Mika Nakashima – TRUE July 16, 2009

Track Listing

1. AMAZING GRACE (album version)
2. WILL (album version)
3. ONE SURVIVE (album version)
4. HEAVEN ON EARTH
5. DESTINY’S LOTUS
6. Helpless Rain
7. I
8. TEARS (Konayuki ga Mau You ni…)
9. TRUE EYES
10. CRESCENT MOON
11. JUST TRUST IN OUR LOVE (album version)
12. STARS (album version)
13. A MIRACLE FOR YOU

1. AMAZING GRACE (album version)

We begin Mika’s debut album with in my opinion her worst song in her career (that I’ve heard so far).  Well a lot of the songs has been changed around a bit on the album.  AMAZING GRACE was basically cut down a bit shorter, omitting the beginning with the waves crashing.  One crash and the music starts to play in.  Now I said I didn’t like the song initially because I’m not a big fan of the song itself.  Asians + Christian songs = YUCK.  Even worse is the Mika fails English here….I mean AMAZING GLAZE….wht?  At least we got through the song this early on the album.

2. WILL (album version)

I’m surprised WILL got tagged with the album version as well because I really like WILL.  Anyway, I actually like the change here.  What they did was replace the jazzy sound and switched it with a piano ladened arrangement.  There’s still a bit of the jazz sound going on, but it isn’t as heavy as this version.  I quite like and Mika’s vocals are pretty good here as well.

3. ONE SURVIVE (album version)

One of the more fun tracks of the era, ONE SURVIVE is another one of the tracks whose “album version” is more subtle more than anything, there’s just a bit of a change-up in sound and instrumentation, but not enough to really take away from the song.  For the songs that I have heard from Mika, ONE SURVIVE is like odd because it’s all disco.  It still just as catchy and fun as it was on the single and I like em’ both.

4. HEAVEN ON EARTH

The first of three new tracks on the album, HEAVEN ON EARTH sounds more like a pop song that Mika wouldn’t do until later in her career.  It’s a bit chiller than the previous track and it’s a bit nice and a little bit of R&B is included as well.  Though once again the problem is Mika’s English….it really sucks when she says the title as it’s ~HEAVEN ON EASS..???

5. DESTINY’S LOTUS

Coming from the “CRESCENT MOON” single, DESTINY’S LOTUS is still one of the more meh tracks since it’s the original and not the remix that was on “Helpless Rain’s” single.  I wish that Mika didn’t sound so deattatched from the song as she was here.  The music was pretty fun, but wasted opportunity here.

6. Helpless Rain

I’m still not the biggest fan when it comes to Helpless Rain just because the entire song just wasn’t working for me…the male BKGD singers, Mika overly stressed vocals, and basically the odd mix of the instrumentation and the oddly strings altogether made up a mess on the song….it could be her worst song.

7. I

Our 2nd of the new tracks pops up next.  It does calm things down for a bit and well, continues the odd treading in the R&B genre.  At least, she’s sounding a whole lot better than in “Helpless Rain” as she’s not stressing her vocals hard.  It does sound a bit too empty as a song though…It could be the bare bones arrangement…still it’s so much better.  The harmonica solo in the middle was so nice though.

8. TEARS (Konoyuki ga Mau You ni…)

Basically the oldest track on the album (STARS was changed).  TEARS calms down the album further as it is a ballad of course.  Mika’s calm vocals and strings arrangement just sounds nice.  After a while, the etherealness of the song takes over.  I did say the song felt empty on the single and it still kind of is emptier than a good portion of the tracks, but I can say it has grown on me.

9. TRUE EYES

I said that TRUE EYES wasn’t too memorable for me because on the single it was right after and very similar track.  At least on the album, it has a chance and even though it sounds like “ONE SURVIVE’s” twin, it still is a pretty good song otherwise. 

10. CRESCENT MOON

Then the unbelieveable happens when CRESCENT MOON is placed unfortunately after “TRUE EYES”.  It carries the same things y’know, all the brass and mix of pop and disco together.  Even though it is older than said song, it still is kind of bad putting them near each other like that.  Still it’s a good song from Mika this early in her career.

11. JUST TRUST IN OUR LOVE (album version)

Do you remember the single version of this song?  It was all slow and smooth and just was one of the nicest B-sides of the era.  Well, you can throw all of that out to the curb.  The album version (which is in all caps BTW) reversed the mood on everyone.  It’s turned into a dance track with a pretty sweet beat.  I can sense Mika is just having a fun time with this version as well.  Ok, this might not be the great B-side I like, but this is a great rearrangement.

12. STARS (album version)

So it seems that instead of giving STARS a new arrangement or anything, the only thing she really did was resing the song in a more relaxed state.  The songs calm jazz sound definitely fit with Mika’s more smokier vocals here and she made the song an even better listen than it was on the single.

13. A MIRACLE FOR YOU

Ending off the album is the last new track, A MIRACLE FOR YOU.  The gospel like BKGD singers will make you think the song is more of something that should’ve ended “YES” than on this album.  It once again shows how a ballad should work as there’s climaxes and Mika’s vocals work well with this kind of setting.  I think this ended the album very well.

Tracks Recommended

• JUST TRUST IN OUR LOVE (album version)
• ONE SURVIVE (album version)
• WILL (album version)
• A MIRACLE FOR YOU
• TEARS (Konayuki ga Mau You ni)

Mika’s debut album is alright, but there was a problem at how her upbeat tracks sounded relatively similar to one another and her ballads were mostly too bare to be THAT good.  Oh, and the fact that there was only THREE new tracks was disappointing, the many album version tweaks did make some of the songs better, so we did get a break on that.  Still, overall, not my favorite Mika album.