Koda Kumi – Kingdom

倖田來未 – Kingdom

Released: 30 Januart 2008

Buy the album at cdjapan

1.  Introduction For Kingdom
2.  LAST ANGEL feat.東方神起
3.  甘い罠
4.  秘密
5.  愛のうた
6.  anytime
7.  Under
8.  BUT
9.  恋の魔法
10.  愛証
11.  あなたがしてくれたこと
12.  Wonderland
13.  FREAKY
14.  MORE
15.  Black Cherry

Koda Kumi, an artiste under Avex (yes, the same label as Hamasaki Ayumi), has been touted as the Jpop princess. Honestly, I didn’t really listen to her songs or tried them but I gotta blame my Tohoshinki fandom for listening to her songs.

Track 2, the collaboration with Tohoshinki. Compare it with the Tohoshinki only track from my previous post and feel the difference. ^_^

Track 3, amai wana, has a somewhat Middle Eastern feel to it. Sorta reminds you of that hypnotizing snake charmer song. Result? sexy. What else do you expect from a title that translates to ’sweet trap’? AHA! Fall into the trap just like a charmed snake. XD

Track 4, himitsu, has a very sweet melody. What comes to mind oddly for me is her in bed, frolicking around and singing like an embarrassed woman. Have I been too influenced by Western music videos? I don’t know but there’s definitely some innocence in it. It’s a ’secret’, that’s what the title means. OH! It actually also reminds me a little of a Mariah Carey vibe; back to the Butterfly era when Mariah’s frolicking in bed is considered innocent. >.> MmMmmm.. could be a bad comparison.. maa~

Track 5, ai no uta, is a ballad. This song really shows off her low raspy-ish vocals. It may sound as if she has something stuck in her throat, or like she has a sore throat and forced to sing but to me, I kinda like it because if also gives me that kinda helplessness feeling that helps convey the meaning of the song. In some instances, she does remind me of Hamasaki Ayumi. I’m a sucker for ballads so yeah.. XD

Track 7, Under, is a very erm.. techno-ish song for me. The intro of the song reminds you of machinery and then in prances Kumi, singing, seducing you, tempting you. Weird eh? Moreover, her vocals, the way she sings and the title of the song really DOESN’T help the slutty temptress imagination. I like it because of that. It may not require much vocal ability but there are times when you just need a sexy dirty song and well, this is it. >.>

Track 13, FREAKY, sounds like a good club song. The distortion in her vocals make for the kind of songs that would incorporate some pretty cool dance moves. She asking you to “get FREAKY” sounds so “yo yo wassup~” hip-hop that it’s amusing to some extent.

15 songs in an album. That’s pretty hard to find these days. I would say overall, a pretty good album. Balanced with sexy songs, dance-y club songs and then ballads which oddly reminds you a lil of Mariah Carey vibe 10 years ago? ^_^

NANA starring Mika Nakashima – THE END

NANA starring Mika Nakashima – THE END

Released: 13 December 2006

Buy the album at cdjapan

1.     一色
2.     EYES FOR THE MOON
3.     GLAMOROUS SKY
4.     BLOWING OUT
5.     MY MEDICINE
6.     NEGLEST MIND
7.     REAL WORLD
8.     ISOLATION
9.     BLOOD
10.   一色 (alternative)
11.   MY WAY

Mika Nakashima is known more for her more poppy-ish songs but starring in the leading role of NANA movie was a turning point in her music career, in my opinion. As she played the character of a lead singer of a rock band, she had to sing some rock songs and as a result, this album was released. With so many albums under her belt, I think this is my favourite album of all. I for one love rock, not very hardcore kinda rock but easy listening kinda rock and this album fits it.

Track 1, hitoiro, written by Takuro of GLAY. More reasons to flail about it as I LOVE GLAY and Takuro composes some of the nicest songs in GLAY and this was just so Takuro-ish. When I first heard the song, I felt the melody was somewhat familiar, like I’ve listened to this kinda style a lot of times. I checked out who composed the song and BAM! It was Takuro and that was it. LOVE!

Track 3, GLAMOROUS SKY is a headbanging kinda song to me. Once again, a melody that I felt was very familiar. Checked who composed it and BAM! It was Hyde. Result? LOVE! XD I can’t help it that I love two of Japan’s most popular bands. Oh, does it help that Hyde looks do-able at middle age? *flails* With her raspy vocals that sounds almost frail, she delivers the song with a style that is hard to find among female singers in this genre. The whole recitation of the days in the week also amuses me to no end and contributes to the sing-a-long effect. Gilgamesh (Girugamesh in Japanese) also covered this song but what REALLY amused me was the singer actually mixed up the days in the week. “Monday… Tuesday… Wednesday… Saturday… Friday… Saturday…” I seriously laughed out loud. Mika did NOT make that mistake of course! ^^

Track 5, MY MEDICINE is sung entirely in English but people probably would not have noticed it firsthand since ENGRISH is pretty prevalent there. Heavy accent and all but it’s an addictive song to me. It’s somewhat sexy and like the drawls are just seductive. Maybe it’s just me. >.>

Track 11, My Way is a cover of that famous Frank Sinatra song. Difference is, it’s given an alternative edge with the infusion of a choir of children. Mika joins them singing in what seems like a really peaceful and cute rendition of the song until the guitars come in with the steady beat of drums. Then pace starts to pick up and then it sounds like she starts to get all pissy and angsty and starts cussing. WOOT! go angsty Mika! A pretty creative take on the song really.

All in all, I wish she’d release more albums like these.

ayaka – Sing to the Sky

絢香 – Sing to the Sky

Release Date: 25 June 2008

Buy her album at cdjapan

01 POWER OF MUSIC
02 愛を歌おう
03 SKY
04 Jewelry Day
05 グンナイベイビー
06 For today
07 Why
08 ゴールドスター
09 魔法使いのしわざ
10 手をつなごう
11 愛も嘘も真実
12 CLAP & LOVE
13 君がいるから
14 おかえり
15 今夜も星に抱かれて・・・
16 WINDING ROAD
17 I Believe <English ver.>

This is ayaka’s second album and a much anticipated album. Track 4, Jewelry Day, is a simple song with an accoustic guitar. So, her vocals + accoustic guitar = instant win. Track 10, Te wo tsunagou, is a motivating song which means “let’s hold hands”. ayaka seems to have a penchant of singing songs that would encourage and motivate you when times get rough. What I’m trying to say is that, she illustrates issues people go through everyday like failures, helplessness and then sings of it and tells them that everything would be okay. Track 12, Okaeri, was the ending theme for the jdrama Zettai Kareshi and it’s a cute song welcoming a loved one back home. To me, it was a perfect song for the drama which I enjoyed. Track 15, Konya mo hoshi ni dakarete, is a beautiful sad ballad. I swear I had this song played for like more than 20 times. Actually, I don’t know the exact number of times this song has been played but it’s a lot. I mean, piano and vocals? Another instant win! I appreciate simple songs with only an instrument. The track title translates to “I want to hug the stars tonight”, crudely put. Track 16, WINDING ROAD, is a collaboration with Kobukuro. This song features great harmony between Kobukuro (which is a portmanteu of the group’s 2 male singers, Kentarō Kobuchi and Shunsuke Kuroda) and ayaka. It’s an upbeat song and one that would make me sway from side to side (seeing how I fail at dancing).

Overall, this album is great played in its entirety as it has a balance of upbeat fun songs and the more mellow ones. As expected of ayaka, I loved this album. In fact, it’s a little hard for me to be disappointed with her music although i have to admit I didn’t really like her CLAP&LOVE/WHY single when it was released. I guess I was pretty used to her singing more ballad-ish songs and when something upbeat like that was released instead, I didn’t really like it. However, listening to it on the album, it wasn’t that bad. Probably because there were other tracks in the album which was also upbeat and so listening to those two songs amidst the other songs didn’t sound as bad.

I may not have pointed this out before but I’m pretty picky when it comes to female singers as I tend to stay away from those cutesy, high pitched vocalists. ayaka is the kind I like; her vocals are strong and a lil low but she can still hit those high notes effortlessly. Her vocals are soothing and this sounds really stupid but it feels comforting as well.

ayaka – First Message

1. Start to 0 (Love)
2. Real voice
3. Sha la la
4. Blue Days (ブルーデイズ)
5. I believe
6. Stay with me
7. melody
8. Kimi no Power to Otona no Furi (君のパワーと大人のフリ; Your Power and an Adult’s Inseparability)
9. Eien no Monogatari (永遠の物語; Eternal Story)
10. Toki wo Modoshite (時を戻して; Turning Back Time)
11. 1・2・3・4
12. Story
13. Rairarai (ライラライ)
14. Mikadzuki (三日月; Crescent Moon)
15. message

First Message is ayaka’s debut album and it was released on 2007.11.01. She is currently signed onto Warner Music Japan. The song I believe was the opening theme song for the drama Rondo. The song Real Voice was the ending theme song for the drama Suppli and similarly, Blue Days was also the insert song for the drama.

I found out about her through the drama Suppli (yes, I’m a sucker for pretty boys meant for eye candy *coughKAMEcough*) and the songs in the drama was really nice. So I did a lil hunting and boy, am I glad I came across her. She’s gotta be one of my fave female Jpop artistes. This whole album is really good (I mean, it reached #1 on World Chart!) so I recommend you support her by buying her album here (Yesasia)

Gundam 00 op and ed themes

L’Arc~en~Ciel – DAYBREAK’S BELL

The Brilliant Green – Ash Like Snow

The opening theme to Gundam 00 currently is The Brilliant Green’s Ash Like Snow. In my opinion, this song totally rocks just like its predecessor, L’Arc~en~Ciel’s Daybreak Bell. For an anime like this, a rock-ish song is needed and these two songs deliver just that, building up the atmosphere at the beginning. The two songs are addictive; I find myself bopping my head to the music.

The Back Horn – Wana

Stephanie – Friends
The first ending theme to Gundam is from The Back Horn Wana. I gotta say though the beginning was a lil “errr…..” to me but then they make it up at the chorus where they sound like a really good rock-ish anime song. You know, some songs just sound anime-ish and this is one of those kinds. The ending theme to Gundam 00 now is Stephanie’s Friends which is something new from Stephanie herself in my opinion. She is usually singing ballads and Friends shows her deviation from that genre. It’s not bad, it just needs to take a little getting used to. It has a tinge of rock and coupled with her pleasant voice, it’s reason enough to try it out and also listen to more of her other songs which you can find in previous posts.

Stephanie – Kimi ga iru kagiri & Because of you

Let’s start things off with two songs from Stephanie, a Japanese singer under Sony Music. She’s a new artist but she can sing. Think Mariah Carey, Japanese version. I’m talking about the octaves in case you have NO idea what to think of when Mariah Carey comes to mind. ^_^

Kimi ga iru kagiri (title song from her firstsingle of the same title)

Because of you (title song from her second single of the same title)

Winter Gold (title song from her third single of the same title)

and if you love her, buy her singles!

Kimi ga iru kagiri @ cdjapan

Because of you @ cdjapan

and she’s got a new single out this December, Winter Gold @ cdjapan