Saturday, January 31, 2009

»» New singles and some hallyu love

2 new singles that were released not long ago, impressed me a lot: Buono!'s co.no.mi.chi and Tohoshinki's Bolero.

While Buono! and I go way back, I was never too fond of Tohoshinki 'til a few months ago, though I knew them ever since they debuted. I had a lot of stuff from them, all of their korean and japanese albums, and always downloaded their singles, but was never a fan, though I always liked a few songs from them. However, one of these days, I decided to play their second Japanese album, Five in the Black, and before I knew, I found myself liking it very much! I've been playing Begin like crazy ever since.

I ended up downloading their last japanese tour, and though their japanese skills seem to be rather weak, they put on an amazing show, with perfect vocals, amazing choreography and barely any lipsynching. It was also good to find out about some great songs who were hidden in singles and not released in any albums, like NO PAIN NO GAIN and Day Moon ～ハルダル～, which are both highlu recommended.

I also got to see how well YunHo dances. Boy, was I blown away by his dancing... He has probably the weakest vocals out of the five, but is by far the best dancer. They're very aware of that, so he has plenty of dance solos. I was also impressed with ChangMin's high notes and cute baby face. xD! Right now I'm listening to all the stuff I had from them and never actually listened to, and I just keep finding new hidden gems.

Back to their new single: Bolero is epic. That's the word. Epic. It starts off very slow and peaceful, with beautiul Junsu vocals, and kind of reminds me of The Wizard of Oz. Random, I know. YooChun kicks in with good vocals, and YunHo joins him creating great harmony. The chorus comes and it's pure JaeJoong + ChangMin greatness. The whole song is beautiful, and it's definitely not the average avex ballad song. No wonder they got their 5th Weekly #1 with this single. It's definitely recommended!

Other songs I recommend from Tohoshinki:
Rising Sun, My Destiny and One from their first japanese album Heart, Mind and Soul, their entire second japanese album Five in the Black, Purple Line, DARKNESS EYES (OMFG WTF IS GOING ON WITH THIS SONG?), Rainbow, SHINE, LAST ANGEL and Love In The Ice from their third album T, recent singles Beautiful you, If...!? and Jumon -MIROTIC-, and b-sides NO PAIN NO GAIN and Day Moon ～ハルダル～ from their Sky and Forever Love singles, respectively.

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by Sairo!


Friday, January 30, 2009

»» A problem

I got big problem: posting here is no longer fun for me... I always liked bloggers who reviewed singles and albums track-by-track, but I have kind of discovered that it's not that fun to do it yourself.

So I think I'll just use this to blog about J-Pop-related stuff in general, not only reviews, and see where it goes. Nobody reads this anyway xD Maybe someone will when I finally find out what I should write about.

I've been learning some JavaScript by myself these days, and I decided to include this new thing called '2009 so far'. It loads covers of releases I like and will load a new one everytime you click the picture. Right now, there are only 3 covers, but hey, 2009 has just started, right?

by Sairo!


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

»» AAA - Tabidachi no Uta

Tracklist:
01. Tabidachi no Uta
02. Mosaic
03. a piece of my word
04. Tabidachi no Uta (TW Departure Mix)
05. Tabidachi no Uta (Instrumental)
06. Mosaic (Instrumental)
07. a piece of my word (Instrumental)

AAA's new single! Yay! I have not mentioned it here before, but AAA is my favorite J-Pop act overall. Though they're quite the manufactured group, they're all very talented, good singers, amazing dancers and awesome overall entertainers. And their new single is called Tabidachi no Uta :)

AAA has always had a crazy releases schedule. When they first started, they released 4 singles in 4 months, and then an album. It flopped a little bit. Then they started releasing singles like crazy, which caused their second album to have 10 single songs and only 3 new songs. For this album, which is their 4th, they only released three singles, and only one of them was a double a-side, and I think it's better this way.

Tabidachi no Uta is a slow song with a catchy chorus. Everyone sings in it but, as usual, Misako, Naoya and Nissy take the lead. It sounds very peaceful, they harmonize well, and there is a rap bit performed by Hidaka, which felt completely out of place in such a slow song. It's really not generic but still manages to be quite catchy, so I guess it's a good a-side.

Mosaic, on the other hand, is very generic. Nissy and Naoya sing almost all of it. It has kind of a disco feel to it, and sounds very cool and enjoyable. But it's very very generic.

a piece of my word is another ballad, but this one is sung by the girls only. Misako's voice sounds really different on this one, but I'm getting used to it. Chiaki's voice sounds awesome, so natural and peaceful. It's really a shame that she gets so little solo lines, she's a great singer. The songs' melody is nice, but not ground-breaking. The chorus is very good.

For me, this single was highly anticipated, since their last single was released back in September. I don't think AAA had ever gone this long without a single release. It was worth the wait, but there is a rumour that they're going to split. Their 4th album's title is 'depArture' and their 2009 tour is called 'A depArture pArty'. They're also releasing a remix album a few weeks after the 4th album. Doesn't is feel like they're about to announce their splitting? I'm starting to get worried...

Overall score: 10/10

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by Sairo!