My new side-blog. I know I’ve not been updating KtoE very regularly, but I’ve just not found the words or enthusiasm to write a decent review so I’m going to take a break for a bit and hone my post writing skills at Give Me Love.
The opening post is a chat about Cinderella\Complex, the inspiration for the blog title… if you hadn’t guessed.
Anyway… Hope you’ll read it.
Add comment June 16, 2008
If you’ve payed any attention to my album reviews, you’ll probably have realised that I love sugary-borderline-cheesy pop and hate it when a ballad ends an album. Kissing You is a happy, sugary song so you can expect me to enjoy it a lot. BoA’s voice suits this song perfectly and the instrumentation is pretty odd, in a good way, there’s irregular percussion and Mario type ‘bop‘ sounds here and there, which makes the instrumental pretty interesting to listen to. Kissing You is a very sweet, bouncy track with just enough unusual elements and ideas to make it far more substantial than generic sugary pop song.
Track Rating; A-
Sparkling follows Kissing You by slowing down the intro and letting BoA put in a great vocal. When the music speeds up and BoA doesn’t it reminds me very much of Steps, which is an odd flashback I’ll tell you. I love the chorus, it just feels pretty and the English lyrics are great. ‘Every me, Every you‘ while being a little bit cheesy, and entirely non-sensical, just works somehow. I think Sparkling is my favourite out of all the tracks on Vivid.
Track Rating; A
Joyful Smile starts with a great clap+guitar combination before introducing a steady drum beat. Joyful Smile is a little less energetic and slightly less sugary than the previous two tracks and doesn’t really hold my interest as much as most of the track is just clap+guitar with a little bit of a drum beat. It’s good, just has a bit less to offer than Kissing You and Sparkling.
Track Rating; B
Single Rating; A-
P.S; An entire single of happy, sugary, semi-cheesy pop songs? Get in!
1 comment June 6, 2008
I liked the Wonder Girls from the first time I heard of them, Tell Me was too addictive to ignore and I loved the album. I am one of the most impatient people in the world and I hate waiting for new releases but I wasn’t disappointed. So Hot, if you pay no attention to the lyrics, is your basic Pop”R’n'B” track, the background music is shallow, relentless and doesn’t change much through the whole song. Still, there’s something about it that has an addictive quality, but in a different way to Tell Me. Listen to it and you’ll know what I mean, and afterwards go look at the lyrics… If you are like me and don’t understand Korean any further than ‘Saranghae’ without a translation, the humour in the track would go completely over your head. I was clever enough to watch the subbed video first so I could appreciate that right from the off.
Track Rating; A
This Time is a general “R’n'B” ballad affair. Good beat, generally good vocals but it lacks the impact of some of the ballad-type songs they’ve done. There’s a great pace and tone in the chorus and it’s definitely worthy of a few good listens, but it’s not quite my style.
Track Rating; B
You’re Out would not have been out of place on The Wonder Years. It reminds me a lot of songs like Headache and Bad Boy. Playing up the 80’s influence has worked for them all along though, so it’s not a surprise that it’s worked again! The bare arrangement focuses the song very well, paying more attention to the vocals and Yoobin’s rap, while short, works very well in this environment.
Track Rating; B+/A-
And finally the Rap Version of Tell Me. I like this version, even though the only difference is the inclusion of Yoobin’s rap section that wasn’t in the album version. If you want to see what I think of Tell Me check out my previous review of their album, I don’t wanna be repeating myself.
Track Rating; A*
Single Rating; A+
1 comment June 6, 2008
I’ll miss Biyuuden.
Nanni mo Iwazu ni I LOVE YOU is just a completely sweet song, it’s the only way to describe it. In the grand scheme of things, Biyuuden never had the greatest voices and that does make a bit of an impact on the overall effect of the song as some of the adlibbing is most definitely bad, but for all they lack this is the perfect farewell. The chorus is very likely to get stuck in your head as it opens the song, is repeated a great deal throughout and then la’d towards the end. Nanni mo Iwazu ni does need a good listen to really enjoy and if you’re elitist about your vocalists you may want to give this one a miss, but for me it makes me realise that I will miss Biyuuden, but I’ll have something great to remember them by.
Track Rating; A
Rika’s solo comes first, which is expected, she is/was the leader. Omoide wa Kanata is rock-ish and is probably one of the only times I can objectively say that I like her voice all the way through. She’s not pushing or singing out of a feasible range. As for the song itself, it has a great instrumental and the riffs are brilliant. From some of the interesting vocals Rika has thrown about for a couple of years, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about listening to Omoide wa Kanata but now I really like it.
Track Rating; A
Ano Natsu no Yoru has a dull opening. It also has a dull middle and it wouldn’t be a stretch to call the end dull too. I think the chorus should have exploded with strings to fill out the sound. Erika has a very strong voice and it often served as the grounding force in Biyuuden’s other singles so she should have really been given a chance to shine, but the material lacks here and is just a bit boring. Her vocal does give the song points though.
Track Rating; B-
Okada Yui’s Saigo no Natsuyasumi doesn’t have the immediate grab that Omoide wa Kanata had, but it is far more engaging than Erika’s solo right from the get-go. Yui actually displays some great vocals here and carries the song really well. Though in my opinion the song lasts a little to long and has to rely on repeating the chorus quite a bit before the end, but other than that it a good song.
Track Rating; B/B+
Single Rating; A
1 comment June 2, 2008
I’ve read a lot of scathing comments about this single. Mainly directed at the fact All Because of You was written by Avril Lavigne… who happens to be one of my favourite artists (I just went to one of her concerts :D) and mostly the abuse is based on assumptions, many of which were made before the single even came out, which, I’ve decided, is totally not worth the time spent reading the words.
Anyway, moving on. I love All Because of You. It is very Avril Lavigne, so if that’s not your taste move away now, but at the same time it definitely suits Puffy completely. There’s a little Engrish here and there but it’s pretty much all completely understandable, I’ll be one to champion Lavigne’s lyrics… I love her writing style and lyrics like ‘I just run into walls and trip over my shoes’ have a sort of honest humour in them. Ultimately, All Because of You is a song I can listen to over and over again just because it’s totally my style.
Track Rating; A/A+
Frontier no Pioneer, which I keep spelling incorrectly, is an acoustic track. It’s less energetic and doesn’t really have a focal point. To me their voices sound quite different when they’re singing in Japanese, I don’t know, they just sound a little lighter. The lack of a particular focal point loses the possible catchiness, even though there are some very nice harmonies and the ‘Hashiru, Hitori’s that lead out are my favourite point. An enjoyable song but not one to put on repeat.
Track Rating; B
Closet Full of Love (Remix) has a strong opening that I rather like, but when the thumping beat comes in under the rest I stop caring. It just turns me off and I’ve listened to this a grand total of twice.
Track Rating; C-
Single Rating; B+
Add comment June 2, 2008
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