A Brief Appraisal of Hirano Aya’s RIOT GIRL
First of all, kudos to Lantis for having the foresight to release RIOT GIRL in a very, very shit week when even the Macross Frontier OST would have hit No.1 with little trouble. RG debuted at No.2 today, behind TUBE and in front of Kimaguren but with a very average index figure of 4,333. As a comparison, Macross F OST got 10,304 and Mizuki Nana’s GREAT ACTIVITY hit 8,692.
Anyway, this is an honest review of RIOT GIRL purely from a musical point of view. I shall put my OMIGOD HIRANO IS THE SUXX00RS!! goggles aside for a minute and go through the album.
Half of the songs on RIOT GIRL will already be familiar to most people, being singles, re-cuts or coupling songs. I was hoping for a bit more variation than the shouty girl-pop Hirano’s favoured thus far, but there are unfortunately very few surprises on the album. A bit of enka or jazz would’ve been very welcome, but it’s mostly the same pop-rock path that she’s been treading thus far.
The Hirano songs I love – Doushite… from Himawari!, her Sumomo etc material, were all very different beasts, slower material that allowed Hirano to wrap her limited vocal range around the arrangement. More often than not on Hirano’s material, she’s being drowned out by distorted guitars and over-enthusiastic drumming. And to my dismay, Aya’s maintained that dreadful vocal style of hers for the most part - being repeatedly pummelled by Hirano’s grating attempt at a vibrato is not fun.
Running through some of the highlights and lowlights:
Bouken Desho Desho? should’ve been left on the cutting room floor - it doesn’t fit into the flow of the album at all. But I can see the commercial value in including it on the CD, though maybe they should’ve put God knows… on too.
MonStAR was the only one of her singles I truly liked. It was happy, bouncy, chirpy, fun. Nobody else seemed to like it much… I think it has something to do with her singing.
Yorokobi no Uta is one of my favourites - it’s got a piano line that I can actually hear, for one. A little generic, but I like the melody - something I can totally hum along to.
I heard Harmonia Vita on Anispa the other day and instantly took to its dark, moody vibe. I’m sure it’d benefit a bit more if Hirano used a lighter, whisperier vocal approach instead of spraying her vibrato all over it though. I can just imagine somebody like Fairy Yui or Takarano Arika doing a splendid job on the song. But I like it, arguably the best song on RIOT GIRL.
For you is not bad. I like the chorus, but Hirano’s vocal seems a bit off-key at certain points. Aimai Scream is OK, not something I’d listen to a second time though.
I love Hoshi no Kakera. It’s the only ballad on the album, and it’s the only song where Aya doesn’t screech her little heart out. I thought she did a fine, controlled job vocally - this is a perfect illustration of why I think she should ditch rock and go with the slow stuff.
I already made my feelings about Maybe I can’t good-bye. and Neophilia known. Ashita no Prism and Breakthrough were songs I disliked from way back, no change there. And I just realised unnamed world isn’t on RIOT GIRL…
HERO was the other song played on Anispa last week. I hate it, she sounds strangled on it. Generally, I dislike all the songs that sound like LOVE★GUN, anything that starts off with a loud, droning guitar or some dreadful drumming followed by a scream and it’s a dash for the NEXT button from me.
The title track is dreadful. Hirano sounds like a chicken squawking, I’ll pretend I never heard it. It’s an awful way to end the album, they should’ve tucked it somewhere near the start of the album and ended with Hoshi no Kakera instead.
Recommendation: Skip the first six tracks.
My Picks: Yorokobi no Uta, Harmonia Vita, Hoshi no Kakera
If I had to give it a rating: 5/10. That’s based purely on the number of songs on the album I like (7 out of 14). 5 isn’t a bad score you know. Just like all the video game magazines tell you, 5 means average.
I wish I could stop going on and on about Hirano’s vocals, but I find that it seriously impedes my enjoyment of the album. If she’d trimmed RIOT GIRL by four songs, I would’ve liked it even more. Am I surprised that I quite like this? Not really, because I’m familiar enough with the work of RIOT GIRL’s principal songwriters Saito Shinya and Kurosu Katsuhiko that I was confident they’ve come up with the goods regardless of who they were writing for. And I’d be frickin’ biased too if I said ‘All the songs are shit!’ since the duo will also be largely responsible for Kitamura Eri’s solo career (more on that in a future post).
If Hirano harbours a serious ambition to be a major idol/star then usurping people like Horie Yui & Tamura Yukari would be the first step. And that would mean a target of 25-30,000 sales in the long term for RIOT GIRL. It’s certainly achieveable - Chihara Minori hit 23k with Contact so if Aya doesn’t get that it’ll be epic fail on her fans’ part. Anyhow, I’ll still be keeping a close watch on Hirano’s singing career - just as long as I don’t have to listen to her performing live.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Now you get to be #1 on Google for “OMIGOD HIRANO IS THE SUXX00RS”!
July 16th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Which is undoubtedly my crowning achievement \[^o^]/
July 16th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
ZOMG….you actually survived the whole album!! D=
Here’s another bottle of champagne for you. I haven’t got to listen to it myself (I didn’t even realized it had been released :P) but I’m certainly surprised that “Unnamed World” is not inside…but Maybe I can’t Goodbye is in??? What are they thinking? Showing off Hirano Aya’s Engrish skills? I know she wrote the lyrics for Maybe I can’t goodbye…but that’s why the more reason it shouldn’t be included….it’s too “brilliant” that my brain cannot process it. Now, should I even get a copy of this? Hmm….
July 17th, 2008 at 12:54 am
What? No God knows…EPIC FAIL! LOLOLOL
But seriously, #2? Did Lantis rig the charts or something? I’m joking on that. I suppose chart ranking is not directly proportional to sales….like you, I’m going to give this album a try but I’ve heard quite a few reviews that a lot of it is just recycled crap…I do wish Hirano would do more darker songs though - I absolutely loved Neophilia, and I agree with you that slower stuff suits her voice better (Hikari no Umi was one of my old favorites).
But all in all, I think Hirano should just stick to her acting guns, because that’s what she’s actually good at =/ It’s pretty sad that after another year, I still think her Suzumiya Haruhi songs are her best works…one-hit wonder much?
July 17th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Is it just me or have you gotten a bit more vocal about Hirano Aya lately? XD
July 17th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Enka and Aya Hirano? I don’t think the combination really fits.
I neither like nor hate Hirano. It’s just that I prefer some of her songs more than others. I’m kind of interested in checking this album out, mainly because of Hoshi no Kakera.
And that is one loud album cover ^^.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Oh yes, I’m getting vocal about Hirano Aya so I can rake in the hits and irritate all Aya fans when they see that I’m just another one of those HIRANO SUXX00RS!!! haters.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:34 am
sux00rs haha…
July 17th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I sort of feel sorry that Hirano fans are unable to find an e-copy of RG unless they know the right places to look so I actually uploaded it onto TT to help the masses. I must be going mad…
July 17th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Yes, you are, but thanks nonetheless
July 17th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
As a rabid Hirano Aya fanboy, I thank you for the honest review and the upload. Clearly this is one of those “You RAGE you lose” blog posts, but I exercised some atomic calm and did not rage.
As for her album sales, already got my friend in Japan to buy a copy on day 1, so I did my part in bumping her sales.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
And thank you for not taking the bait! To be honest, everything is done in jest. I am just amused by people who blindly defend the idols and pour their rage upon anyone who dares disagree, and Aya seems to have a lot of those sort of fans (who are so easily provoked).
Good on you for supporting Hirano by buying RIOT GIRL - unlike the (so far) 400+ souls who have chosen to download the torrent instead ^^; We need more of you though, RG’s falling down the charts a bit too quickly…
July 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
hirano fanboy here, but i stop at the line when she STRAYS over into live pop rock. she definitely cant hold a correct tune. lets not talk live, i agreed with u thru-out that she cant even sing well into a record, and no studio editting/polishing can help her if she continues this way. and thats the only sad thing abt hirano. she’s mostly surviving thus far on talented song writers, not her vocals. and she needs serious tuitioning in english if she wana includes that in her songs…which lantis doesnt seem to have at all. in maybe i cant goodbye, she went “unknown unknown unknown…”, and i went “yep, i sure don’t know what the heck are u singing if i don’t look at the lyrics”
July 18th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Since I was in Japan at the time of the release, this album was one of my impulse buys–didn’t even realize it came out until the day of. In actuality, I have a love-hate relationship with Hirano, so I’m not sure I why I bought this in the first place. (Maybe out of guilt for not purchasing her singles? ^^;) I do agree on most of what you said, except I’m one of those that like Neophilla out of the 3 singles. Perhaps she needs to stop idoling Avril to the point of “adopting” her music style; unfortunately her voice fits punk like wrong sides of a magnet. That Canadian ain’t even that great…
On a different note, what’s with the stickers? I suppose she too would want me to stick her name on my guitar case like any other rock band.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
@j1m0ne: pst pst…are you really the one releasing the torrent? No surprise there if you really did hehe…
I can’t seem to find the urge to buy/download the album just yet. Maybe later…later…someday….somewhere over the rainbow~~~
*Me goes listen to some sentai songs instead*
July 19th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Yes it was me. Not very surprising is it? I just wonder why nobody else did since it was all over the Jpop forums and trackers…
July 19th, 2008 at 2:35 am
@j1m0ne: Cause they know you will do it….you will after you say that OMIGOD HIRANO IS THE SUXX00RS!! Hehehe…
Now, I shall head back to my blog and stare and Minorin’s new single cover picture instead…I still don’t dare to grab this Riot Girl album..it’s gonna run riot all over my brain…
July 19th, 2008 at 10:20 am
lol…you really did release the album at torrent?
aha…Hirano Aya do have a nice voice…maybe her attitude is just too fake…
Which is her real voice anyway?
~_~”
July 19th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
@Z-Houseki: Her real voice is when she does not speak at all XD
*me runs away from all the hardcore Hirano Aya fans*
July 19th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Lol so true townberry…
*Will faint after hearing it*
July 20th, 2008 at 9:13 am
….and I was wondering what made this post got 20 comments. ^^;; I thought Aya fanbois were screaming here. Have you got hate mails yet? xD
LOL @ Aya’s live. I even forgot she was in Animelo 2007. BTW I know one fanboy that’s going to see her concert on (I guess) November.. Ugh. God bless him.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Reason why is great to be a gay
You can buy condoms without the shopkeeper imagining you naked. It was joke ^_^