j1m0ne’s blog

14th March 2007
There’s not too much out this week which is a relief after the last fortnight’s flurry of releases. I’ll be away next week travelling around Europe (Paris and uh….Cologne) which is a little galling for me cos there’s tons of new stuff out on 21st March. Oh well, at least I’ll get to see the Eiffel Tower. And woe is me, YUI outsold Yuzu (涙).

Singles
Akanezora. Remioromen

Oh dear. Another sappy string-laden ballad. They leave all the good stuff (songs like Shift and Mame Denkyuu) for the albums, cos they know that mush sells. Yawn. Wake me up when the next album comes along.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

compass. Kawashima Ai

Just a month after the release of the excellent My Love on V-day comes the White Day single compass, the theme song for yet another One Piece movie. compass and uneasy are typical Kawashima ballads but My Way is a nice upbeat tune.
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Sunao na mama. Nakashima Mika

Happy to see her producing good singles, though I’m mystified why this was released on the same day as the album. Trying to pull a Koda Kumi?
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Bird. Shimokawa Mikuni

I’ve been waiting for this for what seems like years now. She’s been playing Bird every week on her radio show for the last few months and I’m hooked. Probably Mikuni’s best ballad since Karenai Hana. The c/w songs are a bunch of NapsaQ originals - I wish they’d record a whole album instead of just doing covers, really enjoyed Picnic off Seishun Song Request. Tegami is the current ED theme for Mikumori and I loooooveee it. Wish I could listen to her other radio show Shimokawa Mikuni ni Miechau on Tokai Radio but the only stream that runs on Peercast is hideous. Oh, and I uploaded the rather boring PV for Bird over at Jpopsuki but am still slowly queueing up the rest of the DVD goodies.
Rating: ★★★★☆

Sore mo kitto shiawase. Suzuki Ami joins Kirinji

I gave the collab with THC!! a miss, but there was no way I was gonna pass up on Kirinji. Unfortunately Horigome Yasuyuki doesn’t sing on it but that’s OK. The song’s got Kirinji written all over it - laidback jazzy, ‘coffee-table’ pop.
Rating: ★★★★☆

Agressive. KREVA

Kreva songs always put a smile on my face. The KICK THE CAN CREW rapper has always had a knack for writing catchy hooks and Aggressive is another great pop single.
Rating: ★★★★☆

Can’t stop believing. tetsu

This sounds totally like L’arc~en~ciel circa Blurry Eyes hahahaha. Having dropped the 69 from his solo artist name, I was wondering if he would be producing anything as good as Shinkirou or 15 1/2. Errrr…. this probably wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it’s not a bad single.
Rating: ★★★☆☆

BUT/Aisho. Koda Kumi

So how many singles is that in the last 2 years? BUT annoys me (I’ll resist the butt jokes….), Aisho is a little more tolerable but it’s just Koda overkill now. She should take a year off or something.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

No No No. MOOMIN

I doubt most people would even be remotely interested in plain ‘ol reggae, let alone Japanese reggae. Which is a bit of a shame cos MOOMIN’s one of the best examples of the genre. Really enjoyable single.
Rating: ★★★★☆

Sha la la-Ayakashi NIGHT-. Uura Saeka

The only reason why anyone would be interested in this (unless you’re a Kekkaishi fan)? Sha la la is written by one Inaba Koshi, lead singer of B’z. It’s horribly dull. The c/w song Senaka goshi no egao is much better.
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Sotsugyo, soshite mirai e. Monkey Majik + SEAMO

I sometimes wish I didn’t understand a single word of Japanese - it would certainly make listening to bands like Monkey Majik and HY easier. Then again, a good percentage of Monkey Majik’s lyrics are in English, which are just as cheesy. I do quite like Sotsugyo, soshite mirai e - fun in a cheesy 80s pop kind of way. The c/w songs are unbearable though.
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Albums
HOME.Mr.Children

Ah, the legends who still top the charts with every release regardless of whether it’s actually any good. I hesitate to call them a rock band cos tbh, their rock tracks suck. A lot. I am a huge fan of Mr.Children singles, less so of their albums which can make for pretty difficult listening most of the time. HOME is however, much more accessible than past efforts (ie Discovery). The best tracks on the album are the ballads which is really their forte; songs like Motto, Irodori and Shirushi. Everything else is a jumble of odd, boring jazz and plodding rock. A so-so album.
Rating: ★★★☆☆

YES. Nakashima Mika

So not only did Mika release her album on the same day as the single, but she/record company inexplicably chose to go up against MisuChiru and Koda Kumi. Way to go, Mika! MUSIC is one of my fave Jpop albums ever so I was wondering how she was going to match that. Well, she didn’t harharhar. With the exception of the fantastic DANCE WITH THE DEVIL and GOING BACK HOME, most of the album tracks are mundane. The new version of I LOVE YOU is even worse than the one on the single ^^; and her Engrishy version of What A Wonderful World always makes me cringe. I actually like most of the singles preceding the album (CRY NO MORE, Mienai Hoshi, My Sugar Cat) so it sort of balances out in the end.
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Best~Bounce & Lovers. Koda Kumi

It’s starting to get ridiculous, the amount of stuff she’s releasing. This is yet another compilation album, this time of Koda ballads. I pretty much got tired of her by the time she hit it big with Butterfly, so my fave songs on this were always gonna be the stuff up til Feel My Mind (Hana, Rain, Pearl Moon, 1000 no Kotoba). Everything else bores the socks off me. And the cover gives me the creeps.
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Stuff that I couldn’t be bothered with:
HALCALI (they’re not fun anymore)
LEAD
LM.C
3BLAB
Maximum The Hormone

Finally dragged my ass off to get sorachoco’s album off Winny. Hell it’s good. Both of them (Hanamura Satomi & Inamura Yuuna) are pretty good singers - it was hard to tell from the Galaxy Angelune songs cos they were so annoying. Much better than your average seiyuu album.

Posted on March 15th, 2007 under music, this week in japan • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback