Koda Kumi – Gentle Words October 23, 2008

 

Track Listing

1. Gentle Words
2. Without Your Love
3. Saigo no Ame
4. Gentle Words (Instrumental)
5. Without Your Love (Instrumental)
6. Saigo no Ame (Instrumental)

1. Gentle Words

The weirdest thing to hear in an urban ballad is a sitar and yet there it is in the song.  I quite like the calm atmosphere with this track and surprised that Kumi actually sounds nice and using vibrato in a good way.  Though the formulaic process in the song doesn’t exactly change much, it still is a nice listen to once in a while.

2. Without Your Love

Start your engines people, we gots a bad girl on the loose and she’s sounding pretty good!  Even more urban than the A-side, I think this track made her seem cool and collected.  I love her vocals everywhere, maybe I do find the chorus a little loud, but I think she did great keeping the beat and rhythm in control.  ~I never wanna cross my eyes~ Huh???? weird huh?

3. Saigo no Ame

We return back to this soft sounds, but this time the beats are thumping loud against the synth and piano.  I do think the beats overpower the music a lot of the time.  At least when Kumi sings louder I do think the song does sound way better.  Other than that, I usually skip this track for some reason.

 

 

Kumi’s strong vocals really shine within the single.  Though I think my favorite is Without Your Love because it just sounded great and showed how cool she can sound with an urban flavor.  All 3 tracks are on the album which can only mean that there’s a few new tracks, let’s hope not.

 

T.M.Revolution – Aoi Hekireki October 23, 2008

Track Listing

1. Aoi Hekireki ~JOG edit~
2. Dokusai -monopolize- LIVE at KAWAGUCHI LILIA 1997.11.23
3. Aoi Hekireki ~JOG edit~ (Original Backing Track)

1. Aoi Hekireki ~JOG edit~

I was quite fascinated with this track.  Probably has the best guitar riff of the era.  Anyway it starts with a phone ringing and the then synths startup and we hear thunder in the background (hence the title).  The verses were sharp and had warped voices which was great.  The chorus could’ve been better and less mechanical but I like the energy Takanori has in the song.

 

 

T.M.Revolution has ended putting another great A-side together and by the live I bet it shows how much energy he really has.  Still, I’m definitly liking this track a lot.

Nana Kitade – Kibou no Kakera October 23, 2008

Track Listing

1. Kibou no Kakera
2. This is a GIRL
3. Kibou no Kakera (Instrumental)

1. Kibou no Kakera

I don’t know what she did at the beginning, but that was cool.  Then Nana starts to start to sing and it’s pretty bad…like she’s squeaky even moreso than before.  Musically it’s your typical rock track, with Nana’s bad vocals.  Please don’t get me started on the chorus.  That was the worst part of the song.  I wish she’d go back to her lower vocals.

2. This is a GIRL

More along the lines of punk rock, I actually think Nana did a better job and she did go into her lower register for this one.  I actually quite like the chorus a lot and it sounded pretty smooth and there isn’t many problems with Nana’s vocals this time which is such a great change after that horrific A-side.  Why can’t she sound like this all the time?

 

 

Nana’s final single for the era was A-side crap.  I mean I know it was a tie-in for the Powerpuff Girls in Japan, but c’mon why did you have to screw it up with your terrible singing choice?  I mean if you sounded like in This is a GIRL then you’d be fine.  BUUUUT NOOOOOOOO…

Utada Hikaru – Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro October 23, 2008

Track Listing

1. Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro
2. Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro (Instrumental)

1. Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro

So we hear a more sadder Hikki this time with this track.  All it is is Hikki singing along with some piano and strings.  I think the lack of R&B or synths surprised a few people since this was after “COLORS”.  Hikki really does sound quite nice against this otherwise melancholic ballad.  I still feel that when this era ended I felt this was a weak track next to “Be My Last” even though they were both ballads and very minimalistic in production.  I was surprised that the song kind of ended randomly…maybe it’s just me.

 

 

What?  no B-side?  That’s not a good thing.  Still, I do think the track is quite the drop-off from the last singles she’s done so I guess it was much needed in her career.  For an otherwise empty single, the song was a nice thing to hear.

Tsukiko Amano – Zero no Chouritsu October 23, 2008

Track Listing

1. Zero no Chouritsu
2. Shiroi Hana ~White Garden~
3. Sully

1. Zero no Chouritsu

We start with the only new track on the single.  It was a tie-in to Fatal Frame IV, which by the way is an awesome series of games.  Anyway, we start with a piano solo before we hit the rock stuff.  Honestly, I love the guitar entrance, very powerful.  I actually think, this is better than the English version, “ZERO”.  There’s still some English, but majority is in her native tongue.  Still, I didn’t find the song as memorable as “Koe” or even “Chou”, but it’s still a great song in its own right.

2. Shiroi Hana ~White Garden~

The next two tracks are her own take on tracks that she wrote for other bands.  First, we have is Shiroi Hana and it’s pretty quick for song.  The chorus of the song really sounded nice with the underlying strings playing under her voice.  There was a lot of different sounds put in the song and some interesting ones too like the guitar solo during her verses, AWESOME! 

3. Sully

Wait, Sully sounds like metal…I mean it’s in your face hard rock and I was taken aback until Tsukiko popped in and sang.  It gathers momentum when we enter the bridge which added BKGD vocals and they sounded well together.  I don’t think it’s her best song though after the two previus tracks.  Too bad…

 

 

Tsukiko’s final single was definitly a strong single.  Zero no Chouritsu had the flair it needed to be a good Fatal Frame song and though the Japanese version doesn’t cut it to be on “ZERO” it’s still pretty good.  The other two tracks were made fine even though I like Shiroi Hana more.  Both tracks were actually known of beforehand because they were both on “Uma Salmon”