David is Stupid AKA A couple of album reviews
I found a great site where you can make your own ringtones, mobile17.com, so I've jazzed up my phone by making my default ring Ayu's "alterna" and David's ring "Fierce Battle" from Final Fantasy VI (aka Atma Weapon's music). No more goofy MIDIs for me!
Sunday, I went to a model train exhibition with my dad. My dad has his own train set down in the cellar that my brothers and I used to play with all the time when we were younger, and although he can't really expand at the moment, he continues his hobby of collecting and putting together trains and landscapes. I like to joke that the members of model train clubs are all old, fat men, but I'm actually pretty close to the truth; the building was full of men with middle-aged guts that hung low in their pants. We looked at all the nifty displays and my dad bought a couple of things in the White Elephant room (why it's called that, I don't know). I convinced him to buy a church for $5 and said I would put it together. When we got home, I started working on it, then got aggravated because the directions wanted you to paint a couple of random pieces when they could have just made them plastic of the correct color. Seriously, why make a model kit with some gray pieces, then tell me to PAINT a white piece gray? Why not just make it gray in the first place? Dumb. I'll finish it next time I go to my parent's house.
I went and got blood drawn AGAIN today, and finally mailed in my taxes. I cannot wait for that nice, juicy return to appear in my checking account. David and I went to the mall so he could pick up Resident Evil 5, although we probably won't play it until we buy a second Xbox controller.
Now I am going to talk about MUSIC.
AYUMI HAMASAKI - NEXT LEVEL
3/35/09
01.Bridge to the sky
02.NEXT LEVEL
03.Disco-munication
04.EnergizE
05.Sparkle
06.rollin'
07.GREEN
08.Load of the SHUGYO
09.identity
10.Rule
11.LOVE 'n' HATE
12.Pieces of SEVEN
13.Days
14.Curtain call
Everyone should know by now that Ayu is the closest thing to an idol to me. I would probably buy her next CD even if it were track after track of audio vomit. Her newest disc, "Next Level", certainly does not fit this description, but it IS different from anything she has done before. As you can probably guess from the cover image, this album employs a lot of funky electro-pop, with lots of video game-like sounds and vocoder effects layered over Ayu's vocals on some tracks. Generally speaking, I can't call myself a fan of this type of music. It's oftentimes loud to the point that it overpowers the singing. Still, there is a lot on this album that I feel shouldn't be missed!
Of the new tracks, 2 stuck out to me right away: "identity" and "LOVE 'n' HATE". These are both rock tracks with great melodies and lyrics. The chorus of "identity", where she sings "watashi no ID, ID" is so darn cool. "LOVE 'n' HATE" has a fierce violin sounding beat and features her counting in English. Is it weird to say that I love how she says the word "six"?
"rollin'" took a few listens for me to appreciate, but it really is a cool song, with an unusual composition and a fast chorus. I'm not keen on the use of a vocoder for parts of the verse, though.
"Energize" is one of the songs that I can't really get into. The part where she sings, "put your hands up together / keep your hands up together / let me sing forever / da-dum da-dum da-dum" is catchy and cute, but the rest just doesn't feel memorable.
"Next Level" is the other song that just hasn't clicked with me. I like the instrumentation, but Ayu's vocals and the chorus feel weak. Also, the music video is BORING, featuring Ayu driving a car across some kind of desert landscape.
I do hope that Ayu stops padding her albums so much with musical interlude tracks in the future. This album, like "GUILTY" before it, has a whopping 4 interludes. Add on the 4 tracks that were released prior as singles, and that leaves only 6 new songs. The interludes on this album are pretty good in their own right, but I want full-length songs, man! 2 interludes per album should be the maximum, I say. That formula worked great for such epic albums as "I am..." and "(miss)understood".
Ayu goes a little overboard on her vibrato on a few songs here. Now that she is completely deaf in one ear, I don't know what the future holds for the quality of her vocal performances. Sometimes, at live shows, you can see how they have suffered, and other times, you can't tell. So far, I haven't head anything that has made me cringe like her vocals on her very first album. SO SQUEAKY.
I'm never very good at giving a number or letter rating. I usually need time to digest things before I can form a solid opinion. But for now, I'd probably give NEXT LEVEL a 7/10. I do not think it is as strong as GUILTY or SECRET, its two predecessors, but it's still Ayu, and that makes it better than most of the stuff out there.
CHECK OUT: The music video for "Sparkle". The song was featured on the "Rule" single and gave everyone a taste of what was to come on this album. Most fans adore it, and the video is weird and interesting, not to mention one of the sexiest she has done so far. I'd link to Youtube, but I know Avex will take the video down, so just search for it.
COOL LYRICS: From "Identity"
Hey, you there
Who just forces your opinion on someone else
Saying that you are thinking of him or something
With a look that you have done a good thing
Although it was only for your self-satisfaction
However skillfully you may decorate yourself
Your real intention is easily seen
Don't you notice?
Not saying "yes" to everything
Is my ID, ID, ID, ID
It's not important how I want to be thought of
What I want to keep is how I want to be
UTADA - THIS IS THE ONE
JP 3/14/09 US 5/21/09
1. On and On
2. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI
3. Apple and Cinnamon
4. Taking my Money Back
5. This One (Crying Like A Child)
6. Automatic Part II
7. Dirty Desire
8. Poppin'
9. Come Back To Me
10. Me Muero
Despite being the second US release from Utada Hikaru (or "Utada" as she wants to be known on Western shores) this album comes out way earlier in Japan than it does here. Apparently you can buy it digitally on 3/24, but the physical album won't be out until May.
Utada's first album, "Exodus", was weird. I'd liken it to crack or candy--I was really addicted to it for a while, although I could recognize how cruddy it was compared to her Japanese works. Utada kind of changes what she's all about when she makes music for an American audience, singing about cheatin' lovers and earthly desires. She explained once in an interview that if she sang about such things in Japanese, she'd feel "silly". Well, she sounds pretty silly in English, too! Let's compare some random snatches of lyrics, shall we?
UTADA HIKARU (Keep Tryin'): "Every morning when I see my weak face reflected in the mirror /
I want to smash it."
UTADA (Poppin'): "Tight jeans, no panties on, oops did I turn you on? / I only came to party, party."
UTADA HIKARU (Be My Last): "Mother, why is it / That a day will come / When you’ll have to break down everything you raised up?"
UTADA (Dirty Desire): "Working my 9 to 5 / I'm thinking 6 and 9s / I gotta make you mine / can you feel my dirty desire?"
UTADA HIKARU (Hikari): "Let's talk more about our future / turn off the TV, look only at me."
UTADA (Automatic Part II): "Hello my name is Utada / like la-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da!"
At least she doesn't make a joke of the fact that she's Asian like she did repeatedly on Exodus, and not ALL of the songs on this album have vapid lyrics...just most of them. Maybe I'm making too big a deal about this, but I just feel like it hides Utada's true talent to be able to express herself eloquently on a variety of topics.
While I'm being critical, let's get my other complaints out of the way. Number one, this album is too short with only 10 tracks. Number two, the cover image is YUCK, and what's with the MS Paint font? I don't like the short haircut she has been sporting recently--she looks almost emaciated.
I actually do think this album is a step up from Exodus. For one thing, it's a lot more cohesive. The whole thing has an R&B flavor, except for "Me Muero", which tastes decidedly Latin. Most of the songs sound better produced, as well, with quality you could picture hearing on the radio. I believe it's going to be a lot more accessible to a lot more people, so hopefully it will sell a decent amount.
"Come Back to Me" is the single from this album, and while it's a nice song, there's nothing new and exciting about it. I'd try "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI" or "Apple and Cinnamon" first. Those are probably the best songs on the album, followed by "This One (Crying like a child)." "Apple and Cinnamon" and "This One" have the most heart, while everything else is playful and/or superficial. Worst song? That'd be "Poppin'" which is all kinds of stupid in terms of content, but also has a really bizarre melody and arrangement, with some odd speaking parts from Utada. I was excited about "Automatic Part II" because I thought maybe it would be an amped-up English version of her first breakout single, "Automatic", but uh, no. Still a funky song, but surely doesn't have the staying power of "Automatic".
Overall, I think this is a pretty good, less messy attempt at breaking into the US market by Utada. I like the album and have been playing it in my car. Some other fans get irritated by fans like me who kind of look like J-snobs and are very "harsh" on Utada's English songs. I'm not trying to tell her what she can and can't do, it's just I'm probably overprotective or something. I'd hate to hear someone say, "this album blows, Utada sucks," because there's no way they could understand a song of pure life-altering brilliance like "Keep Tryin'" could come from the same person who did "Dirty Desire".
Meh.
Sunday, I went to a model train exhibition with my dad. My dad has his own train set down in the cellar that my brothers and I used to play with all the time when we were younger, and although he can't really expand at the moment, he continues his hobby of collecting and putting together trains and landscapes. I like to joke that the members of model train clubs are all old, fat men, but I'm actually pretty close to the truth; the building was full of men with middle-aged guts that hung low in their pants. We looked at all the nifty displays and my dad bought a couple of things in the White Elephant room (why it's called that, I don't know). I convinced him to buy a church for $5 and said I would put it together. When we got home, I started working on it, then got aggravated because the directions wanted you to paint a couple of random pieces when they could have just made them plastic of the correct color. Seriously, why make a model kit with some gray pieces, then tell me to PAINT a white piece gray? Why not just make it gray in the first place? Dumb. I'll finish it next time I go to my parent's house.
I went and got blood drawn AGAIN today, and finally mailed in my taxes. I cannot wait for that nice, juicy return to appear in my checking account. David and I went to the mall so he could pick up Resident Evil 5, although we probably won't play it until we buy a second Xbox controller.
Now I am going to talk about MUSIC.
AYUMI HAMASAKI - NEXT LEVEL
3/35/09
01.Bridge to the sky
02.NEXT LEVEL
03.Disco-munication
04.EnergizE
05.Sparkle
06.rollin'
07.GREEN
08.Load of the SHUGYO
09.identity
10.Rule
11.LOVE 'n' HATE
12.Pieces of SEVEN
13.Days
14.Curtain call
Everyone should know by now that Ayu is the closest thing to an idol to me. I would probably buy her next CD even if it were track after track of audio vomit. Her newest disc, "Next Level", certainly does not fit this description, but it IS different from anything she has done before. As you can probably guess from the cover image, this album employs a lot of funky electro-pop, with lots of video game-like sounds and vocoder effects layered over Ayu's vocals on some tracks. Generally speaking, I can't call myself a fan of this type of music. It's oftentimes loud to the point that it overpowers the singing. Still, there is a lot on this album that I feel shouldn't be missed!
Of the new tracks, 2 stuck out to me right away: "identity" and "LOVE 'n' HATE". These are both rock tracks with great melodies and lyrics. The chorus of "identity", where she sings "watashi no ID, ID" is so darn cool. "LOVE 'n' HATE" has a fierce violin sounding beat and features her counting in English. Is it weird to say that I love how she says the word "six"?
"rollin'" took a few listens for me to appreciate, but it really is a cool song, with an unusual composition and a fast chorus. I'm not keen on the use of a vocoder for parts of the verse, though.
"Energize" is one of the songs that I can't really get into. The part where she sings, "put your hands up together / keep your hands up together / let me sing forever / da-dum da-dum da-dum" is catchy and cute, but the rest just doesn't feel memorable.
"Next Level" is the other song that just hasn't clicked with me. I like the instrumentation, but Ayu's vocals and the chorus feel weak. Also, the music video is BORING, featuring Ayu driving a car across some kind of desert landscape.
I do hope that Ayu stops padding her albums so much with musical interlude tracks in the future. This album, like "GUILTY" before it, has a whopping 4 interludes. Add on the 4 tracks that were released prior as singles, and that leaves only 6 new songs. The interludes on this album are pretty good in their own right, but I want full-length songs, man! 2 interludes per album should be the maximum, I say. That formula worked great for such epic albums as "I am..." and "(miss)understood".
Ayu goes a little overboard on her vibrato on a few songs here. Now that she is completely deaf in one ear, I don't know what the future holds for the quality of her vocal performances. Sometimes, at live shows, you can see how they have suffered, and other times, you can't tell. So far, I haven't head anything that has made me cringe like her vocals on her very first album. SO SQUEAKY.
I'm never very good at giving a number or letter rating. I usually need time to digest things before I can form a solid opinion. But for now, I'd probably give NEXT LEVEL a 7/10. I do not think it is as strong as GUILTY or SECRET, its two predecessors, but it's still Ayu, and that makes it better than most of the stuff out there.
CHECK OUT: The music video for "Sparkle". The song was featured on the "Rule" single and gave everyone a taste of what was to come on this album. Most fans adore it, and the video is weird and interesting, not to mention one of the sexiest she has done so far. I'd link to Youtube, but I know Avex will take the video down, so just search for it.
COOL LYRICS: From "Identity"
Hey, you there
Who just forces your opinion on someone else
Saying that you are thinking of him or something
With a look that you have done a good thing
Although it was only for your self-satisfaction
However skillfully you may decorate yourself
Your real intention is easily seen
Don't you notice?
Not saying "yes" to everything
Is my ID, ID, ID, ID
It's not important how I want to be thought of
What I want to keep is how I want to be
UTADA - THIS IS THE ONE
JP 3/14/09 US 5/21/09
1. On and On
2. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI
3. Apple and Cinnamon
4. Taking my Money Back
5. This One (Crying Like A Child)
6. Automatic Part II
7. Dirty Desire
8. Poppin'
9. Come Back To Me
10. Me Muero
Despite being the second US release from Utada Hikaru (or "Utada" as she wants to be known on Western shores) this album comes out way earlier in Japan than it does here. Apparently you can buy it digitally on 3/24, but the physical album won't be out until May.
Utada's first album, "Exodus", was weird. I'd liken it to crack or candy--I was really addicted to it for a while, although I could recognize how cruddy it was compared to her Japanese works. Utada kind of changes what she's all about when she makes music for an American audience, singing about cheatin' lovers and earthly desires. She explained once in an interview that if she sang about such things in Japanese, she'd feel "silly". Well, she sounds pretty silly in English, too! Let's compare some random snatches of lyrics, shall we?
UTADA HIKARU (Keep Tryin'): "Every morning when I see my weak face reflected in the mirror /
I want to smash it."
UTADA (Poppin'): "Tight jeans, no panties on, oops did I turn you on? / I only came to party, party."
UTADA HIKARU (Be My Last): "Mother, why is it / That a day will come / When you’ll have to break down everything you raised up?"
UTADA (Dirty Desire): "Working my 9 to 5 / I'm thinking 6 and 9s / I gotta make you mine / can you feel my dirty desire?"
UTADA HIKARU (Hikari): "Let's talk more about our future / turn off the TV, look only at me."
UTADA (Automatic Part II): "Hello my name is Utada / like la-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da!"
At least she doesn't make a joke of the fact that she's Asian like she did repeatedly on Exodus, and not ALL of the songs on this album have vapid lyrics...just most of them. Maybe I'm making too big a deal about this, but I just feel like it hides Utada's true talent to be able to express herself eloquently on a variety of topics.
While I'm being critical, let's get my other complaints out of the way. Number one, this album is too short with only 10 tracks. Number two, the cover image is YUCK, and what's with the MS Paint font? I don't like the short haircut she has been sporting recently--she looks almost emaciated.
I actually do think this album is a step up from Exodus. For one thing, it's a lot more cohesive. The whole thing has an R&B flavor, except for "Me Muero", which tastes decidedly Latin. Most of the songs sound better produced, as well, with quality you could picture hearing on the radio. I believe it's going to be a lot more accessible to a lot more people, so hopefully it will sell a decent amount.
"Come Back to Me" is the single from this album, and while it's a nice song, there's nothing new and exciting about it. I'd try "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI" or "Apple and Cinnamon" first. Those are probably the best songs on the album, followed by "This One (Crying like a child)." "Apple and Cinnamon" and "This One" have the most heart, while everything else is playful and/or superficial. Worst song? That'd be "Poppin'" which is all kinds of stupid in terms of content, but also has a really bizarre melody and arrangement, with some odd speaking parts from Utada. I was excited about "Automatic Part II" because I thought maybe it would be an amped-up English version of her first breakout single, "Automatic", but uh, no. Still a funky song, but surely doesn't have the staying power of "Automatic".
Overall, I think this is a pretty good, less messy attempt at breaking into the US market by Utada. I like the album and have been playing it in my car. Some other fans get irritated by fans like me who kind of look like J-snobs and are very "harsh" on Utada's English songs. I'm not trying to tell her what she can and can't do, it's just I'm probably overprotective or something. I'd hate to hear someone say, "this album blows, Utada sucks," because there's no way they could understand a song of pure life-altering brilliance like "Keep Tryin'" could come from the same person who did "Dirty Desire".
Meh.