I hate having to eat my words. Not literally, of course, though I guess if they were printed with butter on a slice of brioche-esque brick toast it wouldn’t be quite so bad.
No, see, I carelessly remarked to Ruri that Inoue Joe’s latest single, 幻 [Maboroshi], wasn’t as fun as his last. Well, start rounding up that bread and butter.
If you have not yet heard Uematsu Hidemi, do yourself a favor and listen to her NOW.
Did you press play yet? No? What is wrong with you? Do it. NOW.
Okay, now that you have listened to/watched the video, we can move on. (You have, right?)
Because there’s already a blog dedicated to promoting Hidemi as a godsend, I’ll spare you my own godsend praises in giving you an introduction, short of her being a 23-year-old singer-songwriter. TRAUMA, the video above, is not her latest single – but it’s the second of two tracks on her debut single (her second, Jidai, comes out early next month) and extremely touching.
As you have heard by now (I’m sure you’ve heard it, yes?), Hidemi’s got a strong voice and fairly unique. It’d be simple but unflattering to describe her singing as a mix of AI and alan (or perhaps as a friend of mine puts it, enka singing), but it’s the best description that comes to mind at the moment. As for her music, it seems best to reference Amano Tsukiko.
TRAUMA, above, is a powerful song combining a steady drum & bass with various grandstanding strings and a twinkling synth. The music alone evokes sad emotions and a rainy mood, but it’s Hidemi’s raw vocals that make the biggest impact on this song. If YouTube comments can be trusted, the song is supposedly about the father who left her and her mother, and explains the hook of cries to “daddy” (i.e., “I need you need you Daddy” and “I’m crying crying Daddy”) leading up to the dramatic (if amusing) “dundundundundundundun Remember” that ends the chorus. This will grow and catch on you, but it’s a moving track even without the draw of the hook.
Dear My Friends, the first track of her debut single, is a more acoustic track, with tempo kept by a combination of handclaps and drumbeats. Again, Hidemi’s vocals are the main focus of the song, soulful in their delivery. You pretty much expect a gospel choir to pop up, singing along with her in the chorus, and though they never appear, the song isn’t any lacking for it. That the music stops suddenly as she wails out “Friends” in the end adds a stronger emotion to the song, something that is oft used to the right effect but never quite as touching as it is here.
If you actually just read through this post without giving either of the above songs a listen, you should be ashamed of yourself. What are you reading my blog for if not for me to push things onto you? Hurry and give Hidemi a listen. If you have the same taste in music as me (and I would assume you might to be reading this blog), it’s not likely you’ll regret it.
Kuroki Meisa makes me a very very Bad Girl.
A little over half a year ago, I posted on her video Like This and remarked on her similarities to two other acts – career-wise, to one Yamada Yu. Image/song wise, to one Amuro Namie.
Well now we can throw a little Koda Kumi into the mix too.
Wait, did I say a little? I meant a lot.
And girl, do I approve. Kuroki’s clearly taken a few stripper dance classes since her first video and brings out all the sexy you ever wanted but were too afraid to ask for. Complete with inappropriate panting, lots of shots into her cleavage, wild tossing of hair, pelvic thrusting and just her general sexy looks. Unfortunately her vocals don’t seem to have improved any, but fortunately the song – a heavily synthed R&B affair – is such that good vocals aren’t required to carry the song. It’s a fun listen, and that’s all it needs to be.
Would it be bad to say I became seriously attracted to her during this? Because she’s right, you know. “Love is not everything,” not when you have as much sex appeal as she does. Admittedly, sometimes the sexy did feel bit overemphasized, like they were afraid the song wouldn’t sell without the boobs and the thrusts. But once you grow to accept it as an essential part of the song’s being, it works. And for those who can’t handle the imagery from the video, the song is sexy in its own right.
I’d still sort of like it if she had grown into her own, instead of being a combination of various selling points. However, perhaps this is exactly what Meisa is and is meant to be, because so far it seems to be working. And to be honest, right now I’ll take this over any sign of actual musical talent. Vocal ability is not everything either.
In the last quarter of 2006, I watched Remote starring Domoto Koichi and became a fan of Tsuyoshi’s Toilet-on-a-White-Horse. (Unless you’re a KinKi fan, spare yourselves and don’t ask. And even if you are, spare yourself and don’t ask.)
In the last quarter of 2007, I watched Yamada Taro Monogatari starring Ninomiya Kazunari and Sakurai Sho and was condemned to being just another of the many in the ranks of overseas Johnny’s fans.
In the last week of 2008, I watched the music video for 呪文－MIROTIC－ [Jumon -MIROTIC-] by Tohoshinki/Dong Bang Shin Ki/TVXQ/that group with far too many names for my liking and am now endangered.
Well, it’s been over a full year since I last did one of these. And why yes, this is oooooooooold. Half a year old. But I started this before my school term started again, before my Internet crashed, and before I lost my faithful laptop of 6-7 years. I have it, I poured hours into it, and so this is getting stuck up here anyways. Give it a look through anyways – if you have my taste in music you may find something new. Or you may just have fun when I poke fun too.
“…sex is a Texas drought.” I wasn’t entirely sure whether to title this post “Baby Got Bang” or “Baby Go Back”, but then I decided to pay homage to the Bloodhound Gang’s The Animal Song. It’s a song that will always be a classic source of nostalgia (oh, late nights in middle school watching VH1’s Insomnia and late night MTV when it was still about the music), and a karaoke staple.
Sacrilegious though it may be (especially given my past track record), I sort of wish I could say the same about the promotional track off Urata Naoya’s upcoming album. Instead, Baby Bang! feat. SPHERE isn’t likely to head that way anytime soon.
I must give the song its props. It’s a dance track so it’ll make perfect use of Urata’s dancing chops, and based off the group dance shots in the video he’ll have a good performance to show us with this song. It grows on you too, if you haven’t outright decided that you hate it. Urata spends most of the track in a falsetto and his higher range, too, so when SPHERE makes his grand entrance it makes a perfect contrast. All the same, I’m hoping that the rest of the album doesn’t keep him in this area, because it will hurt to listen to within the first three days.
What I can’t stand is the video. It’s just ridiculous. The aforementioned group dance shots work. Urata walking down the empty street towards the camera? Come home to mama, baby (bang!). The solo dance shots with the paint-splattered backgrounds are nice too. But Urata’s solo scenes where he’s in that ridiculously colored hoodie, moving spastically against a metal closed-store grate, with equally horribly-colored lighting… y’know, I love a shot of pop star nipple as much as the next person, but not at the cost of my eyes. No, man, you can not get a kiss. That was just not sexy. SPHERE’s also pretty stupid looking when he’s not walking down the street. Stick with the street, guys, even if there’s an oncoming car. It’s really better for your image.
Even worse are the scenes where he molests a random Caucasian lady. Oh, I’m all for the molesting. It was really rather hot, even if she clearly didn’t think so. I’m just not for the goopy blue paint. What is this, a new form of protection? Thick blue paint will not stop your guy cooties from reaching her. It just makes her look more ugly and less sexually attractive. Actually, when the video started with her, it’d gotten to the point where I’m not even sure she was sexually attractive to begin with. Hell, even Urata has a guilty look as he smears the paint all over her limbs. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to kill your skin cells like this.”
I’m still looking forward to this release, between Urata and the revelation that KURO (of HOME MADE KAZOKU) had a hand in the lyrics of a song, but avex is trying a bit too hard to not remind us that the man is already 26. Or turn him into a male Amuro Namie where we can’t remember he’s 26… and either way, it’s not working.
So I’ve got a bunch of posts waiting to be written – and this one, I confess, was done entirely half-assed.
Kuroki Meisa’s PV for her first digital single, Like This, was released today. Maybe yesterday. Most of you readers, trailing over from the Yamada Ryosuke and KAT-TUN fans that make up International Wota, will probably know her as Sister Angela from Kame’s last drama One Pound Gospel. In addition to being an actress, she’s a model. And with her half-lidded eyes, she’s constantly drawing up comparisons in my mind to Yamada Yu, another model/actress turned singer.
Except the second time I was watching this music video, I started hearing Amuro Namie. Then I paid some more attention to her dancing, and her outfit in those scenes (with the tight and the black and the shiny), and I saw Amuro Namie.
We should all know by now the Japanese pop industry is anything BUT unique. You can only stretch pop so many ways. And to give Kuroki credit, it’s a nice synth R&B/hip-hop song, the dance beat catches on fast, and her voice isn’t so bad in it, though it lacks power. It’s stereotypical of the genre as found in Japan, but I could give this more than a singular listen. But from the layering of the chorus, to the semi-rap of the bridge, to the attitude permeating the song… it’s all screaming Amuro Namie to me. Kuroki even maintains the unchanging facial expression, though she showed some very lovely smiles in the drama. So was this done to have Kuroki coast on the tails of Amuro’s return to the spotlight? Or was this Kuroki’s personal choice of genres for her debut single?
Either way, Amuro with straight hair is utter sex. If the imitation was intentional (and I don’t doubt it was), Kuroki picked the right person. She’s not on the level of Yamada Yu, nowhere near the level of Amuro, but maybe she’ll grow into her own.
…I think this may be the closest to H!P I will ever get in this blog. (Unless I randomly decide to throw in my opinions on H!P releases. But I think the Internet has enough of those already.)
Who remembers Sonim? It’s been a while since we heard from her (as compared to her former EE JUMP partner Yuuki). She’s teamed up with actress Osawa Akane (probably best known for her appearance in the summer drama LIFE) to form a n avex-backed idol duo called tomboy.
Neither Osawa Akane nor Sonim (especially post EE JUMP) is especially well known, but it doesn’t stop them from singing a song titled Superstar.
If you’ve never watched the Alabasta arc of ONE PIECE, feel free to ignore the title. All you need to know is that NEWS released the PV for their latest, weeeek, and as usual for a boyband release, it is pop and insanely addictive at that.
And on the plus side, if you didn’t already know the days of the week in Japanese, this song will beat it into you. (Ashita kara mata nichi, getsu, ka, hora sui, moku mawatte kin, do…) Actually, it beats it into you whether or not you know it already.
So I’ve been gone from blogging for just over a month. (3 weeks of vacation, 1 week of school.) A lot of releases come out in a month. A lot more promotional music videos come out in a month. There are still more that I’ve been meaning to do for a while, but just haven’t managed to get around to.
And while, y’know, I’m not going to cover every single one of them, here’s a batch with the new single releases of August that I was interested in and have been stagnating on my laptop since. Yes, stagnating. That’s the smell of rotten music videos right there. (No, it’s not the roadkill lying outside the window, nor the laundry that ought to be washed, nor the toilet that decided to regurgitate. Whatever made you think that?)
