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.
Lately, there aren’t many good English albums around and though you may see Japanese albums keep popping up in my website, Japanese CDs only contribute to less then 5% of my CD collection, believe it or not.