I'm not dead!

For those of you that saw the hippo post yesterday? That wasn't me. Horrible Angelia.

School's been reeeeeally busy and there has be nothing but really horrendously boring PVs up on JPS, so this blog has been pretty much dead.

But finally a single I can review! With amazing and horrible songs at the same time! It's a sign from above!

7 songs this time, following my normal format.

[The good]

Surprisingly, both my favorite songs came from the same version of the single, which happens to be the most "unpopular" version of the single.

SMACK is the solo song of Nakamaru Yuichi, the group's beat-boxer. When I first heard they were going to do solo songs, the thought of both Nakamaru's and Koki's solos made me grown inside.

Surprisingly, Nakamaru's isn't half bad. In fact, it's hecka good.

With impressive vocals (considering how I've never heard him sing, and never really expected him to be able to), the song is simple, light, poppy and is really cheery. This song would have been done really well by any of the other members too, so I guess that's why they chose him to sing this one.

Nonetheless, clean bubblegum-dance-pop with his boyish voice goes well together. The transposes (yes, not only one, but three to be exact) impressed me a lot too, though to be honest, I was half -expecting him to scream and fail at some point in the song. Which he doesn't, so I was pleasantly surprised. Even the lyrics are pretty much bubblegum-poppy, with cheesy verses like "I saw a doctor, and understood I am lovesick". Perfect for listening when you need a good song to cheer you up without it being too cluttered with all the extra stuff.

Ai no Hana, the solo song done by Ueda whatshisname, starts of with very soothing and magical piano notes, before introducing various mood-ish instruments. The result is a slightly sad, yet beautiful, echoey piece of music. His vocals are undeniably the best of all of KAT-TUN, so the song can't suck too much. The music slowly builds up over time to a pretty dramatic climax before dying out gracefully. Solemn and serious, the song is coupled with pretty heavy lyrics like "Looking up the sky, I lost my heart to innumerable clouds with nothing". Woah.

Somehow, a PV with him singing in some random cave that has a waterfall with a baby grand in the background would be really perfect for this song. That said, this song is perfect if you're in for some sleepy or relaxing music. Could be slightly emo though.

[The so-so]

The titular track DON'T U EVER STOP starts off mysteriously with sort of sci-fi music before exploding into an obviously rock tune. Akanishi starts off nicely, with his "slowly" and "story" making me grin thinking about the thousands of crazy fangirls swooning over his singing.

The rest of the song was pretty blah though. The whole of KAT-TUN basically screamed through a chorus that could have been a really amazing chorus. The bridge sounded like a bunch of drunken frat boys, even ending with "Hehh hehh, hell yeah". Er, okay? The music was too noisy for you to really differentiate between the instruments much (if you're a normal listener like me that is), so the whole thing pretty much sounded like one... very melodic TV static. Not forgetting of course the very delightful and random glass-breaking throughout the whole thing. Wha...?

Suitable for drunken karaoke screaming.

Akanishi's solo LOVEJUICE was just... dirty. But still not impressive enough to be considered a good song. In fact, I considered putting under the BAD section. Upon first listen, you'd probably pick up bits of English here and there. At least I did anyways, so I went to check the lyrics.

Ho boy, it wasn't English that's for sure, it was full blown Engrish.

"I could tell you want me too Many time I think of you Delicious drink can let's produce I can taste the sweet LOVEJUICE"

I seriously don't want to listen to a song about how he likes to produce and drink sweet lovejuice. Eew. Girls around the world are probably producing their own lovejuice just by listening to the song. How disturbing.

Pop/R&B is probably how you would describe it. The annoying female background vocals detracted from the song, and the ending with the echo of "juice... juicee juicee" was just really bad. Otherwise Akanishi's vocals are decent enough to pull of this horny song. It's probably just his face... voice I mean.

Natsu no Basho, Taguchi's solo was rather.... random. It's pop with synthesized music and a piano and some sort of brass instrument. Messy. The verse is pretty decent to be honest, and the chorus is soso. However, Taguchi's vocals just wreck the whole thing. His brash and heck-care-ish vocals sound like bad singing at the year-end company dinner. It is otherwise pretty forgettable and unimpressive. There was a small part at the end where there was just his voice and a main guitar, which sounded like HY for a moment or two, but that moment ended pretty quickly.

He had a transpose too, but he just sounded like the company worker, only with more beer and gusto in his system. Nice try I suppose, but just really... wasted.

[The BAD]

Kamenashi's solo w/o notice?? is just really bad. I mean, what in the world is that title supposed to mean? Since when do the Japanese use short forms that even I don't use? What are the question marks for? All these just confuse me to no end.

Weird music box tunes lead into him sniggering pervertedly, which is followed by.... well, a lazy and haphazard tune. The chorus and the verse do not fit well together at all. The chorus is much more cheery while the verse is slightly more mysterious and lounge-jazzy. Someone probably wrote two seperate songs, mashed them together and stuffed it down Johnny Kitagawa's throat (much to his delight of course, we all know how kinky Johnny is).

And did he honestly sing "chu chu ru ru chu chu"? Goodness. Someone save me. A sniggering pervert just tried to be a Morning Musume and tried to kiss me too. AHHHH~

Gah, I almost wanted to just ignore this song totally for the review, considering what a mess it was. This song is PARASITE from Koki. Apt name really. It sucks the life out of you. Guhhh!

Screaming, overly heavy rock, pseudo-rocker-vocals, rapid macho-rapping, and probably a mix of gregorian chants and some pretty united screaming of various Engrish words.

I have no idea what he's really singing, but it sounds like "Let me check this out, I bet you want to three four five six on the mic and then the *dunnowhat garbish* you know right? (no I don't know, right) Ready? (Not really)". So impressive. He mixes puns and confusion tactics all together into one big rap-disguised-bullcrap. That takes real talent I tell ya.

I mean, you know right? Kyahahaha, I'm enjoying this far too much.

The verdict! Ready? *slaps self* Overall, the single has a nice selection of songs, it's a pity that some of them were not done nicely. Worth listening, but probably not worth buying.