トップ > Good MUSIC！ > Good MUSIC！ - 人気ブログ(Blog)検索結果詳細 (2008年11月20日 1時)

Errr, so this is what I’ve been doing in my spare time since Monday. I’ve been moving Lost Wing to my friend’s domain. It’s mostly all moved there right now, so if any of you are linking me, feel free to update the links ^^.

http://lostwing.mabdese.net/

I mostly moved so I could:
a) Mess around with the PHP/CSS
b) Have a mp3 player

Yes, that’s Rinoa from FF8 on the banner. Blame Bretty. :)

Megu: PLEASE TO BE LISTING JPOP COVERS/PICS WITH WINGS (PERFERABY ANGEL WINGS ON THEM) *searching for suggestions for banner*
Brett: Rinoa!
Selryam: Use Rei Ayanami!
Megu: … D:

… so Rinoa made her way onto the banner because Rei (and everyone on NGE) is absolutely psycho.

All further reviews and posts will be posted there =)

Artist: 二千花 (Nichika)
Album: 二千花 (Nichika)
Release Date: June 18, 2008

1. あたらしい水
Gorgeous piano opens up this first song, mixed with some synthesized echoes warping in and out of the song. The piano is light, but played with intensity. Issui, the vocalist of the band, comes in with a rather interesting tone of voice. I think it might be her pronunciation that kind of makes her sound different. The melody works in an interesting way with the accompaniment as I don’t actually think she’s singing the original melody as written, but at the same time she makes it sound quite interesting. The later parts of the song, she underpitches notes, and it’s much more noticeable as there’s a much fuller accompaniment under her. The accompaniment is quite ambient in this song as there’s nice echoes added overhead the piano and strings accompaniments, but the vocalist doesn’t quite pull off the melody as a lot of time she feels like she’s undersinging some pitches and doesn’t quite make the song as melodic as it could have been. I adore the accompaniment, however, as it is an immensely beautiful arrangement.

2. Cream Soda
Love acoustic guitar starts off this next song with a gentle little sequence. Issui’s far from gentle, however, when she comes in with her vocal lines, but the layered vocals make it quite interesting with the different sounds of her voice harmonizing together to create a rather interesting sound, then disappearing and focusing back on the lovely accompaniment. this song also features a male vocalist in the mix of the echoed voices. This is overall a very lovely song and very well-arranged vocally.

3. Lucy in the Sky with Parasol
Nichika brings in their first trances of a more upbeat rock, and Issui’s voice works a lot better with the upbeat stuff. She still has trouble reaching some of the notes, but they’re not quite as distracting when she does it here, and her unique voice stands out. The accompaniment doesn’t really stand out as anything new: it features a simple electric guitar strumming in the background and a constant drum beat accompanying it. It has a strong overall sound, but it really doesn’t do anything new. She doesn’t really give me any urge to listen to this song as it goes on; the lack of energy and variety is really quite boring, despite the constant emphasis on the beat from the accompaniment.

4. Genius Party
I like the guitar riffs in this song, but the melody has a hard time fitting with the guitar underneath it at first as the melodies don’t quite fit with each other and feels a bit awkward at first, but when the fuller accompaniment comes in with the strumming, it fits a lot better. I don’t really have that many issues with Issui as this is probably one of the stronger vocal performances so far on the album. I don’t particularly think it’s an outstanding track, though as not much stands out to me in terms of it’s sound as a whole. I don’t particularly find it exciting as an upbeat track, but it does have a solid sound overall.

5. パラレル
The opening starts up with stuttered mixed male speaker, while a constant bass line comes in, then it strangely goes into a lighter song. Fortunately, I enjoy this song a bit more than the previous song as I find it relaxing. The stuttering male in the background actually mixes well into the background. Issui singing is light and works well with the accompaniment. The verses are sung nicely with a bit of intensity, and it lightly transitions into the chorus. I personally would like a bit more variety in dynamics in this song as it’s mostly sung and played the whole way through.

6. エーデルワイス
Snare drum work starts off this song with Issui singing over it before the guitar replaces the rolls on the snare drums as the main accompaniment. The song shows off a more ballad sound to their music as their accompany it with a stronger guitar presence. Issui sings powerfully in this song, but it’s pretty evident just how wild her vibrato can get at times that it has a bit too much of a shaking quality to it. Regardless of this little technical note, she makes her vibrato sound good in this song. There are a few trills I don’t quite agree with on this song and a few pitch problems, but overall, it’s a nice song.

7. Painful
Lovely piano starts off this song with a nicely emphasized opening. It puts a light accent on the main beats of the song, while adding a few light notes in between. Other instruments slowly make their way into the song beautifully and just blend to create a very lovely, soothing sound. The piano underneath it all create a continuous beat with the drums, but keep the song quite lovely. Issui performs this song with an immense sensitivity to the music and has a lovely tone for most of the song. There are parts were her tone is a bit harsh for the song and it sounds like she’s straining, but overall, she performs the song quite nicely. The light, high piano trills are a lovely addition to the song. I personally would like the melody to be less disjunct and would like a bit more flow to it as the constant pauses are a bit alienating at times. However, the song itself is quite a lovely song to listen to.

8. ライ麦畑で朝食を
Nichika goes for a beat that is repetitive, but a bit more varied in terms of the rhythm. The tempo is generally midtempo, but still retains a rather light feeling as the instrumentals seem to be played under the percussion and the vocals. The accompaniment has a beautiful mix of light synths, guitar and piano in the background, while Issui’s voice floats through the song beautifully. One should never underestimate the power of a light, but catchy drum line, because it works here to drive the song along very nicely without making the song sound like a bore.

9. Garage (Album Mix)
Issui’s tone at the begining of this song is ridiculously unpleasant. She kind of squacks through some of the notes, and they honestly sound rather terrible. This particular song has a grungier sound to it, and is rather midtempo and laid-back sounding. Issui kind of sounds like she’s in some sort of trance in this song, and doesn’t really portray any other emotion in this song other than sounding like she’s high on something. This song is honestly one of my least liked songs as neither the vocals nor the instruments interest me at all.

10. 青空、泣いた (Album Mix)
Guitar and bass sequences of two notes start up this song and create a nice driving energy to this song. There’s some nice, light instrumental in this song, but not much in the instumentation stands out in this song. The melody, however, is quite pretty and flow nicely through the song. Issui’s singing is quite nice in this song. Unfortunately, nothing else in this song is really all that interesting, although the mix of strings is quite pretty.

11. 空き地
Little metronome clicking opens up this interlude as someone winds it up and it starts ticking and dinging every four beats. Issui sings over it and is a little under the pitch at times, but sings well otherwise. Simple

12. Snow Hug
Heavy, thumping drums open this light song. I love the electric guitar line here as it’s quite pretty and has some nice note jumping. Despite the drum sounds, this song is quite a nice, light poppier sound from them and is quite a pretty song, although after awhile it’s mainly the same thing repeating over and over. It does, however, have a nice blend of sounds and ends the album nicely.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Cream Soda
Nichika’s debut album shows that this duo is an immensely promising one. Issui, the vocalist, has a rather unique sounding voice and style of singing that at times sounds a bit awkward in presentation, but overall, she a strong singer and rather enjoyable to listen to. The music on this album ranges from very creative to rather typical-sounding songs. At points I was immensely impressed with what I heard musically from this duo, as they create some lovely blends of sounds that create some a beautiful atmosphere. Other times, they tend to sound like every other band out there. None of the upbeat songs really stood out to me as something I would listen to a lot as Issui doesn’t really carry the energy and power on these songs to pull it off for me. Nevertheless, Nichika brings out a pretty good album with some nice arrangements and solid singing for the most part.

Artist: Aira Mitsuki
Album: COPY (Both Editions)
Release Date: September 3, 2008

1. GALAXY BOY
Aira Mitsuki starts off right away from a vocal line with a whole bunch of wavering synths under her. The rhythms don’t quite come together smoothly at times, but other times, it makes the song sound quite interesting with the different changes in emphasis on the song. Otherwise, it’s a fairly upbeat electropop song, and like a lot of electropop singers these day, Aira has trouble with her higher notes and doesn’t even hit them. The constant inconsistently in the rhythms is a little bit distracting at times as it immediately distracts the flow of the song and makes the elements of the song sound rather awkward. One particular part of the song that I really don’t like are the really dissonant synths at 1:30 which make me dislike that part of the song right away and switch the track the first time I listened to it. The vocal line is immensely linear and I really don’t see the appeal of it at all as Aira sounds immensely bored throughout this track and repeats the same thing in the exact same manner throughout the song, to the point where I just feel like tuning it out all together. On the other hand, I so enjoy the overall sound of this song as the different tones of synths blend together nicely to make a rather interesting sound. It’s not exactly the song that I would enjoy listening through, but I do see the attempts at a slightly more unique sound in this song with the abrupt changes of rhythms and the use of dissonance in the synths, but I honestly think it could have been done better with more flow, and less annoyance from that one synth line that sounds like it’s dying in the background.

2. チャイナ・ディスコティカ
Considering the fact that I have the beginning of this song as my cellphone ringtone, I think it’s pretty obvious that I absolutely adore this song. The mixed vocals at the beginning come in suddenly in a blast of sound before the beat bounces into the song and Aira sings song playfully. The fact is, this song is absolutely adorable. The mix of synths create a happy and cute atmosphere as the melody bounces through the mix of happy synths in something that resembles pink bunnies, pink flowers, weird swirly symbols flowing through the screen and Aira probably dressed up in something pink. Or at least that what I would have thought the PV would look like when I listen to the song. The constant beat, the addictive melody, and the adorable synths make a ridiculously awesome combination of sound. I adore the part in the middle where there’s a little interlude and little mixes of uncomprehensible Aira speaking bounces around in it. There’s something really amusing about Aira saying “PURASHIK FANTASHIK”.

3. カラフル・トーキョーサウンズ・NO.9
I love how this is the exact tempo of the previous song. XD In any case, this has less synths bouncing around it, so it soundsslower, but it really isn’t. It takes a lighter approach to the electropop music, but it still remains rather upbeat sounding. Although a word of advice: if you ever go to the single of this, avoid once of the remixes where she sings without a vocoder. Terrible. In any case, every time I listen to this song now, I can hear just how out of tune she is under a lot of the vocoder, but at least the wonders of voice distortion and auto-tune makes her sound decent on the original version. The song is rather fun, regardless, with the fast changes between notes on a synth line, and the constant syncopated synth line in the background. The squealing in between the verses really doesn’t help here as she sounds terrible in them as she happily strains through them as if she was a dying cat. No thanks. An otherwise fun song aside from the Aira squealing and the very obvious flat notes. Hey, the melody is catchy and Aira is at least amusing when she sings (i.e. she sounds like she’s having fun while singing this).

4. Darling Wondering Staring
I was never a big fan of this single when it first came out, but the opening piano line is absolutely gorgeous. The verse I’ve never found that appealing with the stuttering guitar in the background, and Aira half-singing in English. By that I mean she struggles to reach so many notes in here it’s not even funny. The melody for the chorus is actually quite nice, however, but I find the use of vocoder really annoying for some reason and can’t really find myself liking this song. The arrangement just sounds abrupt at many times of the song, and I really don’t believe Aira’s delivery of this song at all. Besides the opening piano line, the rest of the song is just hidden under an overuse of digital alterations and just poorly done in terms of the arrangement. This is one single that I avoided at all costs because the song was just painful to listen to. Despite it being her attempt at something mid-tempo, the song just sounded loud and messy.

5. HEART LINE ALIVE
I like the little crescendo of sound at the beginning as the little upbeat synths make their way into the song. This next song has a very heavy dance sound to it as the synths mostly repeat themselves every two/three bars and Aira’s highly digitized voice sings the same melody line with pauses in between them, then the melody flows more continuously for the chorus. Although there’s not much noticeable change in the song as each part plays the same rhythm over and over again, this song makes me want to dance to it regardless. The repetition is well put together in this song as I can hear things coming in the song and going out, but without bring much attention to itself. I don’t particularly care of Aira in this song, but I enjoy this song nevertheless. The crescendos and decrescendos add a nice musical variety to the dynamics of the song.

6. チャイナ・ディスコティカ (Substance Remix)
Same melody, but insert a heavier bass and electric guitar accompaniment into this song. This version is a lot less cute, and provides lower, more heavier tones to the mix, even with Aira singing with the same cute tone as the original version. It’s quite a nice mix of sound in comparison to the other mix. It also features more instrumental than actual melody, but I’m an obsessive freak for ridiculously catchy bass lines, and I love the prominent bass line in this version a lot. The grungy synth near the middle of the song adds a nice sound to the overall mix. Not an outstanding mix, but I enjoy it nevertheless.

7. ファンタジー・キャンディー
Again, Aira starts off right away with a vocal line, and the limited range of the melody makes her sound rather decent in this song, which is always a good thing. The main melody has fast-moving notes throughout, and the chord accompaniment is rather catchy in the background. Again, the constant beat makes this song rather danceable, and I enjoy the rhythm of the chords in the background, mixed with the various sounds of synths in the background twirling around. The most prominent synth has a heavier, rougher tone to it, rather than something cute that one would expect from a happier song like this. The overall song is a bit like a Perfume song overall, but that doesn’t make it any less of a enjoyable track. It’s well-mixed, and I love the change of sound at around two minutes and thirty seconds into the song.

8a. ハイバッシュ (Original ver.) (regular edition)
Dreamy piano sequences start this off as Aira opens with the beginning line of the song. Again, the beat of the song makes its way into the song. The melody features a rather catchy line with pauses in between the phrases. I enjoy how Aira ends the phrases with a bit of a staccato and she repeats this for the rest of the repetitions of the melody. The song itself uses the usual constant beat in the background and eventually features a really nice piano solo in between it all. Again, the really out of tune, dying sounds make their way back into this song and annoy me as it sounds absolutely terrible in the song. In addition, the melody of the song quickly becomes quite tiresome as it keeps going around and around in circles in between the melody, to the terrible out of tune instrumental. Of course, it was someone’s brilliant idea to keep that sequence as the thing that ends the song. That one line just leaves me cringing at the end and probably forever avoiding this track.

8b. ハイバッシュ (YAKENOHARA ver.) (limited edition)
The limited edition features this mix of the original version, which has Aira’s voice’s volumed lowered a bit, and the annoying instrumental is instead replaced with an echoey, in-tune xylophone, which is immensely better than wanting to tear my hair out every time I hear something so immensely out of tune that it makes me want to go and kick something. It’s still slightly off pitch in comparison to everything else, but it’s still leagues better than listening to whatever it was in the other version. Of course, this song is better with the improved tuning and the lighter accompaniment. I’m a pianist, so the more prominent the piano is, the happier I am. I don’t quite like the echoed quality of this remix, but I would listen to this version more than the original any day.

9. Swallowtail D.A.N.C.E (Cherryboy function ver.)
I’m a big fan of the more aggressive types of electronic music, so I immediately enjoy the aggressiveness of this next song. The song uses a loud and heavy ongoing beat, and the synth sounds repeat themselves a lot like. I personally don’t like how the song kind of subdued itself when Aira came in with her spoken vocals, and I would have liked the strong beat to continue. In any case, this song contains a nice trance feel with the constant repetitions of the sounds. However, I didn’t particularly like Aira in this song at all. She just doesn’t get the accents and beats of the song all that well and she just felt like she was pulling the song down by not emphasizing the beats enough at times. It’s a decent song, but as a more aggressive-type song, it feels underwhelming as a whole.

10. Beep Count Fantastic (feat. Terukado)
Angry, angry synths open this next song loudly, and the general sound continues with the strong, aggressive sound that I enjoy listening to. I like the addition of the lighter, fluttering synth in the background as it adds a nice contrast in sounds as the synths thump along in the background as a little butterfly flies through the song. The sequence also sounds vaguely traditional. Aira’s vocals are distant and are hardly the center of attention, then the song surprisingly fades off into silence before the synths burst back into the song. This song continues with its share of musical surprises and mixes of sound. For something so deceptively simple at the beginning, it’s a rather interesting listen.

11. イエロー・スーパーカー (Yellow Supercar)
Aira’s album takes another surprising turn as loud, scratching synths leap between two notes at the beginning, then fades into the background as some kind of weird metal washboard-sounding thing appears in the beginning, then the music speeds up to accommodate the melody of the song. The washboard thing in the background goes absolute insane and the song becomes some kind of hyper, super speedy song where it sounds like someone is having way too much fun speeding up the original song, except Aira sounds the same, and not like some kind of super chipmunk that she would be if she was sped up. The melody doesn’t really catch my attention much, but the song itself is pretty much hilarious to listen to as it switches from mid-tempo to crazy fast to super slow to super fast again. It’s pretty amusing to listen to.

12. Happiness land
This album ends (the bonus tracks don’t count!) with a lighter song, where she doesn’t sound like she’s dying in the process of singing it. Her light singing actually sounds decent as she’s singing it, despite not quite reaching some of the notes. The song itself is pretty unspectacular, but the lack of accompaniment helps focus on the nice melody of this song quite nice, which is quite enough to keep me interested in this song. Not the best song, but pleasant enough.

13. STAR FRUITS SURF RIDER (regular edition bonus)
Constant guitar strumming opens this B-side of the single I don’t like, and to be honest, I never bothered to go past the A-side of this song, so this is actually the first time I’m listening to it. It’s a mix of pretty little xylophone lines in the background ascending and descending in a continuous in a line and the usual constant beat in the background. The song has a nice ethereal sound to it that I quite enjoy, although the repeating of the song title is a bit monotonous. It’s a nice little track, nevertheless and still quite enjoyable.

14. ROCK’N ROLL IS DEAD (regular edition bonus)
I randomly started playing this before I began the review, and I was already addicted from the first bar of the song with the aggressive synths and guitar lines. The repetitive line in the background is absolutely addictive and amazing throughout this song as it keeps the pulse of the song and just drives the song forward, regardless of whatever Aira’s doing in the song, as long as she’s in the same key as the song. Aira’s not that outstanding in this song, and wailing from her would have been hilarious, but that’s just my imagination wishing she’d go all rocker-esque just for the amusement. Anyways, aggressive and catchy. And fun to listen to. Yay.

15. ROMANTIC ROPE (regular edition bonus)
I preface this to say that I’ve always dislike how Aira sounds like she’s shoving a bunch of lyrics into the opening of this song into a random melody that she repeats over and over in the chorus. The verse is a bit more enjoyable as it flows so much better than the abrupt chorus of this song. Really, I make it sound worse than it actually is, but it’s not a bad track by itself as Aira runs around sounding like she’s vomitting a stream of words in the chorus. Yeah, I’m definitely making it sound worse than it actually is.

16. Darling Wondering Staring (PLASTIC FANTASTIC remix) (regular edition bonus)
This is clearly the better version of whatever Aira came out with for her third single as it works with the overproduced feel of the vocals with the fuller, more upbeat vocals. Of course, the repeated vocal lines are a bit annoying, but the accompaniment is much better mixed and have a nice little trance sound to it with the little xylophones dancing around with the lower synth bass line. The high pitched note about three and a half minutes in is a bit ear piercing for no apparent reason, but I’m in a state where I’m easily amused, so it amuses me. Unfortunately, this mix is a bit too long for its own good.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Beep Count Fantastic
Aira Mitsuki’s debut album has brought some enthusiasm in me for the electropop genre. As cynical and vaguely amused I was by the whole obsession with electropop these days, Aira Mitsuki brings in some mostly solid music and shows that a sub par vocalist can be transformed into a rather enjoyable artist with an excellent producer. Terukado brings a bit of originality to this tracks, although staying mostly with the popular sound most of the way, but at the same time, he brings in some well-mixed, well-arranged tracks that produce an enjoyable overall album. Aira Mitsuki has barely any vocal skill at all, but the girl is charming to listen to for the most part and sounds like she enjoys the music she’s singing for most of the track despite her obvious lack of ability to reach notes. Regardless of her difficulties vocally, her album is still addictive and fun to listen to, despite most of the picks for bonus tracks being superfluous and pretty much useless.

(Please note: I do not plan to review the YAKENOHARA MEGAMIX nor L0ne1yBoy L0ne1yGirl)

So today was the first day back at school. And it just happened to be Japanese class.

Excuse me while I will probably be under piles of Japanese homework/review/whatever for the next few months, in addition to the other courses I’m taking (HI TWO COURSES OF ENGLISH; YOU GIVE ME LOTS OF READING). *pulls hair out already*

Time to shove a year’s worth of Japanese back into my head within the next few days! Woo! Sounds like a plan.

See you guys in…. December D: (And occasionally posting throughout the school term).

(Tsuki’s also basically doing the same thing she’s been doing all summer. Won’t be seeing her that much either. おねえちゃん～会いたいです～。)

Reviews? What are reviews?!

- A rather distraught Megumi.

p.s. hope your first day of class (if applicable) wasn’t as stress inducing <3.

p.p.s. apparently not distraught enough not to post a review two days later. HUUR.

Artist: BONNIE PINK
Album: evil and flowers
Release Date: April 18, 1998

1. Evil And Flowers (piano version)
Chords open up BONNIE’s third album and she sings over it. Her english lyrics aren’t quite clear and she needs to enunciate a bit more at times, but she doesn’t sound bad here otherwise. The song is pretty straightforward as the piano keeps to the simple chord accompaniment on the beats and doesn’t really add anything else and BONNIE sings over it. Some of the rhythms in between the piano and the melody doesn’t quite match together at times and the composition is a bit awkward in that manner. However, it’s quite a nice introduction to the album.

2. Forget Me Not
Acoustic guitar starts off this song nicely in a slightly laid-back manner and the bass joins in lightly. I like how BONNIE PINK sings in this song as well. Her voice is quite lovely, here and the melody is quite nice against the acoustic guitar in the background of the song. The chorus has a stronger electric guitar presence as she sings “Forget me not” a few times before going back to the lighter sound of the verses. BONNIE’s pitch is mostly good, but she tends to be a bit sharp one some notes. Again, the song is rather simplistic, but it’s not a bad song. I personally would have liked a bit more aggression in the chorus as it seems the song needs it a bit with the more aggressive guitars coming in for the chorus.

3. Your Butterfly
The opening of the next song focuses on lower notes as the bass and the bango play a slightly country-like tune in the background. The melody, however, is nothing like country and BONNIE has her usual pop sound as she sings. The overall song has a bit of a bounce to it as BONNIE pauses a lot in between phrases for the verses. The bass in the background keeps a constant pace as it plays a simple quarter note sequence in the background. BONNIE joins the phrases together for the chorus as it has a continuous flow. The melody for this song is quite nice and I enjoy it quite a bit. BONNIE sings well in this song and matches the style of the music perfectly with her soulful voice.

4. Hickey Hickey
This laid-back song starts off with grungy strumming guitar in the background while a clearer electric guitar sound plays over it. The melody here is fairly simple, but I enjoy it quite a bit in its simplistic sound. The song is rather repetitive for most of the song, but at the same time, BONNIE does a good job keeping the pulse in the song to keep it consistently interesting throughout the song. She switches between the verses in her normal range, and the chorus in her head voice. At the end, she starts to repeat “Hickey Hickey” in the higher tones while she sings some of the lyric, and speaks over it on another vocal line.

5. He
Darker-sounding guitar start off this next song with a lower bass sound and a lighter acoustic guitar over it, along with drums driving the basic beat. Again, the melody’s range is rather smaller in this song in the verses. The tone of the song changes to a slightly brighter song as the verses go on and sounds quite nice, and again when the chorus comes in. Some of the melodies feel a bit awkward in progression, especially in the chorus and some of the notes she doesn’t quite hit. While the overall sound of the song I find quite fascinating, I can’t say that I enjoy the song as it doesn’t quite flow all that well throughout and feels really repetitive after awhile.

6. Eve’s Apple
Organ-sounding keyboard starts off this song with a chord accompaniment that lays down the downbeats with the drums. The accompaniment is rather simplistic as BONNIE starts to sing this more melodic melody over it. Eventually, the bass creeps into the song quite nicely. This accompaniment continues for most of the song and it actually sounds quite nice under BONNIE’s voice. The simplicity of the arrangement of this song is very lovely and BONNIE mixes a nice variety of sounds at the same time without making it sound like a typical minimalist song.

7. 金魚
Electric guitar strumming and strange electronic sounds start off this song with a light cymbal tapping in the background for the drums. It’s a rather interesting sound, and again BONNIE sounds quite nice in this song, although I can’t say the same for parts of the melody where the progression does not flow well, especially at around the first minute where she ends the phrases is a high tension note and transitions poorly back into the melody of the verse. I enjoy the increase of sound at those parts, but the flow isn’t there to link the parts together. BONNIE adds a little extra guitar line for the second half of the song and I find it a rather nice addition to the song as it adds a bit of a change to the overall song. However, again, I can’t see myself listening to this song for long periods of time as the melody is far too disjunct with awkward sounding jumps and lacks flow inbetween the sections of the song.

8. Meddler
A mix of synthesizer and light drums start this song for a short while, then a light guitar strumming replaces the synthesized sounds as the drum continues. Again, the melody is fairly simple, but I love how BONNIE sings it with intensity,even if the melody does have a lot of leaps or jumps. The melody keeps to the same sequence for most of the song, and I find it a bit too repetitive after awhile, but the song is performed well otherwise. Not the most eventful song but I like the overall sound of it despite it being rather repetitive in nature.

9. Masquerade
I love the opening of this next son with its mix of slightly dissonant guitars. The sounds are a bit awkward sounding at first, but I personally find it makes a rather unique sound overall. I enjoy her emphasis on the word “masquerade” throughout the song and the mix of assonance in the song and the dissonance as the song switches between the two throughout the song. The bass in the chorus is ridiculously catchy, although it also does a good job in the verses to add a bit of emphasis and drive to the overall song. The song has very little development aside from that, but the ending vocal chord is quite lovely.

10. Quiet Life
BONNIE opens with her first piano ballad on the album, and while her voice isn’t exactly fitting for these kind of songs as her timbre and be a little bit harsh, she does well with this song. Her phrasing is a bit awkward at time and the octave leaps cause an awkward outburst of loudness. However, you can tell she has a lot more control on these kind of songs, even with some vocal technique that I don’t quite like. She presents it in a simple and emotional manner, and the style is fitting. I enjoy the simplicity, and the slow addition of instruments throughout the track. In addition, the melody of this is very pretty and I enjoy it quite a bit.

11. Only for him
Light hi hat and cymbal sounds open the song with a light bass line. The dissonance between some of the sounds is kind of interesting, especially the soft xylophone sound at the beginning. This guitar opening continues for about a minute and twenty minutes until BONNIE finally decides to come in with a lovely light tone of voice. The song gets a bit more upbeat as the beat becomes more constant as the guitar and the drums build up to the chorus nicely without loosing the “lightness” of the song. The chorus is slightly more aggressive, BONNIE performs it without making it overly aggressive and keeps the light tone of voice but keeping the emphasis of the build-up towards the chorus. I really enjoy this particular song as it’s upbeat, light and pleasant to listen to.

12. Fallen Sun
I enjoy this next song for the simple fact that it features only the acoustic guitar and BONNIE’s voice for the majority of the song. The guitar starts off a little solo before accompanying BONNIE as she sings and speaks a very pleasant melody. I enjoy the little speaking lines in between the singing lines. The higher notes still sound a bit off pitch, but not so much that it’s extremely distracting. I enjoy how lightly all the other guitar lines are added to the song, so much so that they sort of blend into the overall sound of the song. Quite a lovely track.

13. Evil and Flowers
The previous track this track tie to each other through a long-held note of a string synthesizer, back to the song that opened the album. This version has a bit more drive than the opening with the drum beat and the bright guitar songs. The synthesized strings are a bit odd in this otherwise acoustic song, but it works well enough. The problems I had rhythmnically in the piano version sound better in this version as the rhythms don’t seem as sloppy as the piano version, and the instruments and vocal lines work out for a much tighter change of rhythm in those phrases at the end.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Your Butterfly
BONNIE PINK’s third album is a hit or miss for me. I do enjoy quite a few of the tracks on this album, but others felt forgettable and I really didn’t find them interesting. Musically, BONNIE seems to have chosen a more minimalistic approach to this album, which I enjoy quite a bit, but sometimes I personally find a few of the tracks uneventful and far too repetitive. Vocally, I didn’t really have much to complain about for her. She has definitely improved a lot from her first album and you can hear the substantial difference in control and pitch as she goes on in her career. The album does start off strongly with some memorable tracks, but after awhile, the album feels like it’s dragging on for a few of the tracks. I didn’t enjoy the material on the album as much as the two previous albums, even if I do enjoy a good amount of these tracks.

Artist: BONNIE PINK
Album: Heaven’s Kitchen
Release Date: May 16, 1997

1. Heaven’s Kitchen
By this time, I realize that BONNIE enjoy different sounding melodies. Her trills and progressions sometime sound rather awkward and flows oddly when you first listen to it, but I’ve heard this song far too many times that I find her melodies rather interesting sounding, and fits with BONNIE’s rather unique voice. Her pitch is pretty good and she doesn’t seem to have some of the vocal problems she had two years ago when she released her first album. In any case, this song is a pop-rock song with a heavy use of guitar and loud percussion and other odd sounds over it playing long notes in the background. I, personally, have always been a bit fan of the chorus and how she presents it with emphasis. The flow of the song is a bit odd thoughout, but at the same time I enjoy it.

2. ほほえみの糧
BONNIE goes for a more laid-back feel for this next song. The tone of the song is slightly creepy as it uses slight dissonances throughout the song, while BONNIE sings over it with a regular, melodic melody. It’s a unique sound, but it doesn’t really interest me at all. The subdued sound of this song just isn’t very interesting for me. The melody is nice and BONNIE sings nicely, but the accompaniment feels really dull and doesn’t really help BONNIE with her melody at all.

3. It’s gonna rain!
I’ve always loved this song. It starts off with catchy, rhythmic brass opening, because a bass takes over and BONNIE comes in with the melody. The guitar adds a nice little syncopated line under it. I think the brass does a good job adding a groove to this song. Of course, BONNIE sounds nice in this song, and I like her emphasis on syllables. This song is very pleasant to listen to and always makes me want to dance to it. The brass lines are nicely done, and while BONNIE’s vocals don’t really stand out in this song, I still enjoy it quite a bit.

4. Do you crash?
Some odd guitar sequences opens this song that’s a bit hard to explain. It’s a rather unique song and BONNIE sings under it as it goes on for the verse. The guitar is a bit annoying at first, but BONNIE makes it work for her somewhat. However, it does compromise the quality of the song at times and makes it sound a bit of a mess. However, the melody is actually quite nice and BONNIE performs well, as usual. The echoes of “I do” is rather annoying, especially nearing the end where it’s just far too repetitive. Not one of the songs I would choose to listen to on this album.

5. Silence
The next upbeat song has a “cool” feeling to with the fun bass work. BONNIE has a bit of a filter put over her voice and she sounds really good in this song. Stylistically, she pulls it off so well. I love how she sings “Silence” in the lyrics. This whole song just has this kind of a laid-back, cool sound to it from the brass, the bass, the vocals and the drums. I especially like when she’s ad libbing, the brass in the back plays the same rhythm and pitch as her. It sounds rather interesting. Overall, everything in this song is just excellent and performed from both the vocalist and the instrumentalists in the background.

6. Mad Afternoon
Little grace notes on the piano starts off this song for a rather unique sound. BONNIE opens this slower tempo song with only her on with the piano and she sounds good, although some notes sound a bit off. The song gets more upbeat-sounding when the guitar comes in with it’s catchy line and the drums come in, focusing mostly on the hi-hat and cymbal sounds and the rim of the snare. The drums does occasional crescendos by paying the drum itself. The progression of this song is rather interesting, and BONNIE’s light singing is quite lovely. Near the end, the song crescendos and stays there as the drum plays away at a nice forte before stopping.

7. Lie Lie lie
Filtered sounds open up this song with long notes before adding the bass and the drums for a light mid-tempo song. BONNIE’s voice is also filtered slightly as she sings lightly in this song. She adds a nice emphasis on her vocals as she sings along with the smooth melody. By the time she gets to the short pre-chorus, it gets kind of awkward as it immediately changes sound, then changes sound again as she goes into the chorus. The melody here doesn’t flow or transition well at all. I do enjoy that BONNIE, although singing a rather linear melody for the verse, keeps her line accented on the right beats. Her voice is strained as she reaches for the notes in the chorus and doesn’t quite support the notes as she sings them. However, I enjoy the overall feel of this song.

8. Melody
This next track combines bango and keyboard for a rather interesting mix. The keyboards play basic chord progressions while the bango and the bass plays repetitive melodic lines under BONNIE voice. The melody isn’t interesting itself in the verses and relies mostly on the momentum that the instrumentals make throughout the song with the melody’s pauses. The chorus is a smoother melody that brings more of a focus on BONNIE, but she’s extremely strained in the higher notes and doesn’t sound good when doing them. Otherwise, this song is still rather fun to listen to for the bass line.

9. Pendulum
BONNIE brings a jazzier feel for the next song with the piano opening and the light drums that accents on the offbeats. She comes in with “I’m like a pendulum”, and I love how she delivers the line. As usual, BONNIE is excellent at delivering her music in an appropriate tone of voice. Her high notes aren’t that pleasant, but otherwise, she sounds nice. I love the mysterious, sassy sound of this song. Some of the stylistic vocal choices in terms of trills are kind of weird sounding and I personally don’t find them that appealing in this kind of song.

10. Get in my Hair
The echoed piano in this opening is rather haunting. This song is in triple time, so it carries a different rhythmic feel. BONNIE’s voice herself is rather echoed and her performance in this song is rather haunting. I still find her trills inappropriate at times, but she delivers decently otherwise. I personally think some of the melody could use some work as it feels awkward in terms of progression. The accompaniment is a bit bland, but at least she changes it up at the end with some faster-moving three-note sequences from synths, then varies it up with different synth sounds. The ending piano is quite pretty.

11. Farewell Alcohol River
The song melds into some kind of weird melody from BONNIE. I can’t say that this melody particularly sounds pleasing with BONNIE voice. Her singing feels pitched and unpleasant from the beginning on the high notes, which don’t flow well at all. The harshness of her singing continues for the rest of the song, and she sounds unpleasing here. The song more or less continues like this and she sounds absolutely dreadful. This kind of melody BONNIE should stay away from as it shows some terrible tone from her.

12. No One Like You
Little music box-like sounds bounce around in five-note sequences in the backgrond repetitively as BONNIE sings a simpler melody. She sounds slightly more bearable here, although she still really nees to work on the sound of her higher notes, and some of the end of her phrases has a very harsh tone and trill that I don’t particularly like. Can’t say I enjoy this song either as it shows off some of BONNIE’s vocals flaws a lot more clearly and it’s really not that pleasant to get through. Her pitch is wavering constantly on this track and the trills she does are off and very poorly put into the song. She needs to avoid them at all costs until she learns to do them properly.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Silence
BONNIE PINK’s second album is more enjoyable than her first and shows off that she can be a rather unique, interesting and varied singer-songwriter. She writer some really enjoyable songs and a lot of these songs fit her vocal style quite well. A nice amount of these tracks are quite fun to listen to. I especially like the bass for a lot of these songs. BONNIE’s singing has improved from her previous album, but she still has her problems vocally. She has similar problems as I noticed from her first album, but not all the time, which I find rather amusing. The last two tracks show off a lot of flaws that she has vocally and I wasn’t particularly impressed with either of the tracks. Otherwise, I enjoyed the album.

Artist: 宮脇詩音 (Miyawaki Shion)
Album: Dear
Release Date: August 6, 2008

1. Flavor
Chopped-off, digital alterations of Miyawaki’s voice opens this song before going into the main melody. This song is a happy, slightly dance opening song. Miyawaki sounds okay, but some of her notes could have been sung better. She doesn’t quite pull off the melody while and sounds rather awkward as she sings; her tone is really forced-sounding and I don’t quite like it that much. Although she performs this with energy, her sound isn’t very pleasant at all in how she presents her voice. Her lower notes need a lot of work as when she tries to hit them, she goes off when she’s singing the intervals and lets her support fall when she goes for the lower notes. Her higher notes are strained and she desn’t quite hit the notes. Some phrases sound nice, but she still needs to work on her pitch, but she has moments of good singing on this song. The song is rather typical sounding, but it’s not a bad song.

2. You’re Butterfly -MAKAI exclusive mix-
YOU ARE BUTTERFLY (ORLY?). Look at the engrish there. In any case, this is a remix of a song that she’s never released, and it’s pretty evident from the dance music going on in the background. Oh, look, it’s about the same tempo as the previous song, but with a different synth taking on the beat and a piano playing. I’m serious, if you switch between the two songs, you’ll barely hear a difference in the tempo. At least the piano sounds nice at the beginning, which is something I can’t say about Miyawaki’s singing. She sounds nice at first, until she comes back with that weird muffled sound she has, then goes for a note swoop and sounds terrible. I personally like this song better than the opening song as it has a much more interesting and fuller accompaniment. In any case, she sings better on this track than on the previous one, and I love the piano chord accompaniment. The chorus is amusingly catchy.

3. STORY
A mix of a plucked instrument and the usual orchestral strings start off this song before going into a mid-tempo R&B sound with retro synths dancing around the song. Miyawaki’s voice is a bit lighter on this song as she doesn’t put as much volume on it. As a result, the vocals kind of lack a bit of energy and seem a bit too quiet in comparison to the synths. She still has occasional pitch and tone problems, but it’s less evident in this song. It’s not a really notable song on this mini-album, but it’s an okay song.

4. そばにいたい
This is the first R&B ballad on the mini-album, and I can’t say Miyawaki sounds that good here. At least she’s improved from the vocal disaster of BOY and can actually hold a tune decently here. It feels extremely generic in sound, and Miyawaki doesn’t really have the voice to bring this out of its genericness. Her voice feels lifeless at times and doesn’t really feel like she understands the music much. The high note near the end of the chorus is strained, pitched and off.

5. Touch me
Low synths dance into the introduction before Miyawaki comes into the song with a deeper voice than usual, and I think it suits the song much better than her light, airy, raspy voice from before. This song is another upbeat song, and although I find the accompaniment quite lacking for the majority of the time, Miyawaki sings well. The accompaniment mostly doesn’t bring the energy that Shion brings into the song, which is disappointing since I do like Shion here, but not so much how the song was arranged.

6. Flavor -Longest Summer Groove mix- feat. BABE.RYOTA（0SOUL7）
“REMIX!” Yeah, you already know what I think about Shion’s singing on the opening track. She really needs to work on her interval hopping here because she sounds awful, especially on the lower notes. HOWEVER, I love the new piano accompaniment for this song and the extended introduction with the synths, and echoed piano is quite nice. The rapping is added nicely into the song and adds some energy to the song with his raspy voice. Some of the original melody doesn’t quite fit with the new accompaniment as it feels like the rhythms are a bit off when Shion gets to the faster moving passages in the verses.

Overall -
Favourite Track: You’re Butterfly -MAKAI exclusive mix-
Miyawaki Shion, one of the girls who were in “The Rival” promotion with her friend Seara Ko-jo, releases a mini-album before her friend does (har har). Her debut mini-album is decent and contains some nice songs, but not many of the tracks stood out to me as something I would listen to again, aside from You’re Butterfly, despite the title bugging me every time I type it out. Vocally, Shion has improved as I actually listen to her without cringing now (although she’s always had the better voice of the two, she just didn’t have the control for it). She still has problems with some of the control and how she presents her material. She has the tendency to lack musicality in her singing both technically and emotionally. I personally would like to hear her develop more, as I don’t think she’s a terrible artist. However, neither Shion nor her music stand out in the crowd of Avex releases.

Artist: BONNIE PINK
Album: Blue Jam
Release Date: November 21, 1995

1. Scarecrow
Electric guitar starts off BONNIE PINK’s first album, ever. I love the sound right off the bat. It has a bit more of a classic rock sound to the guitar, and I love how BONNIE PINK sings this song. She sings it with attitude that fits the electric guitar riffs. I find her a bit under the note in this, especially around the verses, but she comes back nicely in the chorus. I personally think she could use a bit more drive to her vocals at times as after awhile it feels as if she loosing a lot of raw energy that these kind of songs require. It probably doesn’t help that she looses the melody in the verses a lot. Otherwise, the chorus is memorable enough, but not so much the verses.

2. Curious Baby
Bongos, a soft bass line. These elements create a slightly jazzy atmosphere with a laid-back feel. BONNIE’s melody is vaguely dissonant and doesn’t flow that well melodically and feels rather awkward. This sound continues for the rest of the song, and sounds terrible. The accompaniment is listenable, and I especially like the piano solo, but the melody is mess in this song. BONNIE’s vocals feel forced, and her high note near the end is a disaster.

3. キャンディ2つの散歩
This next song has a bouncy keyboard opening mixed with more staccato electric guitar lines that match those of the keyboard. A light bass plays on in the background, and the melody is much more melodic here. BONNIE, too, follows the staccato structure of the song well. Her vocals aren’t always on, but she does a decent job with the pitch. Stylistically, she does well with this song. I personally enjoy the little flourishes of flute notes in the second verse. As many of you know, I play flute, so I’m always happy to listen to it XD. Xylophone is added at parts as well. The song, however, lacks any development as the song repeats over and over again, which is rather annoying after awhile.

4. 背中
Senaka was the first song that I heard from BONNIE PINK, and I still like it. I absolutely adore the bass line in this song. BONNIE’s vocals are lighter and slightly mysterious in this quiet mix of acoustic guitar and bass guitar. I like the little octave jumps she does in the chorus: she does them with ease and keeps the tone subtle throughout. The song is rather repetitive after awhile, but I enjoy the mysterious sound that this song brings. The guitar makes me want to shuffle my feet and repeat the song over and over.

5. Freak
Hi-hat at the beginning mixed with some weird sounds that I can’t identify. It’s rather ominous sounding at first with all the harsh sounds together. Eventually, the some kind of melodic note sequence comes in with the guitar but the song still sounds rather ominous. BONNIE’s voice is hidden under a bit of filters, so it makes her voice sound a bit distant. Either way, I quite like this darkly-sounding song. The chorus brightens up in sound slightly, and I like her emphasis on the title of the song without overdoing it. Interesting sounding song.

6. Too Young to Stop Loving
Driving acoustic guitar starts off this next song and melody fits with acoustic well with the pauses and breaks and the style that BONNIE PINK sings. Some of her singing is a bit unpleasant, but the song is rather catchy, especially the chorus. I don’t particularly like how she emphasizes the word “young” as it feels awkward (this trill can be heard a few other notes in the verse as well), but otherwise, the song is fun and enjoyable to listen to despite some of her singing.

7. Maze of Love
A lovely piano starts off this song, accompanied by a little bit of acoustic guitar and some odd electric guitar lines. BONNIE’s voice sounds lovely here as she starts off with lower tones in this gentle song. The melody is still a bit accented, but still rather lovely. A bit of BONNIE’s melody is a bit awkward, especially when she’s a bit under the pitch, however, I still like. It’s not until about two minutes in that BONNIE comes in with the chorus. Again, she’s not on the pitch when she sings out a bit, which isn’t that pleasant sounding. However, I quite like the melody here. BONNIE’s pitch is wild when she sings, especially when she tries to belt, but I still like this song. I really like the instrumental in the latter half, as the song gets rather upbeat and features a really awesome guitar solo. The song gets a little lengthy at the end, though.

8. オレンジ
This next song features another jazzy sound as the piano comes in with the cymbals of the drums. The guitar features a slightly island-ish sound to it as it plays syncopated sequences in the background. The song is rather pleasant with some nice singing from BONNIE. She doesn’t really have to sing out that much in this song, so her pitch is a lot better in this track. The style she sings this song fits the laid-back sound of this song very well and makes it rather pleasant, although, again, a bit too lengthy.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Too Young to stop Loving
BONNIE PINK’s debut album was a rather short little release. Nevertheless, she shows some of her potential as an artist in this eight-track album. She puts out some rather interesting tracks and melodies that are rather memorable and enjoyable. A few of the tracks I didn’t particularly like, but as a whole, I enjoyed the material more than I disliked it. BONNIE PINK’s vocals, however, are sometimes decent, sometimes terrible. To this point, I’ve already adapted to her unique singing voice, so I quite like it. She usually presents her music in an interesting manner, although she needs to vary up her vocal style within the songs of which she repeats sections over and over again. They can be rather boring after several repetitions. Her pitch, at times, can be rather off, especially when she tries to sing out more. She presents her vocals well stylistically, but she needs to work on controlling her voice more. Not an amazing album, but not a bad debut for this rather unique singer.

Artist: delofamilia
Album: quiet life
Release Date: December 5, 2007

1. quiet life
I’m not quite sure how to describe this opening track. It has a long of strange noises going over a string-like accompaniment. It’s a rather interesting sound to start off with for this introduction. Soft drums can be heard in the background.

2. obsessions
Little beeping synths start off this first full track of this album is a rather interesting manner as it’s the only sound in the song at first. I love the layering here at the beginning as a male and another synth line goes over the basic beat. The male speaker just kind of says incomprehensible things in short stacatto notes, but it sounds rather spiffy. Eri soon comes in with the main melody with the same kind of rhythmic beat before going into a more legato melody. She sounds nice in English, although she doesn’t really show anything extraordinary with them. The song quickly goes back to instrumental. While Eri’s vocal may not impress me that much here (but she sounds nice!), NAOTO’s programming is really cool to listen to. The song gets more upbeat near the end with the appearance of a constant drum beat.

3. PAIR
Little bouncy synth dance in the opening of this song with a basic beat, then a higher pitched synth placed above to playing a little catchy tune. This song is much more upbeat than the previous song, and Eri sings in English once again in this track. Again, her vocals aren’t anything interesting, but I absolutely adore the accompaniment for this song. It’s rather cute and rather catchy.

4. Lunchtime Sketches
I have no idea what’s happening in the sounds in the introduction; it sounds like microwave beeping sounds, and this somehow becomes a theme in the song. As weird as this sounds in text, the song itself is extremely fascinating and unique sounding. A bass eventually comes in, and other little synths are put above it. A distorted voice comes as he speaks. Eri’s voice is extremely high for some odd reason when she comes in, and even if NAOTO was trying for something a bit different sounding, Eri sounds terrible. The vocals aside, the song itself is rather interesting. It’s a nice mix of acoustic and synths, but the song itself doesn’t really appeal to me after awhile. Eri eventually comes in at about three minutes in with her usual voice and she starts spelling out things. Okay, then.

5. The end of the night
Xylophone-like sounds start off this song with short, high notes, while sound eventually comes into the song. Eri, however, sounds lifeless when she sings “The end of night is whispering” and I immediately tune out of the song. The rest of the song is equally as boring as Eri sounds like she doesn’t care about the song and sings in a monotone manner. The accompaniment is more interesting with the short synth notes constantly going in the background.

6. zip
Acoustic guitar plays lightly, with some occasional flourishes of notes. This line is mixed with the usual synthy lines. It’s a rather interesting mix to listen to, and Eri sounds better in this song than in the previous song, but it’s still rather monotone at times. It’s not until the end that it starts to crescendo into a more dramatic song with the strings playing short, accented notes, a faster drum beat, and Eri starts ad libbing over it before the song dwindles off. Not the most interesting song, but it’s okay.

7. lmcr
I really love the opening for this song and the overall sound of it. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it mostly uses lower tones in it, and it’s consists of a lot of short notes. The lower synths have a bit of a hollow sound to it, but it sounds interesting in this song. Eri has a sudden burst of sound, then it goes back to the instrumental before she sings subtly a little melody again. Her vocals are definitely the focus of this as the programming of this song is absolutely awesome. I love the mix of sounds in this, and her vocals are just a small piece of the mix of sounds in the song. It has an electronic feel, but not to the point where it feels over-produced. Eri’s vocals aren’t distorted and she sings with a clear sound with the accompaniment.

8. [liver] where Is my mind?
The mix of sound at the beginning is a little like a pocket full of coins, an occasional acoustic guitar strum, some low synth sounds, someone making weird noises with their mouth and various sounds keep adding on top element by element. More traditional instruments come later, but they’re played in a different sound. A male vocalist makes his appearance here as he speaks a rather monotone melody, but for some reason it works with the song as his voice is altered. Eri joins the duet occasionally, but they create a rather interesting voice together. They have a small build up of sound about midway through before the acoustic guitar takes over with a quieter accompaniment. The pizzicato strings close up the song nicely.

9. Velvet Morning
The next song is about 2 minutes and 45 seconds of ambient sounds. There’s nothing particularly fascinating about this song, but it’s kind of nice to listen to.

10. petica
Little dark sounding synths echo through the opening, before a bright sound slides its way into the song, and makes the song sound rather happier. It has a similar ambient sound as the previous song, and again Eri’s not that outstanding as a vocalist here as well. Her voice is echoey and she sings subtly for the song, but it’s nothing all that interesting.

11. Hiding Road feat. AIR
Guitar starts off this next song with a bass drum in the background. The male vocalist is lacking support when he starts, and his voice is under an immense amount of echo. He doesn’t sound particularly good at times. The chorus is a bit better, but not by much. A female vocalist (Eri, maybe?) can be heard singing an octave higher than him and eventually adding harmonies to his voice. Her voice is more audible around halfway through where they lower the volume of the male vocalist’s voice under her high, thin voice. The melody of this song is kind of nice, but nothing else really stands out on this track.

12. balance ~love and hate~
Warpy sounds are heard above the acoustic guitar. This is a lighter song and has a greater focus on Eri’s voice, it seems. She sounds nice as usual, but that’s nothing new. The sound of the song gets a little bit tense at 1:15, as her voice is slightly more intense, and the strings add a bit of dissonance to the song. Some of the vocals fall flat, and the rest of the song ends up being rather monotone as a whole. Pretty boring.

13. so lonely
Loud guitars can be heard in this song, and Eri’s voice is hidden somewhere underneath it all, to the point where it’s actually kind of annoying to listen to. And the rest of the song stays that way. So in conclusion, this song sounds like noise. Lots and lots of noise. And Eri buried under a pile of noise. Wooo. End of album.

Overall -
Favourite Track: PAIR
delofamilia is a collaboration between NAOTO from ORANGE RANGE (I always have an urge to pronounce that OREENNJII RENJII, because it sounds cuter in Japanese, but I digress) and Eri Nobuchika (and a few other artists that I’m too lazy to list or figure out). NAOTO mostly provides some rather unique and interesting mix of sounds for a lot of these tracks, and I quite enjoyed it all. However, while I like Eri’s voice, she disappointed me a lot on this album. Quite frankly, if you like Eri’s voice, you’ll find her vocals here underwhelming. Quite a few of these tracks, however, were quite fun to listen to, but there’s probably an equal amount of tracks on this album which felt uneventful, monotone and just bland. Overall, I didn’t enjoy this album that much despite liking some of NAOTO’s programming and arrangements. I found myself constantly pausing and not feeling any urge to listen to this album.

Artist: Super Junior
Album: Don’t Don! (돈 돈!)
Release Date: September 20, 2007

1. 돈 돈!
This album starts off with an aggressive upbeat number with loud electric guitar work right from the beginning; quite frankly, it’s quite catchy. The boys that sing have a good solid sound to them, and like in the first album, they have a really good blend in the unison parts of the song. They have a good energy throughout, and the strings bridge is a nice addition. The rap isn’t particularly impressive, but the song overall has good energy and the boys sing well.

2. 소원이 있나요
SuJu is done with their “LULZ WE BE AGGRESSIVE” and turn to some happy-happy typical boyband music. This song is a lot brighter in tone. The opening solos are rather lacking in energy and they sound rather bored in comparison to what they did on the first track. Again, the boys have nice voices, but for the verse, they don’t really attract my attention at all. The chorus is a lot better as they build up a bit more energy and the melody is quite nice. However, the song as a whole fails to attract my attention at all. Some of the boys’ tones sound forced and unmusical here, especially near the end.

3. 말하자면
ENTER OBLIGATORY KOREAN BALLAD. Enter very poor, dying boy singing and trying to be sensitive, but sounds like he’s struggling to breathe. The boys after him sound better, but the solos feel choppy as they transition into each other parts. The boys aren’t singing as a group here, and it’s evident. Each of their solos feels like an individual part rather than working together to create a song. This song is not even “touching” or “soothing” in any way. It’s choppy, unmusical, and mechanical in performance.

4. 미워 (Hate U, Love U)
Wooo, more loud, choppy piano in a ballad. Yup, that’s right, another ballad. At least the opening singer here sounds nicer than the last one, and the guy who sings after him sounds even better. Another guy sounds like he’s singing under the pitch and not supporting his voice enough. Oh wait, that was a chorus? At least this ballad fares better than the previous one as there’s an actual flow in throughout this song. The strings in the background are quite nice. Otherwise, the song’s rather dull and pointless.

5. Disco Drive
SuJu dives into some kind of odd mix of disco and jazz in this next track. The saxophone is quite pretty at the beginning, but the melody doesn’t quite fit into the song in the introduction. It feels awkward and makes me think “LOL WHAT IS THIS DOING HERE?!”. Of course, this just has to continue for the rest of the song. Granted, the boys still sound good, but the melody and the accompaniment fit together poorly, and apparently there’s no chorus. My brain kind of wanders off until, surprise, the rap comes in for some excitement halfway through. Of course, this part is short lived, and they go back into their legato melody that doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere any time soon. So, euhhh… is there a point to this song? D:

6. Marry U
R&B BALLAD. INSERT GENERIC CLAPPING BEAT. OH YES. Don’t say I enjoy the verse much in this song. The melody has a lot of fast, short passages throughout, and doesn’t flow at all. However, the chorus melody is quite pretty and the boys sound nice here. Of course, with any song on marriage, the boys will say “I do”. Uh huh. This is where we question sexual preference when they actually echo each other. But yes, the chorus melody is nice. Otherwise, the constant repetitions of “I do” is really annoying. Seriously, how many times do you have to say it? D:

7. I Am
I like the guy who opens this song. He has a lower voice than most of the other members, and it’s quite nice :). But yes, another upbeat song with happy strings in the background. So typical boyband XD. But at least it sounds good when compared to a lot of the trainwrecks so far in the album. The song is happy, the boys sing well and don’t sound bored, the song flows nicely. This makes me think of some of those overly girly boyband videos with boys singing and dancing in the front, and the background has some like bright sunlight effects and the camera pans everywhere over them as they dance in various places with and various outfits. And lots of bright, bright colours. But hey! It’s a nice song. XD

8. 사랑이 떠나다
They open this next ballad quite nicely and smoothly. The boys have a nice sound and sing emotionally and eventually develop the song quite nicely into the chorus. The crescendo is very well done and again, they have an excellent group sound together. On some of the solos, some of them sound much weaker, but as a whole, they mostly have an equal vocal skill among all the members. This ballad is MUCH better than what they’ve done so far on the album. A nice emotional performance and the boys work together quite well in this song, even considering the size of their group.

9. Missin’ U
More aggressive SuJu music is almost always more amusing. This has heavier synth sounds and more frequent drum beat to it. The verse is quite solid and they emphasize it quite effectively. However, once they get to the chorus, the song suddenly changes sound abruptly and looses its flow immediately and never regains it. The song then becomes fragmented and I immediately become alienated from the song. The boys sing well as usual, but the structure and flow of the song needs work.

10. 거울
Piano, strings and a bit of electric guitar start off this next mid-tempo track. The opening soloist has a solid sound and I quite like his voice. The muted brass in the background is actually quite cute as is the piano lines. The melody has a little bounce to it from the small stacatto notes they sing in the verse. The flow of this song is quite nice, and the bouciness of the melody makes me want to sway to the song. The song isn’t that eventful, but it’s a pleasant little song.

11. 우리들의 사랑
This next song has a bit of a more laid-back sound with the string and percussion. The rhythm is a bit bossa nova-esque, which is a nice change in sound from the album so far. This song has a smooth melody and very lovely string accompaniment that is absolutely gorgeous when it comes in. It adds lightness to the song. The chorus is very pretty with the string lines and the boys singing with excellent blend, sound and harmonies.

12. Midnight Fantasy
Synthy sounds start off this song with one of the males speaking English, then turning to rap in Korean. The synth sounds in the background are repetitive, but rather catchy to listen. The melody is nice until the pre-chorus which flows really poorly from the verse and into the chorus. The chorus is pretty much sung the same way as the verses and feels like there’s a lack of development, but it’s not a big deal the first time around. It’s only a bit into the song that you release that they’re really not going to do anything with the chorus and the song is pretty much going to be sung in the same way the whole way through, and the song quickly becomes a bore.

13. Thank You
More ballads with the little keyboard opening, some acoustic guitar, and someone speaking Korean over someone ad libbing lightly. Pretty typical opening. The singing isn’t as good as it usually it, some of the solo sing trills that go off key, but otherwise, their singing is still rather solid. The song doesn’t really impress until about 3/4 of the song through when they sing as a group, and they sound really good. They really do have a fabulous group sound.

14. 아주 먼 옛날 (Song For You)
More light instrumentation with the acoustic guitar and piano before it bursts into another HI-WE’RE-A-POPPY-BOYBAND sound once again with the happy synths dancing in the background and a nice melody. It’s not really a stand-out track, but it’s fun to listen to as the boy sings with energy and the song is just happy and makes me happy while listening to it. Yup. A nice ending track.

Overall -
Favourite Track: 우리들의 사랑
Super Junior’s second attempt at an album has both its positive and its negatives. It starts off well with the title single, but then the quality of the music falls for the next few tracks before getting back on its feet with some more pleasant songs. The group, consisting of 13 members, have a very good sound as a group. They blend nicely with each other to the point where you wouldn’t be able to tell that there are thirteen people singing together. Other groups with fewer people have more trouble creating a unified sound, but this group does it with ease. Individually, they are strong singers as well, although a few have the tendency to not support their voice when they sing, but overall they are good singers as well. Musically, they don’t really bring anything new to the Korean pop scene. Sure, they’re a giant boyband that sing well; however, their music isn’t anything spectacular, but a few of the songs do sound nice.