SAWA – COLORS November 28, 2008

Track Listing

1. ManyColors
2. blue
3. yellow
4. pink
5. green

1. ManyColors

The lead track from the mini-album welcomes us with a repitionious synth line which pretty much is the song XD.  Anyway, there’s more sounds that do come in and it’s very 80’s like in sound, maybe New Wave perhaps.  Sadly that’s where the good stuff stops.  SAWA’s vocal’s are so bad it even puts MEG to shame.  Like I really despise the high squeaks in the chorus and how she says ~COLORS~ is so damn annoying.  She does have pretty good English skills which is good….most of the time. 

2. blue

This would be the first I actually want the beats to be more aggressive in a song.  There’s definitly some potential in the song because SAWA does sound pretty good and how happy sounding the synths are.  It’s just that the beat sounds too subdued to make an opinion in the song.  So far this song is one of the better tracks.

3. yellow

yellow to me is the one with the most pop-influence on here.  Now to say that the song is very cute, it’s destroyed by SAWA’s ear-piercing vocals.  I mean it’s pretty bad here as well.  Like I don’t wanna hear you wailing out of tune majority of the song.  Even worse is how minimal the song really is especially in sound.  It’s quite a borefest and a bit painful to listen to.

4. pink

pink has a nice piano line and the beat seems pretty cool.  We actually hear SAWA singing in English again and a lot more clearly which she shows off a lot more skills and she doesn’t sound terrible.  I actually love the chorus here as well because she’s controlling her voice more better than in “ManyColors”.  Loving the fantasy sound as well.

5. green

Ending us, is SAWA ad-libbing into our final track here.  She does it a little too much, but I do love the latin feel the song gives off.  Maybe the song does come off a pretty forgettable, but at least it doesn’t make me cringe.

 

 

SAWA’s debut kinda was shadowed by how bad ManyColors was.  There’s a good selection of tracks and to know that she does English well also adds the interest factor for me.  Sadly, I don’t want her to go near the the higher register anymore…it’s terrible.

BONNIE PINK – CHAIN November 28, 2008

Track Listing

1. CHAIN
2. Wonderful Christmas Time
3. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
4. Let It Snow
5. CHAIN ~The Birth Cry~
6. The Christmas Song

1. CHAIN

I’m not a big fan of christmas songs as you all may know, so I was despising this whole album.  CHAIN is actually an original track from Bonnie and even though it is holiday-themed, it was pretty good, because it’s also a little jazzy in my opinion.  You still get your usual fare of strings and jingle bells, but other than that, it was an alright.

2. Wonderful Christmas Time

Since the original was sung by a man and in English, I was wondering what this would have ended up.  Now granted that Bonnie Pink isn’t fully aware of her skills to sing in such a language, she tries her best but it just kinda of ended up being boring because the original has synths, so I missed that the most.

3. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

I think everyone heard this song at least once and made fun of it one way or another.  I actually think Bonnie made a better performance out of this cover than the last one.  So far this is the most upbeat out of the bunch and just gives off such a jolly feeling throughout.

4. Let It Snow

We return to the jazzy side of things with our next cover, Let It Snow.  I definitly remember hearing this track all the time in the winter season.  Now, I’m pretty sure we didn’t need the solos throughout, but I guess it gives off a more warming feeling listening to everything and such.  Got to love the song either way.

5. CHAIN ~The Birth Cry~

I really wonder the reasoning to put another version of CHAIN on the album.  It’s definitly more wintry and totally devoid of the jazzy style that was present in the first song.  We got Bonnie singing along to piano and some chords from the organ as well.  I like this more than the original.

6. The Christmas Song

Talk about bland titles right?  This song is also a cover and immediatly would be recognized by many.  Now there’s very little to the song with just only guitar being the main instrument and such.  Luckily, Bonnie’s voice speaks out so much from the song which is great, but I elt the song was going at weird intervals against each other…It’s pretty good though.

 

 

BONNIE PINK’s mini-album is definitly holiday-theme and even though there’s only one original song “CHAIN/CHAIN ~The Birth Cry~, the rest are covers of real famous christmas tune.  She did a fine job covering em and making them her own.  Sadly, she was taking some of them into a jazz-like territory and I didn’t like it much.  Christmas albums usually suck and this was in the middle.