song focus more on her voice. The song is a tad on the uneventful side, but her vocals make up for it.

10. ﾅﾂﾉﾊﾅ
The obligatory piano ballad comes in, and JUJU sounds wonderful as she’s finally found her vocals for some reason. Her singing is beautiful on this ballad and she shows that she knows how to sing and how to sing well. It’s a pretty typical ballad, but JUJU performs it beautifully with emotion, musicality and in a vibrant manner. Lovely.

11. Sayonara
JUJU goes back to the jazzier stuff in this next track as the brass play a smooth melody over the light drums. The opening of this song is quite lovely, and JUJU sounds lovely at the beginning of this song. Her voice is light and delicate, like the song and fits the instrumentation quite nice. Her belting is a nice addition to the song as it doesn’t make me feel like she’s singing the song all in one tone. The English lines over the main melody aren’t that well sung, however, and feel tense and lacking any supported sound. However, overall, a very good jazz song that features some light instrumentation and mostly wonderful singing from JUJU.

12. Open Your Heart ~素顔のままで~
Light xylophone and saxophone opens up this song for a few seconds before JUJU comes in with some lovely singing. The mix of light strings, guitar and her voice is quite lovely. The saxophone reoccurs after the chorus, and creates a counter-melody in the verse lines. The light, but slightly dramatic strings are really nice in this song as it’s the main accompaniment. JUJU sings almost flawlessly throughout this song. There are parts where she overemphasizes the word “heart” for no apparent reason. However, this is truly a lovely song to listen to, and it’s understandable how this song got a PV for it.

13. Wonderful Life
The last track of this album is a lighter jazz fare, that mixes a bit of flute and trumpet at the beginning. As usual, the accompaniment is soft and light. JUJU’s tone here is much cuter and lighter when compared to the dramatic song that came before it. And she sounds good while doing it. I love the melody for the chorus line “Oh, Wonderful Life”.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Wonderful Life
JUJU’s first full album starts off poorly as JUJU’s voice looses all its vibrance and tone that I was used to when I listened to her cover “The Power of Love” on the Tribute to Celine Dion album. Her voice sings various uncontrolled notes in that part of the album that both sound off pitch and have terrible tone to them. Somewhere halfway through the album, the JUJU I love and remember comes back into the album and performs excellently. Her voice soars through the tracks expertly. Her voice still tends to be too harsh on notes at times and they become rather unpleasant. However, JUJU is a very good singer and releases some pleasant-sounding jazz songs. However, for some reason the first eight tracks of this album, JUJU does not show her ability as singer at all. Thankfully, she pulls through in the end and shows that she can actually sing well.

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.