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I've listened to Landy Wen in the past, but I never thought she was particularly compelling. That opinion still stands. But her new album, Dancing Queen, is. It really sounds very little like her older work, instead channeling influence from both Lady GaGa and Koda Kumi, arguably my two favorite pop ladies, with Elva Hsiao thrown in there for good measure. The song DISCO especially has Gaga written all over it. It could BE Gaga. I could be like some wankers and complain about copying, but the song is good, so I really don't care. I wish my Gaga folder was a lot bigger, tbh. The other amazing thing about this album is that there's only a couple ballads and both are quite good. Surprising because every other ballad I've heard from her has been generic and boring.
It always happens to me. I always find myself interested in singers and bands way outside the mainstream fandom. The ones no one else is into and it takes me forever to find anything. This time it's Karen Mok. The description of her singing on Last FM sounded fantastic, so I tried it. Boy was I NOT disappointed. Her voice is awesome. And even better is the range of styles she employs on her albums. Well, all two of them that I've listened to. The most recent one was full of Celtic flavor, which, she is apparently something like 1/4 Welsh. But anyway, I love her voice, it's really amazing. And she can seemingly sing everything. I especially like her lower register, it's very strong and convincing with a darker color.
So, this is what you get when the most legendary of Jrock bands decides to reunite something like 20 years after their breakup. No one-shot reunion live and promises of a possible new release, no failed concert tours and bogus promises of some kind of reunion. Nope, instead you get immediate action and an actual release date of an album, that being Nov.11th, and they even went to the trouble to make a PV.
But let's talk about the actual song. Well, besides awesome, I'm not sure what to say. It was a good mix of old and new. I was perhaps a tiny bit afraid they'd just play their old style of hairy hair metal, which, don't get me wrong, was also awesome. But it's also played in this particular decade and century. However, other than You's ripping solo, this is not old DEAD END, this is new DEAD END. And I like the name of the album, Metamorphosis. It suggests a transition, and ergo, more albums.
This song is six minutes of good stuff, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that it's Morrie's voice leading this song from start to finish. I like the haunting echo-y effect and though I wasn't sure if I liked all the vibrato, after several listens, I've come to the conclusion that it fits the song and would not have it any other way.
So yeah, other old bands that keep trying to stay relevant? THIS is how you do it.
Or at least, very very disappointing.
2.L'arc En Ciel - for those who know me, it's no secret that I touch everything they do lately with a ten-foot pole and one eye closed. We can probably go back to Smile for them, but at the very least, Awake and Kiss were nothing to write home about. Again, like Merry, maybe half the tracks were decent? Less on Awake. I think there were only a couple good tracks there. Unlike Merry though, it's hard to figure out where they went wrong. At least, for the legions of Hyde fangirls disguised as L'arc fans. For me, it's easy. The solos. They have gotten markedly worse since going off for solo fun time. I don't think they'll ever be the same and I honestly just wish they'd break up.
3.Dir en grey - I can't say I'm a huge fan, but I did like most of their stuff prior to Marrow. But that and this other one with the pretentious U title are steaming piles of poo. Crimes against music include, noise, Kyo being unable to sing better than a hoarse monkey, trying to sound like Korn and just general boredom.
4.Mika Nakashima - ok, it's really only one album, but I hate it so much I'm mentioning her. VOICE. Manufactured, generic pop tripe and such a complete and utter waste of her ability it makes me see red just thinking about it. I wish whoever her handlers are would realized that jazz, soul and even gospel are what she sounds best singing. Thus, to me, her best album is YES. Fortunately though, her latest single seems to indicate she might be going back to that.
5.SID - lol. I'm sorry, but I enjoyed their jazz days. This Osare-sounding poppy lite-rock is really...not cool, and it makes Mao nearly intolerable to listen to. That said, I did enjoy Monokuro no Kiss quite a bit, but the rest of the album was not much better than Sentimental Macchiato, which should be shot for its name alone.
6.Penicillin - Idk, I think I'm just getting tired of them. Their music sounds so very uninspired these days, and it's getting harder and harder to overlook Hakeui's complete inability to sing. They have another album coming out next month, and if it's not head and tales above their last one, I think I'll toss them.
7.The Pillows - that last album of theirs was so ugly I don't even care about the new one. The songs were anywhere from really annoying to really boring. I think I only really like one or two songs on it.
So the big question is, can these artists recover from their crappy streak? I think it's possible. My favorite examples are Girugamesh, UVERworld and Exist Trace. I was ready to drop Giru after 13 Reborn. I was sick of all their stuff sounding just like every other raaawwr hxc nu-metal VK band. Then they released their self-titled and all was forgiven. I was turned off from UVERworld after Bugright, an awful, boring mess of an album. But since then they've released AwakEve and Proglution, both very solid albums, so I've changed my mind. Exist Trace has always been a mediocre-at-best band, and had they released another badly produced, generic, filled-with-muffled-bad-vocals album, I would have dropped them for good. But the mini they DID release was very good so I have high hopes for whatever they do next.
Tbh, the only artists in that list I've truly lost hope for is L'arc and Diru. I don't really care if Penicillin or The Pillows right their ship, because they aren't my favorites. I do hope that Merry and Mika can though. Merry used to be one of my favorite bands and it saddens me that they annoy the shit out of me now. :(
1.daikirai 2006
2.waga, arubeki basho
3.nageki tori to doukenin
4.rojiura boku to kimi e
5.monokuro no keshiki
6.saishuu ressha
7.kokoro no nai machi
8.gokusai
9.gerbera
10.libra
11.fukuro no yurikago
12.chain ring
13.anjelier
14.fuzz
15.ageha
16.oz
17.sora to ito
18.aoi mori
That is my current best-of for MUCC lately. Having recently experienced a revival of my strong feelings towards them, this is the driving mixtape that got made. Ignoring 'Daikirai' for the moment, since it's mostly only there because 1.it's a classic and 2. it filled space. I have this thing with needing to fully fill the space on a blank CD.
We have 2 songs from Zekuu, 2 songs from Kuchiki no tou, 2 songs from Houyoku, 2 songs from Gokusai, 4 songs from Shion and 3 songs from Kyuutai, and also add 2 songs from Kyuutai/Shion era singles. What does that tell you exactly?
In spite of still thinking that Zekuu is the perfect album, I would have to say that I vastly prefer post-Homura Uta material. And if we just cross out Zekuu, I would say more like Houyoku and on. Tbh, through my flatlining times with them, I've realized that most of their earliest music is just...not that good from a technical standpoint. I would rather hear Tatsu sing than do that emo scream/yell/sing hybrid thing he used to do. I also love how he's been introducing the raspyness into his vocals lately. What I do not love is some of the vibrato I'm hearing from him live.
Oddly though, as much as I love a good chunk of the songs from Shion, I don't enjoy it very much as an album. I can't stand Flight, and I don't like some of the track placement, there's some really weak tracks on there to supplement the really good ones. Also, Libra may have been better as a single. It just doesn't work as an ending track, or probably anywhere else.
Anyway, yeah, I really kinda laugh at these people who think they're so bad now, when it's obviously the exact opposite. Their earliest music was FAR from the best they're capable of and Tatsu singing >>>>> Tatsu doing anything else. People just can't tell the difference between taste and actual goodness.
Oh look, a Jrock review after so long, lol. This is Lynch's new album, and tbh, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. Lynch does have a tendency to sound repetitive a lot, and even though I adored ADORE, the second advance single was just the opposite. But this album seems to facilitate a nice shift in style for them. Also, is that cover art awesome or what?
lynch.
SHADOWS
Genre: rock, metal, Nagoya
Release Date: 07-08-09
Price: 3333 ¥
Label/Distributor: wint
Tracks: 10
01. Last Nite
02. Adore
03. Maze
04. Evilly
05. I Don’t Know Where I am
06. Ambivalent Ideal
07. The Blasted Back Bone
08. Shadowz
09. Cultic my Execution
10. Marrow
LAST NITE starts out with a combination of heavy riffs and piano. Hazuki's singing is rather subdued, almost mixed in the background. The bass solo at about halfway through is pretty awesome, as is the drum breakdown that follows. This is really a nice, complex song with heaviness and atmosphere. ADORE was previously released as a single, and this version is slightly different, by about 12 seconds. I'm not sure if I like it quite as much as the single version, though I'm not sure why. MAZE is one of my favorites from this album, contrary to like, everyone else. I love that throbbing bass that is threaded throughout, and the beginning of the song was hard and chunky. I also like Hazuki's vocals in this. I have a love/hate relationship with them generally. Sometimes he sounds awesome, other times painful. This is more of the former. Guitar solo at a 1:30 from the end was cool and unusual for them. I liked the bending vibrato to finish it off. This song doesn't chug along as quickly as LAST NITE, but is awesome nonetheless. EVILLY is next and starts out with a mess of sound. It goes on to be a pretty typical Lynch song with loudness and growling. It's not bad, but as I said, typical, and it gets boring in the last minute or so. I DON'T KNOW WHERE I AM continues the trend of all caps in the title, lol. Hazuki is relatively proficient at saying the title, and weirdly, my first thought going into this was that it sounded like a heavier L'Arc/Tierra tune. I don't know if it's the singing or what. But either way, it's unusually melodic for a Lynch song. Another nice guitar solo. I'm hearing a trend here. AMBIVALENT IDEAL is another advance single, and it has the distinction of the one I didn't like. It's a little better here, but still overall, rather boring. THE BLASTED BACK BONE is a short, heavy track that smacks of typical Lynch sound. Low on my totem poll for this album. SHADOWZ is the title track, with the addition of a 'z'. Hard, repetitive, boring. Overly muted guitar solo at the end can't make up for it, and the static just kills my ears. CULTIC MY EXECUTION starts out with piano, similar to the first track, only the piano doesn't make it into the next part of the song. Some whispery vocals from Hazuki top heavy riffs and machine-gun drums, and then the piano does come back. This song transitions between hard and soft, but always remains dark and sinister. It effectively saves the downward spiral of the album's second half. MARROW is the final song, and it fairly single-handedly destroys whatever the previous song was trying to salvage. The speed drumming, and poorly placed speed drumming at that, immediately got on my bad side. Then there's some acoustic stuff in the middle, and I dunno, it's just kind of a discombobulated song.
Ok, this album really sounds to me like they're changing something, somewhere. It simply doesn't sound like their previous work, with the small exception of a few songs such as ADORE and EVILLY. Perhaps they're trying to get everyone used to it. But, as is pretty standard with me, I like it when bands change, and that puts me in the minority of opinions out there, I've noticed. The first half of the album is very strong, but I couldn't help but notice how it got weaker after AMBIVALENT IDEAL. Mostly because a lot of the new sound was tossed out the window in favor of an older style. Almost as thought they wanted to reassure everyone that they hadn't fully converted. Which is why I'm calling this a transition album, albeit a better than average one.
FINAL WORD: a transition album, I think. ★★★★☆
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Key:
★★★★★ = Excellent, flawless, perfecto
★★★★☆ = Very good, has some minor flaws
★★★☆☆ = Good, maybe a few boring moments, but overall enjoyable
★★☆☆☆ = Fair, bad outweighs the good
★☆☆☆☆ = Poor, possibly offensive to your ears
I'm stealing a meme, that's new. Actually I just found this site with great music questions. Maybe I'll try incorporating them more for inspiration.
3 songs you can't get enough of right now
1.Lucky Me - Vanness Wu (吳建豪)
Ok, this is not a style I listen to a lot. Namely, male pop, and especially not this dancy, rappy, rnb-ish kinda stuff. In fact, it's generally somewhere near the top of my hate list. But this guy, Idk how he did it, but he made me fall for him. I'm really digging his music. And this my favorite song for one simple reason. That gunshot. Lol. But seriously, absolute best use of a gunshot in a song EVER. I love it.
2.出神入化 – Fahrenheit (飛輪海)
I've always professed hate for boybands, and that mostly hasn't changed. I figured Fahrenheit are good music that happens to be disguised in a boyband form. But really, they're all really good singers. Especially Wu Chun, and a lot of their music is not typical for that genre. Sometimes they just sound like any other guitar-driven HK idolpop. Heh, anyway. I like this song because it's catchy and dancy and goes right along with that VW song I am obsessed with right now, lol.
3.Makes No Sense - Nicholas Tse
I've only been repeating this song because it goes with some scenes in a story I'm writing. I first heard the song in Time and Tide, and it has that hard-to-pinpoint quality of a Bond song. Slightly rocky, slightly trippy, funky, ridiculous bass, and yeah, that's really all that's necessary. Plus, honestly. I just generally have at least one Nic Tse song I'm obsessed with every week.
2 artists you'd like to recommend to us.
1.Vanness Wu
Especially to people who like that kind of music. If *I* like it, honestly, it must be awesome, right? This coming from someone who generally loathes it. I can admit, I'm a bit biased because he's part of the Andy On, Philip Ng, Nic Tse ratpack too. I'd recommend his greatest hits album first. Mainly because it has Lucky Me.
2.Eunix Lee
I just heard her this week, and although she only has two EPs out, she's really awesome. Not at all typical for a Cantopop artist. Her music is edgy, rocky, dark, cool, and sometimes a little bit dancy. It's hard to really box her in. She has a great voice too. Very soulful, edgy, low, smoky. A lot of qualities I like.
1 album you can't wait to purchase
To be honest? GLAY's Great Vacation or whatever that new, 3-disc monstrosity is called. I've heard a lot of good things about the new songs, and on the other two discs are a lot of my favorites, including several from albums that are out of print now. I'm pretty sick of Japanese CD prices though, so I'll probably be springing for the Korean version on YesAsia. I've bought a few of those in the past, and I really don't see much difference.
As I said in my previous post, I'm really into Chinese music lately. Since late last year, I've been getting more and more into it, and like with any musical obsession of mine, I pay good attention to finding out more and more. I started out with Andy Lau and moved onto Nicholas Tse, Huang Yida and Mayday. Sort of, male mellow rock? Though Andy Lau does a bit of everything. But since, I have moved into my usual haunts from the Japanese music spectrum. That is, girlpop and heavier rock, lol. So Idk, let me share a bit of it here. I'm surprised more people in the so-called "Asian Music Fandom" are not into Chinese music. If you move away from the idol types, there's a lot of good stuff. It's heads and tails above Korean music for instance. And it definitely rivals Japanese at times too.
Girlpop
I will admit, this is one of my favorite genres of Japanese music, and I'm starting to warm up to some from the Chinese side too. Namely Sherman Chung and Elva Hsiao. I got into both of them because of their similarity to my absolute favorite pop girl ever, Koda Kumi. In a way, they're like Koda Kumi in two parts. Elva Hsiao's music is more mature and less blatantly dancy or ~hot~. Sherman Chung is more experimental and all over the place. She has really dancy tracks, R&B stuff and even the odd rock-ish track, just like Kuu. Elva probably has the better voice, but they both have a similar sound to Koda Kumi. They don't over-sing, they have that smokey sort of tone and ranges that they use all of.
Sherman Chung is apparently not all that popular yet, which is a shame, because she's good. But, also, she's only been around for a short time, so it'll come. Right now my favorite song from her is I Don't Care.
Mellow Rock
This is actually a genre I'm not generally too fond of. Especially in Japanese music because the vocalists tend to be extremely nondescript, or straight up bad. You just can't have softer music with a bad vocalist. However, in Chinese music, bad vocalists seem to be the exception, not the rule. Here, I really love Faith Yang. She has an excellent voice, sorta similar to Sarah McLaughlin, and her music ranges from soft to slightly edgy, but isn't what I'd really call heavy. Second, I have to mention Tan Peng. He was the vocalist of The Dada, but recently has a solo album out, which I prefer. He has a very nice voice with a full tone. His music, as well as the band's, was very strong and crisp. Especially the bass. A-Yue is another one I like. I guess he falls under this category, but his voice is fairly mundane. He has some really great songs though. Fun, summery stuff. I discovered him through his singing of the ending song to the movie Invisible Target. And that songs remains my favorite.
Heavy Stuff
I have...somewhat specific tastes here. I loathe metalcore, for instance. Or whatever that stuff is that seems to be the trend these days. But, having spent my headbanging years in the midst of nu-metal, I won't lie, I like it. I like more traditional stuff too, but since good nu-metal is hard to come by, I really tend to gravitate towards that. It's one of the reasons I've been so into VK. Not the fagtarded costumes, but the general nu-metal sound they all seem to have, lol. Anyway, I got some stuff here. ThinMan, as my previous post indicated, but also Twisted Machine and Xie Tian Xiao and his band, Cold-Blooded Animal. It seems magnificently hard to find this kind of rock though. Not that there's a shortage of it, cause there's not, there's plenty. But it's not very popular, it's pretty much all underground and the band's put out albums at a snail's pace. If they've been around ten years, they probably have three albums at most.
I wish I had some examples here, but not so much. And lately I'm of the mind that I don't feel like uploading things unless I know someone wants them. So if anyone passing by needs/wants any of these artists mentioned, just leave a comment. I don't bite, and I'm very willing to share. :)
So, I am more into Chinese music than anything else these days. You probably cannot tell that from this blog, because I've still been reviewing mostly Japanese things. But anyways, yes I am. Lately I've been trying to find some more rock bands, more underground stuff. There's a marked difference in the release trends of these artists though. Instead of a million and a half albums in ten years (Nicholas Tse), it's more like three to five. More of a Western-style release pattern, really.
That is the case with Shou Ren, or ThinMan, who have been around in some form since 1993, but released their first album in 1999. They've since released another album in 2002 and their most recent in 2008. It's too bad too, because they're a really brilliant band. I can't decide where their influences lie, but a lot of times I find myself thinking of Rage and some of the latter years of grunge. But there's also nu-metal stylings here and there. The vocalist is anywhere between grating and really freaking good. Sometimes their songs are only 2 minutes, but most of the time, they're well over five minutes, up to eight.
While their newest album is good, I'd have to say my favorite is their second, Beijing Dream. It was funkier, and more Rage-like. 让我替你疯狂 for example, has so many similarities, I could almost swear it was Tom Morello playing that guitar. I honestly hope that it's not six years before their next album, lol.
And since there is literally nothing available on YouTube (ok, almost nothing), I will make an attempt to present a couple of cool tunes. Assuming Vox cooperates here. But yes, this is one of my favorite rock bands. They're talented, their music has a lot of character, and it has an amalgamation of styles that I've always leaned towards.
OIC, Vox doesn't like Asian characters, and I don't feel like ruining my tags. So here's a sendspace link. Shouren - 你明白701 and also Shouren - 蒙古战车, both from the Beijing Dream album I mentioned before. The latter song has some manner of traditional instrument in it, but I can't think of it right now. It's an awesome song though.
Last edit, I swear. It looks like it DID accept my song, just told me it didn't. Watch out for the volume if you have some kinda sub-woofery system like me, lol.
This isn't exactly a standard review, because it's only one song. But holy crap almighty is it an awesome song. I won't even take forever to say this, because it's obvious right from the start that it's going to be awesome.
Let's start with the guitar fuzz that immediately launches into a grungy riff, and then suddenly, it's almost a full-on industrial rock song. It quiets down briefly when Teru comes in with his characteristically soulful vocals. The chorus is almost standard GLAY, but chill-inducing, nevertheless. And don't fear, the awesome industrial rock beat comes roaring back as soon as Teru steps out. Then there's some creepy "ooohs" in the background that could be a backing track for Castlevania. The chorus returns and is then followed by a modified version of the previous part before some more grungy riffs take us out. The closing is quiet, like the ending to a vampire film.
Yes, it's the theme song for one, in fact. Last Blood or something, I'm not actually sure. But, I'll tell you what, this is possibly the coolest song GLAY has ever come up with. Maybe not technically the best, or the most moving, but definitely, hands-down, the coolest.
FINAL WORD: freaking awesome is my final word, yes. ★★★★★
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Key:
★★★★★ = Excellent, flawless, perfecto
★★★★☆ = Very good, has some minor flaws
★★★☆☆ = Good, maybe a few boring moments, but overall enjoyable
★★☆☆☆ = Fair, bad outweighs the good
★☆☆☆☆ = Poor, possibly offensive to your ears
Pros:
* A bunch of my favorite songs
* The shredding in 'Makes No Sense' was pretty cool
* Lemon was hot, Lemon is always hot so that's a wash
* The last song
Cons:
* Wtf was with the musicians all being in the pit and then sounding like they were mixed in the background?
* The weird solo-artist, idol-treatment thing going on
* The wings amg! I hate wings ever since Hyde was obsessed with them.
* The retarded props, lol
The thing that's neither pro nor con was how sometimes he sounded really good and other times not so much. But part of the latter was because of the stupid music being all in the background. It takes some real major talent and training to sound good sans instruments, and often music written specifically for that. Needless to say, most of the time it did him no favors.
Maybe I'm not used to this sort of thing. I expected him to be rocking out with his "band" as it were. I don't understand the point of having live musicians, and then sticking them in a pit and turning their portion of the sound down. Maybe that's not his decision even.
Technical things...his guitaring was alright. Ok, he only played it like, three times. The last song was the best. It wasn't purely shredding, and his fingers were pretty nimble, lol. Singing...again, he pretty much sounded similar to the albums. It was clear he wasn't trying to get fancy or anything. Breathing was too obvious sometimes, but then, I'm really picky about that. I prefer breathing is seen and not heard.
Overall, it was strangely sterile. Like, the whole thing. It was a little surprising, because my Youtube foreys did not suggest this. He was very charismatic singing 'Come Together' on some unknown music show. Makes me wonder if all Chinese concerts are like that.
