TODAY [Angela Aki - 3rd Album]

TODAY is Angela Aki’s third album overall, and her second on a major label. It debuted at #1 on the Oricon charts, which was also its debut weekly rank, and was released on the 19th of September, 2007.

Tracklisting

1. Sakurairo (サクラ色; Sakura Colour)
2. Again
3. TODAY
4. Ai no Uta (愛のうた; Love Song)
5. Tashika ni (たしかに; Surely)
6. Silent Girl
7. Moral no Soushiki (モラルの葬式; The Funeral of Morals)
8. Otome Gokoro (乙女心; The Feelings of a Girl)
9. One Melody
10. Tomo no Shirushi (友のしるし; Friend Symbol)
11. Kodoku no Kakera (孤独のカケラ; Fragments of Solitude)
12. On&On
13. Surrender

To be completely honest, I’ve never been a real ballad fan. While this is the case, Sakurairo is one of the few ballads that can keep me entertained throughout, which instantly makes it a favorite of mine. The verses can sound a bit dull, with the slow, quiet, yet cheerful piano and instrumental accompaniment, but once the orchestra comes in for the bridge and chorus, the song instantly becomes ten times more interesting. I’m a sucker for orchestras in pop songs, ballads or otherwise, so this is a huge plus, and it’s also what makes this song so great. One of Angela’s best. However, I won’t leave out one gripe that I have: Sometimes it sounds like she’s struggling to reach a note and just doesn’t quite make it. It might just be me, but that’s how I hear it.

We now come to something different. Again is one of Angela’s synth-driven pop songs, and placing it after Sakurairo was a good idea because of this, because it helps show newcomers some of her versatility when it comes to music. However, she seems to have the same problem of struggling and failing to reach a note, so it brings it down. She has better, but it’s still a great song.

And again (pun, maybe?), we’re treated to a different style of music. TODAY is actually the same kind of song as Again, except that it’s a bit slower. It’s a synth-driven pop song, still with Angela’s trademark piano. What makes it so different to Again is the slight rock sound that the song gains in the chorus, mainly due to the utilization of electric guitars, which Angela never really used before. Her voice is still great in this song, as it always is, and she never sounds like she’s struggling this time, which is great.

For some reason, Angela’s version (Come on, every J-Pop needs a song with this name, it’s almost customary, AM I RIGHT?!), and no one elses, of Ai no Uta makes me think of that Gamecube game Pikmin, cause it was the first song of this title that I heard after learning that Ai no Uta was a commercial song for that game. Anyway, back on topic, Ai no Uta is another of Angela’s brilliant ballads, and that’s mainly due to this song’s AMAZING arrangement. I’m a huge fan of piano solo songs, and while Ai no Uta isn’t exactly a piano solo, the majority of it focuses solely on the piano, so it counts. The orchestral arrangement just makes the song even better. I actually prefer this to Sakurairo.

Next is probably the most cheerful song on this album. I’ve listened to Angela ever since I discovered her ONE mini-album, but I was a passing listener. The first song that REALLY dragged me in was this one: Tashika ni. It’s a fast paced, upbeat, happy song, that focuses a LOT more on the synth and drums than the piano, which is another odd choice for Angela. I love how it opens (which DOES prominently feature a piano), and it doesn’t disappoint throughout. It can be a bit repetitive, but it uses short verses and somewhat constant choruses to make a great mix that’ll keep you from getting bored too fast. A great cheer-up song. It probably has one of my favorite meanings in it too: Love surely (Or definitely, I’m getting multiple meanings for Tashika ni) exists.

The opening for Silent Girl instantly reminds me of Ai no Uta, apart from Angela’s singing of the title opening the song, then having the piano follow. Throughout, it’s easily compared to the aforementioned ballad, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it’s a great song in its own right. It has a beauitufl chorus to it, which is the main part that keeps it original.

Moral no Soushiki opens with some dark, eerie synth, followed by Angela’s looping piano solo, and quickly followed by the lyrics. It’s another fast song, and Angela sings pretty fast to keep up with it, and while the verses are somewhat boring, the bridge gains a slightly more epic sound, before exploding into the awesome chorus, which as usual, is the highlight of the song. Her use of the phrase “Pater Noster”, or Father’s Prayer, is interesting too, as it ends the bridge to lead into the chorus.

We now come to one of my top three songs on this album: The first being Ai no Uta, the second being this song, Otome Gokoro. It’s another bright, cheery song, and I absolutely LOVE the piano that opens this song, as well as the electric guitar usage. The vocals are great, as usual, with none of the struggles that the first songs posed. I can’t help but smile when I hear it, for some reason, and if it has a sad meaning behind it, I couldn’t tell, because it sounds way too damn happy.

We now come to the half of the album that I can never really remember. One Melody has a pretty piano opening to it, but the verses seem to at first consist of random piano pressings and Angela singing over them. Not too interesting if you ask me. The chorus isn’t too compelling either, really. This song is just sort of a bore to me, despite being at least half of a piano solo. I’ll admit, the instruments in the second half help make it a bit more interesting, but not enough.

Tomo no Shirushi is another familiar song. It has an interesting acoustic opening, before bringing in the piano, and a synth backing that reminds me, oddly enough, of a light hearted Moral no Soushiki. It’s quite odd, but I like the effect it has. Its also a bit slower than Moral, which isn’t a huge change, really, but still. It’s a nice song.

Kodoku no Kakera is probably one of the only ballads that can even come close to matching Sakurairo. However, something about it just makes me lose interest. I can’t think of what it actually is, but I can never really listen to it, despite how far it goes to strive for rivalry of it’s older sister/brother, a.k.a. Sakurairo.

We now come to the final upbeat song before the end of the album. On&On is probably Angela’s most aggressive song. The barrage of sound given by the heavy instruments in the song actually compliments the piano well, and Angela’s voice is great here, especially when she’s hitting the higher notes in the chorus. This would’ve made a great A-side to a single. Too bad Sakurairo replaced it… This ties for a place in the top three with one other track…

…Namely, Surrender. This is, actually, my number one song on this album, despite what I may have said before. It opens beautifully with a sweeping piano and orchestral arrangement, before slowing down to enter the first verse. The lyrics in this song are outrageously cute when they want to be, and they’re all in English, which makes it even better. It has a wonderful meaning to it, which should be easy to understand if you pay enough attention. I could ramble about Surrender for hours, but I’ll leave it here by saying: Best song ever.

Album Grade
A+

Favorite Tracks
Surrender, On&On, Otome Gokoro, Sakurairo

This album acts as probably the best piece of proof available as to why Angela Aki is currently my favorite J-Pop artist. Despite what I may say about Ami and Perfume being at the top, no one can ever really knock Angela from the top spot. The only downside to her, and this album in general, are that they mark the start of Angela’s ten month hiatus, which is quickly becoming 12 months. I’m hoping we hear more from her soon.

ONE [Ami Suzuki - 14th Single]

ONE is Ami Suzuki’s 14th avex trax single, and her 29th overall. It was released on the 4th of July, 2008, and debuted at #8 on the daily Oricon charts, making it one of Ami’s highest charting singles in her recent career, debuting eight positions higher than both FREE FREE/SUPER MUSIC MAKER and Potential Breakup Song.

Tracklisting
1. ONE
2. A token of love
3. ONE (Instrumental)
4. A token of love (FM88 mix)

A lot of my regulars and past visitors will probably remember how much I loved ONE when the PV was first released. Well, that deteriorated, and my euphoric feelings received from a new single wore off and I started to hate it. However, after hearing it in High Quality for just about the first time, I’m in love with it again. I don’t know, but one quality change made this song that much more bearable. Its sound is highly reminiscent of FREE FREE, and is basically that song turned down a few octaves to make it actually standable, then given new lyrics and a slight synth overhaul. Overall, it makes for a great song, another of my favorites from Ami. My views towards this song are constantly changing from one extreme to the other, but it’s definitely a good offering from Ami, and hopefully a sign of what’s to come from her Nakata-produced album. (Coincidentally, I’ll bet his involvement is why it charted so much better than her last two singles, after Perfume took off like they did.)

Unlike ONE, when I heard the preview of A token of love, I hated it. I loved it after I’d heard it on the single last night, though. However, this was after doing school work for one subject for 15 hours straight, so I was highly out of my mind by that stage. NOW when I listen to it, I instantly fall in love with the opening synth, then start to lose interest when the quick beeps and usual aggressive over-synth line come in. It tones down for a while afterwards, but once Ami comes in, the synth just becomes annoying, as does her introductory ad-lib. It follows this style for most of the song, with the choruses being similar to the opening opening synth rather than the verses. Unfortunately, I end up becoming even more bored with it, which isn’t being helped by the 6 minutes 12 seconds you’ll be sitting there listening to this song. Real B-side material.

I won’t review ONE’s Instrumental, but I would like to comment on its strange placing. I have no idea why they wanted the instrumental before the remix of the B-side, but hey, I never listen to the instrumentals and remixes anyway, so it doesn’t bother me. I will say that I love this instrumental, though.

The A token of love FM88 mix goes straight into the verse synth and Ami Suzuki’s introductory ad-lib. The song sounds considerably lighter this time around, and I prefer its background synth a lot more when compared to the original mix of A token of love. It suits the chorus a lot better, too, so actually, I like this remix more than the original version.

Single Grade
B

Favorite Track
ONE

The B-side was a huge disappointment for this single, while the real surprise track here was the remix of said B-side. ONE is what we should expect from Ami and Nakata after FREE FREE, I guess. Too bad she didn’t release a single that was  relatable to Perfume, or even SUPER MUSIC MAKER, instead of leaning more towards capsule’s most recent techno sound.

Dolce [Ami Suzuki - 6th Album]

Dolce (originally CONNETTA 2) is Ami Suzuki’s third album under the avex label, while being her sixth album overall including her older Sony releases, and her second collaboration album. It debuted at #10, with a weekly rank of #26. It has sold approximately 10,835+ copies, and was released on the 6th of February, 2008.

Tracklisting

1. FREE FREE (AMI SUZUKI joins Nakata Yasutaka (capsule))
2. feel the beat (album version) (AMI SUZUKI joins Sugiurumn)
3. Potential Breakup Song (AMI SUZUKI joins Aly & AJ)
4. Bitter… (AMI SUZUKI joins STUDIO APARTMENT)
5. SWEET DANCE (AMI SUZUKI joins RAM RIDER)
6. The WeekeND (AMI SUZUKI joins CAPTAIN FUNK)
7. SUPER MUSIC MAKER (radio edit) (AMI SUZUKI joins Nakata Yasutaka (capsule))
8. MUSIC (AMI SUZUKI joins RAM RIDER)
9. Stereo Love (AMI SUZUKI joins Tomoe Shinohara☆☆☆)
10. Ai no Uta (アイノウタ; Love Song) (AMI SUZUKI joins ROCKETMAN feat.YOU THE ROCK★)
11. Futari wa POP (2人はPOP; Our Pop) (AMI SUZUKI joins Hoff Dylan)
12. Atarashii Hibi (新しい日々; New Day) (AMI SUZUKI joins YO-KING)
13. if (First Press Bonus Track)

Oddly enough, the album’s first song is also the first track from its first single. I’ve always somewhat hated Nakata for making FREE FREE, because it instantly assaults you with its uber high-pitched, aggressive synth, and your ears bleed almost straight away. However, this song’s grown on me. It’s not AS bad as it ditches the intro, as it drops a few octaves (heheh), and actually becomes standable. The lyrics are beyond pointless, but I like how distorted Ami’s vocals are, as it suits the song really well. The undistorted ad libbing by Ami in the background seems a bit out of place though. It’s not my favorite song, as it still gets a bit annoying, but it’s not the worst.

And also oddly enough, the second song is the secong track from the second single. Am I detecting a pattern here? No, I’m not, but anyway. I’ve always liked the synth for feel the beat, as it’s not as ear splitting, especially right after hearing FREE FREE. Ami’s voice fits the song well, but she doesn’t get many comprehensive lyrical sections to make them her voice worthwhile. I’d listen to this just for the accompanyment, which is something I usually refrain from doing.

And the A-Side from the second single follows. Potential Breakup Song was always one of my favorite Ami songs before the release of Dolce, despite my everlasting hatred for Aly & AJ, who recorded the original version and feature in this song singing back-up for Ami. This song actually fits the club sound that they’ve assigned it, and thankfully Ami didn’t try and make an English version of it, as I don’t think she’d be able to pull it off. So she played it safe, and thankfully it worked out.

The first ballad on the album, Bitter…, instantly gets me interested because of the sweeping string arrangement that opens the song. I don’t remember Ami doing this very often before, which is why I was so excited, but as soon as it ditched the strings and moved into the once again club-oriented synth, I started losing interest. However, when the vocals kicked in, I started gaining a bit more interest, as Ami gives another great performance here vocally, and it gets even better when the strings and synth combine for the chorus. It works surprisingly well, so the song’s instantly better than anything else on the album so far.

l can never seem to remember SWEET DANCE after hearing it. I find it to be a rather forgettable song, and while I like the quiet, simple synth at the beginning, the random sound effects detract from the overall feeling of the song. As the said synth grows in volume, it becomes a lot more bearable. I’m not a huge fan of the vocal section at first, but once Ami enters what I assume is the chorus, it picks up a little. I like the background music overall, but otherwise, it’s rather forgettable. I can swear I’ve heard some of these sounds somewhere before though…

The WeekeND is hands down one of my top three tracks on this album. It has a very… I’d call it an 80s sound to it, but I can’t be sure. It’s an upbeat, cheerful song, and Ami’s repetition of the “It’s the weekend” line fit perfectly. Unlike many other six minute songs you hear, this song actually boasts a proper lyrical content limit, which I find is a huge plus. It’s a great package overall, and even when I’m in a low point on Suzuki fandom, I often find myself turning to this song. It’s perfect for listening to on a Friday afternoon, too. xD

And now we have my ABSOLUTE favorite. The radio edit of SUPER MUSIC MAKER was chosen to appear on this album instead of the full mix, which is a decision I neither love or hate. It’s another upbeat song, and it works perfectly with Ami’s voice, but that might be because of how much they’ve distorted it. I’m hoping Nakata gives Ami more of these songs on her upcoming album, because this is my favorite Ami Suzuki song, and one of my favorites from Nakata altogether.

Another of my favorites is up next, but it isn’t in the top three this time. Music brings in a more club atmosphere here, on a similar level to The WeekeND, only much faster. Sometimes it sounds like this song’s moving too fast for its own good, which drags it down a bit. It still has some great synth when it reaches what I assume is the chorus (When Ami holds that long note before the synth instrumental period.) It’s not her best, but it’s still a great song.

Hahah, here we go. My number two song on the album is definitely Stereo Love. It’s also my second favorite Ami song altogether (the first obviously being SUPER MUSIC MAKER.) It sounds like Ami overdosed on sugar… Or maybe some kind of happy drug. It’s an extremely cute song, from the sighs that open it, to the random high-pitched synth that makes up to the song, to the surprisingly high pitch that Ami chooses to sing the song in. It works, despite how deep her voice can sound, and I swear to god, I can’t help but smile when I hear that song. Especially that giggle at the end. *Sigh*…

 A lot of people seem to have mixed reactions to the next song. However, I consider myself somewhat versatile in my tastes in music, and as such, I’m actually quite partial to Ai no Uta. I can’t decide what its genre is, but it sounds like it might have SOME Reggae influence in it (Only very little, cause it has a much larger R&B influence). However, Ami has a VERY small role in this song, singing only the chorus, while one of the other two featuring artists handles the rest of the lyrics. I don’t mind his voice, but it can be somewhat annoying. I just wish Ami had a larger role, because the music’s great, and her small part is fantastic in this song, in my honest opinion.

Okay, what the hell. I remember when I first reviewed this album, I liked Futari wa POP, or Ami’s parts, at least. Yeah, not anymore. I still like the 60s synth sound that the song has, but Hoff Dylan’s voice annoys the crap out of me completely, and Ami isn’t doing much better, with the overly high key she chooses to sing in. And she sings it all throughout the song. However, despite its odd sound, Hoff Dylan’s voice drowns her out in the chorus, meaning we don’t suffer her voice, but we suffer his inconceivably worse voice. I’d love this song as an instrumental, but otherwise… No. No way in hell.

Atarashii Hibi has a melancholic rock sound to it, and seems to rely heavily on guitars and drums, while still featuring some synth. I can hear a piano, too, so it’s probably the most organic song on this album. It has an older feeling to it as well, it reminds me of some of those really old 60s movies that you hear about, and Ami gives a great vocal performance in the song, especially the blaring chorus. I never used to be a huge fan of this song, but it’s definitely grown on me.

We now come to one of the only solo songs Ami has given us since her Around The World album. Yes, if is entirely free of any traces of a collaboration, and while Ami’s voice sounds great, I’m not a huge fan of the music in this song for some reason. I mean, it’s a good song, but it’s not great. It’s another one of the more natural songs though, so that’s a plus.

 

Album Grade
A

Favorite Songs
SUPER MUSIC MAKER, Stereo Love, The WeekeND

Nowadays, I’m much fonder of this album than I used to be. I like almost every song on this album in some small way at the very least, and it’s definitely the album that got me heavily into Ami Suzuki’s music. You can tell why I suddenly became such a rabid fanboy now, eh?

Oh, crap…

It’s been just about a week since I’ve even looked at a freaking blog here.

Sorry, people, but it’s the last week of my school term, and I have a whole load of work to catch up on.

So, there’s been a hiatus, and there will be one for a few more days. Just thought I’d give a warning.

love the world [Perfume (About post removal)]

Okay, so, this is just a warning to say I’ve deleted the old post because I can’t find a video that stays up for more than 24 hours.

So, I won’t be embedding it or providing a link or anything. I still love the video, and I’ve heard the song about 50 times on iTunes today. <3

Anyway, yeah. The previously promised Dolce review should still be coming later today.

(Special) Vampire Ecstacy [Aural Vampire - Debut Album]

Vampire Ecstacy is the debut album from the B-Horror themed industrial techno (Possibly? I’m not totally sure on their genre) band, Aural Vampire. It was originally released on the 22nd of March, 2004/6 (I’m getting two different responses to the release date), as their debut material: It had no singles preceeding it. Sales information is unavailable.

Tracklisting
1. opening
2. Vampire Ecstacy
3. Freeeze!!
4. Terror Vixen
5. Hana no Sakigake
6. THE REPOMAN
7. Preservative Woman
8. Crimson Tyrant
9. S.O.B
10. Disco King
11. Banboro Koubo
12. Murealism
13. PNFPN

While opening is about three minutes long, it is an interlude that mainly suits to set the theme for the album: It consists of music that you’d usually hear in movies that have demonic elements and such, and RAVEMAN (Or I’m pretty sure it’s him) speaks in a low register voice that succeeds in really creeping you out. This is also the first of the songs to sample audio clips from old B-Horror movies. I don’t know them all, but I’ll try to point them out. I only know one for sure though.

Onto the first song. Vampire Ecstacy starts with an electronic sound before the synth opens, starting slowly with effects on the top, and slowly gaining in volume. It has that industrial sound from the second it opens, and as soon as EXO-CHIKA’s vocals come in, the song succeeds in getting a whole lot creepier: The ethereal, distant sound of her vocals suit the theme of the album very well, but when it hits the verses, it tones it down a bit. EXO’s vocals come in completely now, still digitized to come extent, and while she has a mechanical sound to her voice, it suits well, and you can tell she has talent. The choruses are short, and tend to exist mainly to give a change of pace to the song. At about 4 minutes in, the song breaks and a heavily digitized voice comes in: “Fear, hate, love, immorality: It is Vampire Ecstacy.” It has an eerie feeling to it overall, but it’s not the best song on the album.

Freeeze!! was the only song by Aural Vampire to get a PV made for it. It opens with the sound of what I assume is candles, with some slight voice overs that continue into the synth, before all effects stop, three small beats are heard, and the real song begins. It’s a lower toned song compared to Vampire Ecstacy, and EXO-CHIKA sounds a lot better in this song. It sounds a lot less creepy compared to the previous tracks, but knowing AV, it surely has a darker meaning to it. ( The site with the translations closed down, so I can’t confirm. Sorry. >< ) Throughout the song, you’ll hear the beat for the song being played on a piano, and it comes out being my favorite part of the song; Again, it’s not exactly creepy, but it’s better for those of you who don’t like creepy music.

Both EXO-CHIKA and RAVE MAN have a personal interlude in this album: Terror Vixen is EXO-CHIKA’s. It has a heavy marching band sound to it, with EXO changing her vocals to suit the sound better. It does feature some male vocals in it, which’re sung in a rather odd way… Reminds me of opera singers, really. It’s actually a good track, would’ve made a good full-length song.

Hana no Sakigake already sounds completely different to every other song on the album. It opens with a piano, that actually sounds sort of jazzy, or maybe has some blues influence. It’s quickly joined by some heavily industrial synth, WHILE STILL KEEPING THE PIANO. That was what shocked me, they don’t seem like they’d fit together, do they? EXO-CHIKA’s voice is all over the place in this song, but I think it might be to try and suit the song, as it actually fits it pretty well. I never really listened to this song before now, but it is actually a great track.

THE REPOMAN is the first song that features a sample from a horror movie I can actually pinpoint: That movie being The Repoman. I don’t remember WHERE I read it, and I only know the name of the movie, but this song features sound clips from it. It opens with a distorted voice saying REPOMAN, which you’ll hear throughout the song, which is followed by the synth, and soon after, the audio sample from the movie, which leads into the proper song. This is another of my favorite songs from the album, as while the verses are somewhat bland, it reverts to the chorus synth a few times before it actually reaches the chorus, which helps break the monotony of the track. EXO’s voice is good here, too, and for once you can’t possible hate an artist for singing mechanically: That’s basically her plan.

The next track is my favorite on the album, hands down. Preservative Woman opens with a skipping vocal distortion clip playing over twice; It comes back throughout the song too. It then leads into the synth, which this time features a highly asian sound. I can’t exactly pinpoint which country it reminds me of, but if you asked me to answer right this second, I’d hazard a guess at China. The verses follow the usual theme: Simple, quiet synth with EXO singing over it, before exploding into the chorus, which mixes the asian-themed synth, the vocal distortions and the usual synth beat. The second verse has some interesting distortions on EXO-CHIKA’s vocals, which helps set the song apart, if only slightly.

Crimson Tyrant is what I like to consider RAVEMAN’s interlude, despite being 5 minutes long. It begins with a simple synth beat and audio clips of screaming, with a man speaking over it.  It then cuts out completely and cues the most demonic voice you’re going to hear on this album. It’s odd though: At about 1:08, the synth beat comes in and… I don’t know how to describe it, but what you get sounds somewhat hilarious. It’s a sort of thing like a rapper trying to get his audience excited or something, just spoken in the demonic voice. I actually rather enjoy the synth in this song, and it’s the only song with the vocals being provided by RAVEMAN (Or some man or other) instead of EXO-CHIKA. It lacks any real change in the music, or any vocals, but it’s somewhat catchy: I had no idea this song extended past the demonic voice until I decided to finally listen to it now.

S.O.B opens with the sound of a sinister music box, with some haunting synth played over it. It’s an interesting song, as it lacks the thumping synth AV are known for, and instead goes for an ethereal, hauntingly creepy sound. It wouldn’t be AV like this though, and right on cue, 1:30 means we get more of the usual synth. The song still manages to sound different from every other song though, thanks to the aforementioned techniques they utilize in it. It’s a fairly short song, clocking in at only 2:35 long. The closing is downright creepy though: It has multiple audio clips of EXO talking, all distorted somewhat, and since I have no idea what she’s saying, it makes it 10 times worse.

Why, hello there. You’d expect a song called Disco King to be an upbeat, danceish tune, right? Well, of course Aural Vampire didn’t take that route with this song. It opens with an odd synth beat, which can only really be described as semi-aggressive. The song has a clapping beat to it, and might sound somewhat discotic at times: I like to think of it as a disco for demons. It’s the only way I can really describe it. While the tone may change and there may be bits of synth removed at times, it’s probably the most linear song when it comes to this, as it lacks a lot of changes in its sound. It’s not one of my favorites, but it’s interesting to listen to. You can tell Aural loves musical distortions, as this song’s full of them. As well as the usual vocal distortions.

Banboro Koubo opens with a distorted drum playing, before being followed by some more synth: It’s hard to describe it this time, but it really freaks me out for some reason. The verses’ sudden drop in tone also tends to convey an entirely different feeling along the same lines. I don’t really like this song, and I can never really tend to sit through it: Probably my least favorite track.

This next track has been extremely confusing to me for quite some time. Not the song itself; what’s been confusing me is the name. There’s an Aural Vampire song circulating the internet called Maria Rhythm, and as I don’t have the file to compare it with, I can’t tell whether Murealism is the same song or not. Anyway, moving on. This song is probably the most aggressive when it comes to its sound, as it has a rather piercing quality to it, despite the rather muffles sound of the instruments. I don’t like the fact that it takes about a minute to get to anything different though, so I never really sit through this song.

Oh good god. PNFPN wins for biggest surprise on an album. It opens to the sound of drums and an ethereal synth and piano combo, followed by music that sounds as if it was pulled straight from the 80’s. It has a bittersweet, melancholic (Wow, is that even a word?) feeling to it, yet it sounds positive as well. That’s what freaks me out about it: I remembed the translation hinting at some apocalyptic meaning behind the song, which fits: When the song reaches the 4:23, the song acts as if your CD’s screwing up and skips around, which leads into a return of the highly distorted voice of RAVEMAN. Despite the somewhat positive synth behind THIS speaking track, it still somewhat makes the song creepier. I love the synth for the majority of the song, but I can’t stand it when it starts to skip around: I scare exceedingly easily, so it’s no surprise.

Album Score
B-

Favorite Tracks
Preservative Woman, Hana no Sakigake

While this album regularly succeeds in creeping me out, I love it, no doubt. It just has some of the best songs I’ve ever heard, and I love how original it sounds compared to the usual music you’d hear. I mourn about this album for two reasons though:

1) It lacks their two best songs (Hot Blood Workout and Darkwave Surfer)

2) It marks is their first and only album since 2004-6. I recently heard word that they were signed by AVEX last year, so hopefully they make a comeback, as they’re still performing live and everything. What we have now, however, is pure gold in its own right.

NOTE: I’m considering bringing in a section where I review songs that haven’t appeared on a release, just so I can fawn over those fanboy songs that I can’t review yet. I chose this moment to announce it due to the aforementioned absence of Hot Blood Workout and Darkwave Surfer. So, look out for that~

ALSO, I’m still not sure what I’m doing with the reviews. Just a warning.

Vitamin Drop’s Future

No, this is NOT a closing down post.

Well, maybe it is.

In a sense.

If I DO delete this blog, I’ll make another one. I’ll elaborate before anyone freaks out here or anything.

There’s one main reason for my procrastination: I hate listening to singles. Which is why originally, back when I ran Monochrome Effect, I was planning on keeping singles to a minimum. Even though I had quite a few single reviews when it was open. ANYWAY, I’m considering dropping the single reviews and going for more of a structure like Megumi uses (And Tsuki, of course.)

And I was considering this before I knew their blog existed, so I’m not exactly stealing their structure or anything. But I’m considering a few alternatives:

1) Keeping this blog and just reviewing albums only in the future.
2) Doing the above, but removing all single reviews.
3) Deleting the blog and starting again… Again. This time with no singles.
4) Just keeping the blog like this.

SO, I’d like your opinions. You’re the readers, I wanna make a blog you’ll all enjoy, etc. etc. So comments are appreciated. <3

GAME [Perfume - 2nd Album]

OKAY, GUYS, SORRY! MY INTERNET’S ALIVE AGAIN, SO HERE WE GO, A REVIEW~ I might do more today, but I love procrastinating, so who knows?

GAME is the second offering from Nakata Yasutaka’s now-successful techno-pop trio, Perfume, while still being their first full studio album (Their first was a single compilation.) It debtued at #1, in both daily and weekly rankings, and is Perfume’s highest charting release overall. It has sold approximately 309,373+ copies and was released on the 16th of April, 2008.

Tracklisting
1. Polyrhythm
2. Plastic Smile
3. GAME
4. Baby cruising Love
5. Chocolate Disco
6. Macaroni
7. Ceramic Girl
8. Take Me Take Me
9. Secret Secret
10. Butterfly
11. Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow
12. Puppy Love

All you regulars will know I’ve been a Perfume, and overall Techno-pop, fanboy for ages. Well, that’s starting to wear off, and I’m getting into more acoustic music. However, one lingering thread of my fanboy period which I don’t think will ever fade is Polyrhythm. While the song does take a while to start, with only the girls singing over a simple synth beat at first, when it explodes into the chorus, the song gets about ten times better. I’ve been starting to notice how their voices aren’t always great, but they do a great job in this song, which you can tell even from underneath all that distortion. The looping of “Polyrhytumu” and “Polylupupu” (I have no idea how to spell it like they say it) can be somewhat grating at times, but it doesn’t ruin the song at all. The mixed meanings of love and recycling (or recycling love, I guess you could say) that come with this song make it interesting on another level, too.

I used to be addicted to Plastic Smile as well. However, this time I really only see it as filler material. I mean, it has a brilliant chorus, and I LOVE the synth beat for it, but overall the song tends to get a bit boring save for those factors. It’s one of my favorite Perfume choruses though, I must admit, so my views on the song are somewhat contradictory.

GAME, the title track, has always been a disappointment. However, recently it’s started to grow on me. The girls voices aren’t totally top notch here, and if you can hear it over all the kerfuffle the heavy synth beat is causing, you can tell they aren’t totally digitized, which isn’t helping the matter. This song is a lot more aggressive than anything Perfume’s released before (Except for Electro World, but I’d say this still beats it), which is a great change from all the cute pop they’ve given us. The lack of any real coherent lyrics is annoying, though, as the girls basically resort to looping.

Baby cruising Love is a mixed reaction song, through and through. I personally like the song, but the vocals in the chorus can get EXTREMELY irritating with the pitch they reach, on top of the distortion. It’s another case where I love the synth to the song though, and since the choruses are a bit more subdued, it’s not all bad. It’s not great, though.

Oh, good lord. I went through a phase where Chocolate Disco was my new Polyrhythm. This is definitely another lingering thread of fanboyism as, despite the exceedingly linear lyrical structure, the repetition of verses and the chorus consisting of nothing more than “Chokorreito Deisuko”, this song is EXCEEDINGLY ADDICTIVE. It’s an extremely cute song about valentines and confessing your love, which fits the bouncy feeling of the song perfectly. The bridge is full of win, by the way. One of the best parts of the song.

Macaroni slows the pace down a bit more, with an overall arrangement focusing less on synth than many Perfume songs have, namely due to the drums that you hear throughout the song. Overall, the slow, mellow feeling of the song feels like a bit of a bad choice for this album, which consists mainly of upbeat, fun techno-pop, as it slows it down just as it was getting good. The girls vocals sound a bit shaky here, too, but with them, you can never tell if it’s the distortion or not, which gets annoying.

Ceramic Girl has what I dub as one of the most annoying Engrish mispronounciations I have ever heard. It’s mainly because of the distortion over their voices, as when they say “Ceramic Girl”, the distortion removes the faintest trace of an R sound and leaves you with “Celamic Girl”, or the more widely enjoyed “Salami Girl” line. It’s not annoying overall, as while this is definitely one of the slower songs on the album (though it is fast at the same time), it’s also one of my favorites. It sounds like they’re singing too fast to keep up with the beat at times, which brings down the overall enjoyment factor of the song, but the beat makes up for it.

Take Me Take Me is what I view as a follow-up to the title track. It’s another song that consists of a synth beat. That’s nothing new, as the whole album is like that. What I mean is that it has almost no lyrics to speak of. “Take me take me” and “Take me tonight” are the main lyrics of the song, and it gets extremely annoying, especially with the somewhat boring synth. GAME grew on me; I’m sorry to say that Take Me Take Me doesn’t get that privilege, and probably never will.

We now come to the precursor of what my friends like to call the “Perfume are robots” theory. And the theory that robots are fueled by chocolate, and not oil or alcohol or any of that. Secret Secret has a totally different sound in its synth compared to the rest of the songs, as it sounds a lot smoother overall. It consists of a robotic, playful sound during the choruses, while the verses like to slow it down a bit with a more subdued sound. This is definitely my favorite non-single track from Perfume, and I’ve been in love ever since I saw it. Perfume should cut down on the advertising, though, as the video is basically an advertisement for Pino. I’m not sure if Pino is actually even a real treat, but there you go. I love the chorus dance for the PV though.

Butterfly annoys the crap out of me, plain and simple. It has a very jungle-reminiscent sound to it, which I like. However, when they jump in and start repeating the word Butterfly, their uber digitized voices reach a pitch that almost never fails to give me a migraine. The vocals in the chorus aren’t as bad, and the synth is a great change from the rest of the songs, but I can’t forgive the horrible chorus.

Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow is another mixed blessing. It opens with a somewhat awkward transition from opening synth to chorus, but overall, the wintery sound of the chorus with the vocals of the girls work well together. Their voices still sound sort of underdeveloped, though, and the verses are sort of boring, with the constant repitions of “lala la la la” and such. I still enjoy the sound of the chorus, but the verses drag the song down.

The final track wins my award for originality. Puppy Love won’t win any awards like that elsewhere, but on this album, it’s a godsend. It follows Macaroni’s subdued synth feeling, and instead showcases the use of DRUMS and ACOUSTIC GUITARS. This is one of the best presentations of the girls vocals, as they work very well with the song, and the upbeat, happy sound the song has suits the instrumentals a lot better than Macaroni’s subdued, slow feeling did.

Album Score
B

Favorite Tracks
Polyrhythm, Chocolate Disco, Secret Secret, Puppy Love

Okay, so I’m still a Perfume fan. This is definitely a good album, and while it has its share of sub-par and downright horrible tracks, it also has some of Perfume’s best material. It’s great that the girls ditched the cute theme and tried to get a bit more adult, but obviously it’s not completely lost. I’m hoping they try to release some more subdued stuff, though, as their less techno-ey songs can sometimes be their best, so it’d be great to hear more of it.

Lack of Reviews

OOOOOOOTAAAAAY.

Sorry about the lack of reviews guys. My internet has been a total bitch to me lately, as I’ve run out of bandwidth. As such, I’m lucky to be able to post this warning. I won’t be able to review tonight because of said bandwidth, and tomorrow night I have a crapload of school work to catch up on after being sick for about a week (really bad chest/throat infection. ><), but come Thursday I promise to undergo a reviewing spree for you all~

Unless I have more work to catch up on. If THAT’S the case, expect the spree on Friday.

I’ll take this time to also announce my monthly special review…

Before I do, remember that this was a thing for artists I can’t actually feature on the website, or for special live/dvd releases from artists. So, yeah. Just so you all know. This months will be…

(Left: EXO-CHIKA - Vocalist
Right: RAVEMAN - Production)

Ah, Aural Vampire… Japanese Industrial Goth music at its best. This is the one genre I’d usually never think of getting into. However, for some reason, I absolutely fell in love with Aural Vampire. Despite their classing as a gothic industrial band, they have their share of breezy, upbeat songs that make them better for listeners like me. However, they obviously have industrial music too, which I don’t usually like. So it should make for an interesting review. Another interesting fact is the darker messages of their music compared to anyone else I feature. They get a lot of their ideas from those old B-horror movies, as well as apocalypse theories and ideas of demon invasions of earth. I consider them to be a concept band of sorts, because of this, which is also a rather interesting point.

The reason I don’t actually make this a proper feature is because they lack releases. They have their debut single, DEATH FOLDER, and their debut album, Vampire Ecstasy. Both were released in 2006, and the only other songs in their discography are some loose songs not shown on any release. Therefore, since DEATH FOLDER is impossible to find, I’ll be reviewing their album, Vampire Ecstasy. Look out for it as the end of the month draws closer.

China Discotica [Aira Mitsuki - 2nd Single]

China Discotica is the second single from new Electro-pop artist, Aira Mitsuki, and is actually her first major single. It was recorded in both Beijing and Japan, and is considered to be an “offering of respect” to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It was released on the 5th of March, 2008. Sales information is unavailable.

Tracklisting
1. China Discotica
2. ROMANTIC ROPE
3. China Discotica (Substance Remix)
4. China Discotica (Digital MP3 Mastering Ver.)
5. China Discotica (Instrumental)

China Discotica has a much lighter, almost Dance feel to its music, and is considerably lighter when compared to Colorful Tokyo Sounds NO.9, her previous single. Aira’s voice sounds quite different in this song, too. Her voice is still under filters, but this time they make her voice sound much deeper, so it could be hard to tell it was even Aira singing if you didn’t have prior knowledge. They could try getting filters that don’t make her lisp so noticeable, too. Otherwise, I don’t get the whole “Plastic Fantastic” line that opens the song/chorus, and the title sounds a bit strange to me, including when she actually sings it. It’s a good song, definitely catchier than her debut, but overall it’s about even.

ROMANTIC ROPE isn’t as good. The song has an overall subdued sound to it, and the verses can be somewhat dull with how quiet they are after the lively China Discotica. The choruses don’t change the form of the song much, apart from tweaking the beat a bit. Her vocals are great in the song, though, but the lisp is still noticeable, even when she sings in Japanese, which hasn’t been present yet. It’s amazing that she won with the lisp. Not to offend anyone, but usually they don’t go for singers that have that problem.

The China Discotica Substance Remix tries to give the song a club vibe, which overall, doesn’t suit this song at all. The arrangement is extremely grating overall, and it overpowers Aira’s vocals constantly throughout the song. There are times when the arrangement can be at least somewhat bearable volume-wise, but it’s annoying how they insist on dragging the song on by basically cutting the first chorus entirely, and having the rest focus on the “Plastic Fantastic” line. Overall, it’s a skip-worthy track, which isn’t surprising, as remixes are barely ever any good.

Overall Grade
B-

Favorite Song
China Discotica

While I enjoyed the A-Side to this single, overall, it was a step back from her debut. I didn’t expect the remix to be any good, but I must admit, Candy Light Mode, the B-Side from the Colorful Tokyo Sounds NO.9 single, got my hopes up for the B-Side on this single, which ended up coming off as a bit boring. Not horrible overall, but they can do better. They might want to work on her lisp, too. At least changing the synth so it’s not as noticeable.