Dropping The Vitamin, Embracing The DISCO

(NOTE: Click on the banner. It’ll take you to my new site. Some people seem to be having trouble noticing that, so I thought I’d just point it out.)

Yes, I’m afraid to say that this is a closing down post.

However, if the above didn’t alert you of the situation, this should: I now have a new blog, which will be where I will be moving the complere operation to. So this is goodbye to Vitamin Drop, and hello to What is DISCO?, a new music review (No longer just Japanese, but mainly focusing on Japanese either way) blog that is, ONCE AGAIN, named after something relating to Perfume. This time, the introductory video to their DISCO! DISCO! DISCO! performance.

I’ll be leaving this blog up as an archive of my older reviews. I will not be moving them to the new blog, and I will be starting fresh on the new blog, and possibly trying out a few new things as well. I have a run-down of how I’ll be going about things over there, so read that if you’re confused.

If you’re wondering WHY I changed blogs, it’s because I’ve been offered a hosting position on Unchained, and I’ve acquired my own URL. I think working without the restrictions WordPress gives you would mean that I’d be able to make something a bit more informative or… Whatever else. Plus, it gives me a chance to start over and make sure the majority of my posts are all in the same format and written with a consistent level of skill instead of having those back from when I was first writing reviews and then ending with the current reviews.

So please, all affiliates, update your links! Please post in the first post on that blog if you’ve changed links, as I’ll only be adding new links as people add mine. I’ll be working to get everyone I have on my current blogroll onto the new one, but I’ll be working on a few things for the next week or two, so I’ll start tracking down those who haven’t changed it at that stage.

Anyway, yes. I hope you enjoyed the ride~ Now it’s time to start all over again!

Speak for Yourself [Imogen Heap - 2nd Album]

Tracklisting
1) Headlock
2) Goodnight and Go
3) Have You Got It In You?
4) Loose Ends
5) Hide and Seek
6)  Clear the Area
7) Daylight Robbery
8) The Walk
9) Just For Now
10) I Am In Love With You
11) Closing In
12) The Moment I Said It
13) Speeding Cars (Japanese Re-Release Bonus Track)
14) Can’t Take It In (Japanese Re-Release Bonus Track)

Speak for Yourself is the second album from British artist Imogen Heap, and the third she has taken part in including her time being half of the duo Frou Frou, which disbanded sometime between Details and Speak For Yourself. It had two singles preceding its release, Hide and Seek and Goodnight and Go, while Headlock also had a music video filmed for it. The bonus track Can’t Take It In was used in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, while The Moment I Said It was used in an episode of Criminal Minds called Seven Seconds. It was originally released on the 18th of July, 2005.

My, is this really Imogen? I thought I was listening to Frou Frou all over again. In all seriousness though, the album ditches Imgoen’s initial punk/grunge rock sensibility and takes on a much more synthesized, natural sound, similar to the approach that was taken with Details. As such, it really appeals to a much smaller audience, and old fans that started drifting away upon the release of Details could initially be scared off by how different this really is, but once you get past that and listen to the album as it is, there’s definitely a lot to love here. And if this is your first album, so much the better: No shocks for you!

Despite the new sound, the diversity of the tracks is still highly apparent. There’s a pop song in Goodnight and Go and Just For Now, a darker track in Daylight Robbery and The Walk, and even obscure, gentler songs such as I Am In Love With You and The Moment I Said It. The trip-hop, synth-pop elements are still here, and they’ve been put to good use. It’s nice to hear such a diversity of tracks, and there’s so much diversity here that you could pretty much say that it trumps Details in that respect, as Imogen uses a whole different array of sounds throughout the album.

The album is, for all intents and purposes, a love-it-or-hate-it affair. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t a rabid Imogen fan who likes every track on the album, and sometimes the hype of a song will actually kill the potential it initially had to make a huge impact on you. This album is full of this, too, as at least three songs have appeared on The O.C., and subsequently one of these songs started being used all over the place, leading to a bit of over-exposure, if anything.

And while the hype machine has even taken me down a few times before, I have to say: I’ve heard the hype, and honestly, Hide and Seek deserves it. I’m sure we’ve all heard of it by this stage: That dark, foreboding, melancholic a capella song that only features Imogen and the harmonizer. It may be simple, and it may be over-hyped, but the fact that the song is so unique, so open-ended meaning wise, and yet so emotional despite the amount of technological covering in it makes it a rather impressive feat of a song. As much as I love it, though, it honestly seems largely out of place. It may be a diverse album, but absolutely nothing but a Perfume album would be able to contain that song successfully.

And as a whole, it’s because of this fact that a few songs initially trump Hide and Seek. Songs like the painfully mood-stradling Headlock and the dark, powerful Daylight Robbery just end up showing a superior side in the context of the album, though they can’t really be called inferior: All of Imogen’s songs are full of meanings, it’s just that they take it on in a much more conventional manner, which will be easier to swallow for the more mainstream-loving listeners.

The album works extremely well as a whole: The digital yet natural sound of the album mixes the songs together in a very respectable manner, and this manages to connect each song with that one single thread, with the only slight hitch being the lack of a melodic structure in Hide and Seek. A few niggles between the radically different moods and pitches of certain songs could provide a slightly less favorable transition throughout the record, but it all depends on how much attention you pay to that when it comes to whether it ruins it for you or not.

Album Score
A-

Favorite Tracks
1) Headlock
2) Daylight Robbery
3) Just For Now
4) Hide and Seek
5) Goodnight and Go

In some ways, this album is much better than Details. In some ways, it’s much worse. The album has a much more consistent and cohesive sound to it, while at the same time it handles things in a manner that make me see it as slightly more off-putting than its predecessor. It’s in no way a bad album, and there wasn’t a single bad track to be seen here (Well… Maybe Clear The Area.), but I just can’t see it as being as easy to get into for fans or newcomers. Details provides a nice bit of leeway in that it isn’t as digital as this album, so maybe that would be a better place to start, but this is definitely still a highly recommended album.

Brave vibration [Anna Tsuchiya - PV Review]

NUDY SHOW! itself was a pretty good album. It got me interested in Anna, but I wasn’t exactly converted into a raving fan or anything. That and there were too many singles for me to really put her on here and force myself to make an opinion of her. So, I decided to leave her until her new era began. And now, we have the first sign of what’s to come: Brave vibration.

Honestly, I am VERY glad I left it until now. Already, I think I prefer this song to the majority of her NUDY SHOW! material. It’s not glaringly upbeat, but it’s not a dark rock song: It finds a nice little space between both sounds and gives you a middle-road, nigh-on mid-tempo rock track that doesn’t really match what the covers seemed to intend it to. That’s probably a good thing, because island rock would NOT be a good thing.

What’s good about this song is that it mixes darker-sounding verses with the optimistically upbeat chorus, which is always a good thing: Too much of one single sound can be rather glaring at times, so it’s nice when a song tries to play it up a bit, which is what they did here. Anna, vocally, sounds as you’d expect her to, but her voice suits the music well: Especially in the verses, when things are a bit grungier, but that doesn’t mean she works any worse in the chorus. You’re not really going to be surprised by the song overall, but it was a nice little creation.

However, it can seem a bit generic at times. I can’t pinpoint why, but it’s not really as mindblowingly epic as a song like Sailing Free, although it isn’t as bad as Rain, either. (Sorry for the glaring OLIVIA comparisons, but it’s true.) It’s not a mind blowingly orgasmic song, but it has something that I think her recent songs have been missing, so it’s nice to hear a song like this.

The PV isn’t much to write home about, though. It’s mainly shots of Anna singing on a rooftop with her band, and straddling various walls throughout the verses while she dons her island garb and wiggles around on the beach for the brighter choruses. I will say, I never thought Anna could be this good looking. I’m sure we all know how bad she can get, but for the majority of the PV, I’m pleasantly surprised by how she looks. Although that’s just about it for the PV. It’s a nice little piece of eye candy for anyone who gets hard over Anna, but again, it’s not mindblowing or epic or anything.

Song Score
A-

PV Score
B

Overall Score
B+

While it isn’t an overly epic song or video, it was a nice little package to start off the era with. The song is highly infections and a nice little change of pace, despite being a bit like previous efforts from Anna, and the PV had its charms, while still being, for the most part, mindblowingly unnecessary. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next, and hoping it turns out even better than this. (After the actual single releases, of course: Unless the b-side ends up being surprisingly high-quality, which would be great too.)

Lick me ♥ [Koda Kumi - PV Review]

After a great (Well, as far as I’m concerned) album and a passable single, you’d have to hope for a great single to improve the outlook a bit, wouldn’t you? Well, with titles like Lick Me, Ecstacy and Hashire!, you’d expect there to be a little bit of that inappropriate sexiness we all know and love, wouldn’t you? ESPECIALLY from the first one, if not the first two. Evidently, that isn’t what we got at all.

If you look at Lick me ♥ as a normal Kuu pop song and don’t even LOOK at the title, then it’s actually a really catchy song. I’m a fan of Kuu’s poppier, upbeat songs, and this is no exception, if you ignore absolutely everything about it (title and single-wise). That ad-libbing you hear over the heavier instrumental after the chorus isn’t exactly pleasing to the ear, and it’s the same for those sounds she INSISTS on making near the end of the video. But the instrumental is really catchy, and her vocals for the rest of the song are at least as good as the rest of her recent songs.

If you take the title into account, it’s more of a let down. Kuu’s always at her finest when she’s shoving bottles up her many orifices and kneeling on toilets in the shortest and tightest dress you could possibly imagine, and if she’s climbing up the leg of another woman, you can just consider that a bonus. Giving a song like THIS the title of Lick Me is just teasing. It had potential, and yet they left it as a campy pop song. For all I know, the lyrics could be dirty as all hell, but with an outer shell like this, that isn’t really much of a saving grace, especially when you don’t exactly understand what she’s singing.

The video isn’t exactly flattering, either. It has this whole retro feel to it, and it has a few different alter egos for Kuu in it, depicting different kinds of girls: Strawberry Girl, whose sections of the PV take place in a bowling alley; Mango Girl, who’s in a schoolbus full of people less than half her age; Bitter Choco Girl, who’s the only one that even comes CLOSE to being sexy in any sense, while all she’s doing is playing around on a single-seat couch in front of some green wall; and VANILLA AFTER ALL !1!!!1!!1!11!1! girl, who takes up the majority of the PV dancing around like a suggestive fool in an ice cream parlor. There’s nothing remotely attractive about any of these cutesy wigs or outfits she’s wearing; With the exception of Bitter Choco Girl, who I find to be passable, albeit POORLY represented, since she’s barely in the PV as it is.

I take it that the whole point of this is to show the different kinds of girls, their different personalities and the kind of ice cream that they seem to be related to. (OH, HOW SMART, A PV FOR A SONG CALLED LICK ME ABOUT ICE CREAM! I’m insulted.) Honestly, I see nothing different about any of these girls except that one likes bowling, one likes acting like a fool on a couch, one’s an idiot dreamer and another is a lesbian pedophile. It seems kind of pointless, but at the same time, it IS kind of cute. The costumes ruin it, but it does have its charm here or there. I don’t absolutely LOVE it, but once I get past my bitterness over all of this cheated teasing, I can stand it. It fits the song, at least.

One more thing to add about both the PV and the song: They seem SICKENINGLY short. The song was made in a manner that makes those three minutes and thirty seven second fly by, and I can’t really tell whether that’s a bad thing or not.

Song Score
B-

PV Score
C-

Overall Score
C

I’m disappointed that this turned out so horribly lame compared to the potential it carried, but at least the song is bearable. I can already tell I’ll never be touching the PV with a three foot shit stick again, but the overall package could have been a LOT worse. I’m hoping Ecstacy and Hashire! meet my expectations, though, because the single still has a shot with these two a-sides.

So, my review list is getting kind of empty…

Yep, as soon as I review Imogen Heap’s Speak For Yourself, absolutely everything will be up to date, and my list will be full of upcoming releases.

I have therefore decided to screw it all and feature a few more artists. However, this time, I thought I’d TAKE SOME REQUESTS for a few artists. I already have two that I will definitely be featuring…

SID
(A newly-signed major label Visual Kei group with a rather extensive indies discography. I’ll be starting from their latest era, Hikari.)

And…

Superfly
(A J-Pop artist heavily influenced by 70s rock, to the point where she could pretty much pass for a 70s artist if the listener were completely oblivious to her music. I’ll most likely be starting from her first era, Superfly, since her discography is so small.)

But apart from them, I should be accepting about… Oh, two to three more artists? It won’t be first come first serve, either: I’ll only be adding those who I listen to and like, so please provide links to one or two of their best tracks (in your opinion, of course), and a picture of them (optional, but I like to know the face of who I’m featuring), and we’ll see what happens. If NO ONE comments here or helps me decide, I’ll just go ahead and feature a few more artists of my own, but I’d rather it didn’t come to that.

Just a note: I won’t take any requests for non-Japanese artists. Imogen Heap is, at the moment, the only non-Special Review English artist that will be featured on Vitamin Drop, so don’t bother asking, please and thank you~

The E.N.D [Black Eyes Peas - 5th Studio Album] (SPECIAL REVIEW)

Tracklisting

DISC ONE
1) Boom Boom Pow
2) Rock That Body
3) Meet Me Halfway
4) Imma Be
5) I Gotta Feeling
6) Alive
7) Missing You
8) Ring-A-Ling
9) Party All The Time
10) Out Of My Head
11) Electric City
12) Showdown
13) Now Generation
14) One Tribe
15) Rockin To The Beat

DISC TWO
1) Where Ya Wanna Go
2) Simple Little Melody
3) Mare
4) Don’t Bring Me Down
5) Pump It Harder (”Pump It” Remix)
6) Let’s Get Restarted (”Let’s Get Retarded” Remix)
7) Shut the Phunk Up (”Shut Up” Knee Deep Remix)
8) That’s The Joint (Joints & Jams Remix)
9) Another Weekend (featuring Esthero) (”Weekend” remix)
10) Don’t Phunk Around (”Don’t Phunk With My Heart” Chicago House Remix)

The E.N.D is the fifth studio album from the Black Eyed Peas. The title is an acronym of “The Energy Never Dies”, and according to band member will.i.am, the album follows the concept that a regular album no longer exists: Due to the nature of iTunes and the ease in which you can get individual songs now, he claims that they plan to make it a sort of diary of musical progression, and keep adding to it in the future. It is also the first album to make a heavy use of the synthesizer as the main instrument instead of going for mainstream R&B-styled music. The deluxe edition came with a second CD that contained four more original tracks, with the last six being remixes of previously released songs from other albums. It also had two singles: Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling, with Meet Me Halfway, Alive and Imma Be being released as digital singles prior to release as well. It managed to reach #2 on the Oricon album charts (despite not being a Japanese album) and #1 on the Oricon international charts. Other chart placements are not yet known. The album was released worldwide between the 3rd and 16th of June, 2009.

First off, I have one word to describe the Deluxe edition of the album: LONG. Secondly, I have one word to describe the entire album: Fresh. It’s always nice to see artists experiment and reach out beyond their usual predefined genre of music, and it’s even better when that artist exceeds in keeping up with their usual standards. The album does have the usual misses throughout, but they manage to mix their usual style of music with this electronic experimental nature to make an interesting and cohesive album.

I’ll be completely honest, something like this was the last thing I expected from a band like the Black Eyed Peas. However, as soon as I heard Boom Boom Pow: in all of its raw, hook-lacking nature; I knew that they were onto something here, because it managed to be extremely catchy while being radically different. (Although, Fergie’s mention of them “chickens jacking my style” always manages to crack me up, so that might have some part in it.) Then, as the digital singles started coming out, I knew they had the ability to extend this over an album successfully: Alive, Meet Me Halfway and I Gotta Feeling are all interesting and unique tracks, although Imma Be was a little less fantastic for me. I will say, I don’t like how overly extended that new talking intro for Boom Boom Pow is, and I usually skip straight to the actual song because of that (which is annoying, since they’re both one track), but it’s still a good song.

The album tracks manage to catch your interest, as well. For some reason, it’s always the humorous tracks that make me love BEP, and Out of my Head is no exception: It’s a playful, slapstick song sung almost entirely by Fergie that is pretty much just about drinking. She isn’t exactly the best singer, but I will say, she knows how to make a song humorous and interesting at the same time. One Tribe is also an interesting track, with the theme of the world getting amnesia to overcome our issues being a rather well thought-out, if not slightly silly, theme to write a song about.

The bonus tracks on the second disc, however, are less inspiringly interesting. The only good songs here are Mare, the majorly Filipino song about ladies and dancing, and the That’s The Joint remix present on here. (Don’t Bring Me Down is another good one, actually, so make that three.) The rest is pretty much nothing of note, though fans of those particular songs should take a listen. The album itself isn’t exactly perfect, either: Tracks like Ring-A-Ling (Nonsensical without the humor, and just plain annoying musically) and Showdown (A rather predictable, annoyingly plain attempt at music) tend to bring the album down in places, and for being an experimental synth album, there isn’t exactly as much as one would expect, which could be a downside for those coming here for that style of music.

I will say one thing, though: The album is consistent. Not including the bonus second disc, the album has tremendous flow, and all of the tracks work well with those around them due to the similar, united sound they all have. The only real hitch is a good track flowing into a bad track (Missing You to Ring-A-Ling, for example), but their similar synth theme makes the transition itself smooth either way. The transition between the two discs itself is even passable: Where Ya Wanna Go, however, opens with a rather fragile piano solo, so going from the synth-heavy, lyrically light Rockin To The Beat to it isn’t exactly 100% smooth. However, the acoustic guitar at the end of Rockin To The Beat helps lighten the transition, and the fact that Where Ya Wanna Go is alsoa  synth-heavy song after the piano wears off works in its favor, as well. That’s The Joint tends to stand out like a sore thumb between two synthed R&B songs, as it’s pretty much a high-energy Lounge-meets-R&B song, so it’s a bit of a rocky ride. It depends on whether you like good flow between your remixes whether this’ll bother you or not.

Do I think they’re going to use this style again? Not really. Do I hope they’ll use this style again? Yes, indeed. While I was a huge fan of their last album, Monkey Business, I quickly outgrew it when I started getting into techno-pop and, well, J-Pop in general. Now that the Black Eyed Peas are experimenting with some riskier synths, they appeal to me on a whole new level once again. Plus, they pulled it off in a very good manner, so what’s not to like? The only thing I have against it is that it’s VERY LONG WINDED, so even I can’t help but get bored by the time I’m almost at the end of the first disc.

Album Score
B+

Favorite Tracks
1) Out Of My Head
2) Meet Me Halfway
3) Alive
4) One Tribe
5) Mare
6) Boom Boom Pow
7) That’s The Joint (Joints & Jams Remix)
8) Don’t Bring Me Down
9) Rockin To The Beat
10) Electric City

Experimentation is always a risky business when it comes to music. When it works out well, it’s definitely easy to notice and appreciate. Thankfully, this worked out well, and it’s only helped raise my interest in the Black Eyed Peas once again. If they were to go back to their older, purer R&B days, I’d probably be a little less interested, but looking in the now, The E.N.D was a very good thing. Let’s just hope this isn’t the E.N.D (Oh, how punny of me. *shot*) of their humorous tracks, because they always make the album for me. NICE WORK, PEAS~ Don’t stop it now.

(NOTE: It was a long album, so I chose 10 favorite tracks instead of 5. I tend to raise the number depending on the tracklisting, and 10 seems feasible for a 25 track album when I always choose 5 for 10-15 track albums.)

Details [Frou Frou - Debut Album]

Tracklisting
1) Let Go
2) Breathe In
3) It’s Good To Be In Love
4) Must Be Dreaming
5) Psychobabble
6) Only Got One
7) Shh
8) Hear Me Out
9) Maddening Shroud
10) Flicks
11) The Dumbing Down Of Love
12) Old Piano (International Bonus Track)
13) Holding Out For A Hero (Australian Bonus Track) (?)

Details is the debut album for the British electronic/trip-hop (so they say) duo, Frou Frou, which is composed of vocalist Imogen Heap (the main reason I’m reviewing it) and Guy Sigsworth, the guy in the back. Both of them wrote, produced and played instruments for different songs on the album, although Imogen is the only one to provide vocals. The track Let Go was used in the closing credits for the movie Garden State, which featured Zach Braff, while Holding Out For A Hero is a cover of the old Bonnie Tyler hit, and was used in the movie Shrek 2, along another cover of the same song. The album was released on the 4th of June, 2002.

Remember how I said Imogen’s solo debut was angsty and soulful? You know, an album with a bit of a punk flair to it while still keeping a bit of the mainstream in one or two songs. Well, Details is a totally different story. The soul is still there, as is the deep meaning. The punk elements are gone, though, and this album is instead made up of ambient electronica. This is when Imogen started moving towards her now staple genre, and probably the one stage where she was best recognised before Hide and Seek from her following solo album was used in just about every existing medium.

So, it’s quite a departure, indeed. The album is rather ecclectic: You have your darker, often times ambient synth pieces (Let Go, Psychobabble, Only Got One), and you have your lighter tracks that are a bit friendlier (Breathe In, It’s Good To Be In Love, Maddening Shroud) and you also have your plain strange tracks (Psychobabble again, Flicks, Old Piano). It’s got a little bit of everything, which is good to hear. The album does a great job at not repeating itself while still sounding consistent. Not every track here is perfect, but as a package, it worked out perfectly. While it is mainly an electronica album, there are a few odd songs that lack that sound (For example, Breathe In has almost none of the elements), but in the long haul, if you don’t like mellow electronica or synth-pop, this really isn’t what you’ll be gravitating towards.

As I’ve said, it does a great job of providing you with interesting, unique tracks. The biggest example I’d like to point out here is Psychobabble. It has those dark, ominous, echoing bell chimes over a mysterious and foreboding synth line with Imogen singing what I could possibly call her strangest set of lyrics yet: The general story is, Imogen talking to herself, as if on a phone, talking to someone frantic and possibly in some situation that gives off a feeling of urgency. It’s a rather mysterious and intriguing piece, if not downright chaotic.

Another of the odd, stand-out tracks is Flicks. While this isn’t exactly a stand-out for me, it has a rather odd lyrical composition to it, and the arrangement carries a sort of semi-Arabian atmosphere to it. Honestly, I can’t make any sense of the lyrics though, so I can’t even begin to wonder what it could be about, but it has a rather atmospheric, ethereal feel to it that helps set the mood. The ad libbing was a nice touch from Imogen, too.

However, just to even it out, there has to be a bad track or two. The biggest dunce, I would say, has to be Madenning Shroud. The verse structure just seems a bit too childish for my liking, and the chorus isn’t much better. It’s very repetitive, and while the atmospheric noises are nice, it’s just not very appealing. Old Piano tends to drag quite a bit, as well, and ends up falling flat halfway through due to the odd nature of the song itself.

And, on a final note, who can forget the subdued, blending in songs: Only Got One and The Dumbing Down Of Love, which happen to be two very good songs even with this quiet nature: Only Got One, a song about living your life as you want since “you’ve only got one”, works as one of the uppers of the album, while The Dumbing Down Of Love would be more akin to a dirge or ballad of kinds.

And what’s an album without its song about not doing drugs: Breathe In takes this title, and it’s also one of the brighter tracks on the album. It’s kind of odd, as it’s hard to tell whether she’s berating, approving or just indifferent.

Album Score
A-

Favorite Tracks
1) Psychobabble
2) It’s Good To Be In Love
3) Hear Me Out
4) Only Got One
5) Let Go

It was rather hard to contain this review into a less-than-1000-word limit. There’s a lot to say about it, as it’s not exactly the kind of album you’d run into every day. It takes the electronica twist and adds it to otherwise ordinary songs to give them a unique twist to make them stand out, instead of turning it into club or house music. It was a rather interesting experiment, and in my opinion, one of the best things to happen to Imogen: This style of music was a brilliant change for her, and it did nothing but help her next album. So, nice job, Imogen and Guy~

The Next Generation [Sweetbox - 7th Album] (SPECIAL REVIEW)

Tracklisting
1) We Can Work It Out
2) You Don’t Know What You’re Sorry For
3) In a Heartbeat
4) With a Love Like You
5) Everything is Nothing
6) Crash Landed
7) Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
8) Blue Angel
9) Magic
10) Everybody Come Out In the Sunshine
11) These Dayz
12) More Than You’ll Ever Know
13) When Will It Be Me
14) Come Home to You
15) Love Forgets
16) Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (Yasutaka Nakata (capsule) Remix)

The Next Generation is the seventh album for the German-originated (And popular in Asia only, for some reason, and none of their vocalists have been German…) pop group Sweetbox. It is also the first full-length studio album after the most popular vocalist in the groups history, Jade Villalon, left the group to start her solo career under the moniker Jade Valerie, and eventually join the group Eternity ∞. Instead, the role of vocalist has been taken over by American singer, song-writer and model, Jamie Pineda. The album had one single before release, We Can Work It Out, with the capsule remix of Everything’s Gonna Be Alright remix also getting airplay in Japan. The album was released on the 10th of June, 2009.

Sweetbox has recently been, more than anything, a pop group with classical influences in their music. Now that Jade has left the group, the direction was up in the air for a while, and now that it’s out, I can safely say… A lot has changed. Jamie has a radically different voice, and sounds a lot like your typical American R&B singer, while the group has a more R&B-influenced sound to match her voice. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your musical preference, but either way, this is the new sound for Sweetbox, so it’s worth checking out how they did anyway.

While R&B has become the dominant sound in the album, it’s still a crossover-styled effort. It’s not all fantastic, but there are a few times where they have managed to top even some of Jade’s old Sweetbox tracks. These tracks usually end up being closer to the older sound than the rest, but Jamie’s voice works well with them. These Dayz and Crash Landed are definitely the stand-outs here: These Dayz is more of a brighter pop-R&B song with an incredibly catchy melody and surprisingly good vocals from Jamie, with a few slighter classical influences backing the music up. Crash Landed, however, is a bit of an odd-ball. I can’t place the name to the sample, but it sounds rather Phanom of the Opera-ish with that piano and all. I’d say that’s where it’s from, actually. It’s a darker track, while still keeping that light, fun sound to it, and it has a much more distinct sound to it compared to a lot of the album tracks, which is always a plus.

Beyond this, there is a nice amount of good songs that I can certainly see myself listening to a lot. We Can Work It Out, the main promotional track, is one of these. It uses a piece of the same sample as in Eternity’s song I Will (The Spring section from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi), and has a nice, brighter semi-ballad pop sound to it. It’s not what I would have expected them to use as the promotional track, but it’s a nice, uplifting song. Love Forgets, the final original song on the album, is another interesting listen, being much more of a dance song than R&B, which was nice to see, and the strings do have a rather prominent place in the arrangement this time. Everything is Nothing is another upbeat, albeit mid-tempo track that you can’t help but smile at.

Musically, a lot of this album is actually brilliant. It’s not full of hits, and it tends to sound rather generic at times, too. More Than You’ll Ever Know, Coming Home To You and You Don’t Know What You’re Sorry For are prime examples of this, although Coming Home To You does have its good moments. To be honest, the main flaw I can see here is Jamie, and even that isn’t a huge problem. She actually has a very strong voice, and she may actually do well in the US if she tried to. That’s part of the issue. She has a rather generic R&B voice, all power aside, which radically changes this album compared to everything Sweetbox has ever done since Tina Harris was in charge of the vocals back for the groups first, self-named album. It’s nice to hear the crossover element stick, but it may be hard for you Jade fans to get into this straight away.

One last note: I’m not very happy with how the new version of Everything’s Gonna Be Alright turned out. I know it’s a Sweetbox staple, but as a whole, I would have been much happier if they had left it alone. Nakata should’ve stayed away, too: Honestly, I hated his remix to death after the initial fangasm wore off. It’s just that bad a remix.

Album Score
B

Favorite Tracks
1) These Dayz
2) Crash Landed
3) Everything is Nothing
4) We Can Work It Out
5) Love Forgets

As I said, hardcore Jade fans may have some trouble getting into this album. Take the time to listen it through, and don’t just dismiss Jamie straight away because she’s joined at a bad time for the group. She actually really is a good singer, despite a few reservations I have with her vocal style. A smaller focus on generic R&B tracks would be nice, but it was a pretty good first effort for new vocalist Jamie and first-time Sweetbox producer, Derek Bramble. Hopefully they learnt from this album and will improve in the future. (NOTE: These aren’t necessarily album scans, but they all kind of match to the cover, so they’ve been put here to make the review look pretty.)

Eternity [Eternity ∞ - Debut Album]

Tracklisting
1) Wonderful World
2) Love
3) Vanity
4) I Will
5) Worth It All
6) Change The World
7) How Far
8) Damn
9) No Apologies
10) Only Human
11) So Deep
12) You Smile
13) Hello Goodbye (Japanese Bonus Track)
14) Broken Lullaby (Japanese Bonus Track)
15) Turn It Up (iTunes Japan Bonus Track)

Eternity is the debut album from the duo Eternity ∞, who are currently signed under the Avex Casa label. It is made up of Jade Villalon, the most popular Sweetbox vocalist since its conception, and GEO, the producer, who also worked with Jade through both Sweetbox and her solo career as Jade Valerie. The album sees the return of the Pop meets Classical nature that was the trademark of Sweetbox in its earlier years, as every track on this album samples a classical piece of music. The album has managed to reach #30 on the Daily Oricon charts. It was released on the 3rd of June, 2009.

It’s been a while since Jade first went solo by now, and all we’ve had from her is one full-length album and a mini-album. Well, now she’s back, and under a new moniker to boot. I think the main question here is: How well does this album hold up to her previous material? Classical and Pop don’t really seem like the easiest genres to mix and match, but let’s see how they did.

To start with, I can easily think of one word to describe the majority of this album: Bubblegum. It is a VERY Bright, and VERY happy album, especially in the early segments. It also has a very distinct synth-pop sound to it at times (Vanity and Change The World are the best examples of this, although Only Human has that slightly darker semi-trance sound to it, as well), which wasn’t exactly prevalent in the past. So, the album has a lot going on. There are also many serious songs on this album, though, and it portrays more than just the visage that life is good. And really, that’s the message this album really seems to be trying to convey. Add that onto the legacy it has to follow up, and it’s going to have to do a lot to live up to its name.

It’s not always a masterpiece. It flows well through the usage of the classical sound that ties each song together, but honestly, there are times when this album sounds VERY generic. This isn’t always a bad thing: Wonderful World, the album opener, is one of the generic songs that manages to sound catchy at the same time, so you can kind of forgive it for that. Hello Goodbye could also be an example of this. It’s very similar to many past Sweetbox songs, so if you’re a follow, it should be very familiar to you by this point, so it doesn’t pull it off as flawlessly. Then again, this could be said for many of the songs on the album if you look at it closely.

Of course, sometimes the pop meets classical mixture is just laughably bad or awkward. The best example of this would be Turn It Up. It’s not exactly BAD, but… It’s much more baroque than the rest of the album, and the way Jade is singing sounds as if she’s trying to convey an attitude that just clashes horribly with the music, and hearing her say things like “Do you want it like this?” and “You’ve never heard it like this” in the chorus just make the clash even worse. It hasn’t got the best lyrics ever, either, so it’s easy to see why it was made a bonus track. So Deep follows a similar issue, but that’s mainly due to Jade’s badly vocodered vocals, so she just sounds awkward when it comes to the chorus.

Of course, the album does use the conveyance of attitude in a beneficial way at certain times. Namely, Vanity and Damn. Vanity is basically a stab at egotistical ways of thinking, and a bashing of self-obsession, while Damn is more about putting people behind you, or not being able to, as the case may be. And there are the cheesier moments that come off rather well, too: I Will, the song about weddings and uncertainty is the largest focus here, though Love and the aforementioned Wonderful World aren’t far behind. With songs like me, it actually doesn’t surprise me that they have this whole wedding-friendly thing going around.

Album Score
A

Favorite Tracks
1) Vanity
2) Wonderful World
3) I Will
4) Worth It All
5) Change The World

This was definitely better than Jade’s solo attempts with Out of the Box and Bittersweet Symphony, but I can’t really say that it beats her old Sweetbox material. It was a nice stab at getting back into the crossover genre, but the album has a few downfalls that make it less enjoyable. The majority of the album WAS enjoyable, and there are only two songs I can really say I hate, but comparing it to older material makes it seem just that much weaker. I am looking forward to what they’ll do next, though, because they did some fantastic things with those classical pieces!

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Waratte Waratte [Oku Hanako - 10th Single]

Tracklisting
1) Waratte Waratte (笑って笑って; lit. Smile Smile (or) Laugh Laugh)
2) Bokutachi ni Dekiru Koto (僕たちにできること; lit. What We Can Do)
3) Happy Days
4) Waratte Waratte (Instrumental)
5) Happy Days (Instrumental)

Waratte Waratte is Oku Hanako’s tenth single overall, and the final single in the BIRTHDAY era. It was released on the 3rd of June, 2009.

Oku seems to be a real ballad buff, and Waratte Waratte certainly doesn’t break this trend, nor does it disappoint. Following on from my PV review a few days ago, I can safely say, this song has more sounds in it on the single (it has ambient synths and strings filling in the blank space behind the keyboard), and despite their nature, they really help fill the song out and give it a much friendlier sound, while also reinforcing the melancholy nature of the song. The tone with the cover makes me assume this is a song that possibly has something to do with the past or reminiscing, and the way she sings the chorus absolutely reinforces this point. It’s an brilliant, beautiful song, and I have to say that it definitely tops both Anata ni Suki to Iwaretai and Ashita Saku Hana in one fell swoop. There’s also this kind of slight traditional Japanese feel to it at times, though I doubt that was intentional.

The b-side, Bokutachi ni Dekiru Koto, follows the same suit, in that it gives us another piano (keyboard, if you want to be specific) ballad. It’s much faster thanWaratte Waratte, and also has a louder, slightly more epic sound to it, while losing the sentimental edge the a-side had over it, making it a rather even tie between the two songs. Something about it makes it seem a bit more b-side relevant than it probably should. It actually sounds a bit too much like a few other piano ballad songs of a similar nature that I’ve heard before… Which is probably why I got the b-side vibe from it. Either way, it’s a really nice compliment to the a-side.

But Happy Days is just downright fun. It’s a cheesy, campy, overly bright pop song, but in the best way popular. Don’t expect a high-speed, seiyuu voiced pop song, because it’s far from that. It’s nice to see such a stark contrast to the other two tracks here, and it’s nice to see it pulled off in such a great manner. I do have a few problems with the bridges, though, so it’s not exactly a perfect song, and it sounds a lot simpler and more b-side material than Bokutachi ni Dekiru Koto, so I can’t really try and fight its positioning here. But it’s a nice pick-me-up after two heartfelt ballads, and after a single like this, that’s all I’m really looking for. Thank you, Oku!

Single Score
A

Favorite Track
Waratte Waratte

Three fantastic singles preceeding an album? It’s definitely gotten me hyped up for BIRTHDAY. Not many artists can release such consistently brilliant material. Angela and BONNIE even have trouble with this sometimes. I highly doubt every era for Oku has gone this swimmingly, but either way, it’s nice to see that this one has gone so well for her so far! Now, bring on the album~ I’m getting impatient. But yes, if you like Angela Aki, I highly recommend you try Oku out at this stage. You won’t be disappointed, they’re extremely similar.

i Megaphone [Imogen Heap - Debut Album]

Tracklisting
1) Getting Scared
2) Sweet Religion
3) Oh Me, Oh My
4) Shine
5) Whatever
6) Angry Angel
7) Candlelight
8) Rake It In
9) Come Here Boy
10) Useless
11) Sleep

i Megaphone is the debut album from British artist, Imogen Heap. It is also her only solo album under the Almo Sounds records, as she eventually created her own record label known as Megaphonic Records. The album title is an anagram of Imogen’s full name. It was released on the 16th of June, 1998.

Imogen Heap has always been a rather ecclectic artist when it comes to  her sound. i Megaphone is probably the most radically different of any of her releases, being the only album in her discography to use a grungier rock sound instead of a more ethereal synthesized style of music. It’s also the first real show of how deep and soulful her songs can get, despite this one being heavier on the angst than her next albums.

The album does a pretty good job of providing you with songs that are a bit more serious, songs that are a bit lighter and songs that are just plain fun. And, in one case, insane. The only real song that tries to bend itself between these multiple lines is Rake It In, a song that uses a lighter, higher-pitched sound with a darker lyrical message relating to physical and mental torture of various kinds. The main precursor of the eventual dark twist in the song is in the chorus: In the background, you can distinctly hear some Gregorian chanting, making a much spookier effect. It’s nothing compared to the hectic arrangement and screaming about two minutes in. Sweet Religion also tries to bend things a bit, and is actually quite catchy in the process; It’s got a really intriguing arrangement to it.

Away from this, there’s a lot to like throughout this album. In fact, I’m rather hard pressed to find a single bad song, arrangement-wise. There are lighter songs like Whatever, which uses a slightly overdriven electric guitar to give it a distinct sound through an otherwise calm arrangement; and Oh Me, Oh My, a slightly more ethereal song with a surprisingly out-there sound. There are also darker songs like Angry Angel, an aggressive, angst-ridden song full of religious terms relating to self-suffering; and Shine, a calmer take on the sound that uses a rather uncommon melody progression that helps makes it stand out on the album, despite not being the greatest song. There’s even Come Here Boy, a heartfelt piano ballad that stands out shockingly on such a dark album.

However, there is one thing wrong with this album: It has the token angst-ridden, out-of-tone vocals from Imogen herself. That’s not to say she’s a bad vocalist: She has one hell of a voice on her, and she does sound rather good when she isn’t trying to shout along to the angst. However, when she is, it just sounds a bit too grating at times. I’m glad to say that this album is the only case of it in her career, and she does show some fantastic vocals in Come Here Boy. Also, there are some nice moments in songs like Whatever and Oh My, Oh My, but it could take a bit of self-control and growing to get past the vocals in the initial stage if you aren’t already a fan of that style.

That aside, though, the album flows surprisingly well despite using these three distinct levels of tone in the moods of the songs. The united grungy, indies sound the album has helps tie it all together into one neat package, and the amount of soul that you get in the deeper songs is only strengthened by the fact that Imogen had a large role in the production of the album: Once again, though, it isn’t quite as much as we see in Speak For Yourself, and the amount we’ve heard of relating to her upcoming album Ellipse.

Album Score
B+

Favorite Tracks
1) Whatever
2) Oh Me, Oh My
3) Come Here Boy
4) Rake It In
5) Angry Angel

This was a fantastic debut for Imogen. Sure, it’s not her best album, but we all know how badly many artists have debuted in their times. While it’s not exactly the best place to start with Imogen, it’s a nice listen for exitsing fans of her, or people not looking to make an opinion of her as an artist and just enjoy her music. It’s not as enjoyable as her later works, but don’t pass on it because of that, because you’ll be missing out on quite a lot. As a side note, I rather like the anagram title of the album. I’m actually quite surprised they even got an anagram out of it.

NEXT LEVEL [Ayumi Hamasaki - 10th Studio Album]

Tracklisting
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

NEXT LEVEL is the tenth full-length studio album from Ayumi Hamasaki. It was released in four formats: CD Only, CD+DVD, 2CD+DVD and USB. The title track, NEXT LEVEL, was used to promote Panasonic’s Lumix FX 40 in their CMs. The album peaked at #1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts, stayed on there for 11 weeks and sold 361,717 in its first week. It was released on the 25th of March, 2009.

I am the furthest thing from an Ayumi Hamasaki fan. The only album of hers I had listened to before this was GUILTY, and I hated it. A lot. That is, in fact, the reason why Ayumi Hamasaki’s latest album, NEXT LEVEL, baffles me so much.

Instead of the heavier rock sound that GUILTY used, NEXT LEVEL takes on a slightly more retro synthed-up sound, with a few exceptions spread around here and there in the from of rock songs or ballads. This, and the hype Sparkle was gaining, are what made me listen to the album. Needless to say, I was impressed. Very impressed.

As much as I wish I didn’t have to say it, there’s a lot to love here. Synth-dominated dance tracks like EnergizE, Sparkle and rollin’ are the obvious highlights here, as they all manage to catch your interest and keep you listening for the long run, despite rollin’ having a rough start with those overly vocodered vocals. Another surprise stand-out was, unfortunately, a badly produced track. I say it was badly produced, because it’s an interlude. Disco-munication had the potential to be the BEST song on this album, bar none. However, they stuck it as an interlude. I just call that bad planning, and poor production choices, and so I’m a little sour over that.

The rock tracks aren’t really much to write home about (yes, including Rule), but LOVE ‘n’ HATE is an absolute gem in this section. It’s a heavy mixture of electric guitars and synths mixed into one slightly diverse package. I’m not really feeling Ayu’s vocals (I’ll go in-depth on that in a minute), but she does have her moments in this song. That counting from one to seven and ending with zero is actually rather clever once you hear the story behind it, but if you don’t it does have the potential to ruin the song for you. If not for Sparkle, that overly infectious piece of synthed-up sex, this would be the winning track of the album.

It’s not all smiles and sunshine though. Despite the large number of tracks, you have to keep in mind that there are four a-sides here, and an astounding number of FOUR interludes throughout the album, which is just a BIT too much considering most albums don’t even bother with them. Of the first three tracks, two of them are interludes as well, so the positioning on the album isn’t that great even later on. So as a whole, there are only about six new tracks on the album, which isn’t too bad. When the majority of them aren’t really that good, though, it doesn’t really help the album that much.

Honestly, I can’t get into Ayu’s singing, either. THIS is what the queen of J-Pop has to offer us? I don’t know why you’re all impressed, but I have to say that I think she’s a rather horrid vocalist when it actually comes to singing properly. There are a few cases where it can be forgiven (Sparkle, rollin’, LOVE ‘n’ HATE), but as a whole, it just seems really shoddy to me.

Also, while I’m here, I will say I don’t get the hype about her ballads. None of them really connected with me, and they all just seemed to be of a really poor quality to me. If that kind of stuff appeals to you, then I get why you’re liking it, but honestly, I’d rather she just made an album without them. Fat chance, I know, but whatever.

Album Score
B-

Favorite Tracks
1) Sparkle
2) LOVE ‘n’ HATE
3) rollin’
4) EnergizE

Despite being the farthest thing from an Ayu fan, I have to give the girl some credit. She actually did make a somewhat bearable album. There was quite a bit here that appealed to me, but as a whole, it kind of fell flat to me. I’m very intrigued to see where she takes herself next, but at the moment, I can’t say I’ve been converted into a fan by this album. Maybe next time.

GIVE ME UP [Nami Tamaki - 16th Single]

Tracklisting
1) GIVE ME UP
2) Ichizu na Negai (イチズナネガイ; lit. Wholehearted Wish)
3) Kanojo (彼女; lit. Girlfriend) (Regular Edition Bonus Track)
3) in my life (Limited Edition B Bonus Track)
4) GIVE ME UP (Instrumental)

GIVE ME UP is Nami Tamaki’s 16th single, and the first after her transfer to Universal Music Japan, and the first single of 2009 for Nami. The a-side, GIVE ME UP, is an original song that borrows the chorus from the very famous 1980’s hit by Michael Fortunati of the same name. It was released on the 25th of March, 2009.

I’m a total Nami noob, so I have no idea how huge the sin I am committing here is to her devotees. However, I love GIVE ME UP. It’s bright, upbeat and insanely cute in a happy kind of way. I’ve always thought Nami’s voice sounded a bit too nasal for most of her previous works, though I find that it works a lot better here than she could actually hope for. The only real issue I have here is the odd transitions from verse to chorus, but it’s not as glaring since they do sound rather similar. I can see WHY there’s a lot of hate here, because it’s wildly different from the norm for Nami, but I personally found it to be an extremely enjoyable first promotional track for her Universal Music Japan career.

Ichizu na Negai, however, is an absolute mess. It’s a lot of the same sounds and horrid vocals with one too many choruses. The verses are too short to make much of an impact, but honestly, I don’t want them to. They would make a bad song worse. The short verses make the song drag on FOREVER in a constant barrage of choruses, though if they were longer it would be just as bad due to the verses being as awful as they are. Nothing good here at all.

This is where the order gets funky, so I’ll just review Kanojo at this state, since it’s on the Regular edition. This is, without a doubt, the best b-side on this single, and it could even be better than GIVE ME UP. It takes the 90s sound, yet again, with a ballad twist to it. I love the beats throughout the whole song, and Nami herself sounds pretty good throughout the song, apart from the badly performed chorus. I’m actually rather surprised by how horrible her vocals are in the chorus and outro into the following verses. That’s what keeps it from being the standout song on the single, but it’s the best b-side for sure.

Ending the single is in my life. This is a song I have a really hard time trying to form an opinion on. Again, it’s a case of “I love the instrumental but think the vocals are an affront to God”. Honestly, she completely ruins this song with her voice, which is an absolute shame, because I think this song had potential. This probably sounds stupid to fans: I have no idea whether people actually think she can sing or not, but this is just a little bit unbearable. And, admittedly, the arrangement does drag on due to a lack of change. Ah, well, at least it tried. Again, it drags on too long anyway.

Single Score
C+

Favorite Track
GIVE ME UP

Well… At least she’s doing the style she loves now. GIVE ME UP was a fantastic a-side in my opinion, and Kanojo came very close to following suit albeit the bad singing. The single was lowered into mediocrity by Ichizu an Negai and in my life, so honestly, this is a real mixed bag, and I’m kind of worried about how FRIENDS! is going to turn out. Negai Hoshi was a great digi-single (it came out just recently), so hopefully it gets onto FRIENDS! and keeps her next single from following suit. Ah, well, nice try, Nami.

Waratte Waratte [Oku Hanako - PV Review]

I’m still rather new to Oku Hanako and her music, but her last two singles were both fantastic. The previews for Waratte Waratte (literally means Smile, Smile) all showed a similar level of quality for the single, and I was VERY pleased to hear that my expectations were met with the a-side.

In its PV form, Waratte Waratte is a very bare-bones bittersweet ballad instead of something outright orchestral and foreboding like Anata ni Suki to Iware Tai was. It’s not an outright sad ballad, which was nice to hear, and I like the effect that her rather high vocals have with the lone accompaniment of the keyboard. This is where her similarities to Angela Aki really kick in, because both use a similar instrument and like to go for one-instrument songs every now and then. The appearance similarities is but a coincidence, though Oku wins out there, admittedly.

The song does seem to be a bit empty at times though. I do like the effect the vocals and keyboard have without the interruptions, but it just won’t be as epic as her last a-side if she simply leaves it here. I can’t remember whether the preview had anything more than these, but if it didn’t, I can easily call it a little bit of wasted effort. Really, it doesn’t mean much, because it IS a beautiful song. It just seems like it isn’t performed to its full potential in such a half-finished state, since the keyboard doesn’t have quite the presence the piano has.

Unfortunately, the video accompanying it is a bit bland. It’s simply Oku playing the song on her keyboard, singing into the microphone for an invisible or out-of-sight audience. It’s a live video of sorts, so don’t expect much from it. I do like the atmosphere the empty amphitheatre (well, the lighting makes it look empty) and odd lighting give the video, though. It’s very simple, but it’s not too bad…

Until you compare it to the PV for Anata ni Suki to Iware Tai. It’s not that that PV makes this one BAD, but… Both were live PVs. Anata ni Suki to Iware Tai was a studio PV, while this is a live PV. Honestly, does she REALLY have to do this? I’m certain she had proper PVs for previous songs. Why are we reverting to this now? I don’t even think this is how the actual song is going to sound now, especially since Anata ni Suki to Iware Tai sounded slightly different, too. I’m not sure what to expect, but at least the song was good.

Song Score
A+

PV Score
C+

Overall Score
B

There isn’t really much to say here. At all. Waratte Waratte is a beautiful song with just a few touches missing, with a PV that unfortunately isn’t very good, made worse by the PV that came before it. As long as the music’s good, I guess it’s okay, but a good PV is a nice way to draw in a bit of attention and maybe even a few fans if they’re more focused on things like that. I’m glad she’s keeping the quality of mer music up this era, though. BIRTHDAY has a lot of potential to be good as it is, so hopefully this single makes me even more sure of that when it comes out, because my hopes are high at the moment.

hands [Eri Nobuchika - 1st Mini-Album]

Tracklisting
1) Melody
2) Kimi Nan Da (きみなんだ; lit. It’s You)
3) Tashika na Mono (タシカナモノ; lit. A Certain Thing)
4) calling you
5) Seseragi (せせらぎ; lit. Babble(?))
6) Tsunagu Mirai (つなぐみらい; lit. Connecting Future)
7) STEP
8) DEEP BLUE

hands is Eri Nobuchika’s first attempt at a mini-album, and her first release on the Hills Records label, after being dropped from her previous label. It was released on the 4th of June, 2009.

Eri’s debut album was a fantastic effort. Her work with Shinichi Osawa was absolutely brilliant, and that album is still highly enjoyable. However, I’m sorry to say that her work without Shinichi, as finally shown in the long-awaited hands, is very, VERY disappointing. It’s full of down-tempo jazzy pop numbers, and sounds a lot more mainstream than her previous works did. It even sounds like her voice has taken a considerable hit through her hiatus.

It’s not a terrible album, though. It just has many, many shortcomings. Namely, tracks like Melody, Seseragi, and calling you, with the first two being plain boring and the last being simply annoying. That’s almost half of the album as it is, and even though these are the main shortcomings, there are more.

Honestly, Eri sounds VERY mainstream in this album. She’s lost her individuality and sunk into a state of mediocrity that many of us have come to expect from her drop to an indies label. The songs here can sound very minimalistic at times, and many, if not all, are missing just one or two things that would make them fantastic. Case of point: Kimi Nan Da. It’s one of my favorite songs on the mini due to its usage of the jazz sound, but honestly, it’s just bland. Mika Nakashima had a great handle on this genre, so all I can think of is that Kimi Nan Da is a watered down attempt at that kind of sound. I can’t hate it because of this, but it’s missing a few things that could make it a lot better. Those constant breaks into piano solos being kicked out would help immensely, because they kill the flow.

A few more enjoyable tracks include STEP, a latin-infused track with a whole lot of energy and a decent hook that actually drags me in. It’s hands down my favorite song on the mini-album, just for how much it draws me in. Tsunagu Mirai is another example of a good song, despite suffering from what I shall call KND Syndrome. Everything else is just too dull to even remember. I can’t make myself do it, I couldn’t if I tried.

Mini-Album Score
C+

Favorite Tracks
1) STEP
2) Kimi Nan Da
3) Tsunagu Mirai

It was a nice attempt, but honestly, Eri’s just fallen flat with this release. It’s dull, uninspired and a huge step down both musically and vocally from her previous works. I guess it can’t be helped, but one can only hope she finds her way back into the dance genre, because it did absolute wonders with her voice. There really isn’t much to say: She just didn’t do well enough with this release. I’m hoping she releases something more soon, though. Even though it isn’t great, it’s still fantastic to see Eri enter the music scene again.