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Tracklisting
1. Step into my world
2. Love Paradox
3. LOVE SWEET CANDY
4. Without a good-bye
5. Vanilla
6. Nothin’ To Lose
7. Lost at Sea
8. Communication!!!
9. Not Too Bad
10. BxKxRxxx
11. Under the Same Sky
12. Thank you
Communication!!! is the second album from gravure idol-turned-J-Pop artist, Leah Dizon. It was released in two versions: A CD+DVD version, and a CD Only version that comes with a photobook. All album versions came with a tour reservation ticker for her four city October tour, Leah Dizon Live Tour 2008 “Communication!!!”, as well as a poster. It reached #16 on the Oricon charts, and was released on the 20th of August, 2008.
Step into my world begins the album on a light, upbeat pop level with its similarly themed synth backing and Leah’s singing in a matching key. I would like this song a lot more if it wasn’t for one thing. What’s that, you ask? Leah’s singing. She really can’t sing, and it shows, as her voice sounds seriously weak here, and she seems to be more comfortable singing the English lines, which are far and few between in comparison to the Japanese lyrics. The synth is nice enough, but Leah kind of kills it.
Love Paradox, however, is another story. This song has a heavy urban feel, and as it’s at a lower register, Leah doesn’t sound like she’s straining her voice while she’s singing. She sounds a lot more comfortable in this song, and as such, it comes off sounding much better. This was the song that made me want to feature Leah in the first place, as it’s definitely her stronger suit compared to the opening track.
And again, we’re treated with a new sound. While Step into my world was pop and Love Paradox was urban, LOVE SWEET CANDY adopts a reggae sound instead. I was a huge fan of this song on the Vanilla single, and I still highly enjoy it now. The lower key works in her favor yet again, as her voice sounds a lot stronger in this song once more. Something about the song still bugs me for some reason, but it’s not a huge gripe.
And now we have a song that actually shows some emotion. Without a good-bye takes on a more rock-influenced sound witht he electric guitars and drums, but it’s definitely a ballad. It’s a slower song than any of the first three tracks, and it sounds a lot better in the vocal department because Leah actually puts some emotion into her singing instead of belting out the lines mechanically as she did in the first three tracks. It’s also the first to ditch the synth backing track and focus entirely on instruments, which makes these points stand out much more. It’s a nice song, and the first of it’s kind that I’ve heard from Leah. Especially considering that I started in the “Communication!!!” era.
Now comes in the first track on this album that I really don’t like, Vanilla. Leah tries to give us an upbeat song that you can dance to, but overall, I found the cheery attitude of the song to be more annoying than engrossing, and Leah’s vocals take another step down here. It’s at its definite lowest point in the chorus, when she has to hit many more higher notes, which ends up making her strain the notes. It’s just a mess when it comes to the arrangement, and the random vocalists you’ll hear singing “Just grooving / Have a celebration” are more annoying than interesting. I really can’t sit through this track.
The urban sound finds its way onto the album with Nothin’ to Lose, and this song sticks out considerably after what I’ve heard so far. It’s faster than Love Paradox was, which seems to be a problem for Leah, but she pulls this track off considerably well, and I can’t easily pick out any vocal flaws beyond what you have to expect from Leah as it goes on. The whole poker / card game metaphor for love is an interesting take on a theme that’s been done to death. This is definitely one of the strongest tracks on the album as a whole. The fact that she’s singing in English (Her obvious stronger language) obviously helps, too.
I’m not too thrilled with Lost at Sea, though. It takes a more acoustic route, featuring the acoustic guitar, the piano and drums. It’s not bad, per se, but it just has less of an impact than the previous ballad(?), “Without a good-bye”, due to some lax parts in the lyrics that make the song flow a lot worse than it could have if these flaws had been addressed. It’s not a bad song, it’s just one that doesn’t really stick out.
The title track, Communication!!!, tries to combine dance elements. I don’t really think this song sticks out as much as the other urban numbers on the album did, as Leah’s voice sounds a bit weaker once again, which is obviously going to kill the song. The arrangement is infectious though, and in the sections where her vocals come off stronger sound a lot better. However, most of the chorus isn’t included in this, and just some general lyrical glitches throughout the song pull it down. Again, this is mainly in the chorus, which tends to be the weakest segment of the song. I do like it, though.
Obvious inspiration was taken from an obvious source here. Not Too Bad starts off sounding almost EXACTLY like a Mariah Carey song. I can sense at least a little inspiration being taken from that “Touch My Body” song she released a video for, maybe a few others. Anyway, onto the subject at hand. The chorus tends to sound a bit off with the separate segments of vocals followed by the main singing segment, which is the main low point of this song. The verses tend to sound a but rushed and as if they’re missing something, too, but overall, both parts of the song together make something that’s at least a decent offering.
BxKxRxxx then comes in and takes the album into rock territory. The song contains the use of similar instruments to “Without a good-bye”, except this time, it isn’t a ballad. The verses tend to only keep themselves interesting with the instrumental usage, as Leah’s voice is still sounding a bit rough here. The bridge comes in sounding a lot more appealing, before exploding into the chorus. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I rather like the overall sound these segments of the song have. In fact, this is probably one of my preferred songs from the album, despite the… Odd title.
Under the Same Sky, the b-side from the “Love Paradox” single then comes in, and it sounds a lot lighter and more ethereal compared to any of the previous songs. I wasn’t overly thrilled with this song when I first heard it on the single, but it’s grown on me quite a bit since then. Leah’s voice is still rough, and the random wind sounds you hear throughout the song get a bit annoying and distracting, but I enjoy the chorus a lot more than the verses. It’s an alright song, but it’s not one of my favorites.
The album finally ends with the song Thank you. I like the cheerful sound the arrangement has, but it features some extremely cheesy lyrics, with lines such as “Happy days for you and me” being the largest offenders. The verses don’t have these lines in them, and as such I tend to prefer them, especially since the singing fits the sound perfectly. The chorus just ends up dragging the song down. It’s more of a thank you to her fans than anything, which is obvious in the lyrics, so I never pay much attention to the song. It tends to have similar random sounds to “Under the Same Sky” at times, too, which gets a bit annoying.
Album Score
C
Favorite Tracks
1. Nothin’ To Lose
2. Love Paradox
3. Communication!!!
4. Without a good-bye
5. BxKxRxxx
So, I enjoyed this album a lot more than I anticipated I would. Leah’s vocals are definitely the more apparent problem in the album, as she sounds rough in many of the songs, and seems to strain her voice a lot. Her grasp on the Japanese language isn’t exceedingly impressive, either, though she can pass it off. She sounds excellent in the urban tracks on the album, and the rock ones tend to have her sounding at least more confident than other songs on the album do. Each song has its good points, but there are a lot of misses as well.
Tracklisting
1. Vanilla
2. LOVE SWEET CANDY
3. Kanashimi to Egao no Naka de (悲しみと笑顔の中で; lit. In Sadness and in a Smile) (CD Only Bonus Track)
4. Vanilla (Instrumental)
5. LOVE SWEET CANDY (Instrumental)
Vanilla is Leah Dizon’s fifth overall single, and the final single released for the “Communication!!!” era. The single was originally announced with the title “Let’s Dancin’”, and was produced by Chino Yoshihiko and ha-j. It reached #26 on the weekly charts, and was released on the 25th of June, 2008.
Vanilla presents itself as an instant turn-off. It’s skipping beat and disc scratching at first work well together, but straight after, the song explodes into a song that tries to be cute and fun, but comes off sounding horrible because of the backing vocals and Leah Dizon’s own thin, weak vocals. It’s not good as an R&B/Dance song, and it’s not good on its own: Nothing in this song seems to work well with anything after the first few seconds pass. This is a huge step down from Love Paradox.
LOVE SWEET CANDY, however, is a totally different story. It’s a full-blown reggae song, which is apparent as soon as the music starts playing. Leah’s voice is still extremely weak, but it fits the laid back sound of this song a lot better. The chorus seems to come in on a bit of a low note, but it works well, and if that wasn’t intended then at least they managed to play off of it. It’s a much better song than Vanilla, but it’s not without its vocal and arrangement-related glitches. It’s a lot better at masking them though.
Closing the single is the CD Only bonus track, the ballad Kanashimi to Egao no Naka de. The verses of the song end up sounding like an extremely generic R&B ballad, but the almost oriental background effects that come in occasionally help differentiate the sound a bit. The chorus sounds a LOT better than the verses did, due to its louder and more varied sound, and the bridge-to-chorus transition works well thanks to a bit of ad-libbing and a few choice effects. It’s not a perfect song, but it’s definitely got its moments.
Single Score
B-
Favorite Tracks
LOVE SWEET CANDY, Kanashimi to Egao no Naka de
There’s only two words I can think of that can sum the a-side up: Hot mess. After Love Paradox, it was just a huge disappointment, and apparently, the b-sides are the selling point for this single, with LOVE SWEET CANDY sticking out as the real gem here. It’s not a brilliant single, and with any different b-sides, it could very well have ended up as a huge flop.
Tracklisting
1. Love Paradox
2. Under the Same Sky
3. Love Paradox (Instrumental)
4. Under the Same Sky (Instrumental)
Love Paradox is Leah Dizon’s 4th single. It reached #15 on the weekly Oricon charts, and has sold approximately 10,193 copies. It was released on the 26th of March, 2008.
I started with Step into my world when it comes to Leah Dizon, so I didn’t know what to expect from Love Paradox. As soon as I heard it, one thought entered my head: GOOD LORD, THIS IS HOT! This song is J-Urban at its best, and it’s about ten times better than many songs in the genre that I’ve heard. Despite Leah’s vocals being somewhat flat, they actually fit well in this song, so I find myself wondering whether that was intentional. The beat of the song is slow and sounds extremely western, which was an added surprise. It’s just a brilliant song, I’m going to be fanboying over it for weeks.
Under the Same Sky is a much faster song, and has an airy, lighter sound to it in comparison to Love Paradox. It tends to focus on a simple, quick beat made of tiny thumping sounds, with an airy addition added over the chorus to make the sound fit the title. It pales in comparison to Love Paradox, and comes off as real B-Side material, but elsewhere it might have sounded a lot better. It’s a good song though.
Single score
A+
Favorite Track
Love Paradox
This is just about the best single I’ve heard from an artist since I first heard Polyrhythm from Perfume. Leah has absolutely blown away any doubts I had from her, and so far I’m loving what I’m hearing. I’m hoping it keeps up, but from the sounds of things, it sounds like it won’t. We’ll see though!
I am about to royally eat my own words again…
As I will now be featuring Leah Dizon.
This is another artist I was extremely hesitant on listening to, but after downloading her Communication!!! album, I absolutely fell in love with some of the songs on it, and while she has a lot of room for improvement, I thought now would be a good time to start featuring her.
As such, I will begin reviewing her from her Communication!!! era, so keep an eye out for that!
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