j1m0ne's blog

I’ve listened to a lot of cover and tribute albums in the last 10 years or so and it is inevitable that the new versions are compared to the originals. The question I ask myself most when listening to yet another covers album:

-Does a cover version really need to be that much different from the original? There’s obviously a fine line to walk when trying to record a distinctive version of songs some considers to be masterpieces. You could keep it simple and as close to the original as possible - but you might as well be doing karaoke. Or you could take risks, try to change things around and if it pays off, get lauded for being innovative and if it doesn’t work, you get darts thrown at you. But there’s always going to be a section of fans who’ll never be happy no matter what people do, so why bother? Just do your own thing and worry later when you get rotten eggs thrown at you…

Even then, I’ve heard more crap covers than I have good ones. For the record, my most favourite cover ever is Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. It mesmerised me the first time I heard it years ago and still does now.

Moving on to Buddy then, which is a tribute album to celebrate Okui Masami’s 15 years in the business. Granted, her best days are probably behind her now but there’s still lots of people who aren’t well acquainted with Makkun’s back catalogue (shame on you). So hopefully people will hear this and maybe be inspired to explore her older albums - she’s most definitely one of the best things to ever happen to anime music.

Review
I approached this with much caution; I could never claim to be unbiased when listening to covers albums, especially when I am as fond of the original material as I am of Makkun’s. I try to keep an open mind though.

1.TRUST. Kuribayashi Minami
A pretty odd way to start off the album - TRUST is actually one of my fave Makkun songs from recent years, but it doesn’t actually pack much of a punch though it did seem to fit the anime it came from (Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama) at that point. Minami’s version is pretty similar to the original, except it features more acoustic guitars and strings instead of a predominantly electric arrangement. If I didn’t already know this was a Makkun song, I probably would’ve believed it was a Minami original. Good song choice for Minami.

2.Rondo-revolution. Chihara Minori
I’m not feeling Fujita Junpei’s arrangement of Okui’s signature song at all. The slow beginning, the out-of-place beats, the jazzy instrumental bridge bit after the second chorus, Minorin’s oddly strained vocal… True, an update of sorts was needed since Yabuki’s original mix with the saxophone sounds like something out of the middle ages but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed by this version. I never thought anyone could make Rondo sound so flat and lifeless, but they’ve clearly succeeded here. You might think I’m mad, but I much, much prefer Nakagawa Shoko’s version, shaky vocals and all.

3.Jounetsu. Misato Aki
This is actually the track that took me by surprise the most. I’ve never really been impressed by Misato’s airy voice but crucially, she tackled something that suited her instead of trying one of the poweful songs like Aka that would’ve been out of her league. Misato’s smooth vocal delivery is refreshingly different from Okui’s ‘raw’ approach and result in one of the surprise hits on Buddy (for me).

4.INTRODUCTION. Endoh Masaaki
A very polished cover. There’s not much fault to find in Endoh’s version of one of her lesser known songs, Endoh could be singing in his sleep and he’d still produce better, more passionate vocals than most Japanese singers. Good thing he’s replaced the drum machine on the original with real drums too. My main criticism of Okui songs is how quickly they seem to age; INTRODUCTION was from her 2004 album ReBirth but it sounds like it was recorded in the 90s.

5.Olive. Ishida Yoko
I could’ve sworn they just took the original arrangement and just put Ishida’s vocals over it. After a couple of listens, the only real differences I noticed were less guitars and more piano but otherwise it’s almost identical. And what stuck out like a sore thumb was how Ishida’s weak voice is here - I didn’t actually think Olive was that hard a song to sing compared to other Makkun stuff, but on this evidence, they might’ve done better employing someone else with stronger lungs to handle it. Or Ishida might’ve chosen something to complement her sweet vocals better. Or humoured us with a para para version.

6.Iiwake. Suara
One of the contenders for best track on the album. Suara’s haunting vocal is her USP (unique selling point), she could conceivably sing the alphabet and it’d still give me the goosebumps - and she uses it to great effect here. Props to her arranger for turning a mid-tempo rock ballad into a song that would slot alongside Suara’s own material seamlessly. I think this is the most ‘different’ song on Buddy, and it’s the one that works the best too. Risks do pay off after all.

7.Otomegokoro Mugen. Ohmi Tomoe
Hmmm, another song that sees little change from the original. Oh hang on, the guitar intro is watered down significantly…and Ohmi sounds like she’s bored to death. It’s one of the songs I wouldn’t really miss if it wasn’t on the album. I was never a huge fan of the original song anyhow, and I’m still not convinced of Ohmi’s credentials despite her status as Makkun’s protege.

8.Koishimasho Nebarimasho. Momoi Halko
Now this one blew me away. OK, Momoi’s voice will not be to everyone’s taste but I thought that she handled the song very, very well. It was a spot-on choice of song for her - the arrangement is IMHO, the best one on Buddy and I had a huge grin on my face when the song started off with those video-game like bleeps and beats. I wouldn’t mind getting an instrumental version of this at all.

9.Wasuregusa. Kageyama Hironobu
I’d already expressed my disappointment that Kageyama chose a slow song to cover instead of Makkun’s many hot-blooded rockers, but I did find this an enjoyable experience after all. Like Endoh, he’s a true pro and can handle any song in any fashion he wishes and still manage to make it sound fantastic. Two out of the other four members of JAM Project pull off their covers convincingly, but I’m a bit bummed out that they didn’t do one as a group.

10.HAPPY PLACE. Yonekura Chihiro
Woah. HAPPY PLACE doesn’t sound so happy any more…or so I thought. The first one-and-a-half minutes is just Chihiro backed by some synth keyboards and I was like…oh noes! I’m gonna fall alseep! So when the band finally kicked in it was like… both relief and surprise. After a few gos, this actually turned out to be one of my favourites - it’s great to album on an upbeat note. A bit OT, but Yonekura and Okui were two of my earliest anisong singer obsessions, and it was like a dream come true when they formed the short-lived r.o.r/s. Here’s hoping Makkun returns the favour if/when Chihiro gets her own tribute album in the future.

As you can see… it appears to be a bit of a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong, I did thoroughly enjoy listening to this - it was a huge nostalgia trip, and had the added novelty of a group of established anisong singers take on the challenge of covering Makkun songs trying not to falling flat on their faces. Certainly, I am much more satisfied with Buddy then I was with those horrendous Spitz and Radiohead tribute albums. I’m glad that Okui’s songs are versatile enough to still sound relevant, even 10 years after they were made.

Uh…now I’m starting to sound like a overly sentimental old fart… I’ll shut up soon. Oh, you know what I would’ve liked to have had? Mizuki Nana covering Sora ni Kakeru Hashi - that would’ve been incredible. I’ll just have to be content with imagining it in my brain…