Blah blah blah (or, "The Boss is too lazy
to think up a real title for this editorial")
03.11.30
Life on the J-Pop front has finally picked up
for me. I've been bitching and griping about not having anything to
buy for the better part of the year, so it's not hard to imagine how
nice it felt to be able to pick up three solid albums in the past
two months. Of course, for me, the gem of the bunch was
Garnet Crow's third album,
"Crystallize ~Kimi to iu Hikari~."
Needless to say, I was in a very big rush to get my hot hands
on this CD. The pleasant surprise was that it actually turned
out to be better than I expected (and given how much I love
Garnet Crow, my expectations were pretty high).
To me, Garnet Crow is the embodiment of
consistancy. It seems that a lot of the "hit" artists these
days release some really great singles, but when an album
comes out, the backing tracks are really inferior pieces of
music. By comparison, GC has never released a really strong,
grab-you-by-the-collar single with million-selling potential.
But, at least to me, they make it up by the fact that you
can always rely upon them to fill out their albums and single
B-sides with songs that are good enough stand on their own.
With this third album, they've also shown that they're able
to experiment with their music, drawing from a wider range
of influences, beyond the typical GC "bread-and-butter"
mid-tempo ballad. Listening to the album, you can hear
echoes of jazz, alternative rock, and even some classical
sounds mixed in with the group's already eclectic pop
stylings. The result is easily the group's best album to
date, and I think that the collection might be good enough
to keep the interest of even some listeners who aren't fans
of the group.
Incidentally, the other albums I picked up were the latest by B'z, and the debut album by I WiSH. Quickie review: pick up the B'z album is you like, well, B'z. As for I WiSH, I'd say that they're a cross between Kiroro and Every Little Thing (back when they still had Igarashi Mitsuru). If that appeals to you, then you'll love their album.
Utada Hikaru is scheduled to be releasing her first US album, under the name UTADA. Guess she didn't want to hear how badly Americans could butcher the name Hikaru... and we won't even go into her nick-name. Anyway, hope that the songs are significantly better than that god-awful "Simple & Clean" that she sang for the American release of "Kingdom Hearts."
Speaking of video games, "Final Fantasy X-2" gets the boss' stamp of approval as the greatest Final Fantasy sequel of all time. (To those of you who didn't just snort sardonically, don't worry about it). And although I would have preferred that they leave the music as is, at least the English version of "real EMOTION" didn't suck as badly as "Simple & Clean."
And no, I haven't forgotten. Kouhaku lineups released; for my annual Scouting Report, click here.
Signing off,
-Ryu