38 posts tagged “reviews”

OH what is this?  A non-Japanese review?  Yes, in fact.  I should be reviewing AIC, tbh.  But I just got my grubby hands on this new album that again, I didn't realize was even out, lol.  These guys are from Finland, but pretty much sing in English, which makes them unique among my Finnish loves.  I generally like my Finnish bands to sing in Finnish.  I have a sort of...love/hate relationship with Sonata Arctica though.  When they're good, they're really good, but when they're bad, they're epically annoying.  So Idk.  Let's see how this one rubs me.

The Days of Grays

Sonata Arctica
The Days of Grays
Genre: metal, power metal
Release Date: 09-16-09
Language: English
Label/Distributor: Nuclear Blast
Tracks: 13

01. Everything Fades to Gray (Instrumental
02. Deathaura
03. The Last Amazing Grays
04. Flag in the Ground
05. Breathing
06. Zeroes
07. The Dead Skin
08. Juliet
09. No Dream Can Heal a Broken Heart
10. As If the World Wasn't Ending
11.The Truth Is out There
12.Everything Fades to Gray (Full Version)
13.In The Dark

The cover is certainly awesome.  It would get five stars only for that if that's how I was judging things.  Everything Fades to Gray (Inst.) is the first track.  Starts very ominously with a swelling string section, then some piano and it moseys on for about 3 minutes before segueing into Deathaura.  Which, begins almost the same way, but gets quickly heavier, and oh, this is a surprise, a woman starts singing.  According to the Wiki article this song is broken into "scenes", but I can't say I really feel that, though there is a brief tempo change around 4-smth, and then again some 30 seconds later.  The women come back in at that point too.  Typical Sonata song, really, in spite of the extras.  The Last Amazing Grays is next.  It starts out suitably heavy, but ends up more melodic.  I like the crunchy riffs mixed with strings about a minute from the end.  From there we go to Flag in the Ground.  The beginning is a bit Celtic in flavor and the rest is fairly epic, but nothing special.  Breathing starts out quietly, turns into a ballad.  Fortunately it's short, I don't really like their ballads all that much.  Zeroes starts out kinda screamy and is less stringy than the rest of the album so far.  I like the emphasis on the machine-gun drums in parts.  Probably my favorite song so far.  The Dead Skin comes up next.  I like the contrast between the heavy rhythm and the piano at the start.  It continues the darker, heavier vibe of the previous song, with the exception of the chorus parts.  I'm all for the yelly parts, lol.  And there's even a tiny bass solo about a minute from the end.  Juliet starts with a similarly pounding rhythm section and vocals that are noticeably accented.  It gets ballady after that, or rather has a ballady section before marching back into metal territory.  It basically keeps that switcheroo up for the entire song and works pretty well.  No Dream Can Heal A Broken Heart is next.  Harpsichord or a mandolin starts this one out, along with some nice bass.  Later on the female vocalist comes in again.  This is a short one, but it's effective and continues the streak of goodness that started with Zeroes.  As If the World Wasn't Ending follows up with a soft keyboard intro and singing.  It jumps into power ballad territory about a minute after.  It's better than the first ballad song and just as short.  The Truth is Out There is kind of a lolarious title, but the song kinda goes back to the first half of the album.  Everything Fades to Gray is probably a continuation of the starting track, but it's a bit disappointing.  In The Dark is some sort of bonus track, and it's another one those power ballad things, albeit much longer than the other two, and well, not terrible.  It's got a nice rhythm breakdown two minutes or so before the end.

To be honest I was starting to get bored right up until Zeroes, but then the next five songs were truly glorious.  Dark, heavy, great musical atmosphere, the kinda stuff I really like from them.  Unfortunately it backslid a bit with the 11th track and I didn't feel like the final track did anything to improve on the instrumental.  In fact, it was probably more boring.  The bonus track helped dull this a bit, but overall, I can't really say this is an amazing album.  Though about five songs are, lol. 

FINAL WORD: good, but also typical.  ★★★☆☆

_______________________________________________________

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

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?

SHADOWS

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.  ★★★★☆

_______________________________________________________

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

Exist Trace has long been one of those bands that I've thought had a modicum of potential, but never really lived up to it.  At their best, they were relatively decent, at their worst, they were awful.  However, they recently took some kind of hiatus, and this mini is their return.  While I'm not exactly wowed, I am pretty pleased with this effort.  Sounds like Jyou can sing finally and their production is much cleaner.

VANGUARD

exist†trace
VANGUARD -of the muses-
Genre: rock, metal, vk
Release Date: 04-22-09
Price: 1900 ¥
Label/Distributor: Seikodo
Tracks: 6

VANGUARD starts out with a funky little riff before turning into something heavier.  I like the menacing presence of the bass trudging along below everything else.  There's some random screaming/yelling in the background, but for the most part Jyou actually sings.  This song proves right away that they can successfully maintain their darker sound without sacrificing ears with terrible growling/screaming and sludgy guitar.  ROUGE has another dominant bass sound.  Not a brilliant line by any means, but it gives the song a fuller sound.  The middle part is a little noisy, but it ends well.  花の咲かない街 starts out sounding rather like a D'espairsRay song with some keyboard lurking in the background.  A nice stiff, drum and bass attack starts after that.  The chorus turns considerably more melodic with Jyou trying out the upper parts of her range.  I like how the tempo romps along, rarely slowing down.  There's a pretty mediocre breakdown in the bridge, but it sounds cool enough.  Next up is Requiem.  I can't say it really sounds like a requiem, but again, it does kinda sound like a D'espairsRay song.  I like the sort of Finnrock tone and style of Jyou's voice in this one.  It has that dark, icy sound, lol.  オルレアンの少女 is kind of a cool name.  It's also probably the closest thing to a throwback song on here.  Jyou starts with growls right away, while a slightly Arabic-sounding riff drones in the background.  However, the chorus takes away what little old sound we had going with its, hmm, poppyness.  I don't believe in that word, but I guess it applies.  "Accessible" is probably a better word.  The last song is Lost in Helix.  This one starts out slowly, trudgingly.  It continues being more of a rock ballad, and I enjoy Jyou's very minor vocals.  I guess it's a little boring compared to the rest of the album, but certainly not bad.

There was pretty much heavy improvement all across the board in this album.  My main problems with them before has been Jyou's awful, off-key singing, extremely simple riffs, sludgy production and unforgiveable noisiness.  They've corrected nearly everything.  Jyou still isn't brilliant, but she's improved by leaps and bounds.  Though part of this could be her relative lack of screaming/growling in here.  She's never been good at that, especially if you compare her to the chick from Head Phones President or Dazzle Vision.  She's awful.  But if she sings, she's definitely passable.  Arrangements are also better.  So yeah, this almost doesn't sound like the same band.  Which is a GOOD thing.

FINAL WORD: solid and well put-together.  ★★★★☆

_______________________________________________________

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

OHP:  http://www.exist-trace.com/

Myspace:  http://www.myspace.com/existxtrace

Last FM:  http://www.last.fm/music/exist†trace

After years of basically being inactive, OLIVIA finally releases something not too long after a previous release.  What we have here is a three-song single following in the footsteps of the mini, Trinka Trinka.  That mini had a sort of electric pop sound, so what does Sailing Free bring us?  It's also worth mentioning that Inoran of LUNA SEA fame, composes.

Sailing Free

Sailing Free
Genre: rock, pop, female vocals
Release Date: 04-15-09
Price: 1714 ¥
Label/Distributor: Avex Trax
Tracks: 3

The first track has a surprisingly heavy bass feel and quickly establishes itself as a rock song.  But, like all good OLIVIA rock songs, has a super catchy chorus.  I don't really feel the Inoran influence in this song, but hey, that just means he can compose stuff for other people without it sounding like his own stuff.  It clocks in at a respectable 5 minutes, so you have plenty of time to enjoy the awesome.  Next up is Love Love Love, and it starts out with a little string motif, and rather predictably turns into a ballad.  It's not exactly boring, but it doesn't stand out among her best ballads either.  Undress is the shortest song, at a mere 4 minutes, lol.  Just in comparison to 5 and 6 minutes I guess.  Like the title track, it has a great bass sound.  Maybe that's the Inoran difference.  I can't say I've noticed bass much in her previous songs.  This song is somewhere between the other two.  It's rockish, but it's not particularly catchy and the tempo is not as fast as the first song, but not as slow as a ballad.  It's nice, but again, somewhat unremarkable.

Essentially we have one really great song, and two other songs that are ok, but nothing special.  However, they aren't bad, so they kinda coast on the power of Sailing Free, and I guess more or less makes the single.

FINAL WORD:  a solid little single ★★★☆☆

_______________________________________________________

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

OHP:  http://www.avexnet.or.jp/olivia/

Last FM: http://www.last.fm/music/OLIVIA

Official Myspace:  http://www.myspace.com/olivialufkinofficial

This is not my first review of 2009, I thought it was for a second.  I'm reviewing this one because it's the only one of the three albums I received recently that I didn't know what to say about.  After a few listens even, I was like, I don't know.  Do I like this?  Do I hate it?  Am I ambivalent?  So basically a review might help me decide.  Is what I'm hoping, anyway, lol.

Mar Maroon

12012
Mar Maroon
Genre: rock, vk
Release Date: 03-11-09
Price: 3000 ¥
Label/Distributor: UNIVERSAL MUSIC K.K./NAYUTAWAVE RECORDS
Tracks: 13

01. THE WORLD
02. DNA
03. As
04. スマイルアゲイン
05. MERRY GO WORLD
06. PSYCHO VIRUS
07. 逢いたいから....
08. SYSTEM [0] DOWN
09. 太陽
10. GENERATION
11. I DEAL
12. Hallelujah -Album Ver.-
13. 願い

THE WORLD is a happy-sounding intro track, though a rather long one at two and half minutes.  Wataru's vocals are electronically enhanced and he sort of repeats the same lines.  DNA follows with a heavier beat and a liberal amount of turntables.  It has an unfortunate resemblance to a Gazette song, to be honest.  Melodic chorus and heavy breakdown, isn't terribly interesting.  As was previously a single, and a very catchy one at that.  It was probably my favorite title track of the four singles.  However, coming after DNA, it doesn't have very much oomph of its own, sounding too similar.  スマイルアゲイン is next, and again, it sounds too much like the previous songs.  Same structure, same light sound and overly melodic/uplifting chorus.  Another single, MERRY GO WORLD, follows.  And I think I'm starting to see my problem with this album.  They simply made too many similar-sounding songs and stuck them all in a row, and this one, again, great by itself, boring when coming after the previous three.  Now PSYCHO VIRUS is something else entirely.  It seems like people either love or hate this song, and I'm going to admit I loved it.  Why?  Because I love jazz and anything jazz-tinged is almost always win for me.  I loved Wataru's scream to get it going with a bang, and then his mostly deeper vocals throughout.  The scatting could have been better, but I think this is the first time I've heard him do it, so maybe he'll get better if he tries it again down the road.  Fun song and a welcome reprieve from the first half of this album.  逢いたいから.... is another single track and is basically a ballad.  It's not bad, although a little long, and sort of boring coming after PSYCHO VIRUS.  SYSTEM [0] DOWN is next and I love the methodical way it starts with a little trippy guitar riff and some bass.  The riff continues running around in the background, which helps give this one a unique sound.  You definitely miss it when it disappears.  Fortunately it sticks around for most of the song.  One of my favorites for standing out.  太陽 is yet another single song.  Are you counting? There's five.  Anyway, I found this song boring while in single context, and it still sort of is, but benefits from better placement vs the other single songs on here.  It's amazing what placement can do for songs on albums.  Especially considering the next song, GENERATION.  Nice, crisp drumming, a prominent bassline, and some well-placed background orchestration makes this song another keeper.  I DEAL is almost reminescent of their older stuff, especially when it goes into that more minor sound, and the way Wataru's vocals are mixed.  The chorus sounds appropriately mournful, and this is another one of my favorites.  The second half is obviously turning out to be better than the first.  The final single song is Hallelujah, and you know how "album versions" of singles are rarely much different?  Maybe a different opening and couple more seconds tacked on or trimmed off, well, this one is actually quite a bit different.  For one thing, it's over a minute longer, but it's also quite a bit more epic.  I can't say I liked the change though.  Part of what I really liked about the single version was its understatedness and relative shortness for a ballad.  But I guess it had to take ending duties.  At least, if you got a DVD-version.  For me, there's one last song.  願い.  I'm glad this song is an actual song though.  The bonus track in Diamond was a short ending song, kinda lame.  On the other hand, this is actually one of the best songs on here.  It has a great, bright catchy riff, and a big full solo halfway through.

My problems with this album are still hard to pinpoint.  The production sounds rather muddy throughout, and that doesn't help things, then the first half of the album is so mind-numbingly homogenous, and worse still, there are really no truly standout songs.  With Diamond, there were at least four, and the placement of the singles on Mar Maroon was terrible in relation to the other tracks.  Though, part of the problem could be that they had so damn many singles this time.  So it's not so much that it was a bad album, just a frustrating one.  And not, I feel, a worthy successor to Diamond.

FINAL WORD:  that is a reluctant three stars, it should be more like 2.5 ★★★☆☆

_______________________________________________________

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

OHP:  http://www.12012.jp/

Last FM:  http://www.last.fm/music/12012

Well, I dunno, after Ageha, I expected something pretty awesome, to follow that up.  Did I get it?  Um, no, not really.

sora to ito

MUCC
sora to ito
Genre: rock, metal, angura
Release Date: 01-28-09
Price: 952 ¥
Label/Distributor: Danger Crue
Tracks: 1 + 2

01. 空と糸
02. 気化熱 *w/dvd*
03. カナリア *cd only*

The sad thing is, after all my insistence that Ken would in no way affect MUCC and make them sound like L'arc, I have to take that back.  Because sora to ito unmistakably sounds like L'arc.  And I can say this with authority, as a long-time former L'arc fan.  Somewhere near the bridge, it goes back into that hardcore sound they've been fooling with since Ageha, and yes that helps a bit.  But the main lines with Tatsu consistantly slipping into falsetto every other line, has got L'arc written all over it.  As much as Tatsu is a superior vocalist to Hyde, very few beat the latter when it comes to falsetto, and Tatsu, sadly, is not that good at it.  At least not consistently.

The b-side to the DVD version is Kikanetsu, and it has a disco beat stolen from a couple of their more boring songs like namonaki yume.  The chorus is again, rather boring L'arc fare.  I dunno, the song just never goes anywhere, and there's so much going on, that I keep losing track of where the main theme is.  It pretty much disappears from my brain as soon as it ends.

The missing link is Kanaria, and I heaved a big sigh of relief as soon as I heard that upright bass.  This is some jazzy mixture of old and new MUCC. It's got the flavor of Tonbi, 1979 and even a tad of Kare ga shinda hi, but also a pretty awesome guitar solo.  One of the most interesting I've heard from Miya in awhile.  Unfortunately, it's also much too short, and that goes for the song as well.  This almost, almost redeems the other two songs.

So, what to make of this?  I dunno.  The title track still bores me to tears, and I'd be fine never hearing Kikanetsu again, but Kanaria is cooooool.  I guess that means the bad outweighs the good, thus leading to my score.

FINAL WORD: hope y'all bought the one with Kanaria.  ★★☆☆☆

_______________________________________________________

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

OHP: www.55-69.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/muccofficial

Last FM: http://www.last.fm/music/ムック

Found this band completely by accident while listening to a compilation, and I have to say I was pretty impressed.  They've been around since 2004 apparently, but only recently (last year) released something.  That something being this darkly interesting mini.  I love the name.

Grimorium verum

Sito Magus
Grimorium Verum
Genre: rock, goth, metal
Release Date: 12-30-07
Price: 2000 ¥
Label/Distributor: Sito Magus
Tracks: 5

01. Into the chaos
02. Necromance
03. ウェヌスの蝋人形
04. Vampire Romance
05. 9番目の棺

Into the chaos is anything but chaotic, starting with some basso piano and a heavy brooding bass.  The vocals come in shortly thereafter, and Sybila has the sort of voice you might be familiar with if you listen to artists like MDM or Juka.  However, he seems to have a lot more control than most of these, and sticks to his dramatic lower range, without too much vibrato.  Necromance is up next and that familiar harpsichord comes in right away.  I love the sort of stop-start beat.  I know I just said Sybila was pretty good in controlling the vibrato, but not as much here.  It takes on a bit of that annoying Gackt warbling sound.  It's a pretty epic track though at nearly six minutes.  It's followed by ウェヌスの蝋人形.  This one has another methodical tempo that changes a few times.  I like the bass plodding around beneath everything.  It repeats the main theme while guitar tinkles above it.  There's not as much of the "goth" touche in this song either.  Sybila shows off some falsetto as well, but as it's kind of mixed in the background, it sounds tentative to me.  Vampire Romance comes next.  With such a stereotypical title, you might think the song is equally as trite.  And perhaps it is a little boring to begin with.  But it redeems itself in the last three minutes or so with a bombastic climax and some interesting harpsichord/piano effects, followed by nice little guitar solo.  The ending is also awesome, sounding like something right out of a Dracula movie.  9番目の棺 closes this mini out.  And, well, it does a pretty good job on the epic scale, complete with a dark female choral background and plenty of harpsichord to go around.  This is actually the song I stumbled upon and made me get this album.

Essentially if you like dark, harpsichord laden, symphonic almost-metal with deep male vocals, this is the sort of stuff for you.  The production is mostly good, though sometimes I felt Sybila's voice was mixed too much behind the instruments.  The harpsichord is tasteful, unlike a lot of other bands that use this style, and I never felt bashed over the head by a symphonic wall of noise.  I like that everything was mostly crisp and clear and easy to hear the individual elements.  I also enjoyed Nea's bass playing.

FINAL WORD: darkly tasteful and above all, elegant.  ★★★★☆

_______________________________________________________

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

OHP: http://www1.cnc.jp/sitomagus

Myspace: www.myspace.com/sitomagus

Last FM: http://www.last.fm/music/Sito+Magus

After, oh, something like four or so single releases, here's the album.  It pretty much includes all single tracks except for You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To.  So that's only five new tracks, if you're keeping count.  I hate when pop artists do that, I really do.

VOICE

Nakashima Mika 中島美嘉
VOICE
Genre: rock, pop
Release Date: 11-26-08
Price: 3059 ¥
Label/Distributor: Sony Music Entertainment
Tracks: 14

01. LIFE
02. SAKURA ～花霞～（DAISHI DANCE）
03. FOCUS
04. 永遠の詩
05. ORION
06. あなたがいるから
07. MY GENTLE MAN
08. TRUST YOUR VOICE
09. IT’S TOO LATE
10. I DON’T KNOW
11. SHUT UP
12. conFusiOn
13. FLOWER OF TIME
14. 声

Life is a rather generic dance-y track with an oddly catchy chorus.  I have a hard time reconciling Mika's smooth voice with tracks like this, but it's ok.  The next track is even more generic, but minus the interesting chorus.  Both of these were single tracks.  And so is FOCUS.  This one is more along the lines of smooth jazz.  It's from the ORION single, which I liked fairly well.  Another single is 永遠の詩.  It starts out with a little reggae intro and proceeds into an islandy beat.  This style does work well with her voice, much like blues/gospel does.  ORION is less interesting than its b-side, too much of a generic pop ballad.  The first new song, finally, is あなたがいるから.  Unfortunately, it's a lot like the previous track, with nothing particularly distingushing about it.  Another new song is up next, MY GENTLE MAN, and the way it starts suggests that it is yet another ballad.  And a pretty boring one at that.  Last in our block of new songs is TRUST YOUR VOICE.  It's NOT a ballad, thank God, instead it's more of an almost Kumi-ish style with a fairly heavy club beat.  It gets a little repetitive though.  Another single track follows, IT'S TOO LATE.  Has a similar style to the previous song, but has some funk/gospel elements in it to mix things up.  The next two songs are probably the weirdest addition to the album.  She did some "hard rock" tracks under a different name, I DON'T KNOW and SHUT UP.  I didn't think she'd include them here, but she did.  I'm never quite sure what to think of her rock stuff.  But these are probably better than her Nana songs, at least.  I DON'T KNOW is probably the stronger of the two.  conFusiOn is next and is another single b-side, and it would be really good if it wasn't for that static sound during most of the song.  I don't even know what it is, but it drives me nuts.  Finally, to close the album out, we have two more new songs.  The first is FLOWER OF TIME.  It's a down-tempo, heavy beat, smooth jazz song, kind of like FOCUS.  Not bad, but again, nothing special, which seems to be the story of this album.  It also drags on for over six minutes.  Last up is 声.  It's a nice, mellow song with heavy violin.  Very unlike anything else on here. 

I don't really like her formula of smooth jazzy/poppy tracks followed by ballads, and I will also stick to my opinion that her voice is best suited to jazz/blues/gospel styles and not the generic pop stuff that everyone else does.  However, judging by the poor reception I observed for YES, I can only guess that she was forced back into this stuff.  The worst part about this album is that all the single tracks were a lot better than the album ones.  The album ones basically felt like filler.  The decision to include the rock tracks is also dubious.  Sure it gives the album a twist, but ultimately they don't fit.

FINAL WORD:  album is disjointed at best, boring at worst. ★★☆☆☆

_______________________________________________________

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

OHP:  http://www.mikanakashima.com/

Last FM:  http://www.last.fm/music/中島美嘉

Kill Me Kiss Me

So, these are Morning Musume grads teaming up to do some weird mixture of electro pop-rock punk.  That probably sounds like crap to you, but actually, it's oddly good and oddly addictive.  And not nearly as bad as it sounds...

HANGRY & ANGRY
Kill Me Kiss Me
Genre: rock, pop, electro
Release Date: 11-19-08
Price: $11.98
Label/Distributor: JapanFiles
Tracks: 5

1. Kill Me Kiss Me
2. Angelia
3. GIZA GIZA
4. ロマンティックにバイオレンス
5. WALL FLOWER

The title track, Kill Me Kiss Me, is catchy as hell, and will probably be the song stuck in your head at the end of this album.  It's got a club beat and some voice effects on the girls during the chorus.  Where's the rock?  Well, there's not much of it in this song, unless you count their rather punkish delivery.  The guitars are kind of in the background for most of the song.  Though there is some industrialish riffing in what probably passes as the bridge.  The next song is Angelia, and it really gives off a DRM vibe at the start, with that synthy intro.  Again, the guitars are sort of sludging around in the background, while the title is repeated just a little too much.  This is probably the poppiest and weakest song on the album.  Giza Giza is our third track, and it starts with a little bass piano before launching into something similarly synthy as the previous song.  BUT, it has a little darker vibe, and is so far the first song that's a little slower without as much of that pounding club beat.  Another pretty catchy chorus too.  ロマンティックにバイオレンス (Romantic Violence) is next.  There's something about this song that reminds me of old VK redone to be poppy and sung by girls, obviously.  I think it's just the chorus though.  Last song is WALL FLOWER.  This one is probably the least electro of the bunch.  Reminds me a little of a PUFFY song, especially the chorus.  While this one isn't as boring as Angelia, it is a tad generic, right up to the only almost-guitar solo of the album.  My favorites are definitely the other three.

This album really does fit all the genres I gave it above, and regardless of how you feel about Morning Musume, it should have some pretty wide appeal, I think.  It's polished, has some catchy hooks, the vocals aren't terribly offensive, nearly every song is strong, and really it's just fun.  I, for one, am looking forward to more material from them.

Final Word: Enjoyable and catchy. ★★★★☆

_______________________________________________________

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'd upload a sample, but I don't want the notoriously annoying JapanFiles after me, so just go here: http://www.japanfiles.com/hangryangry  And get all the samples you want.

OHP:  http://www.hangry-angry.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hangryandangry

Apocalypse

This is the former LUNA SEA guitarist’s fifth original album, coming a little over a year after his last one, Niraikanai. With such a provocative name, it’s hard to know what to expect. But if you were paying attention, two full songs were uploaded on the special site for the album in advance. In a way, they helped with the expectations, but there were still a few surprises…

INORAN
apocalypse
Genre: rock, pop, alternative
Release Date: 09-24-08
Price: 2665 ¥
Label/Distributor: King Records
Tracks: 13

01 The beginning and the end
02 Cheval’s palace is here
03 I’ll
04 Rightaway
05 Senneka 千年花
06 Hydrangea
07 Between eyes #1
08 Regret
09 Toki no souretsu 時の葬列
10 Between eyes #2
11 9th
12 Between eyes#3
13 Let me down

Like he is often wont to do, the first song is simply an intro. It has a bit of a hip-hop sound and turntables. It goes right into “Cheval’s palace is here”, which is probably the most interesting title on the album. It’s a pretty typical sort of Inoran song, full of low bass and complicated soundscapes. I love how he says the title though, it flows really nicely somehow. And an interesting note…Ferdinand Cheval was a French postman who spent 33 years of his life building his “ideal palace” by himself. At one point, Inoran sings “Cheval’s palace in me”, and I honestly can’t think of a more poignant lyric. It ends with some turntable effects, something that never seems out of place in his songs, no matter where they are. The next track, “I’ll” is a funky rock song with blues-inspired guitar riffs. Long, but not particularly catchy. “Rightaway” was one of the songs made available on the album’s site. It combines a mostly mellow rock track with some heavier riffs interspersed throughout. Unlike the previous song, the chorus is plenty catchy. Also made available on the site, “Senneka” was a PV too. I’d describe it as mellow, uplifting and majestic, with an excellent string section that never overwhelms. I love how the ending is an unfinished phrase and simply features Inoran on vocals as all instruments stop behind him. At the halfway point of the album, we get “Hydrangea”, and this song alone would be worth the entire album. From the harpsichord intro to the clapping and chanted background vocals, and Inoran’s own commanding vocal line as well. I can’t begin to describe what an amazing soundscape this song is, so I’ll stop here and suggest that if you only listen to one song on this album, let this be it.

The intermission track “Between eyes #1″ starts off the second half of the album. It’s simply a bit of funky ambiance leading into “Regret”. This song feels a little alternative rock to me. I particularly like Inoran’s tightly controlled falsetto in the chorus. It comes off of a nice progression. Next up is “Toki no souretsu”. This is probably the ballad, with a very simple arrangement and Inoran’s vocals slightly hidden behind a distorter for the entire song. Another intermission follows, cleverly titled “Between eyes #2″. Then comes the 11th track, “9th”. It’s a bright, and yes, still mellow rock track, despite its uptempo-ness. And yes, you might have guessed, “Between eyes #3″ comes right after. This brings us to the final track, “Let me down”. Supposedly there was an R&B song on this album, I can’t figure that out, but this might be it, as it does have a mildly gospel feel with the background vocals. The violin solo is also quite nice, not overbearing. I’ve always liked Inoran’s use of strings, to be honest. I also like that the album ender is fairly catchy.

Now, normally I’d have a problem with four out of thirteen tracks being essentially intros/intermissions, but since the rest of the tracks are so strong, it’s easy to overlook. The first half of the album was probably stronger, containing Cheval’s palace, Rightaway, Senneka and of course, Hydrangea. While the second half has all three intermission tracks, the simple Toki no souretsu and a few other less standout tracks. But oddly the more bland second half does absolutely nothing to diminish how fantastic the first half was. In fact, it just makes you want to press repeat. And I have, several times. On one hand, this is still definitely Inoran’s sound, but on the other, this is such an album album, if you know what I mean. Everything fits into one whole piece.

Final Word: Dark and uplifting all at once. ★★★★★

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