Category: J Pop

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J Pop Music Reviews

Mai Kuraki (倉木麻衣) – touch Me! – Odd Song Choices Aside, A Decent Effort Nonetheless

Mai Kuraki - touch Me!

Again, the Japanese pressed CDs of Mai Kuraki don’t come cheap.  Three times the price of a normal disc.  HMV Singapore charges me the price of one English CD as shipping fees.  I guess it is sort of fair.  If only I could read Japanese and order online instead.  Pondered in front of the counter for just a moment, I grabbed one copy.  The truth is, quite a few times I hesitated for too long (it could well be less than 24 hours) and the stock was gone.  And I had quite a tough time trying to hunt for them.

Onto her 8th album, “touch Me!” entered the chart at the #1 position, after three misses from her previous albums.  If you like her sensual and light R&B kind of voice, well, she sounds pretty much the same as before.  Had “touch Me!” stopped at the 10th track, that would have been much better.  I love the oldie “Top of the World”.  Just not sure if I like Mai Kuraki’s rendition.  And the 12th track is a remix of track 4 that is a bit too dreamy to my liking.

The good news is, if you ignore the last 2 tracks, “touch Me!” does have a good mix of fast and slow pace, mostly catchy.  My favorite track would be “Break the Tone” and “Catch”.  Below is the video of the opening track “touch Me!”  Fans would love this new album, I bet.

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J Pop Music Reviews

Mika Nakashima – I Don’t Know, I Don’t Know, I *Know* “Voice” is My Favorite of Hers So Far

Voice by Mika Nakashima

Having followed Mika’s music career since her debut album “True” – and I just realize that I have all 6 of her albums! – “Voice” has got to be the most appealing, most infectious of all.  To be honest, I was surprised because although from time to time there are great music albums in the market that delight, rarely are there albums that I would put on repeat for a relatively long period of time (yes, if there is no time factor, I often hold back my opinion until the initial excitement subsides).

I wonder what Mika Nakashima fans like about her.  Maybe her look or her voice (both I am OK with, not too excited about).  Her music style is mostly pop, recently into rock with “The End”.  What I in particularly like about Mika is her ability to sing some uniquely out of the world kind of music scale, kind of timing, that is so unheard of.  The beginning of the 8th track “It’s Too Late” is a good example.  Is this style called club jazz?  Maybe.  It doesn’t appear often.  But when it does, it tickles in a good way.

To tell the truth, I can hardly remember what her first 3 albums sound like.  Except, they are pleasant to listen to, with unique style.  Her venture into rock genre collaborated with other Japanese musicians in her 4th album “The End”, to me, is refreshingly new.  Although I like it a lot, the chart didn’t agree with me.  Came the 5th one “Yes” that is back to her old style.  I am OK with that, and the chart wasn’t that happy with it neither.  Her only two albums that did not manage to reach #1.

“Voice” is back to #1 and I can understand why.  It has a health dose of pop and synthetic rock.  There is one track mostly with just her and the piano (final track) and another one with the acoustic guitar (middle track).  It also has a health dose of rock music that unlike “The End”, the music does not overpower her voice.  In nearly all the tracks, there are tunes that are mind sticking, making the album sounds interesting.  True to her nature as shown in her previous albums, “Voice” is fun to listen to.  My favorite track?  The all English number “I Don’t Know” (hence the title of this review).

My CD comes with a DVD too and it has 6 music videos.  More like 5 and a half as the last song is like a short promotional track.  It has a mellow version of “SAKURA ～花霞～” instead of the Daishi Dance version in the album.  If you are a Mika fan, you really ought to get this one.

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J Pop Music Reviews

YUI – My Short Stories – Did You Know This is a B-Side Compilation?

No I didn’t.  Nor the Oricon chart cares.  21 years old Japanese singer songwriter and one-time actress releases a b-side album and it charted at #1.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw her 4th album “My Short Stories” at HMV.  Wasn’t it this April when she released her last studio album?  I am still regularly listening to “I Loved Yesterday”.  By April 27, I have listened to that one song “LOVE & TRUTH” no less than 400 times.  By June 13, I estimated the played time of the same song to be 5,000.  Today, you connect the dots and tell me how many times “LOVE & TRUTH” has killed me softly again, and again.

I couldn’t contain my excitement when I first listened to YUI’s “My Short Stories”.  But something was missing, something didn’t seem right.  I was desperately looking for the rock identity (“Rolling Star” anyone?) that YUI has evolved from her shy, simple, pleasant debut but I found none; I was desperately looking for the new symphonic sound (like my beloved “LOVE & TRUTH”) and I found none neither.  YUI seems to have returned to her root in the first few tracks (kind of too early for a budding 21 years old artist don’t you think?).  Onto the fifth song “Jam”, the rock identity seems to surface.  And I am falling more in love with the album as the track number increases.  “I Wanna Be”, “Cloudy”, and “Crossroad” are some of my favorite tracks.  The last song, a nice slow one – “Why Me” – wraps up the compilation nicely.

There is still no “LOVE & TRUTH” that I so long for.  But as an album disregarding that it is a b-side compilation, I wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the rest of her studio albums in terms of production quality.  I am indeed delighted to learn that this is a b-side compilation because now I get to better appreciate another side of YUI, to relive her growth once again.  PS. The below nicely done video, “I’ll Be”, is the only new song from the compilation.

Accompanying her CD is a DVD collection of three video clips and a set of live recording.  OK, I am not going to defend her vocals in a band setting because it is simply not her strength.  Simply put, YUI sounds much better with just YUI and her guitar and I suspect she composes her songs with just that (on that note, I think I can personally relate).  In some of the live clips, a few cameras were following her wandering the streets of Sapporo, Sendai, and Hiroshima with her guitar.  In one classic act like she used to do before she becomes famous, she sat down in a quiet corner, took out her guitar and started singing.  Gosh, she is my inspiration.  Need not to say, it didn’t take long for the crowd to build up during those live recording sessions on the street.

Some artists are just worth the effort to follow their music careers with, to quietly and patiently observe how they grow.  If you are new to YUI, start with her movie “Midnight Sun”.  It won’t go wrong.

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J Pop Music Reviews

Ayumi Hamasaki Complete Singles – Is This for You?

Hardcore Ayu fans will get this, regardless.  For just over S$30, even if most of us – the fans – have already had most of her albums (I have close to 300 songs of hers that amount to 23 hours of continuous enjoyment), this box-set is a very nice to have.  It has:

  • A beautifully printed booklet that contains a selected set of single covers of hers
  • A rare DVD that contains a live recording of her 2003 tour in Tokyo as well as the a-nation recording from 2002-7 (Ayumi releases 2 live DVDs per year – the countdown tour at year end and the arena tour in the summer – but not the a-nation, which is an Avex organized tour for the artists from the same record label)
  • A 3-CD set that contains all the singles released from “A Song for XX (1999)” to “Guilty (2008)” including the new single “Mirrorcle World” and a Chinese version of the song “Who”
  • The hidden track “Kanariya” from the “Loveppears (199)” album – the first hidden track ever to make it to a single release
  • Lyrics, with Chinese translation

I don’t have her first official album so I am happy for these 5 songs that are “new” to me.  If you have already got the “A Best (2001)” as well as the “A Best 2 -Black- (2007)” and the “A Best 2 -White- (2007)” like I do, do you still need yet another compilation album?  Here are some of the analysis for you.

  • 11 out of 44 songs from “Complete Singles” exist in “A Best (2001)”
  • 16 out of 44 songs from “Complete Singles” exist in “A Best 2 (2007)”
  • 26 out of 44 songs from “Complete Singles” exist in “A Best (2001)” and “A Best 2 (2007)”
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J Pop Music Reviews

Rimi Natsukawa 夏川りみ – Self Selection – My Comfort Album

There is comfort food.  And there is comfort music too, I reckon.  You know how it is like when every time you listen to a particular song or album and that triggers a particular memory of yours?  Maybe “Last Christmas” was played when you gave your first kiss away, maybe “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” is your theme song with that special someone, or maybe you were listening to “Woman In Chains” when you first discover what romance is.

So I was on a plane to Chennai, India – which by the way, if you haven’t got the chance to check out the complete 2-set photo albums, I invite you to take a look (montage below).  For lack of entertainment choices on the SIA flights, I put Rimi Natsukawa’s new album on repeat – on my way to Chennai, and back.  I did sample “Self Selection” (あいのうた ～セルフセレクション・ベスト～) in several occasions at HMV Orchard but somehow, the album didn’t talk to me.  My first (and second and third) impression was that the sound is kind of old fashioned, kind of different from the rest of the J-pop I am so used to.  Needless to say, after the trip, I bought her album.

In fact, the kind of music is called Ryukyuan and Rimi Natsukawa is a folk singer.  Is it an universal truth that folk genre produces better singers than pop and rock?  And when did the Japanese start to have songs in English titles and lyrics with English words?  Either way, Rimi Natsukawa is a great singer and all the songs she selected is 100% Japanese.  Inside the album jacket, she wrote a small passage for each song explaining why she chose it, when she played it, and what the song means to her (note: I read the Chinese translation).

Is “Self Reflection” for you?  Hard to say.  Are you open for traditional Japanese music?  Maybe you wish to check out this old video of hers and see for yourself.  涙そうそう (“Sparkling Tears”) is my favorite track of the album.  Sure it doesn’t have the dynamic of a typical pop song.  It does however invoke emotion, a peaceful type of emotion.  And to me, it works.  This album works.

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J Pop Music Reviews

Anna Tsuchiya – Strip Me? Where Do You Draw the Lines?

I thought long and hard before buying the new album by a Russian/American/Japanese singer, model, and actress Anna Tsuchiya (土屋アンナ).  Exactly how do you draw the line between a good rock abum and a not so good vocalist (*ahem* I am looking at my band)?  Call it a Japanese album when 98% of the lyrics are in English?  A half Japanese who is not fluent in English but yet deliver an album not in Japanese? It’s hard to draw the lines.

One thing for sure though: She is hot!

“Strip Me?” is a rock album, no doubt.  And since I love the rock genre, I can overlook the vocal ability of Anna Tsuchiya.  Her opening track “Zero” does remind me of one of my favorite Japanese star Aikawa Nanase.  Where is Aikawa these days?  I have no idea.

Japanese artists these days like to cover English songs.  Mai Kuraki (倉木麻衣) does “Over the Rainbow”; BoA does “Last Christmas”; Yuna Ito does “My Heart Will Go On”; Mika Nakashima does “What A Wonderful World”.  They all stick to the original arrangement.  Mika Nakashima does create an offbeat version of  “My Way” that is not necessarily pleasing to the ears, but it’s fun to listen to.  And what about Anna Tsuchiya?

Some may say she (and her band) murders the song “True Colors”.  OK.  At first listen, you may not like it.  I thought the arrangement is pretty refreshing.  A lot noiser I suppose.  But she is a rock star, no?

I have been listening to the slow song “Forever” on repeat for many times.  It’s just Anna and the piano and the song is so, sad.  Below is the video clip for “Rose”.  Now come I am not surprised to find out that this song is related to the Nana amime series?  “Strip Me?” comes with a 15 tracks CD and a DVD of 4 songs – one of which is from her previous album I suppose.  OK, the song “Slap That Naughty Body” is so so but video is anything but.

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J Pop Music Reviews

Mai Kuraki (倉木麻衣) – One Life – Quite Possibly Her Spiciest Piece of Work

I made a promise to myself that I will contribute my thought on Mai Kuraki’s 7th album to the online community back in March this year.  Her albums don’t come cheap.  The RRP are S$72 (USD 52) and S$52 (USD 38) after discount.  And you can’t pick a random Japanese album to sample in HMV.  So what I usually do in situations like this is to take out my wireless phone and Google the albums, at HMV.  Reviews written in English are not common.  In desperate times, I would perform an online translation of the Japanese pages and learn more about the album.  After all, it is a rather heavy investment.

I do agree with the online community that Mai Kuraki’s voice is sensual, and that works well with her R&B / Pop genre.  I do however find it difficult to tell if she plays her limitation to her advantage.  Mai Kuraki has a feather light voice, which is good to communicate emotion.  But her voice does at times sound out of breath.  It has become rather obvious when I viewed one of her live performances on one DVD of mine.

Her first four albums are commercial success.  Unfortunately I don’t own them.  What I do own is her compilation album “Wish You the Best” (2004), which is just as good I reckon, and her subsequent albums – “Fuse of Love” (2005), “Diamond Wave” (2006), and “One Life” (2008).  I think Mai Kuraki sings better in her recent work.  But her earlier work has better melodic hooks, and hence the success.

So, what about “One Life”?  I certainly put it above the rather forgettable “Diamond Wave” and for those who already love “Fuse of Love”, “One Life” is certainly not a disappointment.  In fact, “One Life” is quite possibly her spiciest piece of work.  The opening track “One Life” is an upbeat memorable R&B song, accompanied by interesting musical tracks.  “I Like It Like That” is a good follow-up.  More groovy, less edgy.  For those who like ballads, “Silence Love ~open my heart~” is a decent effort.

I am an oddball and my personal favorites could be quite different from what fans prefer.  I like “Everything” because of the hook, the variation of the bridges, and the music arrangement.  “Season of Love” has a similar feel and it is well harmonized by male vocals.  An emotional piece of work.  “Wonderland” comes with a simple beat and some pretty unusual melody and timing.  There is one part that I constantly ask myself: How did she sing that?!  Very soulful.  And I like the upbeat pop song “Be with U”.  A fun piece and I think the hook lies in the percussion arrangement.

You may like her interpretation of the English song “Over the Rainbow”.  But I think no one can sing that better than Katharine McPhee.

In terms of technique and being soulful in the genre of R&B, I would still vote for Utada Hikaru.  Having said that, it is always good to have varieties in life and Mai Kuraki does have a decent number of well crafted songs to offer. 

Below is her single “One Life”.  The video kind of sucks.  Probably working on low budget.  You may also wish to check out the ballad “Season of Love”.

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J Pop Music Reviews

Utada Hikaru – Heart Station – Classic It May Not But What A Soulful Voice She Has!

If you have purchased Utada Hikaru’s latest album lately, you may wish to check if track 10 is truncated towards the end of the song.  The friendly assistant at HMV (Citilink) was ripping the plastic covers of more than 10 of her CDs open including a newer batch and an older batch and they all have the same problem.  In fact, I have not seen so many CDs ripped open right in front of my eyes in such a short time frame (obviously I don’t buy that many CDs at one go, ever).  The sight and smell of a whole stack of new CDs was enough to put me in a temporary state of euphoria.  Need not to say, since we could not find one that is not flawed, I returned my CD, paid S$1.05 (duh!), and got myself a S$20 HMV gift voucher instead.

Judging by the fact that “Heart Station” is still reigning over the HMV Japanese and Korean Chart, I suspect many may have bought this Malaysian pressed CD and thought that a truncated song #10 is as intended.  But it isn’t.  I headed over to the listening station at HMV Orchard and that one was OK.  Take it back for a refund or exchange (better check on the spot!) if yours is a defect like mine.  Strange to say, I was told that I was the first one returning the CD (I bought it quite some time ago) while all her “Heart Station” CDs in the shop seems defective.  What happens to all who bought the disc?  I have no clue. 

I have still yet to catch the Utada fever (perhaps it is heating up somehow) purely because a number years ago, in retaliation of my fanatic support for the – in Cynthia’s own words – ear-piercing Ayumi Hamasaki, she has joined the Utada camp.  Immature we are, I know.  Besides, they both have different styles.  Utada is more Pop / R&B while Ayumi is perhaps more Pop / Rock?  But Cynthia and I have been … rivals ever since.  She would join the Justin camp and I would pick Justin’s ex-girlfriend Britney (!) instead.

To put things in perspective, the first album released by the then-16 years old New York born singer songwriter still holds the record of the most copies ever sold in Japan (close to 8 millions).  And her “Single Collection Vol. 1” remains as one of my top picks within my Japanese CD collection.

Perhaps I am still very hung up with her classic hits like “Automatic”, “Addicted To You”, and “Wait & See”, her subsequent releases don’t quite hit my spot.  So how does “Heart Station” measure up?

I think “Heart Station” leaves a deeper impression on me than her previous one, “Ultra Blue”.  Her voice, I must say, sound a lot better than her earlier work.  I love the improvisation and the soulfulness.  I especially like her lower register that is uncommon amongst her Japanese peers.  There are some songs within the album that I absolutely love such as “Fight the Blues”, “Heart Station”, “Beautiful World”, “Celebrate”, and “Prisoner of Love”.  There are also some songs towards the end such as ” ぼくはくま” and “虹色バス” that I don’t think I really get it.  What a strange way to end an album.

A melody filled song crafting effort with chunks of surprisingly interesting arrangement is probably one of the reasons why I enjoy listening to this album.  She may not have the stage presence like other mega J-pop stars (I also owned one of her live DVD) but she does have the voice and a list of enviable accomplishments in the past 9 years of her music career.

It has been quite a difficult task to find a video of hers that I can feature here.  The closest one I can get is one anime made by a fan.  Pretty good actually.

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J Pop Music Reviews

YUI – I Loved Yesterday – Kill Me Softly With “LOVE & TRUTH” …

YUI's I Love Yesterday

… and then kill me again.

I must have heard that one song “LOVE & TRUTH” no less than 400 times by now as I have frequently left my players (Hi-fi, mp3 phone, PC iTune) on single song repeat mode while traveling, working, reading, and blogging ever since YUI’s third album has landed in Singapore.  And if you think that I am obsessed with numbers, guess what I have noticed when I first read the song list of “I Loved Yesterday” at HMV?  All her three albums have 13 tracks.  No more, no less.  Strange eh?  And how did I even remember such a detail?  Freaky.

At times I wonder which is the most tedious to write: a book, a CD, or a movie review.  To write this review, I have listened to her two previous albums in conjunction with “I Love Yesterday” quite a few times in order to, perhaps, remind myself why I like YUI’s music in the first place.  Her trademark of a hauntingly innocent girlie voice with a taint of vulnerability and yet full of conviction in delivering her music is still written all over her third album.  The fact that she has written all the tracks on her own and plays the guitar track translates to yet another rock album that does not deviate from her style – except “LOVE & TRUTH” that seems to be the odd one out.  It must have something to do with the lethal combination of a rock ballad and a symphony.

A song written for the Japanese film “Closed Note”, what “LOVE & TRUTH” means to some of YUI’s fans is perhaps similar to what “Last Smile” does to the Love Psychedelico fans – we love that one song so much that we will probably spend eternity waiting for another “LOVE & TRUTH” or another “Last Smile” to appear from the same artist.

“I Loved Yesterday” comes with a DVD that contains 4 video clips of songs from her previous album and a short concert filming of “LIVE at BUDOKAN” (7 tracks).  I would be lying to say that the filming of her live performance is near perfect.  A bit far from it, unfortunately; a bit pitchy here and there, in fact.  On a more positive note, besides able to see her in action on stage with her guitar, the last clip “YOKYO” is probably one of the most moving music clips I have seen (the most moving scene still belongs to Ayumi Hamasaki when she screamed at the top of her lung thanking the crowd at the end of the show … at an open stadium, to a silence audience, without a mic).  Also, there is a clip called “Jam” and I swear I have not heard that song from any of YUI’s album before.  I like that one quite a fair bit.

Overall song quality-wise, “I Loved Yesterday” may be the weakest compares to her debut “From Me To You” that is packed with songs with memorable tunes and her commercially successful second album “Can’t Buy Me Love” that is lifted by her movie “Midnight Sun”.  Nevertheless, it is still a 21 years old YUI production that is worth keeping.  Below is the video clip of “LOVE & TRUTH”.

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BoA – The Face – And The Conquest Continues

BoA - The Face

To tell you the truth, I am more thrilled by BoA’s phenomenal success in the music industry at the age of 21 than her music itself.  Straddled between the Korean and Japanese markets, her 11th studio album is a Japanese release that attained the number 1 position in the Oricon chart the 6th consecutive time (only Ayumi Hamasaki has done it before with now a record of 8 consecutive number 1’s and stops there).  To enjoy such a strong fan base in Japan as a Korean is remarkable.  To enjoy such a commercial success as a 21 years old, I say it’s phenomenal.
 
I often admire BoA’s ambition and energy.  There are not many artists in the world who relentlessly release albums that target at two different local markets, in two different languages, simultaneously.  Her appetite, I believe, is not only in these two countries.  Rumor has it that she is currently putting the Korea market on hold and planning to venture into the US market.  I am concerned over her English pronunciation but we shall see.  And she has released a few songs in Chinese as well.
 
“The Face”, like her previous albums, is packed with the typical electronic sounded pop music that you can happily bop to.  I personally think that these bright and youthful songs are great to be seen live as BoA is a great entertainer on stage.  Just by listening to the album alone, something does seem missing.  Perhaps the music is not as memorable as I would like them to be.  Perhaps those complicated dance beat arrangements are meant to shine during live performances.  Hence, like her previous album “Made in Twenty (20)”, I actually appreciate the DVD better than the CD.
 
“The Face” comes with 2 DVD’s.  One with music videos from the single releases as well as an interview session that I don’t understand.  Another one is packed with live clips from two different concerts filmed in year 2007.  Those live clips are beautiful.  It has the classic BoA-and-the-piano-and-the-orchestra kind of performance.  It also has the BoA-and-her-hot-dance-moves kind of performance too.  One year ago, as written in the previous review, I was trying to get used to her voice.  Today, I still try.  At times her vibrato sounds a bit mechanical.  Perhaps, I will get myself BoA-ized one day.  Below is one of her singles “Lose Your Mind” with the making-of clip.  If you enjoy slow songs, try search for her another single “Love Letter”.

PS. Is it just me who feel that BoA looks more haggard judging from the live videos these days?  She has definitely lost some weight.

Related Entry: Made In Twenty (20) – Another Japanese Album By Korean Singer BoA