Tamaki Nami (玉置成実) – STEP February 24, 2010
	1. GIVE ME UP 2. Friends! 3. Sayonara Shite Ageru (さよならしてあげる) 4. Uso (嘘) 5. KIMI NO NAMIDA (キミノナミダ) 6. Negai Hoshi (願い星) 7. ZERO no Sora (ゼロの空) 8. Moshimo Negai ga… (もしも願いが・・・) 9. Omoide ni Naru no? (思い出になるの?) 10. Happy Forever 11. in my life 12. Tokyo (東京)

“STEP” is Tamaki Nami’s first album since her label switch from Sony to Universal Music Japan. It also represents a drastic style change, with more focus on bubblegum pop and pop-R&B ballads than her trademark dance-pop sound. Apparently it hasn’t been sitting well with most fans, though nami pulls a couple of surprises here and there.

The biggest shock nami could have given her fans was this remake of GIVE ME UP. I don’t really know why UMJ decided to start Tamaki’s new career off with a cover song. Even though nami doesn’t generally produce terrible cover/remake songs (see “Get Wild”, “Daitan ni Ikimashou” etc.), for a somewhat established artist, a cover song just screams a lack of musical identity. In any case, this is a very popular song to the Japanese public, and has been remade or covered on multiple occasions. It brought Tamaki some initial success as well, despite the change of sound. It is kind of cute to listen to (I really wouldn’t recommend watching the PV though). Unfortunately, the song generally doesn’t strike me as notable or interesting. The verses are tolerable, again because of that cute factor, but the choruses send the cuteness thing over the top to the point where I want to puke. It doesn’t help Tamaki’s case that she’s sound extra, extra nasally and unbearable. I don’t mind the 80′s sound so much, but the high pitched synthesizer in combination with that nasally tone from Tamaki is simply too much.

Friends! made a better impression on me, and I spent a good portion of last summer listening to it because I honestly enjoyed it. All things considered, this song really isn’t that interesting. It’s your typical bubblegum pop tune, and a rather simplistic one at that too (although I’ve never found the work of Masaaki Asada particularly interesting in the past – note: make a secret by BoA). I did find the verses rather charming though, and Tamaki sounds like she’s having a lot of fun singing it. I didn’t think the choruses were as good mostly because you can hear Tamaki straining to hit those higher notes which are clearly out of her natural range. Overall, Tamaki sounds decent, the song is cute and charming for a while, but don’t expect too much beyond that.

We finally get into something that potentially won’t make you want to gouge your eyes out from cute overload. Sayonara shite ageru is a nice mid-tempo ballad, and although I don’t really find the song itself too interesting, Tamaki does a wonderful job showing the different colours of the song. She hits a couple of rough spots with her tuning and holding onto the proper notes, but she sounds much better already in comparison to the previous two tracks. The accompaniment is kind of generic and a little boring. I did like the addition of the strings, but I really wished they didn’t try to push the whole “R&B” sound on Tamaki so much. The looping beat adds a couple notches of boredom to this song. If they tweaked this arrangement a bit and turned into into a moving ballad, I would have probably enjoyed it much more.

I warned you about the lack of progression in this album right? You’ll probably begin to notice this about now because Uso is along the same lines as “Sayonara shite ageru”. In Tamaki’s defense though, the looping beat suits “Uso” much more than it did the former. This song has a nice start to it, but it really lacks any real drive, so it gets tiring to listen to about halfway in. Tamaki’s phrasing in this song isn’t quite as good as the former, so she sounds choppy all the way through. The general range of this song is a little higher as well, and you can hear Tamaki’s thin tone throughout in her attempts to stay in tune and to sing the song. Not really a flattering song at all.

Don’t be surprised if I begin to get repetitive during my review, but Tamaki is choosing to be repetitive herself. KIMI NO NAMIDA is probably the best of the last 3 tracks. For one, the chorus is much more interesting than the others. This song packs a certain punch to it (could be the heavy percussion background). I don’t find the programming overly annoying either. Tamaki’s vocals sound comfortable and with a lot more tone and substance than the other tracks. She’s not trying to twist her voice in some odd manner in order to reach the notes. It all seems to come more naturally for her at this point. This is a solid track overall.

I don’t really get what was so great about Negai hoshi. The programming was very generic and uninteresting. I understand that a lot of the songs featured on this album also follow that pattern, but I just get any sense of musical quality to this song. The melody is pretty dry and dull, then you have the dance-infused bubblegum pop thing going on. This song may be the closest in terms of musical style to her Sony releases, but even I have a limit of Sony’s Tamaki Nami. If I need a throwback, I would rather do something that’s more epic and not so boring.

Now we’re talking. Most of her fans agree that ZERO no Sora is Tamaki’s best song under UMJ so far, and I fully agree. I love the progression of this song. There’s a variety of up and down moments of this song that really keep my interest. Tamaki’s phrasing could use a bit more musicality, and I was hoping she could tackle this more along the lines of “KIMI NO NAMIDA”, but it’s pretty good as it is already. I really like the clear distinction between the background vocals and the main melody. It really helps keep the attention on Tamaki as a soloist. “ZERO no Sora” caught my attention right off the bat, and it still continues to do so even now.

I was stunned by Moshimo negai ga… when it was first released. First of all, I didn’t think this drastic style change was going to work for Tamaki, but it turned out surprisingly well. That being said, there are a lot of reasons why I don’t like this song as much as I would have wanted. There are some nice moments throughout this song, but those are limited and when I’m forced to pick apart this song, I find more than enough to make me not like it as much. First of all, I don’t like the compositions of this composer. The phrases and lines featured in the melody are completely awkward, and this is evident by the emphasis on Tamaki’s struggles to phrase. The verses are are full of phrases that just end up in an ascending manner, which is fine if only Tamaki didn’t accent the end of every phrase and come off of them abruptly. The choruses aren’t too bad, and the best part of the song. I do like that they build intensity. The harmonies are a bit heavy and actually seem create a hollow sound overall, adding no substance to Tamaki’s vocals (the actual vocals are pretty thin to begin with). Don’t get me started on the programming. There’s way too much synthesizer clashing with the simple keyboard line. It comes off a little too mechanical and dull given the way it was laid out. Finally, we get to the bridge, which was probably the worst section of the song. There’s a terrible use of autotuning through it, in addition to the awkward transitions and composition. I have nothing good to say about that section. I didn’t like the outro that much either, and would have prefered a fade-out, but after that bridge, I think I stopped caring. I will say this about the song, it wasn’t a bad first try at this style of Tamaki, and wasn’t a total disaster. If you aren’t picky like me, it can be relatively pleasant to listen to, Too bad though, I am picky and I don’t like it that much.

Clearly Tamaki really wants to drill this musical style into her fans, with the subsequent release of Omoide ni Naru no?. I have to admit, I actually do like this song much more than the former. Vocally, I don’t think it’s much better (if at all) than “Moshimo negai ga…”. Actually, there are more noticeable issues with her tuning. She’s not getting the sound out quick enough, and opting for a more airy tone. This problem also accentuates her problems holding notes, particularly in the higher register. Jeff Miyahara did a good job with the arrangement though, and it isn’t very imposing and overdone. In contrast, the “adlibbing” at the end was totally overdone, and problematic considering Tamaki can’t adlib at all. Overall, this song wasn’t too bad, but like her previous single, it had quite a few issues of its own. It was a much better attempt at this style though.

Happy Forever always got on my nerves. Actually, I don’t mind a very bubblegum pop Tamaki Nami, in fact, I welcome it. Tamaki’s vocals were a little weird though, despite mostly singing in her comfort zone. The melody gets a little strange and leaps around, which Tamaki misses each and every time. I don’t understand why she accents that one high note before the chorus comes in. She evidently strains to reach is and then misses, therefore, accenting an incorrectly note. The song is much along the lines of “Friends!” and is quite cute. I would have preferred it if she actually sang it with better tone, and actually bothered to stay in tune.

Of all the B-side ballads they had to throw on this album, I can’t believe they chose in my life. For those that don’t know, this is the worst B-side in all of her releases. I think it was chosen because it slightly keeps to the musical theme, but it’s a bad song. It’s boring all around. The arrangement is completely uncreative, and the melody is boring. Tamaki attempts to sing this with conviction, but actually, she sounds like a huge mess. Her tone is completely thin throughout, except for those moments where she attempts to use her chest voice, so then it suddenly sounds like an extreme forte (loudness). There is absolutely no flow in her singing what-so-ever, and is clearly out of her range. To top it off, she had to use autotune, which I don’t think I need to say that it’s completely out of place here. Not worth the listen. I would suggest “Kanojo” from her “GIVE ME UP” single (regular edition) instead.

Thankfully, they didn’t decide to end the album with that horrid track, and gave us some redemption with Tokyo. Tamaki sounds pretty good here and it’s a refreshing change. She does have her struggles, but either she’s improved immensely, or she’s simply more comfortable with this song. Either way, it’s great to hear her trying to sing with better technique. I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly interesting about this song, but it is a pleasant little number. After hearing her struggle through the last couple of tracks, it’s a sigh of relief to hear her end with something decent. There aren’t any surprises that are going to jump out at you, but considering the last few songs had bad surprises, I think I prefer this safe, but enjoyable track.

For once, I didn’t actually enjoy Tamaki’s album release. Generally I do enjoy her larger scale works, even if they’re not the best releases out there, mostly because I like the energy and effort she puts in delivering her songs. I felt that she sort of lacked that spark this time. Maybe she’s trying for something more “mature”, but I don’t think mature should translate into dull. I do think she’s trying to grow as an artist, and she’s not having success all around, which is evident in her vocal troubles. I didn’t really like the H!P-wannabe image she was going for though. She does bubblegum pop well, but I think a 5-year career with Sony before this release should take her out of “idol” status. It’s no wonder this release barely caused any stir for anybody. I don’t mind artists experimenting, but don’t lose your personality in the process. In the past, that’s what drew me in mostly when it came to Tamaki Nami. This album seemed to lack a bit of that energetic person this time around. Overall, I enjoyed some aspects of this album, and hated the others. It’s not as much of a disaster as most people would say, but it’s by no means good either. I wouldn’t listen to this album all the way through, but I do like to put on the good tracks once in a while.

Favourites:
ゼロの空

AKB48 – SET LIST ~グレイテストソングス 2006-2007~ January 1, 2008

1. Aitakatta (会いたかった) 2. BINGO! 3. Yuuhi wo Miteiru ka? (Original Mix) (夕陽を見ているか?) 4. Boku no Taiyou (僕の太陽) 5. Mirai no Kajitsu (未来の果実) 6. Dear my teacher (Team A Ver.) 7. Skirt, Hirari (Album Mix) (スカート、ひらり) 8. Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru (制服が邪魔をする) 9. Virgin love (Album Mix) 10. Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou (軽蔑していた愛情) 11. Tanjoubi no Yoru (Team A Ver.) (誕生日の夜) 12. Korogaru Ishi ni Nare (Team K Ver.) (転がる石になれ) 13. Sakura no Hanabiratachi (Team A Ver.) (桜の花びらたち)

For some strange reason, I decided to review AKB48 stuff. Like the crazy person I am, I enjoy randomly downloading idol groups/singers that I have never listened to and play through the album. AKB48 was one of those groups I decided to listen to for no apparent reason. Time to musically analyze idol music; this should be amusing XD.

Not going to lie, 会いたかった got me hooked. It’s a fun song with light accompaniment full of electric guitar, xylophone and generally solid group singing from the girls. I was pleasantly surprised how well the girls blended together in the chorus. Their singing is standard idol group fare — it’s the typical nasal, cutesy stuff. However, the group in general has okay tuning (i.e. doesn’t make me cringe). I particularly like some of the harmony sections of the song (see around 1:10 and other similar section). The chorus itself has a nice use of timpani for the major beats and is in general a nice addition to the track.

BINGO! is another fun, upbeat track. It has a nice melody, and again, the vocals are decent idol fare and their group sound is a bit nicer than the opening track. As usual, their sound blends together really nicely and their harmonies work nicely in tune with the melody. Like the previous track, the song has quite a bit of guitar in it. It features a short electric guitar solo in the bridge before going into an acoustic bit. Pretty catchy and the girls generally sound nice.

The third track, 夕陽を見ているか? (Original Mix) is a softer, midtempo track which starts with the accordion playing the chorus of the track. We get quite a bit of solos at the beginning of this track and it’s good that the vocals are generally solid overall here with the minimalistic backing. The girls do a good job with passing the melody around here without sounding abrupt between each soloist and generally having a similar kind of musical delivery between the girls in terms of style. Of course, I say this before the girls who sings the pre-chorus comes in and has really bad singing. Anyways, tuning in questionable in that one section. The chorus goes back to their solid group singing and adds some nice harmonies to the melody. It’s a fairly nice song.

僕の太陽 is another fun song, this time with some stronger and more constant beats from the accompaniment. It has a bit of a dated feel with some of the synthesizer sounds and the slightly Sailormoon-esque music kind of sound to it (err I keep picturing this song on a Sailormoon soundtrack). It’s a nice song though and the girls are energetic and have their usual strong group sound. The soloists are decent and deliver this song nicely. It’s a really fun song~ and I really enjoy the group’s ability to harmonize nicely in the group parts of the song.

The random singing of “Boys and Girls!” at the beginning of 未来の果実 is rather irritating and a bit out of tune. In any case, more upbeat cute stuff. This one has a bit of a disco feel in the background accompaniment and the same type of synthesizer stuff happening in the past track. I’m not as fond of this track as some of the past one, although the melody for the chorus is quite cute and addictive. However, I can’t say the same about the verses in this track. A bit too many subpar soloists on this track that it’s actually noticeable how bad some of the individual members are with their constant straining for the notes. No thanks.

As creepy Dear my teacher is, I’m more frightened by the singing on this track (because I’m turning off my Japanese comprehension and not listening to the lyrics :D). Gone is the more polished group sound and the bad singing starts here. The opening verse is really bad as very few of the singers are actually in tune and the melody does absolutely nothing for me. Seriously, none of these girls seem to know how to sing in the lower range for the verses; their tuning is horrendous. The chorus doesn’t get much better as their voices are entirely not in tune with each other either. It probably doesn’t help that I misheard “Do it baby!” as “Do me baby”. So yeah, aside from the fact that the creepiness meter is through the roof on this track, the singing is horrendous. Probably not enoguh girls to cover their mistakes (it’s a Team A only track). Oh dear lord, next.

I cannot for the life of me remember what スカート、ひらり sounds like, probably because it’s put in the mediocre section of this album. The track attempts to pull off some kind of mysterious feeling for the singing, but again, the tuning is off. This time I can’t blame the lack of members; this isn’t a Team only track. Many of the soloists are missing a whole lot of notes and the chorus is flat. Seriously, learn to support your notes, girls! By now I think I’ve heard the worst of this track, but there’s one special snowflake that starts singing at 2:40 and my ears are thoroughly bleeding from shitty singing. Is it really necessary to get such a horrid singer to do the bridge? I’m so over this track.

制服が邪魔をする has a lot of kanji I can’t read. This has a more stacatto feel to it with the short notes in the chorus. The singing is significantly better for this track (Thank God), although the arrangement is a bit lame as it sounds like some really amature computer beats being used. The bass line is kind of addictive at times, though. I’m not too fond of this song, though. I personally find it a bit lacking in the arrangement (other than the bass) and the song just bores me after awhile. The best part is probably the instrumental in the bridge with the catchy chords and guitar.

Hello creepy name. Virgin love has some kind of surfer music thing happening with the opening guitars. It’s kind of amusing. Again, the singing isn’t has horrendous has Dear my teacher (yes, I’m probably going to compare all the singing for the rest of this album to that track). The song itself feels a bit messy at a lot of the parts since the melody doesn’t flow as well as it could. However, I really, really, really like the part before they sing “Virgin Love” with the repeated line and the harmonies that keep adding onto it upon each repetition of the line. It actually sounds really cool. The Doo Wahs make me laugh. XD

軽蔑していた愛情 has some kind of strings things happening in the arrangement, which is a bit different from their usual arrangements. It adds an interesting kind of dramatic feel to the track. I also like the little piccolo stuff that goes on in this track. I’m not fond of the melody at all in this track; it’s pretty unimpressive and I kind of tune out most of it. The strings accompaniment kind of out-performs the girls on their instrumental-only parts of the song. Otherwise, it’s pretty dull.

誕生日の夜 is another Team A track, and the singing is much better than their previous track. The harmonies in the opening blend well with the main melody and the notes are generally solid. I don’t particularly care for this track, but the melody is nice and the group effort is more evident in this track than in Dear my teacher. Otherwise, I’m pretty indifferent to this track.

And Team K handles rock in 転がる石になれ, which is an interesting change from the rest of the album so far. Good group sound at the beginning and they generally work well together, although it’s mostly done all in unison. The group still struggles with a lot of the higher notes as shown in the latter part of the chorus where a few of the girls attempt to sing the higher stuff and fail miserably. Otherwise, the song is pretty much done all in unison (With a few small harmonies in the chorus). Not bad.

I love how there’s three Team A songs, one Team K song and no Team B stuff. 桜の花びらたち is a midtempo ballad and has a nice arrangement with lots of bells. The girls sing in their usual unison with a few harmonies in places. The tuning could use some work on some parts of the song but in general, it’s pretty nice. Their unison isn’t as nicely tuned with each other as they usual are so it kind of deters me from liking this song entirely because I can hear a few of the girls who are off in comparison to the rest of the girl, but thankfully most of them are relatively in tune. I like the holiday feel this track has with all the bells and the melody is quite nice.

AKB48′s first compilation album leaves a lot to be desired. The opening of the album is full of upbeat, addictive music, but as the middle section comes in, the quality of the music and the singing goes down the drain and never quite recovers at the end of the album. This is unfortunate since I was enjoying the group’s energy and generally good group sound at the beginning. The rest of the album is pretty much mediocre or average. While the group isn’t free of subpar vocalists, there is quite a few things that I do like vocally about this group. As previously mentioned, the group has a good unison sound through most of the tracks — their voices blend well with each other, and if there are mediocre singers, they’re mostly not heard from in the unison parts of the tracks (there are, of course, exceptions to this). I like the group’s use of harmonies through many of these tracks, and they do it a whole lot better than many of the idol groups I’ve heard. While I dislike a lot of the material on this album, I was intrigued by this group because of the above reasons. However, overall, this album begins well but the majority of it is absolutely forgettable.

Favourites:
僕の太陽

Superfly – Box Emotions September 2, 2009
	1. Alright!! 2. How Do I Survive? 3. Searching 4. My Best Of My Life 5. Koisuru Hitomi wa Utsukushii (恋する瞳は美しい) 6. Yasashii Kimochi de (やさしい気持ちで) 7. Bad Girl 8. Identity no Yukue (アイデンティティの行方) 9. Tanjou (誕生) 10. See You 11. Haru no Maboroshi (春のまぼろし) 12. Hanky Panky 13. Ai ni Dakarete (愛に抱かれ)

A review for this album is long overdue. Thanks, school. Anyways, Superfly is a former duo, now a solo act with music inspired by some era I am reluctant to write down because I can never figure out which of them they are. Anyways, hippie music of sorts with a dash of modern rock. It’s addictive stuff.

Superfly’s sophmore album begins with Alright!!, an energetic rock track with addictive guitar riffs and powerful singing from Shiho. The accompaniment is pretty repetitive in itself, but it’s a fun song and I enjoy Shiho’s performance in it as she pretty much goes all out in the track but still retains a bit of variety in her vocals. Fun opening track with good, strong vocals from Shiho.

How Do I Survive? is one of the earliest singles from this era. It’s a midtempo track and has a bit of a “swinging” feeling to how the track’s riffs are set up. It’s not nearly as energetic as the opening track (and I don’t think it’s supposed to be) but it has a nice melody and again, Shiho’s singing is well-supported and strong. Good, addictive track with a nice melody. I really enjoy the overall feel of this track and Shiho sounds good here.

Searching is the first new track off the album, and it’s another midtempo track, although this one has a more mellow feel to its arrangement. The repetitive guitar line has an almost ethereal quality to it, and the slight echo added onto Shiho’s voice adds to this atmosphere. It’s nice to hear Shiho doing a bit more other than belting as this song brings out a softer quality to her voice in the verses while the chorus has the more dramatic belting quality in her singing. Nice track.

The fourth track off the album is her first ballad, and another one of the earlier tracks from this era. My Best of my Life is a heartfelt piano track. The arrangement is pretty standard for a Japanese ballad and doesn’t have the dated feel of a lot of her music. Regardless, it’s still a very lovely ballad and a nice amountof control in this track. Although Shiho’s voice is technically sound on this track, I find her performance of it a little bit lacking. It feels a little bit mechanical throughout the track and leaves a lot to be desired for me. The fact that the track is 6 minutes probably does not help her case here.

We’re back for the upbeat tracks with 恋する瞳は美しい, a disco-flavoured song. It has a highly addictive melody while keeping some rock roots from their usual stuff. The track is fun and I find Shiho generally does a better job with this track. The quick-moving melody probably helps with Shiho’s delivery as well since the notes pretty much keep moving. I’m not too fond of how the song transitions into each part at times, but otherwise, fun track. I must say, the accompaniment can get rather addictive.

Every time I hear やさしい気持ちで, I think of the amusing music video. In any case, another ballad. This time with more of their usual dated feel to their music, partly because of the sound of the guitars in the background. I personally like this track better than My Best of my Life since it has a much better flow in its musical phrases and has a bit more focus on Shiho’s tone in the verses while the chorus has more belting in it. Nice track.

Bad Girl is another fun upbeat track off this album. We’re back to their more signature rock sound, and I like the riffs with the piano in the background of the track. The melody is immensely addictive, especially when the chorus comes in. Melodically, it’s a pretty straightforward piece, but I like it. I also enjoy the jazz influences from the piano in the background and in its solo at the bridge section of the song. Shiho shows a lot of attitude in the presentation of this track, and it works perfectly.

I’ve always really liked how アイデンティティの行方 opens up with the two guitar lines. It adds a nice new sound to the album. This song has a particular focus on a slightly minimalistic sound in the verses with only the bass line playing and a layer of guitar over it. I particularly enjoy the layering quality of the guitars and bass on this track, although it does get rather repetitive after awhile. The bridge is probably the major complain in this track because it fits poorly in the overall sound of the track. Also, NEEDS MORE COWBELL.

I like the slightly ethnic feel that 誕生 has in some of its lines despite keeping their addictive rock sound. The guitar riffs are fun, and I really enjoy the melody of this track. The guitars do a very good job pushing this song forward and the melody line in general is rather short, so it feels like the song passes rather quickly despite it not really being that much shorter than the other tracks on the album. The third time Shiho comes around with the verse, she does it a little bit differently and adds a little variation to the track.

See You is a more piano-based upbeat track and features a nice brass section to the track. It is in a similar tempo to the previous track and continues the energy of the previous track. It’s a fun track, with a nice flowing melody that Shiho sings nicely throughout the track. I rather enjoy the arrangement of this track with the brass and the constant beat in the background of the track. It’s nice a nice song that deviates from their usual guitar-based upbeat songs.

春のまぼろし is another midtempo track with a slight echo added to the overall sound of the track. Again, because of the echoes, it sounds a bit dreamy and a bit mellow in its overall feel of the track. Shiho’s singing is assertive and keeps the song going despite the arrangement being a little bit on the softer side. The arrangement is a little uninteresting, but Shiho’s singing makes up for it.

Since Hanky Panky is done in their usual addictive rock style. It combines the use of brass and guitar riffs to create this addictive piece. Again, Shiho sings with plenty of energy and powerful in her vocals and she does it appropriately. The song is repetitive like a lot of their songs, but the chorus is as addictive as ever.

Of course, we end off with a ballad. 愛に抱かれて is hands-down my favourite ballad off this album. It highlights Shiho’s softer voice nicely and the instrumentation that accompanies her set up the atmosphere of the verse very nicely. Shiho’s singing is probably its best in this track because it shows a much better view of her musical abilities beyond her belting. She plays a lot with the dynamics of the song, and I enjoy how she doesn’t decide to belt all the way through the chorus for once. It’s a lovely ending to the album.

Superfly’s second album keeps up with the quality of their first album, and furthers it by providing music that is more consistent all the way through. However, unlike their first album, I find it difficult to pull out a singular track that I adored off the album. The album is consistently good, but I’m not particularly amazed by any particular track despite liking the album. Regardless, it is still a good album, but something is lost in the general repetitiveness of a lot of the tracks. Vocally, Shiho still delivers, although we don’t see a whole lot of the range of her vocal abilities on this album aside from a lot of belting (although she does it well musically and adds some variation to her singing at times). Regardless, I do like this album better than the debut album: it is much more consistent, there’s not really a track I dislike and Shiho’s singing is solid throughout.

Favourites:
誕生

Amuro Namie – Past<Future December 16, 2009
	1. FAST CAR 2. COPY THAT 3. LOVE GAME 4. Bad Habit 5. Steal my Night 6. FIRST TIMER feat. DOBERMAN INC. 7. WILD 8. Dr. 9. Shut Up 10. MY LOVE 11. The Meaning of Us 12. Defend Love

Sometimes I’m iffy about albums that contain only one lead single to promote the album, but in this case, that didn’t look like it was going to be an issue. Amuro isn’t the type to release something simply to capitalize on success. Though it didn’t seem that WILD/Dr. would have given Past<Future a good boost from a promotional point of view, it was evident Amuro’s new album underwent extensive planning and it worked out perfectly that this album turned out to be great.

FAST CAR seems to be the headliner song for this album’s promotion, and it does a fine job of that. The concept and sound isn’t completely unique or original, but it would be the first time Amuro has done anything of this sort. I love the jazzy feel to the song, but what makes it stand out from something Nakashima Mika has done for years, Amuro infuses it with her usual dance style, therefore not completely straying from what her fans have grown used to. I love the composition of this song, and the melody is very catchy. It’s still a very sexy song, but not in the usual “Queen of Hip-Pop” sexy style that one would expect from Amuro. I love everything about this song, but I have one complaint. Amuro’s vocals are a little too pop (which works at some points and not so much at others). It’s not necessarily a bad thing that she brought a touch of pop to the overall sound, but moments like the scatting where it calls for more jazz than pop, didn’t really catch my full attention. She also misses some of those sweet jazzy moments where she could have really worked the sound a bit more. Other than that, it’s a solid song and I absolutely adore it.

Amuro is really on a roll here with the new genres. The chorus to COPY THAT is very catchy and easily caught my attention the first time I heard it. I have to say though, I really liked the CM cut to this song, simply because it didn’t sound so messy and all over the place, which seems to be the problem with this song. I love parts of this song, but I hate how it was strung together. COPY THAT again, has a great concept and idea behind the whole thing, but unlike “FAST CAR”, it doesn’t have the advantage of strong musical arrangement. Amuro also sounds a bit stiff in her vocal performance here, particularly evident in those vocal runs where she has a succession of notes on one syllable. I’m probably going to get crap for saying this too, I don’t like the outro to this song. Let me explain, I do like it, just not its role for this song. It’s one thing to to include cool sounding things in a song, but it’s not so impressive when it hardly works with the song. The rest of the song was already pretty messy alone, and then they threw on this random outro that made me like it even less.

Of the four new PVs Amuro decided to release in conjunction with this album, I watched the PV to LOVE GAME first. Naturally, when I saw this, I thought it was going to be any typical Amuro Namie album (until I saw the rest). That being said, I think DOUBLE (yes, the singer) did a good job writing this sound. Following the pattern of mighty catchy tunes of Past<Future, I have to admit that I had this song on repeat for an entire night, and then some. There isn’t exactly much variation in the lines though, and Amuro basically stays on a different set of a few notes for each section of the song, so I can’t say the melody is memorable. However, where the melody lacks, the harmonies do bring a nice contrast if you listen for them. The song is mixed so that you can’t hear them as well, but rest assured, they’re there. This makes “LOVE GAME” as a whole, rather catchy. It may not be as unique or interesting as “COPY THAT” or anything else, but I like it for its consistency and lack of… mess.

I was a bit surprised to find that the masterminds behind Bad Habit are the same guys that did “FAST CAR”, because they don’t sound anything alike. This song sounds like it conforms more to what we expect of Amuro. Musically, it’s basically along the lines of “LOVE GAME”, but better. I like the variation in the melody line, even though it’s not much, but what caught my attention the most was the changes in rhythms. It really keeps you on your toes, and you can hear it in Amuro’s vocal performance as well. She works really hard to capture all the proper nuances those rhythms bring, and as a result, is really on top of her game here. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her enunciate those English words as much as she has done here.

Steal my Night has been a hit-or-miss for me, depending on the day I’m listening to it. I can’t say I always like it, but it can be entertaining to indulge in once in a while. I’m not sure what it is, but I often feel like there is way too much going on. It’s very loud, from the rhythmic hand clapping to Amuro’s vocals. She sounds like she’s on belting a little too much throughout, and admittedly, all these loud noises clashing with one another gives me a headache after a while. The song itself is pretty good (including that opening lick), but probably could have used a better arrangement.

If anybody was missing the smooth Amuro Namie from 2002′s SUITE CHIC project, I think they just got their wish granted. If you can make out Amuro’s voice under all the filters and layering in FIRST TIMER feat. DOBERMAN INC., Amuro sounds absolutely smooth. I really love the way she sings those smooth choruses, against the hyperactive accompaniment. It does picks up when it’s supposed to, which provides a bit of interest to the song. I’m not sure how much I like DOBERMAN INC.’s vocal participation in this song though. Granted, I’ve never really liked them to begin with. They definitely do take away from that smooth R&B/hip hop sound when they throw in their random messy rapping, giving the sound an overall rough quality to it. Their style just doesn’t seem to work well with the production quality that T.Kura was aiming for. There is this one part in their rapping that one of the guys does this weird rising intonation thing with his voice (kind of how Koda Kumi sounded like in “That Ain’t Cool”). X_X;

WILD was Amuro’s only single that she released prior to releasing this album, but it gave us a pretty good idea of what musical direction she was headed in. Let’s get things out in the open: I absolutely adore this song. It has a pretty catchy beat, and the arrangement was a pretty good balance. I didn’t feel that one part of the song was overwhelming next to the others. Of course, one of Amuro’s skills are to make just about anything listenable (I don’t really know how she does it). Unfortunately, I can’t say there is too much going on in this song. It’s pretty repetiitive and the melody is more or less monotonous. I can’t even say that the rhythms were particularly interesting to offset the slightly dull melody line either. Musically, there really isn’t much to praise, but I’ll admit to being biased and say that I thoroughly enjoy this song anyway. Amuro is quite good at creating the image that she wants and breathing life into even the dullest of songs (most of the times).

This is where I start to think that Nao’ymt is beginning to get a little too experimental with Amuro, not that it is necessarily a bad thing. Unlike “WILD”, Dr. was never a favourite of mine. I don’t usually mind when the songs are experimental, but I felt like this song didn’t really have any direction. I did like that this song was more lyrical than the other A-side, but arrangement wasn’t particularly good. I love the slow sections of this song, particularly the slow bridge that occurs in the song. Amuro sings very well throughout those sections and draws me in. I’m not so fond of the messy drumming section. I feel like Amuro was trying to build up to it, but didn’t quite get there and it sounds a bit sudden to me. I wouldn’t even call it a nice surprise. Overall, this song is not bad, but I wish it was laid out a bit better than it was.

Shut Up has one of the best choruses featured in this entire album. It is very powerful and dramatic, and Amuro did a wonderful job expressing that. Again, the arrangement is a little iffy, particularly right at the beginning. It went into the chorus a little too quickly and underprepared, so it didn’t really have enough of a suspense to work up to the awesome chorus. After the first chorus though, you get to hear the real full verse, and the “complete” product of the song sounds pretty awesome. The autotuning was probably not needed here, especially when Amuro completely rocked all the other autotune-less sections. That being said, this song is entertaining and great, and it’s great to see Amuro going beyond her smooth, sexy (albeit slightly monotonous) tone that she usually likes to use.

I found it particularly hard to like or dislike MY LOVE. Sometimes I sway one way or the other, and it depends on what I’m paying more attention to. The melody sounds very sweet and enjoyable, but that arrangement was probably not what I would have done with it. It’s a little too loud and overpowering given the way Amuro interprets this song. In fact, it kind of gives it a one-dimensional sound overall, making it boring at times to listen to. It certainly help that there is an attempt at showing contrast between the different vocal parts (e.g. the call-and-answer right before the choruses), but it gets lost in the midst of things. As I said, it is quite enjoyable, but I wouldn’t be looking too much into this song for much musicality.

In contrast to the previous track however, The Meaning of Us offers the listeners the balladeer Amuro that we’ve all been longing to hear since “ALL FOR YOU” back in 2005 (actually, for me it would have been since 2003′s “I Will”). I find it incredibly to find something I don’t like about this song. Amuro delivers a lovely performance and her tender tone and interpretation are just beautiful. Actually, if anything, Amuro is singing with more flow in her voice than she used to. For somebody that hasn’t sung a ballad like this in so many years, I’m surprised that she improved as much as she did. I really like how she carries the notes through to the end of the phrase and gives us a powerful end without dropping her tone the way many singers tend to. She does cut a few of them a little short, but it’s not that noticeable (unless you’re being really picky like me).

Defend Love was supposed to be Part 2 to “Dr.”, and boy, it is much better. I really like the repeating phrase in the programming, as it gives the song a bit more drive. There are some interesting harmonies in the chorus which add to the suspenseful nature of this song. I would say this is indicative of Amuro’s improvement in her musicality and expression of her music. Musically, this isn’t far off from what she usually does, as it still contains a good deal of repetitive notes and phrases, but Amuro has done really well to give it some interesting phrasing and dynamic changes. There is the token rhythmic section thrown in there, but this time it was done tastefully. It definitely enhanced the song. Of course, it was followed by a sweeter, slightly more melodic section which Amuro nailed. “Defend Love” was the best choice to end off the album, and it is undoubtedly one of the best tracks off of this album.

Consider how long Amuro has been doing this, Amuro definitely shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. She’s also certainly putting no doubt in anybody’s mind that her comeback was not simply a fluke. This album turned out surprisingly well, not that I was really doubting her myself. She surpassed all my expectations that I had for her coming into this album. I mentioned a few times that the arrangement of the songs were not as strong as they could have been, or the song would have a clean arrangement but be a bit on the monotonous/simplistic side. However, all things considered, Amuro put out a solid, entertaining album. No matter what material is presented, Amuro never lets the performance of a song go, and she did a fantastic job demonstrating that here.

Favourites:
The Meaning of Us, FAST CAR, Defend Love

KOKIA – REAL WORLD March 31, 2010
	1. Birth 2. Road to Glory ~ for Dragon Nest 3. U-CHA-CHA 4. REAL WORLD 5. Saishuu Jouei (最終上映) 6. Love is Us, Love is Earth 7. Dugong no Sora (ジュゴンの空) 8. Kodoku na Ikimono (孤独な生きもの) 9. single mother 10. Kimi ga Sagashite (君をさがして) 11. Oto no Tabibito (音の旅人) 12. Watashi ga Mitamono (私が見たもの) 13. Kono Chikyuu ga Marui Okage de (この地球がまるいお陰で) 14. The woman

KOKIA’s album. Promo pic includes her sitting on a donkey. Yup. (insert more creative introduction here).

BIRTH is a beautiful, calming opening with piano and strings in a highly ethereal atmosphere. KOKIA begins the track with long notes and sounding a bit thinner than usual but she maintains her pitch well despite this. It’s really amazing how much control she has over her performance despite not doing much movement on the notes. She commands the track immediately and her delivery is beautiful albeit a little bit overly airy. Beautiful, fabulous and very ~mystical~.

The transition into Road to Glory ~ for Dragon Nest is beautiful as it continues the mystical feel from the previous track, but bringing it into an entirely new territory at the same time. The opening of this track is very middle eastern influenced with the soft sounds and the flute playing. Kind of makes you feel like you’re wandering into a desert in a movie or a video game. I love the subdued feel of the entire song — it’s epic without actually being… epic, if that makes any conceivable sense at all. Lovely.

The first time I saw the title U-CHA-CHA I’ll admit I giggled. The title makes it seem all, upbeat and whatnot (…for me, anyways). It’s not. It’s a another soft piece that focuses on echoed background vocals and occasional panflute in the backgorund. I like the nice almost-acapella opening, and the light instrumentation that comes in afterwards. KOKIA’s on a roll with these landscape-like instrumentations. Definitely brings to mind lots of vast landscapes with the flutes and simple instrumentation.

We come to the first track that is actually upbeat. REAL WORLD opens with a standard drum beat with a lot of vocal filters done over KOKIA’s voice. The feel of the song is sounds really light at the same time in terms of how KOKIA’s voice is mixed into the song and how the accompaniment is arranged and played in the background. Not really an exciting or convincing track from the album, but it’s nice, as usual.

I like how the opening for this next track is light, like the previous tracks, but the song suddenly takes a slight turn before KOKIA starts singing and changes mood. The instrumentation is still light but in a different way. 最終上映 continues KOKIA’s trip to other countries with some short notes from electronic sounds. I love how KOKIA’s voice works over the slightly bouncy instrumentation and she sings mostly legato to constract the background. As usual, KOKIA shows a lot of grace with her vocals. We have some short dissonance phrases at some point, and a time signature change at some point as well, which adds a nice variety to the track.

Insert cheesy titles here. Love is Us, Love is Earth is a more standard KOKIA pop ballad, and as usual it’s a really pretty song. The instrumentation is still simple and it works really well with this particular song. I enjoy KOKIA’s beautiful, musical phrases here and how well she works with the soft dynamics on the verses. We actually get our first gllimpse (well for me) of a fuller accompaniment with the strings playing after the first chorus, which returns later on in the track. Another lovely song.

DEWGONG?! Did someone say DEWGONG?! *plays too much pokemon* With that out of my system, ジュゴンの空 is goooorrgeeousss. KOKIA got me from the first phrase she adlibs on this track. It’s just so absolutely beautiful. The song is just so incredibly haunting and very well-sung. Again, KOKIA shows her immense control of her musicality and phrases in this track despite never actually having to belt anything the entire way through. This track is very ocean-like with all the echoes and… ocean mammal-like howling in the background, which I realize later is actually a saxophone after it does it’s solo and continues with its soft notes. Oh, KOKIA, you so clever.

Oh the digital singles. 孤独な生きもの is the first and again, standard KOKIA ballad structure and arrangement. That said, KOKIA ballads are nice anyways and since it’s the first of a few, it’s not as incredibly bothersome. It fits with the light arrangement of a lot of the songs so far on this album, and KOKIA since nicely in this track. Not particularly a stand-out track but it’s has a nice melody, nice vocals and nice arrangement. … It’s nice? XD

Oh, single mother. I still don’t remember how any of these digital singles sound like from earlier, but hey. This is a soft piano ballad with soft vocals from KOKIA. If there’s anyone who can sing soft, whispery vocals well, it would be KOKIA. I like it for the first minute, then the melodic line seems to repeat itself a lot in the verse. And again. And again. And then I’m wondering where we’re going with this track. The chorus pops up about a minute later. I neither like nor dislike this track, though. I’m just indifferent to its really subtle tones. I pretty much had enough when the halfway mark came up. Then I look at the total length of the song: …SIX MINUTES?! Next, please.

More soft singing from KOKIA in 君をさがして and while I like KOKIA’s voice on it, the arrangement is bland and the delivery is nothing insteresting for me. My attention span is gone for KOKIA’s ballads after “single mother”, and while this is a nice listen by itself, it’s just starting to bore me. Yeah, was never really a fan of any of the digital singles, apparently. Next.

音の旅人 is a huge improvement on the sound of the digital singles. This track sounds like it’s being played beside a campfire with the fire crackling in the background, while KOKIA is singing her usual haunting, enchanting tune. It’s beautiful, and I especially love the harmonies she adds later on in the track. The execution is beautiful and I love how the flute adds a nice folk feel to the track.

Oh, I thought we were over the typical KOKIA ballads. At least 私が見たもの more flavour from KOKIA’s singing, and I enjoy the melody more than a few of the past typical ballads on this album. The track is supported by strings, piano and some percussion (I hear you, windchimes!). As usual, it’s a nice track with some solid singing from KOKIA. Straightforward standard ballad, but impeccably sung and lovely instrumentation.

Hello long title. この地球がまるいお陰で is another ballad. Go figure. It’s another one of those half-whispered, half-sung ballads with a simple piano accompaniment in the background. Again, pretty, but nothing particularly noteworthy about it.

Oh hum, it’s The woman, which was that track that was first released to promote this album. It’s a very minimalistic track with long, legato notes from KOKIA. It’s a very calming song, although not much happens in it, and some of the note transitions are a little shaky, especially at the beginning where she KOKIA’s smoothness of note transitions is lacking when she does that big interval jump and her voice just wavers away rather than hitting the note properly. The song becomes more interesting when she gets a little polyphonic thing happening as she sings another line above the repeated line she’s been doing for most of the song but it mostly kind of continues its uninteresting course for the rest of the song. Oh, the piano ending is a nice touch to the track.

REAL WORLD is a lovely, subdued album from KOKIA which features a lot of light instrumentation and a lot of excellent singing from KOKIA. Granted, I can entirely see why people find this album rather boring — there is not a lot of grandiose instrumentation or catchy, bouncy arrangements. It’s very much an album that focuses on the atmosphere that the instruments create without sounding “heavy”. For the most part, it succeeds in that aspect to create some rather unique music from KOKIA. On the other hand, a lot of the songs tend to blend into one another after awhile and sometimes don’t stick out. Otherwise, there’s nothing particularly horrible on this album and in general it’s a solid effort from KOKIA.

Favourites:
ジュゴンの空

Rie fu – at Rie sessions March 31, 2010

1. Stay with me ~恋愛なんてヒマつぶし~ (with Lily Franky feat. BOSE (SCHADARAPARR)) 2. Just Like You (with LEO Imai) 3. いろどって (with Mina Ganaha and Mayumix) 4. Don’t Worry (with KAT and YUKA (moumoon)) 5. STAR (with Ifu Sarasa and Suzuki Kenji) 6. Sunshine Forehead (with Curly Giraffe) 7. My Start (with Takemoto Kenichi and Peter Kvint) 8. Gilles (with NAOTO (ORANGE RANGE) and kohei (HOI FESTA)) 9. Laundry (with YUI (RYTHEM) and Nakashima Akiko) 10. Bright Life (with Satou Honoka (aluto)) 11. ひとつひとつ (with Seira, Shiina Junpei, Chris Tomoko)

Needless to say, I was looking forward to this album ever since it was announced. This is her first self-produced album and all the tracks features collaborations with different artists, as per her New Years’ Resolution to collaborate with more people.

Stay with me ~恋愛なんてヒマつぶし~ was the first track that was released form the album (in the form of a PV) and it’s a pleasant acoustic guitar track which a nice melody. As usual, Rie fu sounds nice. I’m not too fond of the chorus line where Rie fu sings the higher pitched “hold me” because it really shows how much she strains for those notes. Her delivery there sounds rather unnatural and forced. Regardless, I still enjoy the melody of the track. That is, until one of the featured artist comes in with half-assed singing. And I mean like, not even singing or trying to reach most of the notes in the melody. It get really bad from there as he keeps singing. The rapping section is vaguely better as the style of the rapper seems to fit with the track — he raps lightly but not without emphasis. The piano bits behind him sound a bit awkward with the constant stops mid-phrase but they sound interesting enough. Ffff the featured artists.

Just Like You is MUCH better. This is her collaboration with Leo Imai, which is all good and great because we already know they work well together. This is a very simple arrangement and it works really well with Rie fu’s singing here. Imai’s involvement is rather subdued as he mostly does harmonies and occasional lines. Unlike the previous track, the feature artist actually contributes to the overall sound of the track as both Rie and Leo work well to blend their sounds with each other in this simplistic but very pretty acoustic track.

いろどって is a more upbeat track and I’m really enjoying the opening harmonies: nice blend between the singers and the harmonies support Rie well. Again, the theme is simplicity, although this track has a lot more going on with the repetitive acoustic guitar track and the ongoing beat. At some point some kind of voice filter over her voice. The chorus is unexpectedly addictive and I’m enjoying how Rie performs this track. Nice attention to staccato notes and articulation in general here. Fun, catchy and I like the simplistic arrangement.

Don’t Worry is another song that I can’t get out of my head. It opens with the synthesized piano, much like what was used in URBAN ROMANTIC, but the actual piano shows up when Rie fu starts singing. I like how the three girls work together in the constant exchange of melody between them. I’m really like how well the girls’ voices complement each other while sounding distinct from each other. Lovely track.

I can never get myself to like STAR, although it is probably the most unique track on the album so far. I just find it very tedious and the childlike voice of the featured artist does more to irritate me than let me enjoy this track. On the bright side, the I like how the two lines kind of wrap around each other throughout the verses even though they’re doing two entirely different things. Although vocally I can’t stand this track, there are some pretty interesting things happenning in the composition of this track.

I really enjoy Sunshine Forehead for its really ethereal sound, especially with the flutes and the echo effect added to Rie fu’s voice. Her performance seems a little underwhelming a lot of the time, especially in the verse when some of the ends of her phrases fall flat and unsupported (i.e. she’s talking more than she’s singing in the song) and that unfortunately lowers the quality of the song for me. I really like the overall atmosphere of this song though, especially the chorus with the featured singer doing harmonies. Pretty melody and gorgeous flute arrangement.

My Start irritates me. Rie fu is back to talking over actually singing. The chanting in the verses just doesn’t sit well with me, especially when there’s a chord change and the both Rie fu and the featured artist keep chanting in a linear manner. The chorus is a little better, but Rie fu just stops trying to sings and her vocals are especially poor in this track and half-assed as she barely sounds like she’s trying to even reach most of the notes. No thanks.

Rie fu’s poor singing continues with Gilles. Her voice barely even caries the tune in the track and her pitch ends up going everywhere on this track, both sharp and flat and whatever. The only thing notable about this track is some of the interesting guitar work in the background of the song. Otherwise, this song is just irritating, more so than the previous track.

We continue with more subpar music from Rie fu. Laundry is another female trio collaboration between YUI from RYTHEM and Akiko Nakashima. No idea who Nakashima is, so I can’t really pinpoint where she is in the song at times. In any case, I’ve always had an issue from YUI’s voice and tone, and this track highlights what I do not enjoy about her voice. With YUKA she works well since they have similar quality of voices, but with Nakashima and Rie the results are disasterous. The opening harmonies work well together with the rest of the girls supporting Rie fu’s voice, but when YUKA takes the main melody, we can really hear how poorly tuned they are against each other. The tuning doesn’t improve when Nakashima gets the melody either. This team just does not work well together and they end up sounding like they’re struggling immensely while singing. This is just a three-part harmony disaster.

We get a Rie fu solo track with Bright Life (like with Gilles) and the featured artist plays the violin in the background. This is an immense improvement from the previous tracks. Rie fu’s singing sounds a lot more convincing and she actually sings out. This track kind of highlights her weaker lower range in the verse more than I would actually like it to do, but it sounds okay. I like the melody of this track. The background arrangement seems a bit too muffled through a lot of the song and it’s not really notable.

ひとつひとつ is an entirely adorable little ending track for the album. It again goes back to the acoustic guitar, and I like the clarinet and clapping parts of the track. Again, nice melody and a much stronger performance from Rie fu. Her voice actually has nicer, fuller sound here. The featured artists pop in by the second verse. Not a particular fan of the first girl who sings (bland, uninteresting, overly nasal, etc) but Junpei and the other girl are much better. Nice track and good teamwork between Rie and the featured artists.

at Rie sessions is an interesting idea, but the execution was severely lacking. There are quite a few tracks that I enjoy but a lot of them are just simply good: they don’t really improve on Rie fu’s work in the past but continues on the same acoustic route. Other tracks highlight some of Rie fu’s questionable singing techniques and others just have really irritating featured artists. I don’t enjoy this album nowhere as much as I enjoyed her past works, but there are still some very good tracks hiding around on the album among the subpar tracks. On the bright side, this is probably my favourite cover art from her so far =O.

Favourites:
いろどって, Just Like You

I preface this to say that although I know more about H!P than I did last year (…which is why I didn’t do the poll…), err about half of the member choices are arbitrary and entirely grouped by units. Ah huurr huurrr. Some of the wotas would rage over this, but the poll amused me. Go figure. Oh yeah, this is Megumi speaking. Obviously Tsuki doesn’t have time to do this or to bother with H!P XD.

Ranking whatever:

1. MIYABI <3. Buono’s my favourite unit, and Miyabi is my favourite member of said unit. She’s first, naturally.

2. Airi. Same as above, except she’s the second favourite off Buono! Her recent C-ute stuff is kind of…. questionable, though.

3. Ai. Of course, miss leader.

4-5. JunJun/LinLin: Love the two Chinese girls! I actually don’t know whose voice is whose but hey. They’re here.

6-8. The rest of the Momusu members except Sayu and Aika. I actually don’t know them well enough to rank them here, but there you go.

9. SAYU. Because she’s Sayu and she can’t sing but she’s cute and her solo didn’t make my ears bleed.

10-22. This is my area of SHAME. I don’t know who any of these people are, seriously. Except maybe Kanon (only by name), but I have no idea why I placed here there. The girl at 22 is there because she was from Guardians 4. Ah hur hur.

23. Mano Erina. As much as I like acoustic singer-songwriter stuff, her music makes me zzzzzzzzzzzzz and her voice is nowhere good enough to sing these types of songs. Her music is still nice?

24. MOMOKO. *rages* Also known as the one voice I cannot stand in Buono!, although she’s gotten better since the first album.

24. AIKA. YOU MAKE MY EARS BLEED. THUS YOU ARE HERE.

I didn’t save the group rankings picture link, but mine were something like:
1. Buono! (surprise, surprise)
2. Morning Musume
3. Berryz Koubou
4. s/Mileage
5. C-ute
6. Mano Erina
7. Guardians 4

They were entirely less arbitrary. XD Maybe next year I’ll know who everyone is =O.

HIMEKA – ♥アニソン ～歌ってみた～ March 3, 2010
	1. Yuzurenai Negai (ゆずれない願い) 2. Hitomi no Naka no Meikyuu (瞳の中の迷宮) 3. BLAZE 4. Tamashii no Refrain (魂のルフラン) 5. VOICES 6. Sore ga, Ai Deshou (それが、愛でしょう) 7. DREAMS 8. Last regrets

HIMEKA! For those who don’t know her, she’s that Quebecois anison singer who is kind of known on the internet for being depressive, but having loads of singing talent. She’s from Canada, yay! This is her first non-single release and features 8 covers of songs from anime.

I was never a giant fan of ゆずれない願い‘s singer back when I watched some of Magic Knights Rayearth, so it’s nice to hear this track with a better vocalist. The arrangement uses a whole bunch of synthesized keyboard sounds, but maintains the feel of the original track with the little bell line and the lovely piano accompaniment. HIMEKA sings this track smoothly and with energy but not without some small technique problems. Most of my concern starts with her upper belting range. A lot of time, it ends up sounding very forced and she ends up going a out of tune by forcing her voice too much at first, but she pulls it more in tune at the end of the note. Other times, her presentation of the chorus sounds a like a whole lot of yelling. Conversely, she sounds solid on the non-belting verses with more apparent musicality.

Her cover of 魂のルフラン has more musicality and I find it fits her a lot better. The opening is slower and features some nice singing from HIMEKA. I particularly like her vibrato here at the ends of her phrases. Nice opening. The track immediately goes into the upbeat phase of the song. I personally don’t remember the original of this song as much as I should, but I like HIMEKA’s version of it. The verses are again in her mid-range and I think she handles them well by added a hint of urgency to her interpretation of the track. Her belting is still a little forced at times, but it’s a lot less apparent on this track since her presentation has much more musicality in terms of what she’s doing with her voice in the track.

BLAZE is another song I don’t particularly remember that well (…even though it’s not that old, I never watched Tsubasa, so there :P). It’s probably my favourite cover so far. Her presentation is a lot cleaner here and flows much better from the less intense moments of this pop song to the chorus. I particularly like her lower notes at parts of this track and her belting seems more natural in this track and less forced for the most part.

For the most part, I barely noticed when 瞳の中の迷宮 started; it has very much a similar feel that “BLAZE” did, and HIMEKA mostly sings it in a similar manner. It’s not particularly a bad thing since she did sing the previous track nicely and she sounds equally as strong on this track. I’m not too fond of how she ends her note drop right before the the chorus; it sounds rather sloppy there. Otherwise, Her rendition is pretty good.

I’m a big, big fan of VOICES, and although I do not like HIMEKA’s rendition as much as the original by Arai Akino, her version is still really nice. Again, I find she has a habit of accenting her notes a bit too much (and thus sounding a bit too forceful at random times). However, she still handles this very well and carries the mood of the track nicely. Her voice is really pretty throughout the track, especially in the ending a cappella part of the track. I really like how her voice rings throughout the track with the slight echo effect. I also really enjoy the arrangement with the ambient sounds and the pizzicato strings.

それが、愛でしょう is another song I have absolutely no experience with, but it’s a nice acoustic guitar track. It focuses more on HIMEKA’s more delicate side of her voice, and it’s really quite pretty. Her phrasing here is nice and her voice flows nicely here. I’m not too fond of the song itself because the chorus just kind of pops out of nowhere and flows poorly with the verses. The chorus just ends up sounding really awkward after listening to the verses. Not really fond of this track; the melody of the chorus just ends up irritating me.

The first thing I think when I hear DREAMS is the… interesting sound of the replacement synthesizer thing that opens the track. It’s a bit strange for those (me!) who are used to the original version, but it gets the job done of pumping adrenaline into the track. HIMEKA is back to the belting, and it’s mostly the ends of the phrases that sound a bit strange since she has a habit of lifting or lowering her ending notes (this applies to basically all her covers so far). In any case, her belting sounds more natural here and less forced, but also a bit less energetic than usual. Nevertheless, a good cover.

The final track of the album is Last regrets which is a mid-tempo track with a beautiful strings and piano arrangement. I actually quite like the feel of this track from the beginning. Unfortunately, this is probably the most boring track of the song, which is disappointing since I thought HIMEKA would sound really nice on this track. I’m not really feeling her rendition of this track. While the effort is there to add musicality and emotion, the results sound mostly lacklustre and dull.

HIMEKA’s first cover album is mostly good but really doesn’t go beyond my expectations. I do enjoy this album because I like her voice in general, but some small technical details are sometimes distracting, such as her weird fondness of the last-note-of-a-phrase pitch drop/raise that she likes doing a lot and sometimes it’s cause by her forcing her voice a bit too much. Despite some technical details, I’ve always liked HIMEKA for the musicality in her performances, and I think she performs the emotion decently throughout the album. It’s a good cover album, but doesn’t really go beyond that. Still looking forward for her first full studio album, though!

Favourites:
VOICES

Hamasaki Ayumi – NEXT LEVEL March 25, 2009
	1. Bridge to the sky 2. NEXT LEVEL 3. Disco-munication 4. EnergizE 5. Sparkle 6. rollin’ 7. GREEN 8. Load of the SHUGYO 9. identity 10. Rule 11. LOVE ‘n’ HATE 12. Pieces of SEVEN 13. Days 14. Curtain call

While everyone’s gearing up for Ayu’s upcoming album, here I am still reviewing her last album. I am so up-to-date, y’all ;D. Anyways, Ayu and I have a on and off relationship, but I mostly keep reviewing her because she amuses me. Oh, and the hair and dress in the cover. It’s all so hideous and yet somehow she looks fierce on them covers. I have no idea. To the music!

Bridge to the sky is one of the 30945804938509 interludes on this album and it starts well enough with the crazy synthesizers crescendo-ing into the track. I personally really like the atmosphere of this track: it’s dance-like, but it has a slight ethereal feel to it from the echoey sounds and Ayumi’s background vocals. Of course, it goes all techno on us near the end but that’s another story. Oh Ayumi, you’re flat. Fix it.

We jump right into the title track NEXT LEVEL which continues the ethereal electronic feel of the opening track. Ayumi’s voice is being its usual choppy and shakey vibrato-self so it’s all pretty much the same in that department. The melody for this track is really, really pretty, and I pretty much like it right from the verse to the chorus. It has a really nice flow to the melody in general, and it’s really quite pretty. Not feeling Ayumi’s singing in this track though. No phrasing, not liking the really constant accented notes throughout the melody. It just works very poorly with the overall feel of the accompaniment. Really disappointed with Ayumi’s performance here despite liking the song itself. It probably doesn’t help that Ayu sings the same way for the entire four and a half minutes, which makes the track really monotone.

Didn’t I say this album had a lot of interludes? Disco-munication is another one that is really upbeat, works around guitar strumming and crazy electronic sounds. Ayu’s voice has that stutter electronic effect applied to it for the full track, which I personally find really irritating, but the effects in the interlude itself was spiffy enough. I like to the little 8-bit sounds too ;D. Nothing really exciting here.

Time to EnergizE and put your hands up for the next track! *is lame* I can’t help but start bursting out laughing at the beginning of the track. The engrish is so campy, and then it just goes into some kind of strange happy pop song. It pretty much goes in and out of the happy peppy pop phase and the darker sounds in the track. I honestly don’t know what on earth is going on half the time here as Ayumi’s voice is having fun clashing with the instrumentation in the chorus and the melody is all over the place. Boring chorus is boring. Peppy pop verses are slightly better. I like the funkiness of some of the instrumentation in between the choruses and the verses but otherwise, do not want.

Sparkle is another attempt at a fun, upbeat track, and it works a whole lot better with the dark synth sounds and Ayumi actually sounded interested in what she’s singing. Seriously the first time on this album where she makes an attempt to sound interested in her singing. I’m not too fond of the song itself (personal preference) but I do think Ayumi displays the aggressiveness and heaviness of this track well in her vocals. The synth beats are fun ;D. Best song so far~

Ayu on vocoder. rollin’ works with a more standard electronic dance sound and I personally like the song itself better than “Sparkle” but Ayumi’s performance is nowhere as convincing. Nevertheless, it sounds like the effort it there at times and makes it slightly less boring. The arrangement is what I enjoy in this track though; it is absolutely addictive. I’m still kind of bored by Ayumi’s general presence in this track. Getting sleeeeeeppyyyy.

I don’t even remember GREEN when it first came out; why I do I like it so much better than most of the tracks so far? Unfortunately, “GREEN” sticks out strangely in this album because it’s *gasp* not synth-driven. The arrangement has a much more traditional feel to it (and I personally seem to like a lot of Ayumi’s more traditional-sounding songs for some reason). Her voice seems a bit more relatable in this track, although it still has it’s constant over-emphasis of random notes because of her inability to perform legato phrases. It has a nice melody, nice arrangement and Ayumi doesn’t sound nearly has monotone on this track. Pretty.

Oh hi interlude. Load of SHUGYO (…huh.) goes into the rock sound with the heavy electric guitar work in it. And some gasping. And some sounds that are trying to sound all ~martial arts~ like. Kay then. Anyways better than Disco-munication.

Oh, do we actually get an interesting track now? identity is the first heavier electric guitar song off the track, and Ayumi is working it out on the track! Second time on the album where she actually sounds interested in her upbeat songs. The opening is just doing all kinds of adlibbing with funky note glissandos and she doesn’t sound half bad while doing it. The song itself is pretty typical pop-rock stuff with the strumming guitar and whatnot, but with an added electronic twist at times. I’m enjoying Ayumi’s energy on this track ;D.

I like how I’m enjoying the rock side of this album a bit more so far. Rule continues the rock and like “Sparkle” she performs with a lot of energy and is entirely fierce in her recording of this A-side. The song is fun from the instrumentation to Ayumi’s singing throughout this track. I like the little part before the chorus where it calms down for a little bit before going straight to the repetitive but addictive chorus. Pure fun.

If there was one track that I definitely remember from my first listen of this album, it would be LOVE ‘n’ HATE. It has a dramatic string backing, mixed with heavy electric guitar and electronic sounds. Seriously, why couldn’t she have sung with this much energy in the earlier tracks? I love how the different instruments come together, especially with the strings and electric guitar answer and calling each other in the chorus of the song. Ayumi’s phrasing is strangely a bit more fluid than it was in some of the other songs (…including the ballad, sheesh).

Pieces of SEVEN is the longest interlude of the album but also the final one of the bunch. This is personally my favourite of the bunch. It begins with a really pretty ambient electronic feel but transitions pretty well into a dance track dominated by electric guitars and a soft synth presence in the background.

Oh, it’s another Ayumi ballad I ignored. Days is the second-last ballad of the album, and her phrasing here is a bit better than it was on “GREEN”, and I like how she actually add a bit of musical details to the opening in terms of dynamics to the opening bit. Her voice is still really shakey and this constantly affects her phrasing. Nevertheless, it’s nice to hear her sing with emotion again and her performance in general is quite nice. The arrangement is standard Ayumi ballad and I don’t really have much to talk about for that. Same old, same old.

Oh god, Ayumi vibrato and general shakiness in her voice ruins a perfectly good ballad. Curtain call, the final track of the album, is a simple piano and voice ballad and composition-wise it’s really quite pretty and again, Ayumi is back to performing with emotion. It’s too bad her lack of technique is really evident here, especially in regards to her vibrato. Oh dear lord, tone it down, girl! Again, it entirely ruins any of Ayumi’s attempts at phrasing because it constantly breaks up the phrases every single time her voice wobbles.

NEXT LEVEL was Ayumi’s attempt at a fun, upbeat album which I believe she achieved to some extent with some of the songs but failed with some of the earlier tracks. Personally, I’m not too fond of the first half of the album because none of Ayumi’s personality or energy ever really shone out for the majority of the tracks, which made for a really bland experience. The second half the album really does pick up the slack, however with more consistently energetic performances. Ayumi’s technique is still questionable especially in regards to her forced vibrato, but her voice is generally consistent. NEXT LEVEL is a bit of a mixed bag, but stick around and you might find something you like ;D.

Favourites:
LOVE ‘n’ HATE

MiChi – UP TO YOU September 30, 2009
	1. MadNesS vol.1 2. PROMiSE 3. ChaNge the WoRLd 4. Why Oh Why 5. HEy GirL 6. KiSS KiSS xxx 7. RaiN 8. Oh Oh… 9. Something Missing 10. One of a Kind 11. Shibuya de Punch 12. WoNDeRLaND? 13. YOU 14. UP TO YOU

MiChi makes her major debut with UP TO YOU, and after listening to MiChi MadNesS, I’m excited to see what she comes up for this album. If anything, let’s hope that the quality of her music hasn’t decreased since joining a major label ;D.

We start the ~madness~ with the introductory track, MadNesS vol. 1, which combines some of her usual electronic sounds, the stuttered mixing and MiChi complaining about people being fake. Most of it is spoken for for the most part. I’m kind of partial to this track, especially since some of the lines are just kind of awkwardly done. The music itself isn’t bad, and I enjoy some of the mixes of electronic sound here.

Of course, we start off with her major debut single, PROMiSE, a nice little song with a catchy melody and solid singing from MiChi. It’s personally one of my favourites from the list of A-sides off this album. It’s a fun little track accompanied with repetitive guitar progression and a constant drum beat. The pre-chorus is a really catchy bit where MiChi mostly speaks and her voice is put under a filter. I especially like this part because she handles the accents in the song particularly well in this section. The repetitiveness of the guitar line kind of makes the song a bit dreamy-sounding while the drums add a danceable element to the song. Her voice sounds the best in the bridge; there’s something really beautiful about how she does that particular portion of the song. The particular guitar sequence that ends the track is also really addictive.

ChaNge the WoRld in comparison is a bit bland, but still a nice track. It’s not nearly as addictive, but I enjoy the opening sequence to the track. As much as I like MiChi, her singing is rather bland here and really quite linear right from the beginning. She pretty much sings the chorus and the pre-chorus in the exact same bland and whiny manner, none of which I particularly enjoy. The verses are a bit better in displaying a bit more personality but is still really quite boring. Yeah, not a bit fan of MiChi’s performance in this track. I do, however, enjoy some compositional sections of this track. I like the little electronic line that happens when she sings “Change the World” for example.

Why oh Why always amuses me when I get to it. It’s pretty much loud and obnoxious with the heavy electronic beat going on in the background and MiChi works it out with a heavy voice filter over her voice in the verses and she’s more energetic there. The singing is still rather bland, which is such a shame since I really like the song itself with its addictive electronic arrangement. MiChi has nowhere the amount of energy to match the energy of the accompaniment. The little bit of the dude is all kinds of fun with the heavy synth line going on on the offbeats of the track. Love the arrangement, not caring for MiChi here.

I looovee HEy GirL and all the clapping and heavy beats. MiChi does a lot better putting more personality in this track, and the arrangement helps her out well in this case as well. The melody is ridiculously addictive and I find it really fun to listen to. Her singing still falls into the bland at small sections of the track where it sound like she’s focusing a bit TOO much on technicals over emotion. The one line that’s especially convincing, though, is how she delivers the “Get gone” line. Probably more fierceness in that one line than most of the chorus.

I was never really a big fan of KiSS KiSS xxx when it came out, but I’ve started to like it over time. MiChi puts a bit more variety in her singing on this track and the arrangement is pretty much typical MiChi A-side work with the overall feel and the focus on the guitar. The arrangement seems to put a lot more focus on MiChi’s singing, and it works well enough this time around. I enjoy the melody of this track, especially the “kiss kiss kiss” line. The arrangement leaves a lot to be desired and sounds especially similar in tone to the two A-sides ahead of it, but the melody makes up for it.

Finally something new! RaiN is a nice acoustic guitar track and has a completely different feel from the previous tracks. Her singing here sounds a lot more emotional and musical than a lot of the tracks so far, and it’s nice to hear some clearer phrasing from her rather than her singing lines the same way most of the way through. Vocally, this is one of the better tracks so far as she sounds a lot more honest in this track. Nice track.

There’s something about Oh Oh…‘s melody that never really sits well with me. The arrangement is pretty much continuing the acoustic guitar sound from the previous track, but in a more mid-tempo track. The lyrics is all kinds of hilarious and so angry in every way. But honestly, I really don’t enjoy the majority of this track because it flows really poorly and sounds all kinds of disjointed. MiChi doesn’t sound particularly good on this track and spends most of the time chanting angrily. The only thing notable about this track is when we hear MiChi throw the F-word at us. Oh Michi, you’re such a pottymouth ;D.

We’re back to the upbeat, electric guitar-centered tracks. Something Missing is another addictive arrangement with a catchy melody from MiChi. This is probably one of the more memorable new upbeat tracks off the album so far, and I like that her singing is a bit less linear this time around. The verse has her under that crazy filter again, but her singing works like it’s actually building up to the chorus a bit and adds intensity to the track.

One of a Kind actually as a bit more rock sound from the guitars, but it’s all still very poppy. Again, MiChi doesn’t sound as bland and more attitude into her vocals. The song itself is nowhere as interesting composition-wise as compared to the rest of her songs though, and the sameness of the arrangement kind of eventually makes the song really bland and MiChi ends up singing the same way for most of the song again. I like the verses, though?

I like that WoNDeRLaND? has a completely different feel from most of her songs at the beginning. It has a bit of harmonica and has a bit of blues influence in it. The melody is nice in the verse, but then she goes back into the heavy pop sound in the chorus. Again, MiChi is just sounding unconvincing again in the chorus once again. Seriously, she doesn’t sound enthusiastic at all. The verses are a bit better in comparison, and I like the different direction she went with it as well. But overall, the boredom takes over for most of the track. Ugh.

Most people love Shibuya de Punch (cept people like Lex ;D), and I’m no exception. The song is back to a heavy electronic danceable sound. The arrangement is all kinds of fabulous with all the fun bouncy electronic notes over the low electronic beat. MiChi half-speaks, half-sings the verse and the chorus is all kinds of addictive. MiChi is more convincing in her vocals here as well and the arrangement is fun to listen to. The auto-tune bridge is actually kind of nice. lol at the extended ending and the really boring synth over the catchy beat under it.

I remember ignoring YOU when it first came out. It’s a piano ballad, though and not a bad one. I’m not too fond of MiChi’s singing in part here too. It’s nice to hear to try to have more musical phrasing like she did in “RaiN” but the result is a little weak as ends up being a little out of tune in the verses and it never ends up flowing as well as it could have. The chorus is better with better phrasing and pitch. The melody, ignoring MiChi’s so-so performance, is actually quite nice. I would like to hear her resing this when she’s a bit more experienced because it is potentially a nice ballad because I do enjoy the song itself but not so much MiChi’s technical singing here. To her credit, she does get the emotion down this time around.

We end off with the title track, UP TO YOU, the Japanese remake of “Fuck You and Your Money” and I’m not too fond of it. The arrangement is different with a stronger electric guitar presence, but MiChi is still not sounding really fierce in this track. She’s back to sounding bland and I’m not convinced at all. Falling asleep now.

Surprisingly, I didn’t like MiChi’s first major album as much as I thought I did. The music itself is all kinds of catchy and I find myself having a lot of the melodies in my head at random occasions. However, my main concern with this album is MiChi’s vocal performance which is really inconsistent. She has a solid voice in general, but ends up sounding really linear and bland for a good amount of the tracks on this album. Considering how much I loved the amount of energy she put into her recordings in her indies album, this is kind of a disappointment for me. From the initial listens, I always thought there was something missing in a lot of the tracks, and from writing this review, I realized that her singing is nowhere as energetic as I know she is capable of being for the most part. Fortunately, this isn`t the case for a few of the tracks where she brought back her personality in her recordings. Regardless some of the bland singing, much of the material on this album is quite strong and enjoyable and I’ll still be looking forward to her next release.

Favourites:
PROMiSE