j1m0ne’s blog

24 October 2007
It’s a busy week, sigh. And I don’t think I’ve covered even 50% of what I wanted to…..

Last week’s review’s chart placings
Singles
08. Shichitenhakki Shijo Shugi. KOTOKO (11,534)
12. Unabara no Tsuki. Ando Yuko (6,302)
14. LIBERTY. Salyu (4,952)
31. Sakasama World. GOING UNDER GROUND (2,481)

Albums
01. Best. Tackey & Tsubasa (85,298)
02. abingdon boys school. abingdon boys school (50,014)

Jeebus, the singles chart is getting worse - 2k is enough to get into the top 30!! A few years ago that wouldn’t be enough to scrape the top 50. November’s highlights include some big name artists like GLAY, Every Little Thing, Mr. Children, AKFG, Laruku and EXILE so hopefully that will be the shot in the arm the singles market needs.

Singles
Hana no Na. BUMP OF CHICKEN

Nearly a year of waiting for a new BoC single and they hit us with two in one go Hana no Na is the quiet acoustic half and harks back to songs like Rem and Snow Smile. People new to BUMP OF CHICKEN might laugh at their name but their music is nothing to giggle at. Their style incorporates more folk influences than say, AKFG and hence their appeal to both the young and old crowd. BoC are guaranteed to be No.1 and 2 come next week, they’re already continent miles ahead of the competition. In fact, both singles are set to sell nearly 10 times more than Dir en Grey (at No.3) will. Never underestimate the power of BUMP OF CHICKEN (Man, that just sounds lame ^^;;)
Watch: Hana no Na PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.01 (second day=⇔ at No.1)
Rating: ★★★★☆

Mayday. BUMP OF CHICKEN

The ‘rock’ half of their double singles assault. Needless to say that I like it too. OT, but I remember BoC rocking a live so hard that the concert hall floor collapsed because of their fans’ overexuberant jumping ^^; That was a few years ago now…. since then they’ve established themselves as the biggest young rock band in Japan. With 5 singles since the last album Yggdrasil, surely we can expect a new album soon? I for one, can’t wait.
Watch: Mayday PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.02 (⇔ No.02)
Rating: ★★★★☆

Yellow. Kimura Kaela

There’s something about Kimura that leaves me cold, and I can’t quite pinpoint what exactly it is. Is it the chameleon hairdos? Maybe it’s the tendency for her music to swing from stunning to shitty in the space of 30 seconds? Or perhaps I’m just bored of seeing her face peddling everything from beer to railways to electronic goods. But nevertheless, the rocking Yellow is strangely compelling despite its lack of a chorus…. or a tune for that matter. Oh, and this is released on Kaela’s 23rd birthday so many happy returns of the day.
Watch: Yellow PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.04 (⇔ No.04)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Saigo no Kawa. CHEMISTRY

Following from the excellent This Night comes another stellar single. The duo haven’t produced a good ballad since You Go Your Way…. that was 5 years ago? Saigo no Kawa takes a few listens to reveal its charms but once I got into it I absolutely loved it, their voices go together well. Except Dochin seems to try to drown out Kaname’s voice when they’re performing ^^;;
Watch: Saigo no Kawa PV Saigo no Kawa talk + live
First day Oricon chart placing: No.05 (⇔ No.05)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Akaneiro no Yakusoku. Ikimonogakari

You’d be hard pressed to find a band as consistent as the Kanagawan band, producing brilliant pop single after brilliant pop single. Not much more I can say, except that I worship Ikimonogakari.
Watch: Akaneiro no Yakusoku PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.08 (↑ No.07)
Rating:

Urban Mermaid. Ito Yuna

Hah, Urban Mermaid. What next, Rural Seahorse? Lame aquatic jokes aside, this is a decent song and one of her better singles since ENDLESS STORY. Except the awfully cheesy lyrics (I’m a beautiful mermaid……yeah, whatever) and the similarly cheesy video. I’d prefer Yuna to actually put on a mermaid suit and waddle around in water tbh, that’d be much more exciting.
Watch: Urban Mermaid PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.09 (↑ No.08)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Keikenchi Joshochu☆. Satoh Rina, Inoue Marina & Chihara Minori

………I didn’t know Minami-ke was that popular. Oh wait, the singles charts are screwed up anyway. But Starchild/King Records get a slice of the Chihara Minori pie this week with Keikenchi Joshochu☆, a song so catchy and addictive I find myself quietly chanting ‘M-I-N-A-M-I-K-E, Let’s Go!’ before realising how retarded it sounds and try to knock some common sense into my head.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.17 (↓ No.20)
Rating: ★★★★☆

Anata ga Koko ni iru Riyuu. Rie fu

Sales have been on a downward curve since those Bleach and GSD tie-ins and based on the first day performance of this single (D.Gray-man ED theme), things ain’t getting any better for Rie fu. Kinda depressing, but that one Gundam theme (I Wanna Go To A Place…) sold more than her 7 other singles put together ^^; Bit of a shame really, as the bright and breezy nature of her 70s folk inspired seems to have perfect mainstream appeal, guess the Japanese public don’t agree.
Watch: Anata ga Koko ni iru Riyuu PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.38 (↑ No.27)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Sakura Kimi ni Emu. yozuca*

It’s from D.C.II, which for reasons I cannot quite fathom, remains a very popular franchise in Japan. I could accept it selling that well if it was a good song, but…. It’s not catchy at all, it’s worse than the first two seasons’ openings by a long, long way…. it’s just shit. I hate it. Next!
First day Oricon chart placing: No.14 (↑ No.12)
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Yasashisa wa Ame no Youni. CooRie

CooRie/rino always seems to break out her best songs for the Da Capo series and this really makes up for the rubbish opening.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.18 (⇔ No.18)
Rating: ★★★★☆

Kaze Sagashi. Kiyoura Natsumi

When they announced that Kiyoura would be singing the opening theme for Sketchbook that raised a few eyebrows. Well mine anyway, since I only knew of her as the kid from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and as a swimsuit idol too. Could she sing? Can she bloody sing alright…. Only 17 (yes, really) but her voice sounds way more assured than most twice her age. Helped along by the fact that both Kaze Sagashi and Natsu no Kioku (Kiyoura wrote the lyrics) are damn good songs. I love this a lot ^_^
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside top 50
Rating: ★★★★☆

Sketchbook o Motta Mama. Makino Yui

Some people like Makino’s sweet, soothing voice. Me? I’ll give it my standard description of all similarly nasal, high-pitched voices - it’s like a leaking helium balloon. I like most of her songs though, thanks to her links with ARIA which is one my favourite series, unsurprisingly. So with this single being associated with Sketchbook (from the makers of ARIA) I thought I’d like this too. Well I was wrong - after hearing it in the first episode I’ve skipped every ending since, which tells you what I think of it. The c/w songs are no better, with another yawn-inducing tune in Tooku Made Ikou and to top it all off, a Brahms lullaby zzzz (sorry, I have bad memories of endlessly practising classical piano pieces).
First day Oricon chart placing: No.32 (⇔ No.32)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

euphoric field. ELISA

I’ve already dropped ef due to time constraints but I did love this opening theme. I just hate the Engrish that comes along with it, eeuurgh. What possesses Japanese people to sing in a language they can barely speak? It ain’t cool, it’s like me trying to sing in Swahili - not a pretty sight/sound. But uh yeah, euphoric field - very cool song.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.21 (↓ No.22)
Rating:

Adagio. Taguchi Hiroko

Yet another slow, boring song. And yet another single that was destined for the Recycle Bin, if not for the version of euphoric field on it.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.42 (↓ >Top 50)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

disarm dreamer. Misato Aki

I didn’t like Manzo’s first Genshiken opening (My-Pace Daioh) and alarmingly, I like this even less -_- OK, disarm dreamer itself isn’t that bad but it sounds too much like Misato’s Strawberry Panic songs and doesn’t fit Genshiken at all. I can’t imagine Sasahara & co. having this as a ringtone either….
First day Oricon chart placing: No.44 (↓ >Top 50)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

BLUE/Tsubomi -blue dreams-. Suara

I seem to be plagued with ultra-dull, ultra-slow anime songs this week but BLUE really takes the biscuit. It is so bloody boring, I can’t resist the urge to press the skip button. So uh… why isn’t Tsubomi -blue dreams- the lead song? In fact, it should be the opening theme for the BLUE DROP anime and not the dreary BLUE. Then again, the show itself is pretty dull and slow so I guess it’s a perfect fit.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.46 (↓ >Top 50)
Rating:

Rettsu! Ohimesama dakko. Kitamura Eri, Shindou Kei & Kadowaki Mai

After listening to so many slow, drab anime themes maybe something upbeat would lift the mood. Or maybe not, cos I already hated both songs on this single the moment I first heard them. Next!!!!
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside top 50
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Soshite Boku wa…/RISE. Sakakibara Yui

So uh… not even 5 episodes in and I’ve already given up on Prism Ark. Actually I wouldn’t have lasted beyond the first one if not for my desire to hear more of Soshite Boku wa… The song itself is typical Shikura Chiyomaru (the bloke who wrote SECRET AMBITION, all tiaraway songs and a legion of video game themes) , all OTT strings and rumbling beats. Pretty enjoyable stuff and quite close to her own style. Then I watched the PV, complete with silly dancing nuns & Yui-nyan in full Priecia get-up and couldn’t stop laughing. It’s ruined my ‘cool’ image of the song now…. oh and RISE is the ending theme for PS2’s Prism Ark-AWAKE- and is slower than the A-side but is still a very good song.
Watch: Soshite Boku wa… PV (Niconico)
First day Oricon chart placing: No.24 (⇔ No.24)
Rating: ★★★★☆

Yuen no Amulet/Opera Fantasia. momo-i

I’ve never liked Momoi’s voice and probably never will *shrug* Acquired taste, I guess. The pair of songs here are the opposites of Sakakibara’s single, Yuen no Amulet being the PS2 game opening and Opera Fantasia the TV anime ending theme. They’re not bad songs per se (again, typical Shikura songs), but Momoi’s shrieking takes the score down a half-star for me. And I’m quite bemused that Yui’s doing better chart-wise than Momoi, guess reputations really count for nothing.
Watch: Yuen no Amulet PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.47 (↑ No.39)
Rating:

Tears Infection. KAORI

Perhaps better known to anime fans as the voice of Hachi in NANA, but KAORI’s done her fair share of video game themes with most of her songs written by…. Shikura Chiyomaru ^^; Man, the dude is likely to have three singles within the top 50 this week. This is more of the same style, except less catchy and with a rubbish PV.
Watch: TEARS INFECTION PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.28 (↓ No.38)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Kimi to Yozora to Sakamichi to. Ito Kanako

The last of the Shikura-related releases this week, and probably my favourite. I’ve always liked Ito’s mature voice that handle both rock songs and ballads with equal ease, and similarly has no problems with this pair of mid-tempo pop tunes either. Deserves more plaudits than she gets.
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside top 50
Rating: ★★★★☆

Aozora loop. marble

In a normal week, marble might’ve gotten a better score. But it’s not a normal week, and there’s just way too much good stuff going on this week that marble end up falling between the cracks with the unmemorable Aozora loop.
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside top 50
Rating:

Platinum Smile. Kosaka Riyu

Kosaka’s the only one who’s made a successful breakout in solo career-dom from the Bemani group BeForU and rightly so. She’s not stuck to the same old dance-pop and has instead tried out something different Claymore’s rocking Guilty Sky. Now Kosaka gets to sing a ballad, which is also the theme song for the Kamen Rider The Next movie (she also appears in it). And it’s actually really nice, didn’t think she could pull it off. And I thought Kamen Rider was quite popular so I’m surprised that Kosaka’s not going anywhere in the charts.
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside top 50
Rating:

Et Cetera. ONE OK ROCK

The most famous thing about young rockers ONE OK ROCK is that their lead vocalist used to be in Johnny’s boyband NEWS. They don’t really need to ride on the coattails of his fame though, as their music is good enough to get them an audience. Et Cetera is a good example of the catchy but slightly bland rock that seems to appeal to the mainstream audience so much - watch out for them, they’ve got a bright future ahead.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.20 (↓ No.21)
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Albums
Seimeiryoku. CHATMONCHY

It seems fitting that CHATMONCHY should release their new album in the same week as GO!GO!7188, so similar are their styles…. except maybe CHATMONCHY poured more sugar into their brand of girl rock. Apart from the bollocks Daidai, everything else has ‘potential single written all over it. My fave - a piano ballad called Sunao which (shock) doesn’t have a single guitar on it. Another major shock that Seimeiryoku debuted at No.1 ahead of Backstreet Boys…. where did all those ‘fans’ suddenly appear from? Don’t expect it to stay there though as BSB for some reason remain inexplicably popular in the Land of the Rising Sun.
First day Oricon chart placing: No.01 (↓ No.02)
Rating: ★★★★☆

569. GO!GO!7188

With a name like Go Rock (Read 569 in Japanese, slowly) I’d hoped that this would be louder and faster than the laidback PARADE. Well it is marginally louder and marginally faster, but also marginally worse. After hearing Seimeiryoku, listening to 569 is like consuming warm, flat beer compared to CHATMONCHY’s premium champagne. It’s not all bad, there’s some trademark catchy GO!GO!7188 songs like Nounai Traveller and Manatsu no Dancehall but everything else is just a bore.
Watch: Nounai Traveller PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.09 (⇔ No.09)
Rating:

Contact. Chihara Minori

I was excited to hear that the wonderful Shijin no Tabi was written by Kikuta Daisuke, one of the members of music production team Elements Garden - leading me to think that the rest of the crew (Agematsu, Fujima & Fujita) might be involved too. Not to be though, the trio are probably too busy working on Mizuki Nana’s new album GREAT ACTIVITY ^^; Instead we get Bemani dude Tatsch & anisong writer Nijine lending a hand, with Hata Aki and Kodama Saori proving the lyrics.

Apart from the already mentioned Shijin no Tabi and the two singles there’s some other half-decent songs like Dears~Yuruyakana Kiseki and sleeping terror, but Futari no Reflection and Cynthia are cheesy I’ve-aping songs that were better left on the cutting room floor. Guess my biggest complaint is the lack of variety on the album i.e. there’s no ballads, just a whole load of mid-tempo dance tracks . Still, Minorin’s headed in the right direction (unlike Hirano Aya ^^;) and I look forward to hearing more of her in the future.
Watch: Shijin no Tabi PV
First day Oricon chart placing: No.12 (↑ No.11)
Rating:

Okuda Tamio Covers. Various

Cover albums are best approached with caution, especially in Japan where anyone can get a tribute CD, even bloody Avril Lavigne. And especially so when they’re a treasured artist (for me) like Okuda Tamio - I’d already been burnt once by the Spitz tribute album which was to put it lightly, a load of rubbish. That album’s main fault was a selection of relatively unknown artists who proceeded to shred much-loved Spitz songs to bits, of which Okuda incidentally took part in. No such mistakes with Okuda’s own tribute album as the artist line-up already looks mighty impressive on paper, from Jrock stars GLAY to pop upstarts CHATMONCHY and indie faves detroit7.

The album has 19 songs across 2 CDs and covers most of Okuda’s many hits. There’s some obvious choices like Spitz doing Sasurai, Saito Kazuyoshi with Canoe and GOING UNDER GROUND with E10 Rider, staying pretty close to the originals. Not hard, given those bands’ sound was probably in some way influenced by Okuda and his band Unicorn. Then you have artists that you wouldn’t think could do their selections justice like synth-pop duo HALCALI and shima-uta balladeer Atari Kosuke but hey, they go ahead and surprise you anyway. I really do like HALCALI’s reworking of Ai no Tame ni, it’s got their silly trademark rapping/talking and brings a whole new dimension to the song. Kudos too to DEPAPEPE for turning Sound of Music into a fantastic acoustic guitar piece.

This is exactly what a covers album should be, with the artists having fun paying tribute to the great one and not having a bunch of newbie groups trying too hard to impress. And obviously anyone who’s not heard of Okuda Tamio before needs to go and get some of his stuff sharpish, the guy did rank No.25 on a list of most popular Japanese musicians after all ^^;
Watch: E10 Rider live (Okuda Tamio X Sambomaster)
First day Oricon chart placing: No.06 (↓ No.07)
Rating:

Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei OST: Zetsubo Gekiban Senshu. Hasegawa Tomoki

Zetsubo-sensei is one of my favourite anime this year thanks to its general wackiness and being full of WTF moments, punctuated by a oddly inappropriate soundtrack that sounds like it belongs in the bygone era of silent B&W movies. Still, that doesn’t mean that the music sucks - far from it. I actually really like it - have already stuck it on the iPod for my background music listening pleasure.
First day Oricon chart placing: Outside top 50
Rating:

—————————————————————————————–
There’s still so much stuff I’ve got sitting on my HD that I haven’t got the chance to listen to yet; Kumaki Anri, Takahashi Hitomi, the Unicorn tribute album, kukui, Monobright, 2BACKKA, Momusu…..I might cover them next week if it’s less congested.

And sorry that those half stars look wonky, I’m still trying to figure out how to make them less fugly….

Posted on October 26th, 2007 under music, this week in japan • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback