Music review revival time?
Actually, I sort of started blogging about Japanese music a few months ago so if anyone really misses the crap I used to spout off about Jpop a year ago you can head on over there. I don’t update very often (and don’t intend to), which is why I never bothered to link it.
Anyway, moving on… I’ll quickly cycle through stuff I checked out over the last two weeks. Pretty unfortunate that the busy release period fell during Chinese New Year, which meant I glossed over stuff quickly and may have missed some good stuff. Though I did deliberately avoid the SoraKake opening theme for the sake of my eardrums.
21-23 January
Guilty Future. Kitamura Eri [Kodomo no Jikan Nigakki OP]
KitaEri may love her trance and r’n'b, but I’m not sure her voice is particularly suited for either style. Personally, I think she’s better off sticking to the pop-rock of her first single Realize.
Guilty Future does nothing for me, it’s very flat and the chorus doesn’t stand out. And I always hate DDR-ish beats blaring in my ears
Sakubou-Michikake- is much slower and also much better
No promotion = no sales again. I wonder how much longer OtaEri’s singing career will last at this rate
Keikenchi Sokujojo↑↑. Sato Rina, Inoue Marina, Chihara Minori [Minami-ke Okaeri OP]
The fastest-selling of the Minami-ke related singles so far, I wonder if that’s any sort of indication of how popular the third season is?
Keikenchi Sokujojo↑↑ is Keikenchi Joshochu Pt.II , and sounds nothing like mihimaru GT’s Kibun Jojo↑↑
I find it amusing when people say the vocals are bad when the seiyuu are singing in character. We all know Minorin doesn’t normally sing that low…
Handclaps! It’s like Hidamari Sketch’s Sketch Switch all over again
The c/w song is boring
Zettai Colorful Sengen. Sato Rina, Inoue Marina, Chihara Minori [Minami-ke Okaeri ED]
Surprisingly they released the OP/ED singles on the same day. Wish they had put both songs on one CD instead…
Sounds better than Zettai Karen Children’s Zettai lovexlove Sengen
One More! should be retitled No More!
Shin’ai. Mizuki Nana [WHITE ALBUM OP]
Birthday single sold 15k less in week 1 than Trickster did. That was just a blip on the radar then?
I’m a little bit more positive on Shin’ai now, more than I was than when I first heard it – I thought it was like two bad Jpop songs stitched together
PRIDE OF GLORY is like Astrogation except it’s not catchy. At all.
Gozen 0ji no Baby Doll is my fave of the three tracks, it’s a bit old-school Jpop like Takahashi Hiro or Inagaki Junichi
Egao no Riyuu. meg rock [Asu no Yoichi! OP]
The only reason I listen to meg rock is to keep the fragments of Okazaki Ritsuko in my memory alive, eventhough I know their styles were always as different as night and day. I always preferred the depressing Ritsuko songs over the happy Meg ones in Melocure.
Egao no Riyuu is typical meg rock, with lashings of electric guitar and almost-catchy chorus
It’s becoming so easy to smell Saito Shinya and Kato Daisuke arrangements from a mile away (think how similar these songs sound to Sorairo Days and Neophilia)
I don’t think I’ll remember either of the songs on this single 3 months from now
sympathizer. Kuribayashi Minami [Kurokami OP]
I have a love-hate relationship with Minami’s music – unfortunately it’s more hate than love these days.
sympathizer is like all her other failed attempts at rocking out
and Sora no Kotae is like Dream Wing and Shining Days ie crap
I hope that doesn’t make it sound like I hate Minami. I love stuff like Sunadokei, Hoshizora no Waltz, Tsubasa wa Pleasure Line and Crystal Energy, but those kind of songs seem to be few and far between for her. Probably cos she produces way too much music anyway – quality over quantity please?
That cover image… is awful. Looks like an AliPro photoshoot gone wrong.
Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekido Vocal Mini Album
Oh Haruhi isn’t dead yet?
Kuzen miman wa misenaide is trying too hard to be Hare Hare Yukai. And why is Hirano Aya shouting so loud, I fear for her lungs and throat
Greed’s accident has the longest and dullest intro ever (are you asleep, Agematsu Noriyasu?). I never liked Chihara Minori singing in Yuki mode and I still don’t like it
Oh god, who thought it would be a good idea for Goto Yuko to try rapping?
The whole album was a pain to listen to. I need to go listen to Tsumeawase to cleanse my ears and brain of this rubbish. God knows… rules!
May’n Street. May’n
Can she shake off the Sheryl Nome tag? Does she even want to shake it off (she won’t sell anything then)?
May’n Space is a confusing mess of a song, melody jumping here and there, no coherence at all
Most of the other pop songs (Kiss o Choudai, BLUE) sounds like third-rate BoA
To me, May’n is a failed pop singer who’s desperately hanging on to anything to keep herself in showbiz, even if it means having to put up with dirty otaku trying to kiss her feet begging for a lousy autograph
How long she can continue to hang on the coat-tails of Macross? This is really a mediocre album at best and not many people would’ve bought it if it didn’t have Lion on it.
white pulsation. ELISA
Has been quite reliant on the ef franchise to shift singles, but white pulsation didn’t sell too bad for ELISA – considering that she doesn’t really have anything resembling a fanbase. She’s stuck halfway between the anisong and modelling world after all…
Good move by Geneon to assemble a great bunch of songwriters & arrangers, having Elements Garden on board for a few songs is halfway towards winning the war
white pulsation works because the album flows so well. I’m not 100% sold on ELISA’s vocals, but the songs are all well-crafted, beautifully arranged and are actually catchy
ENDLESS ANTHOLOGY [Agematsu Noriyasu & Kikuta Daisuke] would’ve been ideal for both Minorin & Nana
I’d always thought ELISA was a half based on her looks, but her parents are both 100% Japanese. She’s currently doing a TV show where she brushes up on her otaku knowledge cos she apparently knows nothing about anime
Sugai Eri (anyone remember Argento Soma?) popped up with background vocals on Sekka Gensoukyoku, very surprising
Fave songs on the album – HIKARI, Michael wa nemuru~dans le couer~ and of course, ENDLESS ANTHOLOGY
casket. ave;new
A selection of ave;new video game/eroge themes from the last couple of years. Strangely dubbed a ‘rare track collection’ but uh.. the songs aren’t that rare or hard to find really…
Oh dear not true my heart again
Pick of the Saori songs is probably Eternal Wish from Koimomo. The ballad(!) Dearness from Nursery Rhyme is not far behind. Awayuki is cool too.
But then I’ve already heard all of them about a zillion times now, plus bludgeoned ‘em to death on Stepmania a trillion times that I’m virtually indifferent to them now
The piano vocal version of Pieces is divine. Osaki Miwa doesn’t get too many chances to sing with Sakura Saori around…
…but she does sing as part of C;LINE with Uzuki Tatsuya, who are great
Am I the only one who prefers ave;new to I’ve Sound?
I like to scare my work colleagues by blasting Sakura Saori at full volume. Her ridiculously high voice always freaks people out ^^;;
28 January
Orange. Kugimiya Rie, Horie Yui & Kitamura Eri [Toradora! ED2]
So I’m one of the few people not following Toradora!, and I had no idea that this gem of a song was being used as the second ending theme.
Orange is a pretty appropriate song for me this week, given the ridiculous amount of mandarins I’ve been consuming during Chinese New Year. They’re all sweet though, unlike the ones Taiga, Minorin and Ami have been eating (they were kinda sour and made them cry?)
Only Horie Yui sounds like she’s comfortable singing in whatever key it is on Orange – it’s much higher than what KitaEri is used to, and Kugyu always sings through her nose no matter what key it is (it’s not an insult, just an observation)
Koi Kurage. WTF, is that French? I keep hearing ‘Donuts, Donuts’ or something… it’s an atrocious attempt at replicating the Shibuya-kei styled weirdness of bands like Aprils and Plus-Tech Squeeze Box
Silky Heart. Horie Yui [Toradora! OP2]
I had no idea there was a new opening either.
Eh, another Perfume-aping song?
Actually, I kind of like Silky Heart more than Vanilla Salt. The beats have a little more bite to them compared to the lifeless meandering of Vanilla Salt.
Love Countdown brings me back to the days of Scramble with UNSCANDAL. Guruguru mawaru♪
Hoshizora to Pajama is cute! Hocchan sounds like marshmallows (light & fluffy) here.
Tenshi ni Naritai. Nakajima Megumi
Much more anison-oriented than May’n Street, but like May’n, I wonder how far Megumi can go without Macross. Early sales figures for the single haven’t been particularly encouraging…
I like Tenshi ni Naritai myself (very catchy) but I can’t see much mainstream appeal in it at all. Is aiming for the otaku/anison route the right way to go?
Be MYSELF starts off all girly-pop before turning into LionXSeikan Hikou. It’s not bad though.
I was wondering what パイン (pine) was referring to, then I heard 中華料理 (Chinese food) and 酢豚のパイン (sweet and sour pork with pineapple) in the lyrics. Dang it makes me hungry
WTF is Dajare no o-uta. I think I’m supposed to find the ‘pun’-ish lyrics clever and funny, but I don’t find them clever or funny
I know it’s still early in the year, but this is definitely the worst cover image of 2009. Pink icing donuts, great design TYCOON GRAPHICS! (from sleeve credits)
Wow Megumi’s Pinoy looks are really prominent in the sleeve pictures
Maiochiru Yuki no Youni. Suara [WHITE ALBUM ED]
I prefer this to POWDER SNOW really.
Maiochiru is very reminiscent of KimiKiss’s Wasurenaide, so if you didn’t like that you won’t like this. I love both.
Saw the title of c/w song Koi no Yokan and hoped it was an Anzen Chitai cover, but it wasn’t. Instead it’s a somewhat upbeat song that mentions Christmas and snow…I don’t like it.
I keep mistaking Suara for Asano Masumi, especially when she keeps her hair short
Questions?. Nakamura Yu [Druaga OP]
Debut single for the talento, a regular fixture on TV variety shows.
Yu is cute and bubbly and has a decent enough voice, and both Questions? and Today are easy on the ear pop-rock songs that I can nod my head to
But Questions? is not as good as MURAMASA’s Swinging
lmao I can’t believe she really recorded that retarded Nakamura Yu no Theme song that she sang on Sakusaku. I can’t stop singing along to it though ♪My name ees Nakamura♪, Yuyuyu~~, I ♥ you♪
Mahou Tsukai desukedo.. Orikasa Fumiko [Druaga ED]
I was actually hoping for another KENN single.
+5 points for a great single title. ‘But I’m a Magic User….’
+5 points for a great c/w song title. ‘Because I’m Talking To Myself…’.
Too bad neither song is particularly interesting. Somehow, Oririn singing upbeat songs just doesn’t sit well with me. -10 points.
Ano Hi Time Machine. LONG SHOT PARTY [Zoku Natsume Yujincho OP]
I thought this was gonna suck after the horrible song LONG SHOT PARTY did for Naruto but I was happy that that wasn’t the case. Not that it was that great (whiny emo is rarely great), but it was at least better than the Kita Shuhei one from season 1 that was limper than a ramen noodle soaked overnight in heavy rain.
Jewelry Tears. Misato Aki [Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa nai OP]
Theme for the Navel eroge.
Halfway through the song I forgot I was listening to Misato Aki and not Hashimoto Miyuki (who sang the theme song for Prelude last year)
I always thought Misato’s kinda nasal voice wasn’t really versatile, but I think she did pretty well on Kizashi no Taiyo which is a bit r’n'b
Jewelry Tears is quite good too
Overall I really enjoyed this, much more than I do her anime stuff. Eroge brings out the best in anison singers!
Yay I bought most of those. I like this month’s releases, really. Might do my review soon.
- May’n Street sells very well, though I agree with you this CD has no flow at all..
- Guilty Future sounds shit, and yes no promo at all, if I didn’t look closely in the “new releases” rack, I won’t notice it. It’s too bad considering she sings pretty good.
- LOL @ Greed’s accident, I initially thought it was an instrumental track.
- I prefer ave;new than I’ve too, but they’re different in a lot of ways so can’t really compare huh. Sakura Saori and Ishikawa Chiaki duet in Yells still gave me nightmare..
I’m still waiting for my copy of Shin Ai and Silky Heart <3. Starting to regret my decision pack both the singles with Minorin’s DVD Message 02 (which I bought purely due to …lust). I haven’t listen to Silky Heart single yet cause for some weird reason I want to listen it on the CD first rather than just downloading it. But now that you say there is a song similar to Scramble…I …hmm….very tempted to just…hmmm…..Gee I don’t know what I am talking about anymore…Chinese New Year made me crazy.
Wow, I actually listened to most of these myself.
-You’re the first person I know to like Gozen Whatever on Shin Ai. Personally, it puts me to sleep.
-May’n should go back to her urban roots. May’n Space is the worst song I’ve heard in THREE YEARS and that includes the wannabe gangster crap I hear on KISS FM. And for the third-rate BoA thing, you forgot to mention third-rate BoA POST Best of Soul (aka crap BoA).
-And Megumi’s 4th song made me wanna die. I still can’t decide which is worst, that or Koda Kumi’s Bling!x3
I should really make my own review too…Thanks for making this though, I’ve missed the music reviews.
I find Dajare no o-uta rather cute, i duno maybe it’s the tune/weird lyrics or something @_@. And yes the cover is absolutely horrendous … they should have used the other picture -_-.
Dear god I just looked at the cover of Nakajima Megumi’s single.
What the fuck were they smoking.
Don’t know if they were smoking or not.
))
But in my view nice music and nice photos.