After a few days, I'm still in the camp of liking, but not loving, "glitter/fated".  And while I'm looking forward to the PVs to change my mind, what I'm *really* looking forward to is the inevitable DVD of "Tour of Secret", which just wrapped up a few days ago.  The reported setlist is far, far superior to this year's CDL concert, and does a great ( Read more... )

Wow, more new releases today!  I won't comment much on Kato Miliyah's new single, other than that her unfortunate boyband collaborator, COLOR, is wholly unworthy.  Never have I seen such vapid, unenthusiastic singing in a music video.  Especially noticeable when you've got Kato right next to them, selling it for all she's worth in nigh-indecent ( Read more... )

After the smorgasbord of new music during the first months of the year, the past 10 weeks have seen a corresponding dearth of interesting releases.  I don't think I've ever downloaded so few new singles or albums over a three month period.  But with the advent of summer of course comes the next wave of 2007.

Chihiro Onitsuka - everyhome:  Chihiro's ( Read more... )

Mika Nakashima - YES:  For some reason, it really struck me on this album that a full half of the songs had already been released, leaving only seven tracks of new material.  I'm sure this is the case for plenty of the albums I've downloaded over the years, but listening to "YES" felt like a particularly 'deja vu' experience.  Or should I say, ' ( Read more... )

Besides getting "A Best 2", within the past seven days I've downloaded no less than *eight* brand new albums.  I've never seen such a flood of new music, particularly from artists that I pay attention to.  Too much material to write full reviews on everything, so we'll have to settle for some capsules:

Hitomi Shimatani - Prima Rosa:  Sadly, the ( Read more... )

Finally got my hot little hands on "A Best 2"!  The case of the white album was slightly cracked, but I don't think I'm going to bother asking Yesasia to replace it.  I think they might be sold out of the First Press anyway.  Watched bits of the CDL, and of course her vocals were really souped up compared to the TV version; now it makes me wonder ( Read more... )

One great performance after another -- in the last 2 days we've had "moments" on Popjam, "NEVER EVER" on Music Fighter, and "part of Me" on MusicStation.  I'm glad she's choosing so many different songs from her catalog, and not just the most obvious ones (i.e. "moments" instead of the ubiquitous "No way to say").  She almost cries during "part of ( Read more... )

I recently came across the following comments about my favorite song of 2006, "a little pain" by OLIVIA inspi'REIRA.  This comes from AnimeNation's "Ask John" column, and provides a more eloquent analysis of what makes the song so great than I could ever articulate:

"The first ending theme for the Nana anime television series, "a little pain," ( Read more... )

Utada performed the original version of "Flavor of Life" on CDTV the other night.  The good news is that the original version is an improvement over the ponderous 'ballad version', alleviating the blandness with some punchy dance beats and electronic effects.  Her vocal performance here was fair to middling; Utada's always had a weak upper register ( Read more... )

For some reason, the release of Ayu's new PV caught me totally by surprise, even though it's right on schedule, one week before the release of A Best 2.  I guess I forgot there was going to be some new material included with it.  Anyways, it's an absolutely ravishing video, combining the fantasy elements from the "Voyage" PV with sumptuous ( Read more... )