Utada; Come Back to Me

FREEBIE! And it’s a great one!

Utada’s mv for her single, “Come Back to Me” is the free video of the week on itunes! Now you have absolutely no excuse not to go download it. I haven’t listened to her new album yet, but after watching this, it is totally on the top of the list.

This song is very R&B which I’m totally digging at the moment (such a change of heart), but she still retains a bit of her breathy, high pitched Jpop sound. IDK, I love it!

The lyrics are a little lol worthy, but she looks gorgeous in the video, and her man candy is no slouch either ♥

 

THSK, BoA, Arashi on 03/09/06 Music Station

jiayingg @ youtube

Switching gears a bit. I have never been really impressed with Japanese music shows. Personally, I think Iron Chef has more theatrics and production value then stuff like Music Station. However, this THSK’s big debut on MS, so gotta show some love.

Survivor. *Sigh* I really wish the unbanning happened with a better song (and choreography). Okay, actually the song is growing on me, but the dance not so much. It totally sucks that they didn’t even get to sing the whole song– Yunho and Yoochun only got like half a line each : S. On the positive side, Junsu, Changmin and Jae sounded great so overall it was about as good of a performance as I could’ve hoped for. Oh, and their back outfits were pretty badass~

BoA; Elen Why does this song sound so familiar?? I swear there’s a DBSK song with a “bye bye bye” part that sounds exactly the same;;; Anywways, I was really distracted by the hair fail to notice much else. I don’t listen to BoA’s Japanese songs cuz I really dislike her voice in Japanese. It’s too nasally and high pitched, like a hyena in need of Sudafed. She is a great performer however!

Arashi; Believe Come on, there’s no way I can not compare them to THSK. Same show, two performances, it’s just begging for it//. Okay, no doubt THSK are better singers, but they looked kinda stiff and nervous which is understandable being their first time and all. Arashi’s performance was a lot of fun! I don’t really like the song, but i did find the rap parts strangely hot o___O. You know what, Arashi kinda reminds me of Fahrenheit. They totally have that sort-of-talented, whatever-let’s-just-have-fun vibe going on.

Okay, I’m dead tired so I’m gonna go nap now. More later perhaps : )

 

TOHOSHINKI v. KAT-TUN; “Survivor” to the “Rescue”

THSK; Survivor | Kat-Tun; Rescue

I know, I know, *pats self on back for super clever, super original title* Lol, some fans are making this out to be some epic battle, but it really isn’t. Kat-Tun is gonna put a thumping on Oricon, and I’m sure THSK is happy to just ride the publicity wave. That being said, a little compare and contrast never hurt anyone right?

I’m biased obviously, since I obsessively internet stalk one of these groups, and have not heard more then one or two songs from the other. Still, I’m putting on my objectivity hat, and trying my best to just listen and judge.

Kat-Tun’s song is very rock, which, from what I hear, is their usual reputation. There’s a heavy synthetic backbeat and it sounds like something you might hear in a club or something. I’m not familiar with any of the members or their voices, but they sound pretty good. I really, really dislike the rap though, but hey, it’s not like THSK is better at it so I’m not judging~.  Looking at the lyrics, I realized that there’s a lot of English in the song, which, okay, sure//. The song is very moody, and without being able to compare it to any other Kat-Tun stuff, I have to say it’s pretty good. I actually didn’t like it the first time I heard it but it’s grown on me.

THSK’s song sounds very much in line with the rest of their Japanese stuff. I absolutely love the beginning! There’s also a lot of synthesizer in this song. I know it’s only the two something minute preview, but like always with their Japanese songs, Jaejoong’s voice stands out from the rest. IMO, he sounds the most like a Jpop singer with the nasally sound.  Junsu and Yoochun also sound great in the preview.

Of course it’s not really fair to compare a full song to a preview but at the moment, I have to say I like “Rescue” better. I’m not just saying that to prove that I’m unbiased (cuz I’m so beyond not…). Aside from the rap, the rest of the song felt very cohesive, and the transitions from Japanese to English was done nicely so that I didn’t even really notice the language change. Even though this type of music isn’t really my thing, I could see myself listening to this while working out or something. “Survivor”  otoh, is kinda forgettable. To be honest, THSK singles are very hit or miss for me. For example, I absolutely love”Purple Line” and “Beautiful You,” but some of their other ones are just like blah. The good news is that they’re putting out an album shortly after this single so hopefully there are better songs on that.

 

Does anyone else have this problem?

Mr. Children ie latest shiny thing on my mind

A little preface. I dunno if anyone else does this, but sometimes I go on yesasia to window shop of sorts, just to see what all the cool kids are listening to these days. Anyways, for whatever reason I ended up on the Japanese music page and one thing led to another, and now I’ve spent the past 30 minutes acquainting myself with my latest potential obsession, Mr. Children.

So this brings me to my little dilemma. I think I really like them, at least, based on like the five songs I’ve heard so far. So that’s good; it’s good to like people. The problem is, they’ve been around for two decades and have released 12 studio albums and 33 singles not counting compilations, live albums, and other knick-knacks. That’s a lot of stuff to sort through for a new fan, especially one who’s Japanese does not extend beyond the words manga, sashimi, and haiku.

So does anyone else feel intimidated by certain fandoms? It wouldn’t be so bad if they spoke English or if I knew someone else who liked them, but I’m flying solo on this one, and I think I’m like a decade and a half too late to jump on the train. Just a quick survey of my itunes reveals that I hardly listen to any people with more then four or five albums out. I know this is weird and OCD, but I can’t handle just listening to random songs by artists. I like to collect entire discographies of artists I like, but if that’s not possible, then I at least must have complete albums. With a few exceptions, even if I only like one song from a certain album, I have to have the entire thing, otherwise it’ll just bother me to no end. That’s weird right? I can’t help it though. Usually this isn’t a problem, since many of the artists I like have put out at most two or three albums, and it’s pretty easy listen to their entire body of work. For the few artist I listen to who have more stuff, I feel like it was only after I’ve sampled everything, that I could fully appreciate and spazz over them. Even if I don’t like everything they’ve ever done, and I only listen to certain stuff once, I feel like I have to at hear it all, so I can understand their musical evolution or whatever. Okay, I’m not even making any sense ,but it just bothers me to jump into fandoms without proper research *crazy googly eyes*.

When it comes to musicians like Mr. Children, or Jay Chou, another artist I’ve avoided for this reason, it’s like I don’t even know where to dip my feet in. Okay, this has got to be the stupidest reason for not liking someone ever. “Hi, I don’t like certain artists because they’ve accomplished too much in the careers already.” I sound like an insane person, and I know it’s totally illogical, but I don’t know what to do about it; it’s just how I appreciate music. So as far as Mr. Children is concerned, I guess I’ll take a listen to their latest album, which if I remember correctly, was the highest selling album in Japan last year. Yeah, that sounds like a good place to start, and if I like what I hear, I guess I’ll work backwards from there. Plan, action, good. asldkfjasldfj no more from the crazy train tonight…

 

Arashi; Beautiful Days

Credit ArashiPVs @ youtube

Whoa… I know right??? Jpop??? Arashi??? I don’t think I have the cajones to pull off Jpop fandom T____T. Honest to god, I’ve tried to get into Jpop before, just to complete the east Asian trifecta, but the ghei and pretty bar has been set high by Kpop, and I don’t have the energy to get obsessed with another fandom in a language I don’t know. However, Arashi has always intrigued me and if I were to obsess over a Jpop boyband, this would be it. Of course I know Jun Matsumoto through HYD. I thought he was completely adorakble and I actually liked Makino with Tsukasa instead of Rui^^. Um, I also watched like two epis of some show with Ohno and Ninomiya and just found Nino to be the cutest thing ever XD.

Whenever I hear comparisons between Kpop and Jpop, it always seems like people obsessed over the Johnny’s boys, then discover the magical realm of SM. The most common thing people say seems to be that Kpop boybands act like they actually like each other, whereas Jpop boybands don’t??? Is this right?? I’ve watched a few videos of Arashi and they were really cute with each other and seemed to get along fine. Anyone want to tell me more about them?? They’ve been around for almost 10 years, where do I even start???

LOL, anyways, this is the pv for their new single that came out a week or so ago. Um, it’s sort of magical and fantasy and I dunno, I think it’s really kwel. I love the song more and more each time I listen to it. It’s for a new show with one of them right? IDK, I’ll dig around a little more, and maybe I’ll at least become a casual fan ; ).