Elva Hsiao’s 3 Faced

Ages ago I did a “Propaganda” post on her, just after she piqued my interest. I finally got around to purchasing her 3Faced album, the pre-order edition which was packaged with three of her early album (helloooo debut!) and I just recieved it today, along with Shokotan’s last two singles.

There a few more ballads in the collection than I would really like there to be, but that’s pretty okay because her up-beat songs more than make-up for it and the ballads themselves are pretty good songs anyway.

The packaging is pretty amazing. It’s very, very elegant. There are a couple of different versions of the album cover and this one is the Wholehearted Version, specifically. One thing I really have to rejoice at is that the tracklist on 3Faced has alternate ENGLISH titles! Which means I don’t have to constantly refer to the tracks in number form, like ”Hey, do you like Track 7? I like Track 12!” It gets irritating quick.

My Chinese is non-existant but I honestly do really enjoy this album even without the comprehension her native fans have. With Japanese releases I usually have some idea what’s being said (usually) but I like being thrown into the deep end and having no clue. Relying on the sound of the songs and the emotion in the vocals gives you an abstract understanding of each song. It’s hard to explain – basically you don’t have to disect the lyrics or even identify them as along any sort of theme to reach a conclusion on what they mean to you, yourself. It’s a good assessment of how effective the song is.

But I digress.
Highlights on the album are as follows I’ll Be There, Impulse, More More More and Hey Girl.
Count me as an Elva fan… now I really need to get my hands on her 1087 album.

Add a comment November 1, 2008

Shokotan is Number Something-or-Other

Nakagawa Shoko has been the subject of a surprising number of conversations I have had with my best friend. For some reason, and I know not what, she has become somewhat of a escalating favourite. There’s no way she would overtake my absolute favourites like Ayu or Kumi or Hikki anytime soon, if at all, but I find myself increasingly more satisfied with her releases.

I’d heard about her in passing and then downloaded and enjoyed her debut album, even if anime music is not my thing, and since then whenever I see a new single or video up for download I feel an inexplicable draw to seize the link. And is it just me or is she releasing a lot?

Cause it feels like it.

The Shiny GATE single was less than spectacular admittedly, but it was good for the genre, it just didn’t sit well with me. But Tsuzuku Sekai was awe-inspiring.

Shokotan has several voices. Her cutesy pop voice, her rock voice, her anime theme song voice, her ballad voice… it’s a long list and I think that’s what I really like about her. From release to release she sounds different, new, fresh and diverse.

Her newest song Kirei a la Mode I haven’t listened to completely yet, I’m distracted watching The Last Legion, but from what I’ve heard I definitely like. She sounds half-ballad, half-pop song and she has an odd ability to make everything sound rather like a theme song. In a good way.

Anyway, if I had to evaluate where she is on my favourite soloist list, she would be in my top ten, maybe even top five.

Add a comment October 20, 2008

It’s about Beer..?

Apparently.

So I’m not the biggest Anna fan, but when I first heard BUBBLE TRIP I fell in love. I’ve listened to Cocoon about once, not because it was bad just because I just… didn’t. Virgin Cat ticked some people off. Me not included, personally I loved the sense of fun and the genre was completely up my street.

But this kinda kicks it out of the water.

Featuring MONKEY MAJIK, who I have never listened to, Ginger is completely in English which isn’t completely understandable, but hey, it’s so catchy no-one cares.

MONKEY MAJIK play the song, but don’t do much singing, just in the chorus. I would have liked to see a little more but whatever. They sing the chorus and play the song and just generally it rocks.

But I do have to say… this director, David Haruyama, I wonder what he thinks about from day to day. Two loinclothed men feature in this, randomly holding a chaise long with Anna reclining upon it and then bench pressing it and then weight training with the mic stand. And the… er, bass accentuations. The rest I’m groovy with, that disturbs me slightly.

Anna looks gorgeous. MONKEY MAJIK look like a cool, slick unit. The song rocks. I’m happy.

Add a comment October 19, 2008

Now I Have Something To Post About

(Sorry about the glare on the photos and the fact they’re so dull)

I was going to post about DBSK’s comeback, but then I remembered I can’t spazz. I would/probably will post about the Wonder Girls’ fourth ‘project’,  but have no motivation to do so. And I can’t be bothered to post on anything else – plus, my coursework has really pegged my time to wall and beaten it senseless.

But, since it’s my birthday on Sunday (28th Sept) I’ve bought some stuff. And will buy more, because I don’t think my mum and dad have actually bought me anything, because they only know I want CDs but not which ones.

I have a thing that I do every year. When my friends come round they stay over and we watch a film. Last year it was The Producers – Mel Brooks’ masterpiece turned into a musical. This year it was going to be…

Death Note

Oh yea! I found this in my local Zavvi along with The Tale of Two Sisters. I had to choose between them and the fact that Death Note was the two disc edition won me over after about ten minutes of umm-ing and ahh-ing. SUCH A GOOD MOVIE… I’ve only read the first volume of the manga and that’s actually about the first hour of the movie- And even though I knew what was going to happen, it still felt like I didn’t know what was going to happen next. But I had to change my mind about watching it, because I invited Katie – and she wouldn’t do well with all the heart-attacks and people being hit by cars and shot soooo YesAsia began calling… and then I remembered the one movie that I adored from the second I watched it and still didn’t have a copy of…

Lovely Complex is such a bizarre movie. Basically, it’s about a girl (Koizumi Risa) who gets turned down for being too tall and a guy (Otani Atsushi) who’s turned down for exactly the opposite reason! Then Risa falls in love with Otani… after telling herself that she’d never like anyone who wasn’t a similar height. I just love this movie so much – It’s damn quirky. Fujisawa Ema is just adorable as Risa, even though she moves around a lot, and Koike Teppei is just adorkable as Otani! It also ‘stars’ Tamaki Nami as Risa’s best friend, Nobuko.
Other notable things; Kubo Risa who plays Chiharu is just gorgeous and such a charming, naïve presence. The teacher who is never seen in class without some ridiculous wig. And the best of all…. MIATY!!! Kuniumi Maitake, better known as ‘Maity’, is hilarious. I couldn’t help but laugh at his insanely chirpy “Yoroshi QUEEEEN!”, and now my friends will know what I’m on about when I randomly greet them that way!
Awesomely enough, the Japan edition comes with English subtitles… the ones floating around on the web are pretty much the ones from this DVD!
Can’t wait to see what my friends think.

Because Lovely Complex wasn’t dear enough to go over the Free Shipping limit, I got to get other stuffs too. First thing I chose was this

I recently really fell in love with this song. I loved it before, but I do even more so now that I know the dance. Plus the packaging is so pretty. I haven’t seen half on the pictures inside before, other than the promo pics, but I will say that the girls do look So Hot. And because of ordering this I remembered to order this…

I loved every song on this since I first heard it and just had to finally get my hands on the actual disc… My first Big Bang purchase and I truly spazzed when I opened the case and saw how cool the design of the disc is (aren’t I weird?). But the fold-your-own TaeYang thing is creepy and hilarious at the same time.

And the last thing I have to tell you about.

I was “ten-pound-curious” (meaning I spent £10 on the DVD) and bought the American version of My Sassy Girl. I haven’t actually seen the original all the way through, but the bits of the beginning I did see were in this one, just in a different way. So it’s not totally accurate and it’s an incredibly weird story by American movie standards, but it was pretty sweet. I’m not too keen on the ending, for one thing it seemed like she was gonna die – _ – It was a decent watch, but it doesn’t illicit a ‘ZOMG I LUBS DIS MOVIE’ response. Elisha Cuthbert and Jesse Bradford have a fair amount of chemistry at least, otherwise this would have been a complete no-watchy.

Anyway…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (ON SUNDAY), HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (ON SUNDAY), HAPPY BIRTHDAY (ON SUNDAY) TO ME. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

ON SUNDAY.

Add a comment September 26, 2008

BoA and America

Well it’s officially official. BoA’s gonna try to break America. With this…

I really do like this song, but I’m not sure how well this will work.
But I really shouldn’t pretend to know anything about the American music market because I tend to avoid music channels and I don’t listen to the radio, unless it’s BBC Radio 4.

Maybe the average American who has never heard of BoA will buy into this but I feel that;

a) BoA already has a hell of a lot on her plate already. Her Japanese activities have just about ended and she’s almost at her Korean comeback. When the hell is she gonna find time to promote her album next year?

b) Is her English really good enough? I’m not being critical, it’s an honest question. I don’t know how good her English actually is, all I’ve heard is a couple of cover songs and this ^ . She is perfectly understandable but will that be enough for the people who don’t know who she is?

But then again Soulja Boy was COMPLETELY unintelligable and how long did that craze last?

It’s almost too obvious that the American version of the music video (above) is really very Ciara like. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is not the issue, I just wonder how it will be percieved by the general viewing public. Maybe they’ll think that there are some immitation issue, and that would be a really bad thing.

Well, I’ve got to wrap this up now.

I’ve spent most of this post being pretty negative but truthfully all I want to see is BoA succeed. She’s such a talented person and, even though she could collapse from exhaustion, she deserves to be recieved spectacularly well.

Also… If she makes it in America, there’s a huge chance that she could slip into the British market as well (as most of the stuff around these days is American music) and then maybe I could see her in concert in a few years over here…

Selfish isn’t it?

Add a comment September 10, 2008

Yowza!

I stalk YesAsia.com quite a lot. I’ve been doing this more than usual recently because it’s my birthday next month and I’m going to ask if I can just splurge on CDs. Anyway, whilst perusing the selection and thinking of who the hell I could search this came up…

Kumi’s new tour DVD is coming out and this is the cover. And it’s gorgeous. And so much better than the one for Black Cherry. The only thing wrong with the concert is the fact that there is a lot less tracks and songs performed and she doesn’t perform all the songs from Kingdom. Eh… Track list

OPENING MOVIE
01. Under
02. FREAKY
03. キューティーハニー
04. 秘密
05. MORE
06. LAST ANGEL
INTERLUDE MOVIE 1
07. 愛のうた
08. hands
09. Someday
10. ふたりで・・・
11. Song Menu ：you
12. 奇跡
13. WIND
INTERLUDE MOVIE 2
14. Wonderland
15. It’s a small world
16. 恋の魔法
17. anytime
18. Run For Your Life
19. Come Over
20. girls
ENCORE
EN01. Single Medley： SHAKE IT UP ～ BUT～Butterfly ～ real Emotion～ Crazy 4 U ～ DANCE BATTLE
EN02. Moon Crying
EN03. walk

She starts off with Under?? Depending on the opening movie this could be an odd choice. My sister will be thrilled that Himitsu and hands are there. I’m thrilled that Koi no Mahou is there. BUUUUT, no Amai Wana? And BUT gets medleyised? and I’d rather hear Anata ga Shite Kureta Koto than some of the ballads on this list.

All in all, I’m just a tiny bit disappointed by the track list..

1 comment August 28, 2008

Time to Play Catch Up…

Okay, so not really. I caught up with everything I missed in my two weeks of being away within the first few days. But I need something to write about because British Day-Time TV could win an award for being the dullest in the world. Egyptian TV was more interesting and half of it was in Arabic!!!

Well, yesterday was alright. UKTV Style had an Extreme Makeover Home Edition marathon like they do every bank holiday Monday.

This is an amalgamation of whatever I want to say.

 

SHINee’s New MV (Well, mainly just about SHINee)

I’m… confused. It seems like I have ultimately jumped on the SHINee bandwagon, as it were. I think they are the first K-Pop debut I was around to watch with minor interest but I wasn’t impressed with their songs. Then something happened… and I really can’t remember what… but suddenly I started listening to their mini-album to all sorts of insane degrees.

I wasn’t amazingly excited for You’re Like Oxygen/Love Like Oxygen/What Is The Actual Title? but it won me over.

I don’t watch these things and spazz. For example [ZOMG, XYZ looked soooooo hawt at 01:08.3697! DIEZ! XP]…….. because that’s just embarrassing. Even if it is just the internet and no-one can see your expression, or lack thereof, or knows if you’re serious. But I do sindulge in blogs that think along these lines, with more literacy skills of course.

I’m a sucker for a good dance video. If you hadn’t noticed SHINee are almost like robots in that respect. Seriously, they’re some of the best out there and I really wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it. They also manage to make some vaguely weird moves look completely credible and also wear incredibly tight trousers look non-emo-like. In Britain it would appear that’s impossible unless you’re a girl.

Considering my age I should be a flailer (Is that even a word?). SHINee appeal to noona fans a lot, which is to be expected considering the suck-uppyness of their last single, but the only one I’m a “noona” to is Taemin and that’s only by around ten months. (I’m fifteen, sixteen next month.) But even then, by all definitions I’m a teenager. . . Doesn’t that count for anything?! But noooo I’m too mature to flail. Not even mentally.

I’d be absolutely terrible at a concert full of fangirls. They’d probably look at me with deathray-like glares because I’m not screaming my favourites name and fainting when I think he looked at me even though it was probably the girl three rows back and to the left who has a neon-sign declaring her ever lasting love for him. I just don’t think that way. And am too self-concious to say anything. Even to bloody type it.

Well… this is a fine example of getting completely off the point.

Something Like Oxygen is one of those songs that you listen to and think – MJ’s back! And I don’t mean Michael Jordan! – It’s also a tune you can so easily get stuck in your head, even if you don’t want it to. It’s very happy and poppy and I love that. I get sold really easily on songs that remind me of the 90s and unlike Replay I liked this immediately.

It seems that in Asia they have a gift for taking obscure European songs and then turning them in fantastic hit songs in their own country. For reference Super Junior’s Don’t Don contains a couple examples of this. I can’t remember who did the original or what it was called, I’ve heard it once and I want to hear it again, so if anyone can help…

I must say I love the rainbow set, it’s like light being shone through glass and spectrumifying it I also love the bit when they pull a Westlife and switch costumes. and the chairs. and the dance. and the fact that my short-term memory is so bad I’ve had to watch the video five times in just as many paragraphs.

I would watch the TV performance that’s been circulating, but I just can’t watch live performances on YouTube a lot of the time. The quality and sound usually isn’t good enough for me to stick through it and try to hear over the inumerable fangirls. But I’ve seen pictures, and it’s SHINee and their lives are pretty much always awesome anyway.

Which brings me to…

Mnet 20′s Choice – Noona (Remix) + Cinderella Under My Umbrella

This is basically six minutes of me looking a mix between 0-o and ^ ^. Okay, so I don’t listen to the remix of Replay very much. In my opinion it doesn’t quite match the brilliance of the original and I usually have a problem with remixes so I’m always cautious when I’m listening to them. Yes they’re miming but that could never be detrimental to the dancing. Which is especially good here.

When “Seo In Young” rises from the stage, because of the close-up nature of the filming, it’s obvious it’s not actually her, but I can imagine that most of the audience were fooled. Scarily stoic is the best way I can think of describing the expression on the mask. I do love the way they perform to “her”, but I do watch things like this and go ‘I hope no-one accidentally hits her’ . Pesimistic, yes, but Taemin gets a little close a couple of times.

I was just hit by a very odd thought. The trousers remind me a little too much of David Bowie in Labyrinth (one of my favourite ever movies)… 0-0

When I first saw “Seo In Young” get shot, I couldn’t help it, I cracked up. I don’t know why I found it so funny – I just did. Did I mention that I love the chair she’s sitting on?

Then the real Seo In Young appears, looking rather badass. A sort of gangster/police/toodamnsexy mix. She writhes on up to the stage and boom! In the words of the SHINee boys;

“REEEEEEEEEEEEEMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX”

Rihanna’s Umbrella and Chris Brown’s Cinderella kick up, wonderfully renamed ‘Cinderella Under My Umbrella‘.

Huston, we have a problem. I really so like Seo In Young but she’s a little bit fail here. I get the feeling she’d sound really good singing this if her English were loads better, she sounds like she trying to hard. The boys are better but overall it’s not really very brilliant at all.

I wish it was… it’s a brilliant idea. Try again, yeah?

 

Big Bang – Stand Up, “Haru Haru”MV + “OH MY FRIEND”MV

You have no idea how much it killed me to be away when all this Big Bang stuff was happening. When they pushed the album back I was so ticked off! But that was all solved when I came back because it was well worth the wait. The mini-album is…….. sheer brilliance. Every track is made of awesome for various different reasons and some of them are rather odd considering BB’s usual style. But that’s a good thing.

I’m not even going to try and choose a favourite. That’s too hard, but I will say that LADY is such an addictive song… I mean it. I had a instinct that I’d like it when I saw the title (don’t ask me how) but when heard the opening I wasn’t so sure. Shows how wrong initial impressions are.

Haru Haru has two MVs. One has more story, the other has more Big Bang. This is Part Two

It’s a very Big Bang song. Along the same lines as Lies. It’s just impossible to describe really but I can try… Lots of emo-ing and eye-liner, girl dying of what we can presume is cancer, “love triangle”. Basically it’s twenty episodes of a Korean drama in just under five minutes.

OH MY FRIEND is definitely not what you’d expect and some people are a little bit iffy on it. I, personally, love it to death. There was a period of about three years when I only listened to music like this. I don’t know how I survived that time, because now I’m eclectic as hell. Admittedly I was too keen on the chorus at first but trust me, it grows on you. The video is a mix of severe WTH and ROCK! Watch, marvel, love.

When I listen to any Big Bang song I usually come to some sort of conclusion as to which member ‘owns’ the song in my opinion. I haven’t quite figured it out for Haru Haru yet, but for OH MY FRIEND I could listen to DaeSung‘s lines over and over again. (But the raps are awesome too!)

 

 

This is rather long and I’m not sure I really have anything else to say about anything… No-one cares though. Bye

1 comment August 26, 2008

Another avex BEST?

Okay, so it’s ever so technically not a “Best Album”, but Hamasaki Ayumi is celebrating her tenth anniversary of being in the music biz with many and various things.

First things first – Mirrorcle World is probably my favourite single of the year so far. My sister actually bought it for me randomly along with the Secret Tour and I could do nought but marvel at how powerful the song is. In every way. I’m actually not amazingly familiar with her earlier work, but I’m a right sight more familiar with that than any of Namie‘s early work.

Second comes after first – She/Avex is releasing a compilation album of ALL her singles. ABSOLUTELY ALL OF THEM. I’M TALKING 3 CDS WORTH OF SONGS. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I WANT IT? It’s not coming out until the 10th of September, according to CDJapan and there’s a DVD edition with various a-nation performances. CDJapan has stupid shipping prices so I don’t hold out hope for getting it for only £21 but YesAsia.com doesn’t have it listed yet. YA.com tends to be a little more expensive but it has free shipping when you spend over a certain amount, which is awesome.

The cover art hasn’t been released yet as far as I’m aware but if it can match Mirrorcle World in terms of prettyness then I’m happy.

I’m currently listening to Ayu‘s Duty and Audience has made me all nostalgic. It was one of the first Ayu tracks I ever listened to, and as such one of the first J-pop tracks I ever listened to, and I remember being really annoyed because I couldn’t sing along. At the time I was really struggling with the vocabulary and just couldn’t get the words out.

How times change.

1 comment August 1, 2008

So, Is Namie Amuro’s Best Fiction?

If you are fan of avex artists or just Amuro Namie you’ll know that her new best album is out on the 30th. Best Fiction contains 15 singles, from Wishing on The Same Star all the way up to one of my favourite singles of hers, 60s70s80s as well as two new tracks.

When someone we know went out to Japan I asked if they could buy me some CDs. They said yes and I asked for Hamasaki Ayumi’s (miss)understood, Koda Kumi’s Black Cherry and Amuro Namie’s PLAY. (At the time I didn’t realise they were all avex releases. ) I knew I’d love Ayu’s album and Koda Kumi I was just getting off on the right foot with. But PLAY was a huge surprise, I loved every track on it and I couldn’t wait to hear more plus it was the DVD edition!

A little off topic but it centres around the fact that I know NONE of her previous to 2007 work. Which makes buying BEST FICTION a risk for me. I never buy something if I’m unsure I’ll like it.

As for the two new tracks, which bring the total track count to 17, Do Me More and Sexy Girl also had PVs released and, being as slow as I am, I only just downloaded and watched them.

It was almost immediately decided that I like Sexy Girl a lot more than Do Me More. The song is just way more catchy and interesting to me. Do Me More will almost definitely grow on me because it’s Namie, it’s just after a first listen it has made a shallow impression on me.

Sexy Girl (POINTS OF PRAISE)

• More up-tempo song
• Memorable Chorus
• Nice use of English
• which sounds like English
• Great dance
• Suitable setting
• Namie’s hair
• Way catchier

Do Me More

• Obviously quite a big budget
• COLOUR
• Alice in Wonderland
• Namie’s hair
• and costumes

But Do Me More has some “What the hell!?” Moments.

• Alice in Wonderland is awesome but how does it relate to the song? It relates to the Best Fiction idea though.
• Ummmm…… ‘Scantily-clad’ unicorn-headed dancers?
• The dance should have been a bit better.
• General costuming of the dancers apart from the suits which are slightly less ‘WTH?’

But at the end of the day it’s still Namie and it’s still awesome!

Add a comment July 27, 2008

J-Music Survey

Stalking International Wota is fun.

So, this is a little survey from Misa over at Cutie Party

1. What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?

• Either Utada Hikaru’s Hikari, Hamasaki Ayumi’s Evolution or the Final Fantasy X-2 soundtrack… I forget which came first.

2. Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away?

• You have no idea how enthusiastic it made me about Japanese music. Utada Hikaru was the first downloading spree, Keep Tryin’, First Love and FINAL DISTANCE are the ones I remember.

3. What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time?

• Ayu’s Voyage or Evolution and Angela Aki’s version of Kiss From A Rose. They were all discovered at different times but I’ve heard them so much since then I think they qualify as the answer.

4. What group/singer have you liked the longest?

• Hamasaki Ayumi… she’s kinda my favourite but with so many other artists that I love it’s impossible to be objective. She was the first J-Artist that I really got into as opposed to hearing the odd anime theme tune, going “Cool!” and then never finding out who the artist is.

5. What is the song with the most plays on your itunes/media player?

• My playlist changes so much it is absolutely impossible to isolate one single song that’s the most played, but recently the top play has been Aiuchi Rina’s Bara ga Saku Bara ga Chiru.

6/7. Is that song your favorite? If not, what is?

• I couldn’t name a favourite song if I tried for 10,000 years. Ask me an artist and one of their albums specifically and I could probably give you an answer, but that would only apply to that one album ^_^

8. Is there any one group that you can listen to all/most of the songs by? If so, who?

• SOULHEAD, probably because their songs aren’t what I usually listen to (East or West) and none of their tracks are particularly offensive to the ears – minus a swear word here or there. In terms of solo artists, Otsuka Ai, Hamasaki Ayumi, BoA, Koda Kumi…

9. What is your favorite agency?

• Avex and its sub-labels, if you hadn’t noticed. But I got into each of the artists separately, being mostly unaware of their being on the same label.

10. What is your favorite group/singer?

• …. 0-0 …. Give me a year and lots of sugar and time and flipcharts and Microsoft Access and Pro and Con lists and maybe I’ll give you an answer.
• .
• Maybe

Add a comment June 20, 2008