Apparently so. I pretty much avoided reviewing anything music-related (except PVs) recently, much due to me being totally unsure of my... proficiency in it. It seems to me that I keep repeating what I say, just in different words. Which of course makes me kind of feel like I'm just bullshitting my way through the whole entry. Which is bad.

Which is why I stopped reviewing. But now, there are NO PVs to review, and NOTHING interesting to blog about recently, hence me resorting to something I adamantly decided to avoid since a few weeks ago. Boy that was one long ramble.

Let's just get to it shall we? I've chosen 3 singles to review:


1. haru X daniel powter - FIND MY WAY
2. Tanaka Roma feat. Aoyama Thelma - Forever Love
3. Kanjani 8 - WAHAHA

The slightly less famous three, but should be fun.

[The Good]

Kanjani 8 has done it again with WAHAHA. Another crazy tune that makes you go "WTF?" upon first listen. Synthetic sounds and keyboards dominate the main tune of the song with various brass instruments here and there. The result is an overly cheerful song overflowing with drunken chants like "KE TA KE TA KE TA!" and "OOH OOH!". Pretty standard Kanjani 8 stuff, so if you hated their previous stuff, this won't sit well with you either. Well at least one can't say this is a forgettable song, which it obviously not by any means.

Kanjani 8 is pretty lucky in my opinion to have found a niche in doing "crazy" music. Their voices are by no means great and certainly won't compare to any other JE bands had they been doing "normal" stuff. But because they're doing such mind-blowing music, you can help but be distracted by the mad-antics and forgive them for their bad singing. Heck, even their bad singing is passable in such songs.

The second song, Dare yori kimi ga suki dakara is really old school. VERY old school. Much like 1980s Japanese ballads kind of old. This, I did NOT expect from K8. It sounds like something KinKi Kids would have done when they were just debuting. You know, the kind where the guys go on music shows wearing ugly suits and spins around while smoke drifts around them for no reason.

The vocals and harmonies work well to have a rather fascinating tune that is very un-K8. Man, this song just contradicted my previous paragraph. K8 CAN do normal music (or near-normal, considering this song is kind of odd as well) if they wanted to. A very different side of K8 if you ask me. Be prepared to be surprised.

The last song BJ is the rock song. The one Kanjani 8 is trying so hard to dabble with.

Now excuse me while I laugh about how a bunch of odd guys are singing about something called BJ. Oh boy, that's just pure magic. I think I just heard Speedo in the song. Even better.

This song would have worked better with Tackey & Tsubasa. For some reason I have that TxT vibe from this song. It's decent yes, but the vocals let the song down too much for it to be a good song. Pretty keys, a solid rock tune and strong drum beats couldn't save this song from the vocal onslaught. Too nasal in too many places.

Try out this single if you're into crazy songs. Or if you just want to have some good old silly fun.

[The so-so]

haru x daniel powter's FIND MY WAY begins with the piano... why am I not surprised? haru's voice is kind of unique and attractive in an unexplainable way. He sounds kind of... haphazard at parts, but does well overall.

The problem I have with this song is not the tune, which to be honest is really really good. The problem I have with this is how it seems that this song doesn't sound like a "haru X daniel powter" song, but rather a "haru VS daniel powter" song. It doesn't show itself until the end of the first chorus. The song was really pleasant before that. But after the first chorus? It was "OHHH YEAHHHH!" and "FIND MY WAYYYYY~~~~ OOOOOOH~~~" all over. It was pure orchestrated chaos. Which I suppose works for some people, but it was just really jarring to me after a while.

Otherwise this song is really just a typical Daniel Powter tune, with enough influence from haru to make it sound a bit Jpoppy. Worth trying if you like Daniel Powter's previous works. Or if you're into the power-acoustic-pop stuff.

[The BAD]

Tanaka Roma is the exact reverse of Kanjani 8. He has decent talent, just that he has not found his specialty at all. This single is just another classic case of how lost he is in his search for his true "calling".

Forever Love is mainly made up of very very pretty piano music and a lot of airy vocals. I have NO idea what happened to him in this song, but his voice is really really substandard in this song. I also find it weird that a guy with such dance prowess and such a physique would want to release a single in the ballads genre. One would think that since he's not all that popular to begin with, he would try to emphasize on his strengths to gain himself a decent fanbase first before trying out senseless singles like this.

The song also features Aoyama Thelma, who is insanely popular in Japan right now. So naturally, shouldn't she get a bigger part in the song such that her fans might be more supportive? All she had was one lousy line and "ooh"s and "aah"s throughout the rest of the song. It's no wonder none of her fans bothered with this single.

I get the feeling that they were trying to make a magical, Disney-ish love song that is all serene and beautiful. However, Roma's rough and husky vocals simply do not fit this image and to be quite honest, his voice doesn't go well with Aoyama's either. In any case, bad combinations all around.

The second song Free sounds like a 90s pop tune, which is a BIG step up from the titular track. His voice fits the song slightly better, framed by loads of synthesized music. The feel one gets from the song is a relaxed and refreshing one. While this is not really suitable for the dance-master image I think he should adopt, it's at least slightly more danceable than his previous track. The chorus is a bit yell-ish, as he tries to shove down your throat how "frEEEEEEEEEE" he feels. And that clashes with the rest of the song. It's like pork chops on a fresh garden salad.... or something like that. Not really suitable, but if you're weird and twisted, you might like it somehow.

Try out this single only if you're a desperate blogger with nothing to blog about and need a bad single to dump in a "the bad" section of your post. Try harder next time Roma!

Labels: Daniel Powter, haru, Kanjani 8, Tanaka Roma