Ayumi Hamasaki’s “BLUE BIRD”

 

Ayumi Hamasaki / BLUE BIRD / June 21, 2006
01. BLUE BIRD / 02. Beautiful Fighters / 03. Ladies Night ~another night~

The last single Hamasaki released was the catchy “Startin’” in March, but the remaining 2 original compositions left nothing but disappointment. However, I wasn’t too bummed out about it; Hamasaki has consistently released singles since her debut poker face, and most importantly, has always released extraordinary summer singles that epitomize, if not define, the carefree, fresh, exuberant feeling of summer. In 1999, it was the dance-pop Boys & Girls, in 2000, she took us on a nostalgia trip with SEASONS, in 2001, she gave us the car jam UNITE!, in 2002, she hit us with a triple threat; independent, july 1st, and HANABI, which plopped us on the beach, threw a loud party, and just like summer, made us cry when it was over before we were ready to let go. In 2003, she hit us with another trifecta, ourselves, a seedy pop song that bordered on psychotic, Greatful days, which stroked our inner Morning Musume, and finally, the rock answer to all of our summer angst, HANABI ~episode II~. In 2004, she took us on a mideastern adventure with INSPIRE and rock-popped us out in tight leather with GAME, and last but not least, in 2005, she flew us all on a plane to Hawaii with fairyland, where we danced in sync, laughed, and accidentally set our wooden shack on fire. The video also got ranked as one of the most expensive ever made, information which she simply ignored and penned alterna, a hauntingly rockish tale of the evils of corporate recording companies…again.

Now it’s 2006 and Hamasaki has continued her two year running streak of three song singles with the release of BLUE BIRD (with no less than three cover variants to collect). Though it’s rather early for her summer singles (most of her summer hits are released in July, the midst of the summer steam), it just goes to show Hamasaki is grabbing the reins and commanding you have a delightful summer…or else. Nothing proves this better than the accompanying PV, where there is so much white sand, dancing, laughing, friendship bonding and yachting, you’re almost disgusted: no matter how great your summer is, you will never have that much fun, you will never laugh that hard, and you will never afford that yacht ride, god damnit. The song only promotes the joyful atmosphere, drawing influence from the catchy dance of “Boys & Girls” and the carefree synth of “fairyland.” The sounds are soft, the beats are light, and the la la’s run aplenty; perfect for inviting the crowd to sing along when performed live.

The second song, “Beautiful Fighters,” oscillates from catchy to confusing. The whistle and marching band stomps à la B-A-N-A-N-A-S have boarded the boat (or yacht) a bit too late but are begrudgingly welcomed. The distinguishing characteristics from “BLUE BIRD” are few, but following the abounding merrymaking in “BLUE BIRD,” one is apt to forgive.

The final “new” song, is a visit to the power pop “Ladies Night,” an original Sweetbox composition that was confused with “Fly high” on first listen, but surprised us when the unusual English phrases were shouted from left ear to right and traveled straight to our hearts. But however much the song was alright, there was always something missing, something that we didn’t like; it resembled the original a bit too much and seemed more copy-cat than colorful. “Ladies Night ~another night~” picks up the fallen pieces and shows us the way it should have been, the way the producer who stayed late one night fiddling around with the song and got it just right before being regretfully informed that the song had already been released to the public carrying the Hamasaki name. Instead of pop, we have an upbeat rockish song that replaces the empowering English commands with electric guitar riffs worthy of any infectious dance-rock from the much hated Panic! At the Disco to the, um, much hated Fall Out Boy.

The fourth song is sort of a bonus track; a dance remix of “BLUE BIRD.” It’s unnecessarily long, and not nearly as good as the original composition, but it’s a freebie I’ll accept.

If you don’t want to get hurt this summer, stay away from this single. Hamasaki delivers punch after punch of catchy pop melodies on her 40th single suited for any summer mix tape that is softened only by that beguiling, innocent smile on her impervious face.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy BLUE BIRD

Hikaru Utada’s “ULTRA BLUE”

Hikaru Utada / ULTRA BLUE / June 14, 2006
02. Keep Tryin’ / 03. BLUE / 10. WINGS / 11. Be My Last

Coming into Hikaru Utada’s album, I was prepared. Over the years, I have grown wise to Utada’s trickery; churning out more than welcome singles only to offer up lackluster albums at the end of the Oricon #1s circuit. Enjoying each single only prepared me for the cruel blow I knew my gut would receive after I listened to the new album, ULTRA BLUE, and came away disappointed. This time, I was stocked with enough ammunition to cross the Sierras.

During the album’s duration I tended to quickly skip over previously released singles, like “Keep Tryin’” and “COLORS,” which already proved their merit at the time of their release and have since been played and replayed to oblivion. Unfortunately, this leaves the record with about six actual ‘new’ songs, plus one pesky filler interlude.

The disc begins with “This Is Love,” a catchy dance number that would not have seemed out of place beside “Devil Inside” on Utada’s failure of an English debut album, EXODUS (where was that song when you needed it?). It’s quite an enjoyable song, two songs down the line however, and I would wonder why in the world they did not begin the album with “BLUE,” an equally catchy number that both captures the essence of the album’s title and the heart of the listener much more sufficiently than “This Is Love.” The next original song is “Nichiyou no Asa,” whose sound heralds back to a certain DISTANCE album, where hip hop and R&B were Utada’s strongest feats and most prominent features. It’s catchy and has a good beat, but expendable at best, dross at worst. “Making Love” is another funky pop number that if anything, proves Utada has ditched her heavy vibrato for a lighter, fluffier sound. Basically, “This Is Love,” “BLUE,” “Nichiyou no Asa,” and “Making Love” form a quartet of similar sounding dancey-pop numbers interrupted by the brilliantly quirky “Keep Tryin’”; fine for my casual listening needs, but nothing I’d want to repeat more than a handful of times.

The second half of the album is utterly lacking in style. It seems all of the catchy numbers with the clever hooks were used up at the onset of the album to draw in the listener. Unfortunately, the listener is now subjected to a slow, and rather dull ride through a hip-pop collaboration (“One Night Magic”), avant-garde art-pop (“kairo”), and a Rent soundtrack clone (“WINGS”). This dull triad finally grinds to a halt with the appearance of single “Be My Last,” one of the most beautiful ballads Utada has penned since “SAKURA DROPS.” With its acoustic base and mystical synth undertones, even she can’t mess up the song by humming/lala-ing through a fair enough portion of the lyrical content. This album would have been tighter if not for the skippable “Eclipse (Interlude),” which only detracted from what cold have been a dreamy duo, as it is followed by the Kingdom Hearts number “Passion,” an utter hybrid masterpiece of synth pop/rock.

For the most part, this album exemplifies the notion that your parts can be better than the whole. The first half of the album has potential, introducing the big pop numbers and singles, but the sunny day eventually segue ways into a nightmare of slow number showers that rain on the parade of what could be a remarkable album but ends up with only three out of five stars for the rude intrusions along the way.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy ULTRA BLUE

FAKE?’s “SONGS FROM BEELZEBUB”

FAKE? / SONGS FROM BEELZEBUB / May 24, 2006
03. AUTOMATIC / 07. MONEY MONEY

The first time I heard FAKE? was a life-changing experience, not the kind that persuades you over your better judgment to cut and style your hair in homage to the band’s lead singer, trash your entire wardrobe in lieu of newer purchases, or even hang a ridiculous amount of posters on your wall so your glassy-eyed stare can reflect from the luster of the pictures, forcing you to prop your elbows on the bed and lean your cheeks into your defiant fists as you dream of a world where you, yourself, are unabashedly belting out lyrics into that microphone. No, I can’t say it was one of those life-changing experiences, but rather an experience that grabbed me by the shoulders, closed my eyes, and demanded I simply open my ears just a little bit wider to grasp the full scope and enormity of that which comprised FAKE?.

The first song that took on these qualities was “NEW SKIN.” This was the first song I came across and it helped in fully realizing the lyrical genius of Ken Lloyd. All I could do was sing along and nod emphatically, answering the question Lloyd never asked but hinted at merely by putting himself out on the market. I agreed with him whole-heartedly: Got to get some. Got to get it and I’m never gonna’ give it back. When I listened to more of the songs, I was astounded by the poetry of both the music and the lyrics, the English expertise that Lloyd lent to a high portion of their lyrics, an expertise that put bands like Linkin Park to shame and makes Mike Shinoda’s rap look like kindergarten folly accompanied by Beinnington’s angry recess whining. FAKE? brought to me one of the first songs I can truly claim as being sexy, and if you’ve ever really sat down and blared “DRIP,” you would understand. On the flip side, they had the ability to skip from erotic wordplay to maniacally accusatory anger that shakes, rattles, and finishes with a bitter emptiness; All alone we are.

However, I can’t forget to mention INORAN, the other half of FAKE?. When you put him into the equation, it’s no wonder this band is good; we now have the lyrics and intensity that once comprised OBLIVION DUST and the skill, talent, and experience of now-defunct LUNA SEA, not to mention INORAN’s own solo work (“I wish I had never met you” still sends chills up and down my spine like no other bitter break-up song can).

So you can imagine my disappointment and dread when I learned that INORAN left the band. Here was a band I had just discovered, that I was on the verge of obsession with, and they were splitting up. Bravely, Lloyd has taken the reins and continues FAKE? as a solo career, but even so, I was worried what it would sound like without INORAN. I knew that SONGS FROM BEELZEBUB would basically be Lloyd letting go; everything he wanted to put on a CD that INORAN held him back from would be present; every instrument or experimentation or musical preference he wanted to divulge would be paraded about like a very uninhibited teenage girl who just discovered miniskirts. I was reluctant to buy the CD, I was reluctant to even listen to it, but eventually, curiosity and the need for new FAKE? material won out. Maybe I could learn to love miniskirts.

Then again, this miniskirt was festooned with so much stereotypical North American house, it’s basically the item that looks exclusively appropriate on the rack rather than the human body. As soon as “$500″ began I feared for my life. Suddenly, my ears were assaulted with “Let’s rock, y’all. Don’t stop y’all.” No. Oh god no. Lloyd then proceeds to collaborate rap and rock and throw all grammatical decency out the window as he repeats ad nauseaum “Put your hands up, put your hands up, put your hands up and show me where you love is at.” The remainder of the disc spins at the same speed, in fact, fresh off of the previous lyrical aural rape of stereotypical hip hop catcalls, we are warmly greeted once again by “C’mon everybody, put your hands in the air.” Not only am I offended, but we’re only on the second song and my arms are already exhausted.

And so Lloyd stumbles drunkenly in the dark to finish the album. There are repetitive shouts and words that betray everything I just waxed beautiful on in the introductory paragraphs. There is more synth than I can handle or would like to handle in FAKE?. “AUTOMATIC” is catchy but wears out its welcome. “BUS STOP #74″ isn’t so much a song as it is a short story set to a beat and sound effects. “BABY BLUE AND THE TWO HEADED MONSTER” can be applauded for its attempt at innovation by taking on a distinctive doo-whop flavor reminiscent of pre-World War II romance, but falls flat when Lloyd’s voice sounds mixed, split, and served as a slow-motion cocktail; 2% genuine alcohol, 98% all filler flavor. And just when you think it couldn’t get worse, someone, presumably an engineer or producer working on the album, turns the dial, looking for something good. The result is a brief interlude into guitar, drum, and screamo chaos, which switches just as quickly back into the original slow tempo, leaving the listener wondering if they suffered a minor car accident with a bump to the head, or are merely going crazy. By the end of the album, you’re only too glad it’s finally “THE END.”

To say I was disappointed would be a gross understatement. I am not only disappointed, I am left wishing that another album was not forthcoming in November because there are only so many head-on collisions you can suffer in one year. Lloyd left FAKE? and he took the genuine spark that fueled the music with him.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy SONGS FROM BEEZLEBUB

Friday night shuffle IV

Wherein I put the ol’ iRiver on shuffle and post the first five songs that come up.

Tiziano Ferro – 10 piegamenti: Tiziano Ferro is a popular Italian hip hop singer. He has come out with two albums and seems to have dropped off the face of the planet after the release of 111. This is a typical hip-hop song, it’s very catchy and he repeats the title of the song about a billion times. But come on…you gotta’ love Tiziano Ferro.

Witches – Papa: I would love to talk in length about this song, but I really have no idea how it got in my player. This is a pop-rock song from a Korean group and that’s about all I know. It’s not really that great of a song.

Tomoe Shinohara – HAPPY POINT (Maxout mix): Tomoe Shinohara was a crazy hyper-genki Japanese actress/singer who used to host her own television program (LOVE LOVE Aishiteru, or LOVE LOVE I Love You) where she interviewed both musical guests and actors (I’ll never forgot her pseudo-English interview with Robin Williams; one of the most hilarious three minutes of my life) and designed clothes for her Jagged Apple clothing label. Her songs are always bouncy and playful and she’s sure had her share number of anime tie-ins due to her kid-friendly image. She is certainly not the best singer, but for everything upbeat and wacky, she doesn’t disappoint. This song is from her remix album Deep Sound Channel, and it’s not too different from the original song, save for extra beats. Unfortunately, Shinohara has also seemed to disappear off the face of the Earth. Most of her recent work is in Japanese television dramas, her last musical release being a single in 2005, with a handful of years’ hiatus prior.

Yoko Ishida – Otome no Policy (Instrumental): The karaoke version of either a closing or opening song to the original anime Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. I noticed a lot of SM songs come up on my player’s shuffle. This is probably due to that fact that I have pretty much all 37-some of the original released soundtracks. Yeah…there was a lot.

Zoey – My Love: Typical American-imitating Japanese pop/hip hop. I’m not a big fan of Zoey at all, besides her cover of Bjork’s “Venus as a Boy,” which does not represent the rest of her music at all.

Three Days Grace’s “One X”

Three Days Grace / One X / June 13, 2006
02. Pain / 08. Let It Die / 09. Over & Over

I don’t know why so many Americans make fun of Canada when so many good things come from there. Like Three Days Grace. Yes, my friends, Three Days Grace comes from Canada, and they have brought their nu metal with them. OK, technically they’re classified as hard rock, but come on…they sound so much like Adema it’s scary and they’re nu metal. You do the math.

I first took notice of Three Days Grace when they released the single “Just Like You.” To this day, I love that angry song. Come to think of it, TDG is an angry band. And by angry, I mean, they’re practically plotting homicides in their recording studio. This feeling comes through full force on their new album One X, which could easily have been named I Was Betrayed, Lost, Shot At, Framed For Murder, Disowned, and Dated a Cheating Bitch and This Album’s For All of You. Easily. I could proceed to make some sort of joke linking the song “Let It Die” to their angry feelings, but I do not want to. Instead, I want to talk about how excellent this album is.

Conviction is very important when a band is angry. If the listener doesn’t believe the singer is really pissed about stuff, then you end up conveying pseudo-hate and nobody likes a fake. What I like about this album is that the vocalist believes in everything he’s singing about, or maybe he’s just really good at pretending he is. Either way, it’s convincing. Adam Gontier has a very smooth voice that manages to strain at just the right moments as the tempo builds and crashes into any of the choruses present on the disc. These vocals and lyrics work beautifully beside the clear tones of the rhythm guitars and drums that flow so effortlessly from the speakers.

What I love so much about this album is that each song fluidly makes way for the next in a harmonious blend that creates an ocean of nu metal fit for sailing. In an age where the track listing of an album just doesn’t matter like it used to, as songs are personally mixed, hand-picked, and shuffled to oblivion, One X is accommodating to that three minute, random attention span. No matter where the needle lands on this record (or no matter which 00101101 lands on another 00011011), you are guaranteed a smooth, consistent play. Maybe there’s not too much innovation on the record, save for a beautifully subtle violin on “Over & Over,” but when the band promises a synth-free, computer-free, guitar-driven album, it delivers.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy One X

Tomiko Van’s “Flower”

 

Tomiko Van / Flower / June 07, 2006
01. Flower / 02. Brave

I definetely would not call myself a Tomiko Van connoisseur. When this, her debut single, was released, I figured it was merely the first song to begin her hopefully burgeoning solo career. Not so. Apparently, Van already released an entire debut solo album, FAREWELL, in March of this year. Whoa. Missed that one. Here’s what I can confidently say I know: Van was the singer in the now defunct Japanese pop/rock disaster known as Do As Infinity. I know this is personal taste and there are hundreds, fine, thousands who will refute this claim, but besides their single Shinjitsu no Uta, I have failed to find anything likable in their music. Sort of rock, really pop, and very bad, they took all the worst aspects of Japanese pop music, crammed it into three minutes worth of noise dispersed across 70-some minutes of an album and repeated the process monthly, churning out singles and albums on a steady basis for almost five years. To me, their only saving grace was one Dai Nagao, who worked beside pop princess Ayumi Hamasaki for many years, surprisingly churning out incredible songs, while his own pet project lagged behind in innovation, spirit, and depth.

So you can imagine what sort of preconceived notions I had before I even played “Flower.” Also, keep in mind this review rests on the fact that I have heard not one song off of Van’s first album. And it’s a good thing I didn’t waste my time with that. “Flower” is not a bad song, but it’s not that good. It’s simply mediocre, and I’m losing interest in accepting mediocrity. It uses a lot of acoustic guitars, and though the beat is up tempo, it’s akin to a seventy year old chain smoker climbing a hill for the first time since he first picked up a cigarette when he was fifteen; this song huffs, puffs, and wheezes itself to reach that hill of summer carefree bliss, but collapses in on itself halfway there. I listened to this song a few times and it did nothing for me. The Oricon charts have basically been charting a roster of summer pop hits since that first ray of sunshine beamed in May and this song merely gets lost in the school of fish. Guppies, mostly.

The second song, “Brave,” is another acoustic pop number I wouldn’t even mention if not for its mere existence on this single.

Van is going to have to do a lot better than this. Or simply a lot to dig herself out of this hole of acoustic failure. Nowhere on this single have I felt I was dealing with an experienced pop singer. Nowhere on this single have I felt those five years of work in a professional musical environment manifest itself. Nowhere. Which is where this single is going, and probably, Van herself.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy Flower

Tommy heavenly6’s “I’m Gonna SCREAM+”

 

Tommy heavenly6 / I’m Gonna SCREAM+ / June 07, 2006
01. I’m Gonna SCREAM+ / 02. GOING 2 MY WAY !
03. +gothic Pink+ (Melancholic Guitar Version)

I could have been more excited for Tommy heavenly6’s new single, but I wasn’t. To be completely honest, I am more of a Tommy february6 fan. I love that cheesy, 80s synth pop revival, I love the squeaky clean image, the Sweet Valley High books she totes around in the music videos, the short dances…Tommy heavenly6, in comparison, is like an angry Avril Lavigne knock-off. Granted, I admitted in my article about Th6 that I liked that she was angry, and don’t get me wrong, I do, but I failed to find any longevity in her debut album besides a few catchy songs that I enjoyed merely for the fact that they happened to mirror my own sentiments at the time I listened to them. Since those few months have passed, I have barely allowed her disc to rotate anywhere near my CD player, let alone have a digital go in my iRiver.

However, all that has changed with I’m Gonna SCREAM+. The song begins quietly with a few strummed guitar licks before crashing into your general rock mayhem. But it works. Brilliantly. I love the melody, the use of her native Japanese interspersed with piles of English lyrics, and those short breaks of the guitar, that although seem out of place with the rest of the loud raucous of the song, also tie the song together and allow the listener to catch his or her breath before it’s time once again to break into the rock. It’s also worth noting that most of the time, Tomoko Kawase’s high-pitched vocals sabotage songs, holding her back from shedding that Avril Lavigne pseudo-punk image in what is still a mostly male-dominated genre (and for good reason). In this song, though, it kind of works because the song is so heavy, the light, feminine vocals help bring it down to a nicely balanced equilibrium.

“GOING 2 MY WAY !” is the first time I’ve heard Kawase use even a semi-swear word, and it was certainly semi-shocking. Enough that after she sang “ass” (actually, it was more like “ahzz”), that’s pretty much all I could think about for the next minute while the song played. Totally threw me off. Didn’t appreciate it. However, I do like the way the verse works in this song, almost more than the chorus which is actually pretty bland and shadows her earlier work. The guitar solo is much appreciated as it spices up the song a bit, but only for its few short seconds. Valiant try, though.

“+gothic Pink+ (Melancholic Guitar Version)” is an acoustic version of an earlier single. It doesn’t do much for Kawase’s vocals which fail to bring justice to the beautifully eerie melody, but said vibe created in the background of the song is marvelous. The only additional noise to the guitar is an array of soft bells, which add to the ominous atmosphere already provided by the likes of mostly English lyrics such as “Welcome to my dark side, why don’t you have a picnic there?” I don’t know, maybe because the way you sing it implies you might cut my head off and feed it to wolves?

The A side is fantastic, I could do without the B-side, the extra track all but makes up for it. This single is so good, I actually checked my sarcasm at the door, apparently next to my total hate for whiny girl vocals in rock music. Rocker grrrls. Ugh.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy I’m Gonna SCREAM+

Friday night shuffle III

Wherein I put the ol’ iRiver on shuffle and post the first five songs that come up.

Linkin Park – Forgotten: “Forgotten” is from their debut album Hybrid Thoery, which used to be the band’s original name. Comparing this work to their newer stuff, you can see how rough their sound was, particularly Mike Shinoda’s rap, which at that point, needed more than a little sharpening. It’s a pretty catchy song, but it’s not one that I play frequently, especially not from their first album. The first time I discovered Linkin Park, it was with their debut single “Crawling.” I remember hearing the song play at a carnival I was at (yeah, this was many years ago) and saying, “Who is this? I love this song, I must know!” My friend turned to me at the Skeeball game, looked as if in deep thought and confidently remarked, “I think it’s Godsmack.” Well, it wasn’t Godsmack, but when I did find out who it was, it sure was god-smackin’ good.

Mai Kuraki – Love, Day After Tomorrow: When Mai Kuraki’s career first began, many pegged her as a Hikaru Utada rip-off and darn if it wasn’t the truth. Since then, she has released a few albums, but has most certainly failed to attain the popularity of Utada (GIZA artist, go figure). This is one of her earliest singles and one of only two songs I really like by Kuraki, the other being “Secret of my Heart.” No wait, I do kind of like “PERFECT CRIME” in a strange, don’t-tell-anyone-I-do kind of way. It’s a slow, pop number with a catchy chorus. After about the third listen, though, it begins to taper into annoying drivel.

Matsuo Hayato – Rakuen ~ Tousou to Konran: Uhh, why do I even have this song in my iRiver? This is a background piece from the Magic Knights Rayearth soundtrack. It starts out fluffy and happy, and then in typical soundtrack fashion goes all, “No, don’t go in there!” Remind me to delete this soundtrack from my player within the next 24 hours before it begins spoiling the barrel.

Michiru Oshima – Nonbiri Usagi no Ichinichi: This is a background song from the live action Sailor Moon, also known as PGSM. This song is usually played when the main character, Usagi, is having light-hearted, pondering thoughts or is investigating something. However, as I’ve often noticed with orchestrated soundtrack music, you usually just won’t ‘get it’ unless you’ve seen the show; this is no exception.

Michiru Oshima – Sailor Senshi no Mezame: OK, wow, what’s up with all of the soundtrack music that came up this week? This is another one from the live action PGSM, and actually, I have no clue when it plays in the series. It’s one of those songs I recognize for its presence, rather than its uniqueness. I hope no more geeky soundtrack music comes up for a while. This is making me look bad. What a terribly boring shuffle week.

AFI’s “Decemberunderground”

AFI / Decemberunderground / June 06, 2006
03. Miss Murder / 06. Love Like Winter / 11. 37mm

AFI is one of those bands that once you’ve grown to love, you simply cannot imagine there was once a time you lived without them. And though MTV will have you think they scored big with their 2003 release Sing The Sorrow, the boys of AFI have been around a lot longer than that; 12 years in fact, making 2006 their 15th year in existence, and there’s no better way to celebrate that than with the release of their new album Decemberunderground, one of the most anticipated releases of the year.

Sing The Sorrow was so amazing, I had trouble not hyping up this record to extreme proportions. In the end, I was left worrying that much like Tom Delonge, I had hyped up the record to a level it could never hope to reach. As soon as the opening song began, my thoughts quickly evaporated; AFI has managed to put together another absolutely fabulous record. The opening song “Prelude 12/21″ is an intro to end all intros; it begins softly with gentle bells and slowly builds on itself using a hip hop reminiscent beat, before crashing into a mix of synth and typical AFI group vocals. And just when you think this could very well be the best song on the CD, the second track begins. And then you worry. It’s not that “Kill Caustic” is a bad song, it just sounds very Sing The Sorrow-ish. But as the album finishes off, you are content; this CD has just enough of old AFI balanced with a new AFI; an AFI that has employed more synth and artificial beats you thought them possible of, but have managed to make it sound so deliciously right.

This is one of those albums that shows the gradual change of AFI. No more are they solely moody and melancholic, using big words in their songs, though plenty of that abounds as the disc spins. Decemberunderground is more stripped in its lyrical content yet remains thought provoking in its simplicity, while the music has been amped into a lush kaleidoscope of instrumentation. The experimentation present on the album is apparent in a background way that instead of being distracting as it could have, only adds to the AFI we know and love as it works with Havok’s vocals instead of against them. The only song that stands out as odd to me on the CD is “Miss Murder,” the single. The first time I heard the song, I thought, ‘Whoa, new Green Day single?’. That’s not to say it’s a bad song, it’s actually very catchy, just that compared to the rest of the CD it’s a little too upbeat, sounding like it may have been written around the same time “Rabbits Are Roadkill on Route 37″ was; whether it was or not, I have no idea.

Favorites on the CD include “Love Like Winter,” “Summer Shudder,” “37mm,” and “The Killing Light,” where oddly enough Havok sounds suspiciously like a certain Mr. Darren Hayes in “Unlovable” as he bitterly asks the listener, ‘Am I usable?” The only tiny glitch I can find with this CD is “Prelude 12/27″ not having been developed into a full length song (this song has such ass kicking potential it’s ridiculous, considering it already is at a disappointing 1:35). Oh how I wish that here it was December…everydayyyy.

Even though the atmosphere of the record is riddled in a cold December I doubt it will keep you cool this summer; this album is hot. Yeah. I went there.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy Decemberunderground

Friday night shuffle II

Wherein I put the ol’ iRiver on shuffle and post the first five songs that come up.

Arab Strap – Flirt: An upbeat song from the Scottish duo, flanked by monotone vocals and some subtle piano. This is one of those songs that takes a little while to get good. The song begins simply, but eventually builds on itself in regards to instrumentation, vocal style and layered beats. Not one of my favorite Arab Strap songs, but good nonetheless.

Ayumi Hamasaki – evolution (Countdown Live 2004-2005): Every New Year, it’s customary for Hamasaki to hold a Countdown Live concert that begins in one year and finishes in the next. Not meant to be performed more than once, the concerts are usually more intimate and less flashy, though I have noticed that has been changing; apparently, no matter how little it is performed, Hamasaki is worth the extra production costs. Even though she is not the greatest live singer, it is worth mentioning that for a pop singer who even sometimes follows in choreographed dance steps, all of her singing is done live, and the effort definitely manifests itself. This is an interesting live to come up on my shuffle, because the evolution single was first debuted at her 2000-2001 Countdown Live concert at the stroke of midnight. This is fun, there’s a lot of improvisational shouts, and Hamasaki even lets the crowd join in on some of the singing.

SINBA – Fantasy: SINBA is a very unknown Japanese pop singer who hasn’t released anything for years. As mundane as her songs may be, there is, however, definitely something unique that I like about SINBA and it’s a pity that she never released a full album. Her songs are pretty hard to find over the Internet and I only happen to own this song because I bought the single.

Takanori Arisawa – Etude #2 Usagi-chan Gayaatekita: This is a piano instrumental from the Piano Fantasia release of the anime Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. Yes, I used to be a big fan of the show, which I now only admit for sentimental reasons as I no longer like anime or the show but to deny that I liked the show and the five bazillion soundtracks released in accordance with it would basically wipe out a good portion of my childhood and the path that led me to Japanese music in the first place. This is a very cutesy, almost cabaret styled piano song that sounds like something you could tap-dance to.

Yuki Kajiura – Red Rose: I don’t know too much about Yuki Kajiura except that I own her Fiction album and still haven’t given it the attention it deserves. I have, however, learned that she did a somewhat disappointing rendition of “Canta per me” from the Noir soundtrack. From the all too brief perusal I did give the CD, it has elements of traditional New Age mysticism with very modern dance and pop beats. There’s chanting and sitars alongside tribal drumbeats and bagpipes with synthesized rhythms. This is not the best song off of the entire CD, but it’s not a bad one. This one is almost entirely instrumental, which doesn’t do much to showcase Kajiura’s excellent English pronunciation, but it does give you a good idea of what the CD sounds like and the violins are nice. Sorry, that’s all I got. Except that is does tend to sound rather cheesy and Enya like after a while.