I have a lot of respect for alan. She seems like a really smart, intelligent artist – much moreso than a lot of singers at the moment (Asian or otherwise). I’m always really impressed when a singer is multilingual. In this respect, alan reminds me a lot of Sa Ding Ding (heralded as the Chinese Bjork). She’s Tibetan, but can sing in numerous languages and has a soaring, beautiful voice (her technique reflective of traditional Tibetan singing). It’s inspiring to think of alan and Sa Ding Ding growing up in Tibet, all the culture, tradition and the scenery.
I’m not a die-hard alan fan, I think her songs can be often very dramatic and deep and not necessarily the best thing to listen to on the journey into work. I really liked the songs she did for Red cliff (both the Chinese and Japanese songs) and see this is a bit of return to form for her. Let’s hope she’s successful for this release – it’s also very encouraging to see a Chinese star do well in Japan.
Koda Kumi is back with a new song. I’ve never been a huge fan of Koda Kumi (I much prefer her ballads to her dance songs. But she always knows how to perform for the limelight. She’s a great performer but I think some of her style choices might not always agree with an audience. Oh well, you can’t be liked by everyone.
Wow! I completely missed 4Minute getting signed by Universal Music Japan, but they did and they’re releasing their hit song, Muzik, for the Japanese crowd. They’re not the first Korean artist to release music in Japan (BoA, DBSK anyone?) but it definitely shows that the Korean Wave is not letting up anyway time soon.
Step forward, 4Minute who are releasing a Japanese version of their hit song Muzik. Before becoming obsessed with K-pop I was into J-pop in a big way. I still am, but only really for certain artists. This song should be a big hit in Japan – I always thought it had a big J-pop electro influence anyway. It will be interesting to watch though, Japan doesn’t follow idol groups as fanatically as Korea does, but with BoA’s slow decline in popularity, the space is wide open for a Korean artist to take over the Oricon charts.
Angela Aki is back with a new single! Kagayaku Hito sees a big jump for the J-pop star as she ditches her trademark piano for an acoustic guitar! I’m not entirely sure if it works better or worse – it’s just different. It sounds quite summery, peaceful and melodic – a typical Angela Akisan song.
Angela Aki used to be one of my favourite J-pop singers but I don’t listen to J-pop as much but I always have time for my favourites. It’s good to see that she’s still around; she normally goes missing for months on end and then pops back with a single and an album. Hehe, I just realised that Angela Aki is using a guitar and now YUI is using a piano – perhaps they swapped their instruments with each other?
I’m not sure if the daily motion embeds work, but check out Ayumi Hamasaki’s new PV for Don’t Look Back! Ayusan is look really pretty at the moment! The video is also really interesting, like a Hollywood thriller.
I used to love YUI about 4 years ago. I had all her music, but then by her third album I had become obsessed with K-pop. I actually don’t listen to that much J-pop anymore, ain’t it strange how times change? The audio is pretty bad but the song sounds quite nice. It’s got a piano instead of her trademark acoustic guitar – she’s becoming Angela Aki! I quite like it, it’s breezy like a summer son~
To celebrate Namie’s new album release, here’s a couple of videos to get you interested! Avex have released this album weirdly, I guess they see Namie as an album artist now, perhaps more and more artists will go this way and only have promotional videos for album tracks and no actual single releases? Anyways, check out a small preview of Love Game (not a Lady Gaga cover) and the full track of Defend Love; both pretty cool!
Namie Amuro is back! Yep, she’s finally back with a full album, entitled PAST < FUTURE. It has Wild/Dr. and new songs My Love & Copy That which are being used as the new Vidal Sasson CMs. The new songs sound pretty cool so far. I like My Love more than Copy That. Sadly, neither of these songs are getting an MV but she is releasing MVs for other songs to be used for promotion of the album which I'm really looking forward to :D I've always liked Namie, she's like a less hardcore Koda Kumi, or a more edgier Ayumi Hamasaki. She's not my favourite, but she makes pretty cool pop songs.
Superfly are a pretty cool band (or, well, were; it’s just the lead singer now). They make 60s inspired music and have this whole retro style that I think is a bit of fresh air from all the electro-pop and futuristic stylings that are so popular at the moment. Love the vocals of their new song, Dancing on the Fire. It’s not what I ewould have expected from them; it does sound a little electro-poppy… but it’s not too bad! Hah XD Love me some electro-pop-rock really. I can’t resist it. Hehe.
Today, I’m starting something new on this blog by actively reviewing songs, albums, singles and releases. Hopefully I’ll also have time to review other things, such as movies, television shows, books and videogames. I hope to strike a nice little balance between news, personal musings and reviews. Wish me luck! Please also feel free to leave me feedback about my reviews; it’d be greatly appreciated.
For the first review, I’m going to review Nakashima Mika’s Nagareboshi (translated as Shooting Star).
Mika’s new song continues to to show her love of soul music. The song has a great soulful vibe, helped by her mellow vocals. Mika seems most comfortable singing songs with an r and b or jazz touch to them. When I first became interested in Mika’s music, I loved her distinctive soulful voice combined with pop melodies. But nowadays as her music as progressed and I’ve come to appreciate so much in the music I hear, it is her more jazz orientated releases that I find coming back to time and time again. The best quality about Mika’s work is that her voice soothes you like the sweet smell of spiced apples in Winter time. This song is no exception. In fact, the production values, complete with bells and shimmering noises make this a great Winter song. Listen to it as you walk down the dark street and you’ll definitely feel warmer.
The b-side is another DAISHI DANCE production, Memory, following on from 2008’s SAKURA ~Hanasugami~. Memory is actually taken from DAISHI DANCE’s latest album, Spectacle. It’s quite a nice little electro-pop song, although it’s not electro-pop like Lady Gaga or Black Eyed Peas. It’s more kind of… late 90s Ibiza trance music. Lots of piano. I actually quite like it though, the melody is very simple yet really endearing. Something about the simplicity I guess. Mika sings in English for the entirety of the song which is a pleasant surprise. She’s by no means perfect at it, but kudos for trying. The song reminds me a little of Lumines era Nobuchika Eri.
The PV for Nagareboshi is very emotive. Scenes of Mika are cut with scenes of a woman travelling on a train. Mika looks beautiful in a gorgeous dress whilst she swings at night-time. I’m not sure why, but she looks pretty all the same. The actress on the train is very good and you really get quite emotional as you watch her. It’s all rather voyeuristic, but interesting nonetheless. The single sleeve is also pretty; I think Mika looks amazing in her dress. I don’t know who the designer is, but it’s very cool.
Overall, this is a pretty nice little release, it’s not going to set the charts on fire (it hasn’t, it debuted on the weekly Oricon charts at number 10; which is still a pretty good success). I think Mika might have lost something along the way… I’m not sure what, I can’t explain it. Actually, perhaps it’s the fact that she’s making music that she wants to in the way that she wants to, but this just might not be commercial enough.
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