j1m0ne’s blog

Lots of new music out this week again, lovely. Notice how the reviews towards the end get shorter and less comprehendable as my brain runs out of steam. Er yes, I wrote all of this at the same time I was listening to the songs, all in one go - it’s not very fun, I can tell you.

Singles
forever we can make it!. THYME

It’s been a long 8 months since I reviewed THYME’s debut single. So just as I was wondering if the trio were ever make a follow-up, here they are – they certainly have the right ingredients to make it big with a very radio-friendly pop-rock sound and a talented frontwoman (the band is named after her) at the fore.

Forever we can make it! isn’t the song that will get them there though – the chorus is weaker than a teaspoon of coffee powder diluted with 6 litres of water. Somehow it sounded much better when there were images of Lala’s boobs to accompany the music >_> THE LAST DAY however, is a different proposition. Like Drive from the first single, it’s a very smart, sassy blues-tinged song that promises more to come from the trio - keep an eye on them.
Rating:

Love Jump. Kuribayashi Minami (kure-nai OP)

I have a love-hate relationship with Minami - when she first came to prominence with KGNE, almost everything she put out was pure gold (Precious Memories, Hoshizora no Waltz, Kaze no Yukue) Then I listened to things like Shining☆Days and Dream☆Wing and start rolling my eyes - they’re songs that should never have made it out of the songwriting process, let alone get recorded. But I digress.

Apart from the oddly disjointed chorus, Love Jump is a fine song that ranks somewhere in between Yell! and Crystal Energy in terms of greatness. Although its suitability for kure-nai is somewhat questionable… But the real highlight is Sakuradokei - OMG damn good! She rarely does ballads like this, and it’s a shame that it just got banished to being just a C/W song - certainly deserves more love.
Rating:
Watch: Love Jump PV

Chosai Kenbo Sengen. MOSAIC.WAV (Kyoran Kazoku Nikki OP)

I’m guessing that for most people, listening to Chosai will be like having twenty thousand steel buckets dropping on their heads one after the other. On the whole, MOSAIC.WAV songs are harder to swallow than a mustard & grapefruit sandwich, but this is their first anime theme that really comes close to their ultra-annoying denpa stuff like Yuri Seijin Naoko-san and Kyuin. All the others (the Sumomo ones, Katamichi Catchball) seemed so tame in comparison. Fortunately I favour them at their whacked out best and this single has that in spades - & of course, Mi~ko’s crazy breakneck talking is just mind-boggling.
Rating:

Triangler. Sakamoto Maaya (Macross F OP)

Before its release, I was pondering if Triangler would be as good as Hemisphere but the answer is clearly no. Part of my dislike of the song has to do with the fact that Maaya’s singing in an unnaturally high voice which grates on my nerves. And sadly, the song also suffers from ‘Weak Chorus Syndrome’, making the ‘comeback’ of the Kanno + Sakamoto partnership merely decent instead of legendary. I’m not so damning in my review now than I would’ve been a few weeks ago, triangler has grown on me a bit more since then. Still, it still ranks as one of the pair’s worst anime theme collaborations ever – no way on earth is this up to the high standards of Purachina, all the Escaflowne songs, Kiseki no Umi or even Gravity.

Kotomichi gives me goosebumps. But it also gives me warts, ear calluses, corns and bunions - Maaya’s super-high singing does stuff like that to me. The song itself is pretty good (it’s written by somebody called Takada Michiko), but I’d like it a lot more if someone like er…I dunno, Ito Yuna? Nakashima Mika? or maybe Hirai Ken were in front of the mic.
Rating:
Watch: Triangler PV

Ameato. w-inds. (Katekyo Hitman Reborn! ED7)

Reborn’s immense popularity might have helped Ameato along a little, but w-inds. are big enough to not need the boost. Besides, it’s probably the most unconventional ‘anime song’ of this week’s bunch of releases, being a slow burning r ‘n’ b song that it is likely to send anisong fans used to high-octane, adrenaline-pumping anime themes to sleep. However, Ameato is also the highest debuting single reviewed in this entry I quite like it myself, though I doubt many others will.
Rating:
Watch: Ameato PV

Unnamed world. Hirano Aya (20-Menso no Musume ED)

I was thinking that Unnamed world sounded pretty pleasant, if rather uninspiring..and awfully familiar. Then I realised that it sounded a lot like MonSTAR, which was written by the same person (Kurosu Katsuhiko). After a few spins, I still prefer MonSTAR though. At least Hirano seems to have settled for a pop-rock sound unlike most of her fellow seiyuu idols. Trouble is, that is that she’ll be a drop in the sea of (way more talented) Japanese female pop/rock singers-songwriters.

Maybe I can’t good-bye… oh boy. Grammatically incorrect title, an intro that sounds like it came straight out of Blur’s Song 2 & then somehow veers off into bizarre grunge-lite territory halfway through. It also comes with Hirano’s self-penned, stangely warbled Engrish lyrics – she sounds like she’s got marbles in her mouth >_> I’m sure it wouldn’t bother me so much if the song was in Swahili, but because it’s in a language I think I understand, it’s pretty off-putting. Why write a song in a language you learnt from Moegaku 5? It’s like me trying to write a song in Japanese; I could certainly attempt to but I probably wouldn’t get beyond lines like バカ！お兄ちゃんのエッチ！助けてください！ or something similar.
Rating:
Watch: Unnamed world PV

Kimi=Hana. pigstar (Junjo Romantica OP)

Oh heavens, just what we need - an emo band singing the theme song for a yaoi anime. Despite trying to look hard, jumping around pounding their instruments, it doesn’t hide the fact that they seem to be making a living singing awfully saccharine, vomit-inducing love songs. And to think that I thought they might sound like Sambomaster based on their looks… Just don’t bother, listening to pigstar will shorten your lifespan by 12 years - you don’t want that, do you?
Rating:

Metamorphose. Asriel (Monochrome Factor OP)

…what is this, a yaoi lovefest? I must confess that I’ve never listened to Asriel despite them being a vaguely familiar name on the doujin circuit. I guess they’re aiming for the gothic metalpop market that the likes of Yousei Teikoku and Ali Project occupy - and they’re pretty good too. I daresay I’d like it more if I hadn’t seen that cover :/ That’s the one that resembles Michael Jackson, aye? (I don’t watch Monochrome Factor).
Rating:

PHOSPHOR. Miyazaki Ui (Kanokon OP)

PHOSPHOR - generic anime theme song #587. What the heck was Okui Masami on when she wrote this >_> It sounds like she took bits of Sora no Kakeru Hashi, Souda Zettai and TRUST, lumped ‘em together, blended them and put the results through a juice strainer. Not pretty.

The fantastic STRATEGY (amusingly written by a guy called MACARONI) sounds like a song that would slide in perfectly on Hirano Aya’s Unnamed world single. The difference between Aya and Ui is that the latter sounds good on record every single time – Miyazaki has a strong, versatile voice that can adapt to all sorts of musical styles unlike Hirano. Aya however trumps Ui in looks, style and level of exposure. Just look at that awful cover -_-
Rating:

Koi no Honoo. Sakakibara Yui (Kanokon ED)

Koi no Honoo - Generic anime theme song #588. None of Yui-nyan’s anime songs so far have matched the quality of her eroge material, and I’m starting to doubt if they ever will. Ugh… next!
Rating:

Process/third bridge. KAORI (12RIVEN ED - PS2)

I really love KAORI as a singer - couldn’t care less about her seiyuu career (she was Hachi in NANA), but Process is a tad on the rubbish side. Luckily, third bridge is an excellent song that balances things out quite nicely.
Rating:

Bokutachi no Yukue. CooRie (D.C.II.SS ED)

As I’ve mentioned before, CooRie always seems to save her best songs for Da Capo and this is no different. The C/W song Simple ni Nare is bloody awful though :/
Rating:

Sakura Amaneku Sekai. yozuca* (D.C.II.SS OP)

I hate yozuca*, but at least she isn’t fat and pretensive like the pigstar singer. But her songs have no redeeming features, I wonder why I even bother to give them a go when I know my hopes of hearing something good are so low.
Rating:

Where are you, Hata Motohiro single?

Non-anisong Highlights:
Telecastic Fake Show. Ling Tosite Sigure
Now this is the sort of sound VELTPUNCH should be aiming for, not that awful ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION rubbish they produced for Nabari no Ou… as crap as the general Jpop charts are, I love it when bands like Ling Tosite Sigure can still maintain the original sound that made them indie faves and still attain mainstream popularity. Fantastic band.
Together. MONKEY MAJIK
Gay pop music. You’ll either love it or hate it - no in-between.
Watch: Together PV
Hi-Five. Superfly
She’s setting the standard for all aspiring female rock singers. After a breather with the ballad Ai o Komete Hanataba wo, it’s back to the rockier sound of previous hits like Manifest.
Watch: Hi-Five PV

Albums tomorrow.

Posted on April 24th, 2008 under anime music, this week in japan • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback