Namie Amuro’s “60s 70s 80s”

Namie Amuro / 60s 70s 80s / March 12, 2008
01. NEW LOOK / 02. ROCK STEADY / 03. WHAT A FEELING

There’s nothing about this single I can find remotely disturbing, odd enough to say the least, when a triple A-side sampling three different subgenres takes on the epic task of reinventing itself via self-proclaimed Hip-Pop (and now Dancing) Queen. What makes this single so brilliant where it can go horribly awry – it samples The Supremes’ “Baby Love”, Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady”, and Irena Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling” – is that instead of liberally peppering the songs with loops, it asks, “What if, in 2008, we just never stopped making that kind of music?” It’s not an update, it’s a whole new perspective (see: lyrical references to Twiggy beside ‘LOL’ and ‘OMG’ in 60s inspired “NEW LOOK”) that manages to sound captivating instead of condescending – or worse: nostalgic. Taking three of America’s best selling singles from three of music’s most successful decades can seem a bit intimidating, but if there’s one person who can pull it off, it’s probably Amuro.

Then again, maybe I shouldn’t offer all the credit to a pop star with a boatload of promotion and a dynamo set of dance skills but with little nerve to claim any of it; it’s the production and arrangement that flawlessly tie the three decades into a fantastic overview of the hypothetical, first with sweet-faced “NEW LOOK,” a tribute to Amuro’s (marketed) passion for fashion, maybe not so much glam but definitely glitz, “ROCK STEADY,” a genre Amuro’s probably most familiar with on a contemporary level, but humbly bidding tribute to its origins, and “WHAT A FEELING,” the show stopping hybrid of fierce dance and femme fatale. Amuro offers little to the equation (still not showing any signs of a pulse, although I’m now attributing it to the hardcore dance routines she memorizes and performs while singing live), but she’s still one heckuva vehicle for Vidal Sassoon’s new campaign. Sure, there’s still a fair amount of stereotyping in the music videos which begs for a few chuckles not from the audience, but from Amuro herself who is way too self-serious to indulge, even a little, but you’re unlikely to find a better representation of sampling-done-right from the original 90’s Japanese chanteuse who came back with a vengeance and refuses to give up the reign again.

You didn’t seriously expect Amuro to come up with anything less after PLAY, did you?

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy 60s 70s 80s

Ami Suzuki’s “DOLCE”

Ami Suzuki / February 06, 2008 / DOLCE
01. FREE FREE / 04. Bitter…

I honestly don’t know why this album hasn’t gotten more press and attention than it has (not to say it hasn’t gotten any; Ami Suzuki is still a veritable avex darling), so rather, the sort of press it should have gotten. This isn’t just another Ami Suzuki album: this is Ami Suzuki plus ten extremely talented artists that, as far as I’m concerned, have single-handedly Lazarused her entire career. Sure, the selection is a bit varied for the “dance” record Suzuki was attempting to pull off (Aly & AJ? Honestly, you’re making me feel bad for liking this), but what it sets out to do, it conquers and what it fails to do, it just accomplishes in another field. Simply put, DOLCE forces Suzuki, more than any other album, to step out of her element and if her vocals fail to deliver (they do, often), she has experienced musicians ready to whip up a musical parachute.

Nakata’s tracks I’ve covered, and to some extent SUGIURUMN, CAPTAIN FUNK, and RAM RIDER can be put in the same camp. Not because they all love the caps lock button, but because their tracks invite the same funky vibe without resorting to club cliches. Well alright, maybe kinda sorta (Suzuki is hardly the first club vocalist to praise the art of music itself and sing about the superiority of the weekend), but their replay value is astoundingly higher than others in the same genre. In that case, I would lump ROCKETMAN, Hoff Dylan, and YO-KING in another group as the tracks I could have done without. Songs with the standard big-band Japanese pop, save an acoustic guitar here or saxophone there, have little merit on an album attempting to build a conception. Admittedly, I like the retro vibe on “Futari wa POP,” but it’s not really something you can half-ass with any degree of success; anything worth doing doo-whopish is worth taking to the nines.

It’s the oddities on the disc that truly make this record work, that fill in the invisible spaces where things get awkward (the last three tracks are dying for an interlude from the following). The “Potential Breakup Song” cover is so ridiculous it works (note: if it hadn’t been infinitely better than the original, its resolve would have crumbled in the first riff) and STUDIO APARTMENT’s work on “Bitter…” is one of the greatest melancholic takes on hope I’ve heard in a long time (Suzuki sings “Tomorrow will be brand new day,” but the violins sing “Forget it, there is too much effort involved in hope“) and this contradiction that could feasibly fall flat works brilliantly almost accidently; in the accompanying DVD, S.A. ask Ami Suzuki to sing it “sexy,” and so Suzuki pretty much sings it the same way she sings everything: stoically. For this same reason, Tomoe Shinohara’s (Fucking Shinorer! Where did this some from? Greatest comeback I’ve witnessed from a pointlessly (non-)relevant 90s icon this decade! [not ashamed to admit I own one of the albums from her crazy(ier) era]) “Stereo Love” fails to work. Love the song, but really, no one can sing Shinohara’s songs except, well, Shinohara. Suzuki just can’t pull it off (stoic vocals), but again, it works (accidental irony), in ways Shinohara’s version would melt the entire structure (passionately, unironically hyper).

But who really wins here? Sub-popular artists get to collab with one of Japan’s most recognizable faces vs. Suzuki gets her reputation back (c’mon, you didn’t really like CONNETTA, did you?) and everyone leaves happy. Except the bonus track “if.” Loser.

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy DOLCE

MEG’s “MAGIC”

MEG / MAGIC / March 05, 2008
01. MAGIC

Without a doubt, the person who had the best 2007 was Yasutaka Nakata. Releasing three albums alone for his main project capsule, one new album for a side-project, COLTEMONIKHA, and producing phenomenal girl group Perfume’s new singles and collaborating with Ami Suzuki on my personal choice for 2007’s best single FREE FREE… The dude is infallible. At this point, he could probably write a track for Morning Musume and make them worth listening to. Heck, he’s managed to take MEG, a somewhat mediocre pop singer and transform her music into ear-worthy melodies with the unmistakeable blend of lounge and club reminiscent of Nakata’s early (and arguably present) work (so yeah, that’s the other thing I’ve been doing while I’ve been gone…obsessing over this man).

In this case, the title track is inferior to the c/w track “MIRACLE” and the NEMESIS remix of “MAGIC” is superior to the original…don’t know who chooses these things, but regardless, they’re all fun tracks. Nothing on the single will top year end lists (unless you’re into b-side top tens or sumthin), but if February’s singles are any indication of this month’s, this will probably be one of the best we see in the next twenty-five days. Prove me wrong!

♫ Official Site
♫ Buy MAGIC

February singles catch-up: Noriyuki, Hikki, Adam K

You know February has been bad for music when Noriyuki Makihara’s single “Firefly ~Boku wa Ikiteiku” is the best release all month. I mean really. The only work I know by this guy is 1999’s “Hungry Spider.” Isn’t he more of an adult contemporary artist? Jesus. By the end of the performance he looks like he’s going to pass out (but it’s so cute when he claps his hands, it’s forgiveable). Also, he’s not trying to be ironic with the sweater, is he? A brilliant song, though, subtly based on piano and consistently orbiting acousics and heavy drums (fake, real, who cares). I won’t bother debating this great song, it’s probably the one thing I’ve been the most sure about in the past four weeks.

So is it “Firefly” or Hikaru Utada’s “HEART STATION” that gets top billing? I honestly couldn’t tell you. The thing about Utada’s single is that it was leaked about five years too early for it to matter too much come February. That doesn’t necessarily dispute its greatness, it was just greatness a month prior. Lots of soulful crooning and breathing on the title track, plus a stunning piano loop on “Stay Gold;” I couldn’t ask for much more in my art-pop diva. Her album by the same title comes out later this month and it’s one of the few releases that are sure to make a splash this March (aside from Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours, which won’t make a splash anywhere, but which I’ll spend far too long gushing about anyway).

Best trance single this month is, by far, Adam K’s “Long Distance” (look, a shitty non-video). I don’t have words to back this up, and why should I? It’s an instrumental track that speaks for itself. First time I’ve heard harmonica (palatable harmonica) in a trance title without wincing. This paragraph now officially serves as nothing except proof that I listened to other singles besides Japanese pop this month (Son Ho Young is Korean, so there).

Best dance video of 2008 already? Namie’s “WHAT A FEELING” PV

I’ve watched this video for Namie Amuro’s upcoming single 60s 70s 80s approximately three hundred times and am still enamored. I’m convinced; the self-proclamation of “Queen of Hip-Pop” and “Dancing Queen” aren’t attempts at being immodest, they’re just the truth, in a time when self-proclamations are usually good for nothing more than 10 second polite chuckles.

Once again, my one consternation is that Amuro refuses to stop the touch chick act and just smile or enjoy the moment. Infact, I wager this is the one of those songs that demand a bit of self-humor; what only hurts the song is the inability to take the piss out of the (extremely) liberal sampling of Irene Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling” and that Hammer Time! jacket that elevates it to the level of We Mean Business rather than, This Wouldn’t Be So Fun If It Wasn’t So Equally Preposterous.