Track Listing
-
INTRODUCTION FOR TRICK
-
TABOO
-
show girl
-
Your Love
-
stay with me
-
This is not a love song
-
Driving
-
Bling Bling Bling feat. AK-48
-
That Ain’t Cool feat. Fergie
-
Hurry Up!
-
Moon Crying
-
JUST THE WAY YOU ARE
-
Joyful
-
Ai no Kotoba
-
Venus -English Version- (CD+DVD2 Bonus Track)
1. INTRODUCTION FOR TRICK
I swear this’ll be elongated by the next albums release, but did anyone else remind themselves this wasn’t a rehash of previous track, “NO TRICKS”? This is definitly a way better opening than “Kingdom’s”. Also is one of her more aggressive album openers as well.
2. TABOO
I think everyone will agree that TABOO was Kuu’s best A-side this era has been producing. Obviously taking a note from “BUT”, TABOO carries a heavy dance beat and has some of the most taboo lyrics Kuu’s put down in a long while. I just love the dark sexiiness this song brought.
3. show girl
Our first new track was the main promotional track as well. I’m not sure why, but this song is just a little odd. There’s a dance beat with some tambourine laid in the back which is cool. I didn’t like the chorus though, it just wasn’t really that memorable and what’s with the elephant trumpeting? So random.
4. Your Love
I guess putting a light pop right after “show girl” is a little strange. Your Love is quite the nod to her past works especially her first three albums. It’s nice we actually get back with something pretty simple, but other people might think this is quite a weak track. Kuu sounds pretty good as she isn’t trying to hit any bad notes and her ad-libbing is quite sweet and charming in a way.
5. stay with me
I do thing that when “Your Love” flows nicely into stay with me, which was the last single to be released in the era and honestly, I still think the song is pretty forgettable. She does give a pretty strong performance but with the typical winter sounds, this just didn’t live up to my expectations. I would’ve rather put “Winter Bell” instead.
6. This is not a love song
I’ll agree with the title, especially how this sounds. There’s a pretty cool beat and Kuu’s ad-libbing is really good here. It’s weird because Kuu doesn’t really say ~not~ in the song, which threw me off. This is another great song from Kuu, just with the booming beat and dark atmosphere it throws.
7. Driving
Driving was one of the three new songs that were first able to be listened to on her site and was my favorite as well from the previews. This sounds like a happier version ”TABOO” but you still have the synths and vocal distortions, which is amazing. Definitly one of the best new tracks.
8. Bling Bling Bling feat. AK-48
Ok, this was just embarassing. Bling Bling Bling starts off with the chorus which was the collection of failed english at its best. I mean Kuu, honey, you can’t not pronounce bling right….The music is pretty aggressive, but you’re just listening to the failures this song brought. AK-48 didn’t help much either and was a bigger hinderance as well. He fails at saying ~Bling~ as well….WTF
9. That Ain’t Cool feat. Fergie
I did some major flaming for this track, but after that last track this just sounded so much better. I still thing that it’s really repetitive because of that chorus. Kuu and Fergie do make a good combination, but it was heavily Fergie with Kuu only gettin one area of singing and it’s just funny how she just goes through it.
10. Hurry Up!
I don’t remember when was the exact last time she used hard guitar riffs to fuel song. “Ningyo-hime”, maybe? Anyway add in a pretty cool clapping beat and some male BKGD stuff and you get a catchy track. The bridge had some pretty cool synth stuff happening, but the best is that chorus. Where everything just comes together in an awesome way.
11. Moon Crying
Moon Crying began this era with a pretty unsure start. I mean this song was good, but the other tracks on the single, hindered it pretty badly. I still don’t think ranks with her best ballads, but it’s pretty good on the album even though “Hurry Up!” to Moon Crying was an even stranger transition, but I think it’s the best ballad on the album.
12. JUST THE WAY YOU ARE
JUST THE WAY YOU ARE also got a PV, but wasn’t televised like “show girl” was, but I think this should’ve been because it’s really cool and chill. There’s a string melody even though it’s muffled, which sounded cool with Kuu’s singing. It’s upbeat pop done really well here.
13. Joyful
Even though this was my least favorite of the previews from her main site. It isn’t bad, maybe just a little un Kuu-like. Like I can her other artists do a track like this in the same way. It sorta reminded me of Nami Tamaki’s “day by day” and that’s probably why I don’t enjoy it as much as other tracks on the album.
14. Ai no Kotoba
I was expecting a full version of Kingdom’s opening track, but we got another ballad. I think she was going for an emotional ballad and it kind of worked, but she’s squeaking a lot in this song for some reason and it’s turning me off. Like pay attention to the chorus and you’ll hear what I mean.
15. Venus -English Version-
Everyone knew of this song before her performance at A-nation 08′ and to be honest she should’ve used the Japanese version because this is just embarassing as well. Singing a cover of a huge Bananarama hit, of course both the original and Kuu’s version is more well known to the ladies because both were used in commercials for the Venus razor. Once again Kuu’s English fails on high levels, but the music is pretty good. Though I hate how Kuu says ~fire~, it just doesn’t sound right as well as ~I’m your penis, I’m your fiyahhh, Your desire~
Tracks Recommended
-
TABOO
-
Driving
-
This is not a love song
-
Hurry Up!
-
Moon Crying
TRICK is both better than Kingdom and also a little worse as well. The good things is that the good songs were a lot more better executed than majority of the songs off of Kingdom minus a certain few. TRICK also had great album consistency, even though the ballads just stuck out like sore thumbs. The bad things was that some of the songs were pretty bad and two of them were just horrible. You might get worth your buck getting this but don’t expect it to be OMG amazing like “Black Cherry” or anything.
