HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YUI-SAN!

Today is the day when YUI turns 21! お目出屠う,　YUIさん！僕達、外国のファンは常に支えるよ。じゃ～．．．あなたとあなたの音楽は未来のよい運！

Yep, that’s the end of my wits when it comes to Japanese. Assuming that YUI might come on the internet to see if her foreign fans care, I wrote that very small message for her to read. I (tried to) say is: “Congratulations, YUI-san! Us, foreign fans will always support you. And well…wishing you and your music a good future!” Correct me if I’m wrong anywhere.

I really can’t believe she’s 21 already! She looks at least 3 years younger honestly. She started being interested in music by the age of 16 when she quit high-school and started going to a cram school to study music. With no professional vocal training, she made her Indies debut at the age of 17 in 2004 with It’s Happy Line. In 2005, her talent was recognised as she auditioned for Sony Music Records who were mesmerised by her heavenly voice. And now, she’s come so far… *sniff*

Anyway. In this moment of happiness, I bring you…

…her Happy Birthday to you you performance! From her Thank You My Teens DVD. (: Happy watching!

*HK drama music plays*

…or something.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve come to notice this little dramatic change. At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but it’s not. Really. No coincidence comes across you more than once, and it has to have happened around 7 times now.

As some should know, WordPress went on a deleting spree of sorts a little more than a week ago. Lex’s blog Beyond The Sea was deleted and so was Psycho Butterfly without any notice whatsoever (which are both located here and here now, for the record). Two of my blog entries were also deleted, but the little clever prick that I am, I restored them once more.

I think, from that point onwards, the traffic for this blog dropped dramatically as well. I went from 400 page-view per day, to 40 page-views per day, and the number’s dropping gradually even still. At first, it didn’t bother me much because I thought it was an unfortunate coincidence. But around the third day of this happening, I became curious.

I went to Google and typed out my blog’s address, and surprise surprise!~ It didn’t show up. Not in the normal sense anyway. I mean, if I go type “http://everythingjapanese.wordpress.com/”, it’s bound to show up, but not otherwise if I search for an artiste or anything. How do I know that it was showing up before? Because I’d checked earlier. And it used to show up when you typed ‘kagrra core review’, or anything else related for that matter.

So, yeah, I conclude that I’ve been blacklisted or summat because there’s no other possible explanation. (Apart from that the whole world hates me, but let’s not go there.)

I don’t know what to do. I can continue blogging and pretend that I don’t care how many people read, but that’s not the truth because I want people to read my opinions. I’m not an attention whore or anything, but seriously what’s the point of expressing your opinions when no one’s reading it? That’s like singing in the bathroom – you might be good, but no one can hear you, can they? (silly example, but bear with me right now)

Or I can transfer my server to blogger.com and be merry, that’s another option. But then, I do not like blogger.com’s services too much and I might be happy with 0 pageviews than blog about anything there. I know LJ is another option, but I do not like LJ either.

Or third and most plausible to me is to… go and start another blog, save a few of the ‘better’ reviews on it, and blog like I always do (and perhaps, blog about more personal things there too because I can never just sit with ‘reviewing’ stuff). In fact, that’s something that I probably would do in near future, because I just want to have one blog to vent out all of my feelings onto. I don’t care if it’s going to look messy, it’s just how I roll.

But most important to me right now is my studies. I would be on hiatus anyway because my exams are coming up (in less than a month, I might add) and I need to study for them. I won’t be able to update too often regardless of whether or not I have a new blog. So, if you were free enough to have read this much of this pointless blog entry, I thank you, and apologize for taking much of your time with my rantings.

In the end, the point of this long-winded typography is:

• Google hates me.
• Going to change to a new blog soon.
• Exams coming up, long hiatus anyway so not complaining.

Haha, sometimes it’s like mother-nature wants you to study so everything sets itself up in such that you’d have no choice but to cram your syllabus into your head.

Anyway, bless you if you managed to get this far. rofl XD
Arsal.

(PS. I never got the chance to post this. I made this button of sorts two years ago right when I got into Hikki. It sucks, I know, but just wanted to post it here XD)

EDIT: Just want to add something to this post. I notice I received some better traffic last night, so I checked where it was coming from. And ah, serendipity, the guys from International Wota have actually written a bit about my ranting place. XD HI THERE INT WOTA PEOPLE! THANK YOU FOR VISITING!

And um… yeah.

Utada Hikaru – HEART STATION
Tracklist:
01. Fight The Blues
02. HEART STATION
03. Beautiful World
04. Flavor Of Life -Ballad Version-
05. Stay Gold
06. Kiss & Cry
07. Gentle Beast Interlude
08. Celebrate
09. Prisoner Of Love
10. Take 5
11. Boku wa Kuma
12. Nijiiro Bus

Bonus Track:
13. Flavor Of Life

Finally! The long anticipated album gets to see the light of the day! I was really excited to see what Hikki was going to do this time. Her last album followed a very futuristic/synth-y tune all around, and I was curious about what she would do this time. It’s seldom that I’m disappointed in any of her releases, she always makes such impressive music which is really pleasing to the ears.

HEART STATION is Utada Hikaru’s 5th original Japanese album and was released on 19th March, 2008 (a la, today) in Japan. The album will be released in Canada on 4th April, however. The album was leaked onto the internet a few days prior to the release, despite the record company’s greatest efforts.

Note: I won’t be reviewing single tracks in this review.

The first track on the album is Fight The Blues, a shockingly experimental track that caught me off-guard. Actually, I’m still quite surprised at its eccentricities. It’s an upbeat pop song with ethnic electronic sounds resonating as a backdrop. There’s also an Indian tabla used instead of drums, if I’m not mistaken, which is quite strangely intriguing in all.

Followed next are the single tracks jumbled together which almost everyone would skip just to get to the new tracks, something I did definitely.

Afterwards, is Gentle Beast Interlude, a 73 seconds long interlude (d’oh) which sounds rather recycled. It’s almost completely made up from sounds from her previous single tracks, and also Fight The Blues which is the first track on this album. But even then, it proves as a nice interlude anyhow.

Celebrate is really reminiscent of Hikki’s older work with a 90’s pop theme. Even then, however, this track seems to have the least effect over me off of the entire album. There’s just nothing that stands out in it majorly that could captivate my attention. It’s nice as background music, but nothing more.

After the sort-of boring track Celebrate, Prisoner of Love stands out exceptionally well with its R&B undertones. The magnificent introduction to this track makes up for an otherwise staler following. I love the chorus in this track and Hikki’s neverending cries of “Prisoner of Love!” This is, like the previous track, a comeback to Hikki’s older style of music but a much more efficient one at that.

Next is the ever-so-debated mystery track of the album, Take 5. The song has a surprise ending, which is apparently supposed to be artistic as the fans dub it. Of course, it could be the result of a bad radio-rip that was on the leaked version of the album, but anyway. Take 5 is a heavily synthetic track with strange ghost-like sounds in the background and whatnot. I would have liked this track if it were a bit more fine-tuned, because right now it sounds like it’s going all over the place with no particular direction

Following the strange deathwish that is Take 5, you get (drumroll…) an even more desperate deathwish, Boku wa Kuma! Hugely out-of-place and much more of a distraction than anything, but it’s not very long so thank heavens for that. Boku wa Kuma flows right into Nijiiro Bus, another children’s song which is twice as annoying as its predecessor. It starts out fine, but then drags on and on and becomes more of a nuisance than anything.

HEART STATION has had a tremendously negative response from fans, but I do not concur because I think HEART STATION is a really cool album. Having only 5 new tracks out of 13 is sort of sad though, but as a compilation of great single releases that were followed by this album, it’s really cool. Utada proves once more that she is a competent musician rather than only a celebrity, and while this album might not be her best ever, it’s a worthy addition to her discography.

Overall grade: A-

alan – Ashita e no Sanka
MUSIC JAPAN [23.11.2007]

I meant to post this ages ago, but kept forgetting. So, here it is finally, Alan singing Ashita e no Sanka live on MUSIC JAPAN. Of course, it’s not as good as the studio recorded version, but it’s pretty damn good anyway. Her wailing is a little off though, but it’s very slight and if you’re not a whip-strict person like me, you probably won’t notice.

What you will notice is Alan’s witch-like nails, and her horrible rag for a dress. You know what, I bet her hair looks so big because it’s full of evil secrets! DX

Download

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Ikimono Gakari – Akaneiro no Yakusoku
MUSIC JAPAN [27.10.2007]

Ah I love Ikimono Gakari’s live performances so much! They really look like they’re having fun while playing and singing and stuff, and their performances are quite ‘alive’ in my opinion. There’s so many singers out there who have no idea how to make a performance remotely interesting (a la, Utada Hikaru), but Ikimono Gakari make the whole stage burst with energy.

This is no exception as being a great performance, and Kiyoe sings so well. Gah.

Download

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YUI – Namidairo
MUSIC STATION [29.02.2008]

This is one of YUI’s better performances, but even then it’s quite mediocre. I mean, she sounds quite nice in the start, but then around the bridge her voice becomes all shaky and out-of-control, but that fine. What’s not fine is how she looks like she just got out of bed and turned up on the show without breakfast. I mean, come on! YUI is awesome and all, but she needs to bring a little more energy in her lives.

Download

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K – Only Human

I don’t quite recall how I came across this performance, but it’s pretty damn amazing anyway. K sings really well and also plays the piano in the performance himself. I love the original a lot, and this piano live version is just as good, if not more.

Download

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Salyu – iris ~Shiawase no Hako~
MUSIC FIGHTER [24.11.2007]

I don’t think Salyu appears in live performances a lot, I haven’t seen/heard her live much and neither has she released a live DVD yet – most artistes release one anyone at this point in their careers. Anyway, Salyu is an awesome singer who has a unique voice. I really can’t image her singing any other song other than her own songs because they’re all so… like her! It’s weird, lol. But when she does sing her own songs, she’s really good. And in this performance, she does sound amazing, even when the song is sort of boring.

What an absolutely glamorous costume though! XD Kudos to her unorthodox fashion sense.

Download

school food punishment – school food is good food
Tracklist:
01. close, down, back to
02. pool [audition version]
03. snap
04. set low, fine
05. Ukabi Agaru [audition version]
06. Tooku Kou no Naka

school food punishment is a super-indies band that hardly anyone is familiar with. Even in Japan, their popularity is very limited. Their style heavily relies on electronica and its many genres, a la, spacemusic, with a bit of pop sprinkled over for good measure. I recently discovered them because of my eternal love with electronic music, and I love their style. The lead vocalist has a really mesmerising voice with its own certain quality.

school food is good food is their first ever indies mini-album released on 4th April, 2007, even though they’d been active since 2004. Anywho, now onto the review!

The album starts out with an amazingly cool and absolutely epic track that never fails to please my ears each time I listen to it. close, down, back to might not be so heavy in the start, but as soon as the vocals sound up, it becomes ten times more awesome. It has strangely prominent drums in the background, and even a bit of piano (which is work of the keyboard, I’m guessing?) that all-the-more compliment the reminiscent mood of the track. The ending of the song is strangely quite breath-taking as Yumi ’sings’ a wordless and ethereal finale. Overall, quite a feast, this song is! A perfect introduction to a magnificent band.

pool could be described as really, very futuristic, or really, very retro. Either way, it sounds great just the way it is! The chorus is a major highlight in this track, though there’s one small detail that bothers me. The vocals in this track have been ‘echo-ed’, so they can sound a bit muffled at times. Incidentally, this also happens to be the first school food punishment song to get a PV. Beware though, their PVs are totally made of wtf.

I don’t really like the third track snap. It sounds much too clattery and abrupt, and none of the musical instruments have any harmony together. Everything stands out too much making for a grating sound that’s more irritating than interesting. By the end, it does pick up a bit though, but for the most part, it remains as irritating as ever.

Note: Wikipedia says that this type of music is usually known as Breakbeat. Hmmm, interesting… although clearly I’m not a huge fan of it lol.

Quickly followed is set low, fine, an ethereal, soft-rock ballad that I absolutely love (though rock isn’t an adequate term here). I feared that the band’s sound would end up in an absolute same-sounding, humdrum, but I love how they keep experimenting with different sounds. There’s even a bit of acoustic guitar in this track, if I’m not mistaken, and back-up vocals that haven’t surfaced up in any of the tracks so far. Yumi is at her very best in this track, she sounds really lovely overall.

Following a long prelude, Ukabi Agaru goes more down the ‘j-pop’ route than electronica, and I like that because it’s just another example of their versatility. I don’t like bridge in the song so much, the keyboard/piano is too much. A bit of pattern I’ve noticed in all of school food songs so far that their music tends to get more emotional and energetic as the song progresses, and culminates in an impressive manner in the end. Ukabi Agaru is no exception, and in fact, I think this might have the most energetic finale so far in this album.

Tooku Kou no Naka is by far the most unexpected track on this album. I could never have expected such a sad and tepid ballad to come from a band such as this! Even after you get over the initial surprise, it’s still a strange song in composition. It’s sort of divided into two parts. The first half is more serene and mellow, whereas the second half is a smich more rockier with less vocals. It’s an amazing song that I’ll pop out from time to time and will have on repeat. An excellent song to end an excellent album with.

school food punishment is awesome. Period. I love everything about them, their style, their attire, their music, they’re almost near-perfect in every way. This album is a very strong release that unfortunately didn’t go major, but that’s really unfair because it has all the elements to make it a hit! As the band gradually progresses to make itself popular, I hope they make their first major debut soon because they really deserve some more spotlight, and this album is where my argument comes from. If someone like Salyu can make herself relatively popular in the Japan, I’m sure school food punishment won’t have much of a problem.

Overall grade: A+

“YUI’s long-awaited 3rd Album “I Love Yesterday” has been confirmed!

I Loved Yesterday/ YUI
Lyrics/Music by YUI
SRCL 6766~7 3,750 yen (including tax)
SRCL 6738 3,059 yen (including tax)

Out on 2008/04/09(Wed)

For the limited edition,
The Music Videos of Good-bye days, I remember you, Rolling star, CHE.R.RY, as well as the Special Live Video of her first Budokan Concert (19 Nov 2007) will be included.

Regarding the details of the other songs (in the CD), it will be announced in time to come!

Please look forward to YUI’s greatest 3rd Album!

And from 5th May (Monday) onwards, her 3rd tour which starts in Fukuoka, has been officially named:

[YUI 3rd Tour "oui"~I LOVED YESTERDAY~]

Please bring along your album for the tour!”

Credit to depyon from YUI-lover forums for the translation. This announcement was posted on YUI’s official website earlier yesterday. The title of the album is a reference to The Beatles’ song ‘Yesterday’, obviously, as YUI admits to being a huge fan of them. And now, for the grand unveiling of covers! Drum roooolll…

She is sitting in a box! In horrible, horrible make-up that can be seen in the picture way above. The boxes apparently signify the ‘layers’ of safety around YUI, how she had always been sheltered, but now she’s stepping out of it so she can become more independent! Or maybe it’s a pictorisation of the expression ‘thinking out of the box’ or so, I wouldn’t know really.

Credit for the large covers to cLam of YUI-lover forums. And thanks to shuzzack from Jpopmusic forums for the even larger covers! And now for the tracklist!!

Tracklist:
1. Laugh away
2. My Generation
3. Find me
4. No way
5. Namidairo
6. Daydreamer
7. Love is all
8. I will love you
9. We will go
10. OH YEAH
11. My friend
12. LOVE & TRUTH
13. Am I wrong?

DVD Tracklist:
Good-bye days (PV)
I remember you (PV)
Rolling star (PV)
CHE.R.RY (PV)
Live clips from YUI’s live at Budokan on 2007.11.19

HALLELUJAH! NO ‘UNDERSTAND’!

I was really, really looking forward to this album… until Laugh Away showed up. Yes, it was catchy in the beginning, but now it’s growing old on me very quickly. And now that picture with horribly un-YUIish make-up. Why is Sony Records commercialising YUI so much? She was never meant to be like those super-fake-looking diva-come-singers out there, so why this ‘change’? Do. Not. Want.

I don’t know if I want to hear this album so much anymore. Bah, I’m so possessive it’s almost scary lol.

Somehow my last post regarding this PV and its rather long and thought-out review simply vanished into thin air. I hate it when that happens. Most of the time it’s the staff itself that does things like this, and worst that they don’t even leave a message to give you a heads up or anything. But that’s even good in a way because their messages are even more aggravating:

“We are pigs. We like to destroy others’ work.

End.”

Ugh, anyway, here it is again.

Download

alan – Hitotsu
Tracklist:
01. Hitotsu
02. Kimi Omou Sora
03. Tokyo Mimei
04. sign
05. Hitotsu (Instrumental)
06. Kimi Omou Sora (Instrumental)
07. Tokyo Mimei (Instrumental)

I nothing much to say besides that I like alan’s voice (that’s ah-lahn, not aey-lan) and I believe she might have a little potential to do something interesting in near future. Alan is a Tibetan/Chinese singer who made her debut in Japan last November, for those who did not know. She has a small back-catalog in her home-country, but she was practically a nobody until she came to Japan! Actually, she’s still a nobody, but who cares as long as she has a nice voice.

And here is her second single, Hitotsu, released only a day before on 5th March, 2008.

Hitotsu starts out with a gentle piano arrangement, quickly followed by an excellent vocal performance. I was really, very impressed with this track because I was expecting it to be a slow humdrum like the B-side on her last single, but Hitotsu is a very emotional track. Alan’s nasally voice is finally gone and she sounds amazing.

My favourite part is the chorus where her voice gets all freakishly high and what I love about it is that she does it without slipping into falsetto. I’d probably break a nerve or something if I try to sing that high, but goodness Alan manages to pull it off. I love how it’s also backed with bagpipes, they give the song such a nice feel! Especially the bridge, the bagpipes are a very nice touch. I really love the composition of this track, though it’s a bit sad that Alan didn’t compose this herself.

Annnd the nasal voice comes back again in Kimi Omou Sora, though it doesn’t bother me too much this time. I think it’s just her Chinese accent which is causing her to sing so nasally because Chinese languages itself have really nasal phonetics. Anyway, Kimi Omou Sora is a very nice pop-ballad, though nothing too impressive. I like the flute and the feel-good environment of the song, but the back-up vocals are a bit too much. And the awfully misfit jazzy bridge which doesn’t suit the rest of the song at all.

In my humble opinion, the reason this track doesn’t work too well is because Alan doesn’t have a very pop-ballad-y voice, or at least she’s purposely limiting herself to singing only slower paced songs with high-notes to dazzle everyone.

The third track is, again, not too impressive but not too shabby either. Tokyo Mimei is a slow-ish ballad with R&B undertones. I don’t understand what the deal with new artistes and R&B ballads is, but apparently almost everyone sings them once. I do not think this track is quite on the same standard as Hitotsu, not even close, but it’s an improvement over her last single. Her Chinese accent really gets to her in this track, sadly, and at one point I thought she was singing in Chinese, but that’s not true of course.

Next is sign, which is a non-lyrical track with a beat that’s a cross between hip-hop, trance, and traditional Chinese folk music. Ah, this track is guilty pleasure! It’s so catchy to listen to, and yet sounds so incredibly odd in front of others. Alan does sing in this track though, but it’s almost a back-drop, and so light that it’s impossibly to make out what she’s saying exactly. Actually, I believe she is singing in her native language, but I’m not too sure. A rather catchy track, but nothing beats Hitotsu!

Hitotsu is an amazing improvement over Alan’s last single. Her vocal performance when she’s not hitting her “mountain notes” has improved drastically, and her music is a lot more interesting now in general. I wish she would write her songs herself because then I would have a lot more respect for her because right now, she’s just a singer and nothing else. I really hope she isn’t groomed out to be the next Ayumi Hamasaki, even though they both have similar voices. I doubt the Japanese audience would accept her so easily even then though, because of where she comes from.

Overall grade: A-

Ken Hirai – Canvas / Kimi wa Su.te.ki♡
Tracklist:
01. Canvas
02. Kimi wa Su.te.ki♡
03. Cry&Smile!!
04. Canvas (piano version)
05. Canvas (Instrumental)
06. Kimi wa Su.te.ki♡ (Instrumental)

I would never understand why is Ken is considered to be gay. Apart from his falsetto voice, he’s looks as straight as anyone would want him to be. I never really cared anyway. I don’t listen to him religiously not because people think he’s gay, but because I just don’t like his voice. That, and the fact that he’s horribly overrated. K is a much better singer than Ken will ever be, and yet his popularity is less than half of what Ken’s is. Anyway, here’s his latest single Canvas / Kimi wa Su.te.ki.

This is Ken Hirai’s 28th single, released on 20th February, 2008. It charted on #6 in its first week on the Oricon Weekly Charts. The title track was used as the ending theme song for drama Hachimitsu to Clover, and the B-side was used as the theme song for a Knorr ad.

I tried. I tried really hard to like Canvas, but in the end it just comes off as a generic ballad with rather mediocre vocals. If there was one song I would compare this to, it would be Ai Otsuka’s LOVE MUSiC, another song I thought was just too generic to function, but even that had better vocals than Ken’s awfully muffled voice. So, again, I might be too harsh on this one, but I don’t care. When something is hyped out to be so amazing it would blow me off of my socks, it better be that or I just despise it with fiery passion. Sure, I don’t despise Canvas, but I still don’t think it’s a very interesting song. Sorry.

I was expecting the other A-side to be a mellow pop-ballad with a title like that, but my goodness did Kimi wa Su.te.ki♡ made me question all that is good and intact in this world or what. The track starts out with synthetic beats quickly followed by frighteningly high-pitched vocals from Ken that make you cringe each time you listen to them – and that not in a bad way. I’m still in shock of how unique this track is to properly decide whether I like it or not, but I know that I do prefer it much better than Canvas.

After the strangeness that was Kimi wa Su.te.ki♡, I was expecting a cutesy pop song or something that doesn’t bloody make me want to throw up but grrr… Cry&Smile!! is not that. Because, it indeed does make me want to throw up. I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but I’m not a huge fan of gospels, and that’s exactly where this track draws its inspirations from. Just when I thought there wouldn’t be anything more disappointing than Canvas, here’s Cry&Smile!!, proving my judgments wrong.

The piano version of Canvas is strangely a huuuge improvement over the original. I don’t know why I like this version better, but Ken’s vocal performance is much, much better in this one. Perhaps, it’s because the lack of instruments accentuate Ken’s vocals more, but at any rate, the original should have been like this because clearly this version is a lot better. Ken becomes a lot more emotional in this by the end, too, and it just feels a lot ‘warmer’ in general.

To review an artiste you do not really like is a huge task – one that I’m going through at this moment. Yes, it is my own decision to do so, and perhaps a righteous one to give Ken another chance. And even stating that I’m a little disappointed wouldn’t be too big an understatement. But all prejudice aside, Canvas / Kimi wa Su.te.ki is a single barely above average. If the piano version of Canvas had not appeared in it, this would be a terrible single, but that single song redeems it all. And alas, there is so much to say, but this being a single review I need to keep my word count limited.

Consensus: a highly mediocre single with nothing special to keep me interested – and if listened to for more than an hour, could be downright hazardous to health.

Overall grade: B-

Earlier today, I noticed something so utterly cool I just had to post about it. Not too long ago, Rie Fu made a small blog entry in English. Well, everyone (or at least her fans) know about her amazing grasp at linguistics, but that’s not what I’m getting at anyway. Here’s a small excerpt from her blog entry:

“(…) Just to keep you up to date with how i am doing, i am currently living and working in japan, starting to get fed up with the Japanese music market selling shit. (don’t translate this..)”

Read the full entry here

Wow LOL.

She addresses to her fans in a very friendly manner though, and also has asked them to support her by buying her CDs (particularly her upcoming 4th album), if they reside in the US or UK. I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but I’m afraid she most probably won’t be able to sell much. With mild popularity in her homeland, and almost zero promotion worldwide, there’s very little chance her new album would be a success. Ah well, I wish her the best of luck!

In related news, Rie Fu’s 4th album has been postponed in Japan – but that’s too old a news, so never mind.