Track Listing
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Overture of “Humanizer”
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BLAZIBILITY
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DIVE INTO STREAM
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HYPNOTIZER
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Kiss Me Now
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Party Nation
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Step Into Shangi-La
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Don’t Cry For Me
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KEEP ON MOVIN’
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BEAUTIFUL DESIRE ~Utsukushiku Yokubou~
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Dim light, starlight
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Lady Butterfly
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Love Addiction
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Sokyuu no flight -S2800 32MB MIX-
1. Overture of “Humanizer”
Not a surprise that the start of the album has an opening. It has a distorted voiceover pretty much saying the album is starting so it’s just there.
2. BLAZIBILITY
For this song being called BLAZIBILITY, I was expecting something crazy like “GAMBLE RUMBLE” or even “DOGFIGHT” but what I got was just a little underwhelming and kind of disappointing as well. I mean the synths are all right, but wouldn’t it be better faster perhaps? I like the guitar riffs that happen in the song, but I was just meh with this.
3. DIVE INTO STREAM
As the only A-side to represent the album, DIVE INTO STREAM has gotten better to me over time. Just like “BLAZIBILITY” though, this song suffers from the *Iwishthiswasfaster syndrome*. I mean seriously, this has an Initial D tie-in, so it’s quite needed that the song should’ve been all out fast and hardcore. I do love motsu’s rap solo when the song enters this Halloween-like state with its sound.
4. HYPNOTIZER
Now here’s where things get good. I think it’s a first for other members other than T.Kimura gets their voice distorted and put under some vocoder. Yuri though sounds way sexy with this industrial dance sound that oddly sounds familiar…Aural Vampire perhaps? motsu though is heavily distorted which is surprising. So far I like this song a lot.
5. Kiss Me Now
Kiss Me Now, sounds preetty funky with its quick beats and how the beat is just as beat-forward. There’s something cute about it, but maybe I shouldn’t say that, but the song sounds kind of like that. The chorus sounds a little gothic, interestinly and motsu’s rap definitly works with the song.
6. Party Nation
We actually get our next trance song with Party Nation, but mixes the darks sounds that made “DEEP CALM” stand out with guitar riffs added on. I wasn’t expecting a trance song, but this was pretty good as well. Though Yuri says the title a bunch of times in the chorus, I always feel if she’s saying ~Body Nation~ I know her English isn’t real good, but w/e.
7. Step Into Shangri-La
If you thought “Party Nation” was trance-like, this song has it totally beat hands down. The odd thing about it is that, it’s like one of those tracks you’d hear at sporting events y’know what I mean? I think I was more surprised at how much time motsu had through the first part of the song. When Yuri came in, the mood changed and to me it wasn’t a smart choice because I loved the sound when motsu was rapping and hers was lighter almost happy feeling.
8. Don’t Cry For Me
This reminded me when the went through their latin phase of their sounds, but mix in with some techno sounds and we get this actually pretty nice track. I’m surprised at how much this album is trying to be “SYNERGY” but oddly this doesn’t beat majority of the songs. Sad huh?
9. KEEP ON MOVIN’
On the album, this just doesn’t make much sense after all the trance tunes we’ve had. As a kind of rock ballad, KEEP ON MOVIN’ shouldn’t really have had a place on the album because it just seemed to meh and pretty forgettable. I do like motsu rapping part as the music gets pretty aggressive and the piano plays a cool line. It’s a warm up to song to me.
10. BEAUTIFUL DESIRE ~Utsukushiku Yokubou~
Now this was what I wanted to hear in an Initial D release. The song combines rock and trance together to make a pretty awesome track. Yuri does a lot better pronouncing things right and motsu continues his energetic rapping skills. The chorus has some strange stuff happening on Yuri’s end though….Iono, she kind of does some weird anunciation, but it’s not too bad.
11. Dim light, starlight
The actual ballad pops up next and with the heavy bass synth acting as a beat it just creates a pretty awkward state of mind. At first I thought it was a ballad, but when the chorus comes up the sounds get faster, which did throw me off at first. motsu’s rapping does kind of bother me as he is monotone through his part, but Yuri gave a good singing performance here.
12. Lady Butterfly
However, Lady Butterfly is definitly one of the hidden gems of the album. There’s a strong trance sound found here and is actually at a speed that I’m comfortable with. The verses are quite strange with a distorted motsu and Yuri switching lyrics to each other twice and then Yuri finishes the line. Definitly something reminescent of the “SYNERGY” era.
13. Love Addiction
If that was the “SYNERGY” track, this was definitly the “Operation Overload 7″ song. It just sounded like a good portion of that album and I love the energy the song just put out here. The synth was forceful and motsu’s rapping is definitly energetic and full of attitude. Great track.
14. Sokyuu no flight -S2800 32MB MIX-
At first, I thought it was a live version of the B-side on “DIVE INTO STREAM”. Was I wrong, it’s an actual remix that doesn’t sound like the original at all. They took out everything and put in a trance sound to it. I think they got it right with verses/bridges in the song. Sadly, it’s one of those songs that probably shouldn’t have been changed into a cold trance song.
Tracks Recommended
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HYPNOTIZER
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Lady Butterfly
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Love Addiction
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BEAUTIFUL DESIRE ~Utsukushiku Yokubou~
m.o.v.e’s final album with T.Kimura as a full member was actually quite the downer IMO. There wasn’t enough memorable songs to make this album actually work. As you can read, this song had a more trance feel which was their biggest style back on their last album “GRID” as well. What really was surprising was that they didn’t include the more memorable tracks “SYSTEMATIC FANTASY” and “SPEED MASTER” which were obviously the trio’s best tracks. Knowing though that they were on the best-of should not count to not have them on this album. Sorry, this was just a weak album this time around.
