Friday 14 December 2012

Kanashiki Heaven - ºC-ute Review



Here is my review on the B-side of C-ute's Aitai Aitai Aitai Na. When I first heard this song I instantly fell in love with it! I am a massive fan of acoustic songs so when the vocal harmonies kicked in with the simple guitar riffs I was hypnotised. Maimi is my favourite member of C-ute but I don't blame Tsunku for teaming Airi and Chisato together for this amazing epitome of music! They have blended well together in past C-ute singles, and I should have seen a duet like this coming.

When it comes to who sang which harmony I am happy that Airi was allocated with the lower harmonies because in recent lives she can belt out a good note in her lower register. So of course with powerful vocals needed in this song, Airi pulls it off perfectly with her low, rocky vocals. There was also a good reason for her to be placed in Buono! also!

Chisato, would be as I call it, C-ute's underdog. When C-ute first debuted she wasn't one of the main vocalists of the group but in recent singles she has slowly risen from the flames and bloomed in her own right. I never noticed her vocals until Sekaiichi Happy No Onna no ko which is a shame because I feel bad that I didn't notice her as much when I first discovered C-ute. The higher melodies that were given to her in this song allowed her to carry off this beautiful, sweet but strong vocal that blended well with Airi. I am also kind of glad that Chisato was more dominant in the recording of this song for my ears. Airi is very dominant in C-ute singles and even though she sounds fantastic in this I'm glad she didn't overdo her lower harmony to outshine Chisato.

Then the rest of the C-ute line up also add their vocals to the first lines of the chorus' which allows a more rich introduction to the main parts of the song. The chorus' of the song is what draws me in the most with the song and allows a good pace from the chorus to the music to introduce the next verse.

Then as soon as the rest of the instrumentation kicks in the vocals carry from this sweet melody to a full blown refrain about reminiscing a relationship and looking across the city. Then I also loved the middle 8 part of the song where an electric guitar riff allows for a perfect instrumentation for the rest of the C-ute members to dance to. I have seen parts of the dance that they do from the live performance and the MV and they are just amazing. No one can beat Morning Musume in the H!P groups, but C-ute are really starting to shine with their professional talents!

And the music video just made me love the song more! I loved the shots of the two girls in what appears to be a warehouse of some kind and it does remind me of the set of Morning Musume's Nanchatte Renai. I also adored the outfits and I'm glad this music video has a darker theme in terms of set and costume for this PV because it breaks away from the lighter shades that are usually used in C-ute music videos. Airi and Chisato both look like tasteful, sexy rock stars and I wasn't surprised to see Airi's midriff because to be honest she has a fit body (and I am a straight girl) and Chisato's curves were gorgeous in this PV too and her dramatic stars in the solo shots also made her look sophisticated sexy!

I also loved the shots that were used from the live to add variety to the music video but I just think this was a way for UFP to kill two birds with one stone and make two videos out of one set of shots. Despite that I think the edit between the two girls performing in the music video and the live performance along with the live choreography flowed well and made a fantastic music video. I do have to say it was one of the best H!P music videos I've seen this year!

RATING: 10/10

Thursday 6 December 2012

Berryz工房『WANT!』 Review

Sorry for the lack of activity on this blog, I started university a couple of months ago and it has kept me busy with the amount of work we do so I do apologise for not updating this blog. But hopefully in the next few weeks, I can update this blog with more music reviews because a few singles from my favourite J-Pop artists have been released and there are also a few releases in the future I am looking forward to!

Now one of the latest releases from H!P is Berryz Kobou's 30th single! Now a lot BK's fans were very excited for this single because this marked a memorable time in their career with hitting 30 singles, and I do admit I was also one of these fans who was also looking forward to this. Due to their last single, cha cha SING, sounding fantastic, of course I had high hopes for this single.



The first thing that caught me when I first listened to this song was the instrumentation. Due to the recent success of H!P latest releases being dance/techno (and with them charting fairly well compared to the in past such as C-ute's Aitai Aitai Aitai Na), I wasn't surprised that this single would also follow in those footsteps. The introduction of the song pulled me in and even though it was very memorable to begin with, after a few more listens I am addicted to this song. Of course, I did love cha cha SING so with the huge contrast from that single to this one it did throw me back when I heard the radio preview of this song.

One thing I'm also loving about BK at the moment is the fair use of line distribution in their singles, every member gets at least one line to make it fair but the lead singers (Risako, Miyabi, Momoko and Yurina) get given a bit of a bigger push so the single sounds good to the listeners ear. Every member in this song got their chances to shine and of course Risako impressed me (my BK oishii), she sung more with attitude than trying to force power out of her voice that she seems to lack control of sometimes. But this song allowed her to strut her stuff but also sound excellent.

I also love the variety in Miyabi's vocals. Of course she has a very mature voice but I loved how she switched it up between the chorus' and the verses so her voice blended in well with the rest of the girls. I don't really have anything else to say about Miyabi's vocals, she is a fantastic singer, but I have nothing to really criticise.

Other members that also stood out to me were Yurina because her voice is really starting to improve and impress me lately and I definitely see more potential with Captain! (It's just a shame she didn't get to rap in this single!) Her voice is definitely starting to sound mature!

One thing that does put me off from listening to the song a million times again and again is because of the structure of the song. It isn't bad, but I just feel that the verses sound separate from the bridge and the chorus, so it feels like Tsunku pieced two separate songs together and thought this would pass off as a good single. I also wished they'd shortened the length of the song too because the verses did seem to have the same line structure over and over again, repeated itself over and over and become tiring to listen to halfway through them. But I do adore the bridges and chorus', and even when I don't listen to this song I still hum to it all the time.

The costumes were very out there for me when I first caught sight of them so I thought they'd be doing a sexy song, but the lyrics of a song are about being in a serious relationship so I don't see the connection there. The outfits also don't match the PV apart from the dance shot. In the rotating sets shot I would have placed the girls into much more casual outfits so then they would have fit into their separate "rooms" better. However, despite the outfits not fitting in with the music video I think the girls do look stunning in these, especially Risako, Miyabi, Yurina and Saki!

I loved the black set with the white screen in the background for the dance shot, it was simple yet it still looked visually fantastic so it added composition to the dance but also didn't distract the viewers from the girls' movements. I also liked the coloured frame of the white background to represent all of the members colours, it added more to it so it wasn't a simple, cheap black and white background.

Then for the rotating rooms, I did like the idea but I felt like this could have been used as a separate idea for another single. I believe the use of sets and props for each seperate member was appropriate so it suited all of the individual members, (Momo's was also pretty obvious, the pretty-in-pink set promoted her Momochii character well, and I did prefer the use of this to those god awful ponytails she wore in cha cha SING). Also when the rooms rotated it forced you to keep a close eye on each member as they rotated round, and my attention was caught on each member. Of course, who else stood out to me more than Miyabi? She was placing herself into all different positions so she could definitely show a much more sexy side to her, but it was done in an appropriate way so she was seen as sexy and not trashy! Then when it came to the close up shots of the girls, Miyabi's wink really made me smile. Then Risako looked effortlessly beautiful with her doe-eye-stares, it made you intrigued to keep looking at her. Then even though Yurina didn't move around too much her eye contact with the camera really did pull you in and carried off a sexy innocence like Risako but in a different way.

And even though people did have issues with Risako's red shade of hair, I think she made the right move in changing it. The red shade suits her a lot better than the purple shade, even though I was growing to it. I think if she had kept the purple it would have blended in too much with the purple outfits and she wouldn't have stood out as much. I do hope she keeps the same red shade for the next few singles at least. However, I wished Saki could have least kept the shame lighter shade from cha cha SING for this single, because even though I do love her dark shade of hair now, I think there was too many dark shades in the costumes and the other members hair so Saki didn't stand out as much as I wished her too.

This single I believe was a very good choice for Berryz's 30th single release because it's catchy and memorable after a few more listens and the music video had a lot of simple creativity. It isn't as amazing as cha cha SING but it is a fantastic single, and apart from the little minor issues I do have, I can easily forgive and forget them and I can safely say that WANT! is one of my top H!P single releases this year!

RATING: 8/10