I made a promise to myself that I will contribute my thought on Mai Kuraki’s 7th album to the online community back in March this year. Her albums don’t come cheap. The RRP are S$72 (USD 52) and S$52 (USD 38) after discount. And you can’t pick a random Japanese album to sample in HMV. So what I [...]
Entries Tagged as 'J Pop'
Mai Kuraki (倉木麻衣) - One Life - Quite Possibly Her Spiciest Piece of Work
June 15th, 2008 · No Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
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Utada Hikaru - Heart Station - Classic It May Not But What A Soulful Voice She Has!
May 8th, 2008 · 13 Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
If you have purchased Utada Hikaru’s latest album lately, you may wish to check if track 10 is truncated towards the end of the song. The friendly assistant at HMV (Citilink) was ripping the plastic covers of more than 10 of her CDs open including a newer batch and an older batch and they all have the [...]
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YUI - I Loved Yesterday - Kill Me Softly With “LOVE & TRUTH” …
April 27th, 2008 · 3 Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
… and then kill me again.
I must have heard that one song “LOVE & TRUTH” no less than 400 times by now as I have frequently left my players (Hi-fi, mp3 phone, PC iTune) on single song repeat mode while traveling, working, reading, and blogging ever since YUI’s third album has landed in Singapore. And if you think that I [...]
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BoA - The Face - And The Conquest Continues
April 1st, 2008 · 6 Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
To tell you the truth, I am more thrilled by BoA’s phenomenal success in the music industry at the age of 21 than her music itself. Straddled between the Korean and Japanese markets, her 11th studio album is a Japanese release that attained the number 1 position in the Oricon chart the 6th consecutive time [...]
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Wish By Yuna Ito - Of Moon Rabbit, Urban Mermaid, And A Titanic Theme Song
March 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment · J Pop, Music Reviews
Strange to say, I thought Yuna Ito’s 2nd album “Wish” is much better than her debut “Heart” in so many different ways but yet, the sales figure so far doesn’t agree with me. Perhaps the movies “Nana” and “Nana 2” that she has acted in and her accompanying soundtracks did help to push the sales [...]
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Yui Aragaki (新垣結衣) - Sora (そら) - Girlie Voice, Good Song Choice, But Doubtful Vocal Skill
March 12th, 2008 · 10 Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
My potential borderline fetish to girls with girlie voice aside, if you intend to watch or have already watched “Sky of Love” and have 20 bucks to spare, there is no harm in getting the main actress’s debut album. You may get to like the show a little bit better and who knows? Perhaps you [...]
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Ayumi Hamasaki’s Guilty - It’s Near Perfect In My Book
January 12th, 2008 · 3 Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
Year 2000 was when Ayu released “Duty” - my favorite album before “Guilty”. Year 2000 was also the year when she started to realize that she has problem with her hearing that ultimately leads to her losing all hearing in her left ear by the time “Guilty” is released. At times I can’t help but [...]
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Love Psychedelico’s Golden Grapefruit - Almost Another Good Old Delico Album
August 22nd, 2007 · 3 Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
There are many reasons why Love Psychedelico (or better known as Delico in Japan) is different from some of the typical J-pop artists. Vocalist and guitarist Kumi may not have the level of sex appeal like most of the J-pop female artists, the good thing is, she doesn’t have the typical high pitch voice nor [...]
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YUI’s 2nd Album - Can’t Buy Me Love
May 30th, 2007 · 3 Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
Readers of my website may remember how I discovered the Japanese singer YUI after watching the movie Midnight Sun and foretold that she is a new artist to look out for. I even went in great effort to import her first album “From Me To You” from HMV Hong Kong. Within one week of release, [...]
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Mika Nakashima’s Yes - Enough To Please The Fans
May 10th, 2007 · No Comments · J Pop, Music Reviews
Some Japanese artists are so productive. Not long ago back in January I wrote a review for Nana Starring Mika Nakashima. Turns out that the new rock sound from her one-off-band assembled during the filming of Nana and Nana 2 is also … one off. How disappointing for me as I do enjoy her new [...]
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