Initially, I wanted to blog about the latest Haromoni where Aika went "Namennayo!", but it seems that topic is rather overused. So I had to look for something else to blog about.

So then I remembered that I've recently received a present from my awesome friend Angelia, which was Koda Kumi's album Black Cherry. So I thought, I should review it, what with lack of material for snarkiness recently.

This post was initially a track by track review, done ala Kimitsu style. However, it turned out phenomenally boring as I have no talent for detecting weird instruments in the background and saying how it flows well and what not. So you're gonna get my type of review. Live with it. xD

[The Good]

I'll be there and With Your Smile happens to be my two favorite songs in the album, with GO WAY!! as a close second to both of them. All three of them are very happy-sounding songs with vastly different styles to them.

I'll be there sounds light and refreshing, with its none-too-complex music and Kuu's clear vocals. It feels like a day off where you go to a beach with no one there and you lie back and just listen to the wind blow and the weather's not hot at all, which makes for a very happy mood. Well, at least for me it does.

With Your Smile runs in the same vein as Real Emotion, the song that propelled Kuu from stardom to Superstardom. Very catchy and very dangerously addictive.

GO WAY!! is rather weird sounding, but actually comes off pretty well. It sounds slightly Brazilian (or Hawaiian or Mexican. I'm bad with these things), which is always fun. Not dangerously addictive, but it would take me a pretty long while before I start getting sick of it.

[The So-so]

My friends should know I have no habit of reading lyrics for the songs I listen to. However, Get Up & Move!! had a fair bit of English which I seriously thought I heard wrong. But I did not.

"Every time I look into your eyes
Komi ageru shoudou
na na na na na na...
You’ve got me really horny"

Ooookay. Inappropriate lyrics aside, Get Up & Move!! is pretty good for some party, as some background music which no ones cares about but is still nice to have there just for the heck of it. It really rather catchy though, although the "wanna shake it like whuuuuut?" parts make me roll my eyes to no end

And then comes the robotic sounds AGAIN! Yes indeed, 月と太陽 Tsuki to Taiyou starts off with the robotic voices, and then you will be greeted by cutesy Koda Kumi. While it is none too memorable, it is a song you could and would listen to while working late at night and need to relax.

I'm not really sure what kind of song it is though, it's sorta chilloutish, bordering on lounge, yet sounds slightly too happy to be a ballad. Nice to have on the album, but it wouldn't kill me not to have it either.

Milk Tea, Kuu's first ever self-written song is pretty similar to 月と太陽 Tsuki to Taiyou, and Kuu slightly overdoes the cuteness in this song. It's a pretty impressive first try though, and I certainly hope she continues writing songs. Her songwriting definitely has great potential.

[The BAD]

I had to rewrite this section fully due to it not being snarky enough. So here you go, the bad bits of this album.

人魚姫 Ningyo Hime was a rock song, which can't be good. It had a rather monotonous tune to most of the verses, and was really boring. It wasn't bad per se, just very yawnable. The chorus was not too much to talk about either, as it doesn't display Kuu's vocals as much as I hoped it would. The second chorus had her trying to sound more hardcore-rock, which was a flop. She sounded like she was sticking out her tongue and singing, which made her sound... incoherent, or drunk. Or possibly both.

Moving on, the overused song - WON'T BE LONG (Black Cherry Version & Red Cherry Version). I liked the original version with EXILE way better than these two. Black cherry version lacked the upbeatness of the original. It sounded like a half-hearted attempt at a remix, making it really irritating to finish. The whole time I was thinking "please let it end already!". Fortunately it did, I thought it never would - after all, avex has creepy ways to torture their fans.

The Red cherry version just sounded kinda lame with her singing to herself.

JUICY in itself is really a boring oversexed song, but the PV will most definitely leave you with a nosebleed. Watch it, seriously. It's the only way to redeem this song. The panting all over the song, with the litterings of "Love me tonight"s makes for another good party song, if your party is destined to finish with all the people there getting laid at the end of it. If so, I would say play the PV instead. It would do a better job.

The English version for Twinkle had even more Engrish than the Koda X Show version. Catchy song yes, but somehow "Come on why don't you CRAP your hands" is pretty unforgettable in my really childish mind. Koda Kumi should stick to Japanese, that's for sure. Unless you are really forgiving or really dense to not realize it, the Engrish will end up distracting you from all the goodness of this song.

If you've read till this part, I must thank you for enduring my long review of this album. While I sound like I HATE this album, which I always sound anyways, it really is quite good. The songs in it are decent when thrown together for an album. With a diverse mix of genres, this definitely has something for everybody. Try it out, you won't regret it.

Labels: Koda Kumi