Sailing free [OLIVIA - 11th Single]

Tracklisting
1) Sailing free
2) Love Love Love
3) Undress

Sailing free is OLIVIA’s 11th overall single, and her first after the release of her latest mini-album, Trinka Trinka. It was released in two versions: The normal version, and the BASARA version, which featured an anime cover. It was released on the 15th of April, 2009.

After Trinka Trinka, Sailing Free came as a nice surprise. It begins with a quiet stretch of synth, followed by an aggressive drum-and-guitar riff, with both it and the synth mixing together. OLIVIA comes in, and her voice does alternate between low and high quite a bit, and too fast, but she wasn’t always known as the best vocalist around. The verses in this song are spectacular, the way the bridge builds up is enthralling, and the chorus itself is just brilliant. The arrangement is just perfect, and it suits OLIVIA a lot more than the music on Trinka Trinka, despite the mini-album coming out well. Her vocals do change around a bit throughout the song, but if you can get past these vocal issues, you’re set. This song is a must listen for everyone, words can’t describe how obsessed I’ve become with it in recent times. Plus, the cover is just gorgeous, so it’s a win-win.

Next comes Love Love Love, which opens with some enigmatic echoing synth and possibly some strings, before an acoustic guitar and piano comes in. OLIVIA’s singing in a quieter, almost whispering voice this time, and she seems to be singing completely in English, which isn’t really a surprise for her. It stays like this for a while… It actually takes a while to get to the chorus, which first comes up at 1:20, and when it gets there it’s basically just a few guitars added on top of what we already had. The little instrumentals halfway through and at the end were nice, but the song, as a whole, was disappointing.

Undress ends the album in a way I wouldn’t have expected: Pop-rock. The arrangement sounds really familiar, but the electric guitars and drums, as they stand, have a very familiar, pop influence to them. OLIVIA’s voice can’t really decide what it wants to do here, which is a shame after she was doing so well in the previous two tracks, but I like how she sings the chorus in a higher register when singing the title and a few other lines, but the lines she sings with her normal voice sound a bit… Badly written. It’s a good song, but honestly, it pales in comparison to Sailing free, as well as most of what was on Trinka Trinka.

Single Score
B-

Favorite Track
Sailing free

Well, the b-sides were both a let-down. Despite Undress being, at the very least, a bearable track, both of them paled in comparison to the epic nature of Sailing free, which has quickly become a personal favorite of mine since I first heard it about two weeks ago. It captures the essence of the title perfectly, and was just a great listen overall, especially after the synthed-up nature of Trinka Trinka.

Side note: The PV was great, too, so expect a review of it tomorrow!

Trinka Trinka [OLIVIA - 6th Mini-Album]

Tracklisting
1) Trinka Trinka
2) Rain
3) Because
4) Collecting Sparkles
5) Miss You
6) Your Smile

Trinka Trinka is OLIVIA’s 6th overall mini-album. It had no promotional singles prior to its release, but a promotional PV was made for the track Rain. The CD-only version came with a special photobook, while the CD+DVD version came with a DVD with the PV for Rain on it. It was released on the 17th of September, 2008.

The album opens with Trinka Trinka, the title track, which is surprisingly synth-heavy. It starts with a psychadelic, subdued arrangement, and OLIVIA’s rather surprising vocals come in, completely in English and sounding as if she wasn’t Asian at all. I’m surprised at her English skills. Although she is part Norwegian-American, so that’d explain it. Anyway, the song has a very quiet sound to it, yet it is rather fast, and keeps the psychadelic sounds throughout. The “I’m feeling Trinka Trinka” line is a bit confusing, but as a whole, the lyrics match the out-there sound of the song. It’s a surprising turn, since OLIVIA was a real rocker earlier in her career, but I like how this song came out.

Now we come to the main promotional track, Rain. It has a similar out-there synth arrangement at first, before the guitars and drums come in, making this more of a throwback to her usual style. She’s singing in Japanese here, and the initial English lyrics transferring into Japanese is a bit confusing, since the lyrics don’t make much sense, but as a whole, I’m not liking how OLIVIA’s trying to make her voice sound deeper throughout the song, and the chorus itself is a bit of a let-down. As a whole, it does sound like more of a promotional track, since it’s cloesr to her original style, but it’s a bit of a disappointment after the title track.

Because opens simply with a lone piano playing a few chords, and when OLIVIA’s vocals come in and the tempo doesn’t change, you can tell this is turning into a ballad, fast. Her voice sounds pretty good here, which is nice to hear with how unruly it can get. I like how the bridge is showing off a bit of a higher register compared to the previous two tracks, but the song as a whole takes a while to start up. About a minute in, the guitars and drums come in, and we have another horrible transition and choice of lyrics. It makes the song come off messy, and since it took so long to start, I can’t really be bothered listening further. It all sounds the same anyway.

Collecting Sparkles is another synth song, and it has a much more ethereal feeling, with the echoing arrangement and OLIVIA’s echoing voice. It’s rather odd to listen to when it gets to the chorus, because her voice is on a rather high register, and she’s doing this weird shaking thing when she sings the title. I think the arrangement in this song is a lot stronger than it is in the other songs, and as a whole I like the performance OLIVIA gave this time, but the chorus does have its low moments.

Now we have something a bit different with Miss You. I thought this was going to be a ballad as soon as I saw the title, and I was kind of right. It’s a rather subdued mix of synths, and it’s slow, which makes it sound kind of like a proper ballad. It’s nice to hear OLIVIA give an emotional performance like this, and hearing her sing “please don’t go far away”, as well as the English chorus, help give it a much more emotional feeling. This is definitely a ballad through and through, but it’s not instrumental as Because was. The way she opens the chorus with “I miss you” in that higher register is a nice touch, too. You know, I actually think this is my favorite song.

We close the mini-album with Your Smile, which is more of a rock song akin to Rain than anything else. Unfortunately, it all sounds the same, which is an instant turn-off. It always seems to go at the same pace with barely any breaks that allow it to change. The verses do take it down a notch, so they make the song a bit easier to swallow, but I’m not really feeling it. This wasn’t a great way to end the album, it’s definitely a filler song. Especially with those horrible backing vocals.

Mini-Album Score
C+

Favorite Tracks
1) Miss You
2) Trinka Trinka
3) Collecting Sparkles

Well, it wasn’t a great mini-album, but it was consistent. I did enjoy half of the six tracks we were given, but the other three weren’t exactly entrancing or engrossing. It was a nice listen, and while I can’t really say whether this was a huge step forward for her or not, it’s definitely different to what I expected her to be all about. The title track and the other two synth songs were the real shining tracks on the album, and surprisingly, the stuff closer to what she started with was what turned me off. That’s definitely not a precursor of what’s to come, since her next single is great, but it is a rather queer piece of trivia.

Features again~

So, I have a few more features I’d like to add today~ I’ll be adding two now, but there IS a third one that I’d prefer to announce through a PV review. You’ll see why tomorrow, when I write it, so keep your eyes peeled for that~ Anyway, for now…

So, I haven’t been an OLIVIA fan for long. Mainly since her Trinka Trinka mini-album came out, and I thought that was fantastic, in its own way.

However, after finally listening to Sailing free today, I HAD to feature her. Besides, the cover (pictured left) is just orgasmically beautiful (Apart from her face, which is kind of iffy, but kind of fits too). Almost as fantastic as the song itself. So, I’ll be doing a PV review of that later on (not tomorrow, that’s when the new feature’s coming up~), and I’ll be starting with either Sailing free or Trinka Trinka, I’m not exactly sure which… I’ll see what happens, so keep an eye open for her anyway.

Okay, so, Anna Tsuchiya is a bit overdue. I was GOING to feature her when NUDY SHOW! first came out. However, the number of singles turned me off. That’s one of my problems with what Nakashima has going on at the moment… Or did, with her last era.

Anyway, I only got to featuring her because hearing the preview for Bangalicious, which is going to appear on ravex’s album, reminded me that she was starting a new era soon. Maybe. Well, there was a possibility. And such, I decided to take the opportunity while it was still available so I wasn’t drowning in a half-finished era full of a huge amount of singles.

So, yes, I’ll be reviewing whatever she releases next. I’m not sure what it’ll be or when it comes out, but it’ll be here.

Okay, so I’m not a huge fan of I RAVE YOU, Believe in LOVE or Golden Luv (That’s all I’ve heard so far), but as I said… Well, come on, Bangalicious sounds too hot for words.

So, I’ll force my way through their singles, and eventually, I will review their debut album. Whether it’s called TRAX or avex TRAX, I couldn’t tell you, but it’ll be reviewed. Eventually.

Also, this group contains a bit of a hint to a semi-secret feature I’m planning on doing. It’s nothing huge or anything, I’d just rather feature them through another method. For the shock value, entirely.

As such, expect a PV review… Very soon. The artist/unit in that PV will be the last feature.

Also, a few changes…

• I will not be reviewing any of Mika Nakashima’s VOICE era. Well, no more of it. TAFE is riding me hard enough, so I have to spend most of my online time on assessments, and… Well, the singles. THERE’S TOO MANY!
• I will not be reviewing Fly Away or Lady-Rise by Maki Goto. Yet. There’s something flying around about those being b-sides on her next single, so consider those held off. If they aren’t on that single, fine, I’ll review them. If they are, I’ll be starting there.
• Emi Hinouchi and her time on this blog is being considered. I know, I said I wouldn’t do it anymore, but I’m a very predictable person. She may be another “wait until her next release” case.
• Sowelu, Soni and possibly Urata Naoya are facing a similar fate. With the time I have to actually get a review out, I can’t see them happening soon. Soni’s being considered for removal completely, but Sowelu will probably be started/continued after her latest best of album, depending on how her next single turns out. Urata, I’m not so sure about. We’ll see.
• Part 2 of the Digital Devil Saga OST review will be postponed a bit. The two week Easter break’s coming up soon, so, maybe I’ll have time for it in the middle of assessments.

Any other artists and reviews are business as usual for the blog. There you have it~