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Archive for the ‘Album Reviews’ Category

Gackt is born again

written 9 December 2009 in Album Reviews | tags: | 0 comments

RE:BORN coverSo last week I had a slight Gackt-related meltdown. You see, I had a very busy November, and somehow I managed to miss the announcement that he’d be releasing an album in December; I found out the day before it came out. Considering how long I’ve been waiting for this album, I couldn’t believe I’d completely missed it. Can you say fandom fail?

Anyway, RE:BORN has nothing new as far as material goes; the tracklist is composed of songs from the multitude of singles he’s put out over the past year. (And when I say multitude, I’m not even exaggerating: the songs on this album come from six singles, and that’s not even counting the other three he put out this year. He’s been very busy, not that I’m complaining.) A majority of the songs came out in June over four straight weeks of singles, which I meant to review and then never really got around to the last three. So it’s high time to do that now, I say.

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BoA successfully takes on America

written 23 May 2009 in Album Reviews | tags: | 1 comment

BoAWell, hello there, Syunikiss. I’m sorry for the long break in posts — I was swept up with end-of-semester schoolwork until about a week ago, and since then I’ve been slacking off. Sad, but true. In any case, I do plan on posting here more this summer, so look out for more posts to come soon! In any case, I’ve wanted to write this review since I got the album, so here we go.

Somewhat ironically, BoA’s self-titled American album was my introduction to the Korean singer. I’d heard of her, but I’d never had a chance to listen to her music until I heard she was releasing an English album. Curious, I decided to check it out.

The first thing that’s clear about it is that it is a very American album, from start to finish. It would sound right at home blasting from any club. As such, it’s fairly typical of American music — lyrics about love, sex, and clubbing are quite prominent. Hardly surprising, given the intended audience.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from listening to foreign music, it’s to completely ignore the lyrics and just listen to the music. I do like actually understanding the lyrics I’m hearing, and in the case of “Obsessed” I’d definitely say it makes it more entertaining, but overall it’s easy enough to just listen to the music and enjoy it.

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Ayu goes to the NEXT LEVEL

written 8 April 2009 in Album Reviews | tags: | 0 comments

NEXT LEVEL coverWhen Ayumi Hamasaki’s tenth full-length album, NEXT LEVEL was announced, I fully expected to hate it. After all, I was already pretty irritated with my Ayu fandom, and had been for several months. When “GREEN/Days” came out, I was in the middle of a three-month “I’m not listening to anything not by Gackt” spree, so I just watched the promotional videos for the songs once, was underwhelmed, and went along my way. I felt about the same way about her next single, “Rule/Sparkle” — while I found “Sparkle” a welcome departure from the norm as far as Ayu was concerned, “Rule” was forgettable. So my hopes were quite low for the album, especially when I found out four of the fourteen tracks would be interludes. If I were the betting sort, I’d have bet highly that I’d hate NEXT LEVEL.

I’ve listened to it almost two dozen times since it came out.

Ayu blew me away with NEXT LEVEL, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to be so wrong. I won’t go so far as to say it’s perfect, because it has a few things that I’m not so big on, but overall it is a terrific album.

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ONE OK ROCK rocks my clock… for now

written 8 April 2009 in Album Reviews, Artist Profiles, Singles | tags: | 0 comments

The cover for Kanjou EffectNot long ago pengie posted pengie’s Ten Albums for Traveling, and as I’ve been trying to listen to more artists in an attempt to find what I like, I took a look. I decided to check out ONE OK ROCK, which sounded vaguely familiar, and started with their most recent album, Kanjou Effect.

By the middle of the first song, I was positive that this was an album I was going to love for years to come. As much pop and classical music I listen to, I am foremost a rock fan, and ONE OK ROCK’s sound appealed to me immediately. I wasn’t as instantly sold on the vocalist, but after a couple of songs I found myself liking his voice more and more, and knew I was going to have to hear more of this band.

And then I realized why the band sounded familiar. I’d just read an article the other day about its guitarist, Alex, getting arrested for groping someone, which has resulted in their next single’s delay and the guitarist’s career up in the air.

To which I say: well, damn! Did it have to be right when I got into them?

Despite that, though, I am thoroughly enjoying ONE OK ROCK, and my thoughts on their albums are behind the jump.

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