Utada Hikaru "Ultra Blue"

Yes! I finally got it! One of they very few albums that I actually bought new in Japan. This, Ito Yuna's "Heart", (that sounded grosse!) Yui's "My Generation/Understand" single and Yui's "From me to you" album (kind of wore out my last one!)

The rest were a complete steal at like 400 yen for each of them at Tsutaya. All in amazing condition considering they were second hand. Hardly a scratch on any of them. Plus I was lucky enough to find both "Deep River" and the "Flavor of Life" single. Which happens to be one of my favorite Hikki songs. Especially the ballad version (^_-)

Well onwards then....

Ultra Blue

1. This is Love

2. Keep Tryin'

3. BLUE

4. 日曜の朝

5. Making Love

6. 誰かの願いが協うころ

7. COLORS

8. One Night Magic feat. Yamada Masahi

9. 海路

10. WINGS

11. Be my Last

12. Eclipse (Interlude)

13. Passion

Unfortunately I can't single out any of the songs. Not much help in a review like...sorry but the simple fact is, it's one of Utada's best albums to date and I can't honestly say there is a BAD song on the entire album.

The soft and sensual ones:
日曜の朝, Be my Last, Passion, 誰かの願いが協うころ

Like a softer Hip-hop style:

海路

Jazz/Hip-hop, kind of hard to put your finger on a style unless you say: Unique?

WINGS, One Night Magic feat. Yamada Masahi, COLORS, Making Love, BLUE

Although I like them all, I'll admit like anyone else there ARE some of the songs that are down on my most played more than others. Those being:

日曜の朝

誰かの願いが協うころ

Keep Tryin'

Making Love

With "Keep Tryin'" slightly above the others by a few plays. I think new listeners will probably reach out towards the obvious ones: THIS IS LOVE and PASSION. But having heard these songs over and over and over before I even bought the album I've already reached a steady Plateau. The best time in my opinion. For me this is when I stick the album on shuffle and not prefer one song over the rest.

Albums like this however are very few and far between. Of course all of Yui's and Utada's start off like that and never change for me because I love all of their songs. Being a big fan, I'm biased like that! My media player just seems to do this stupid thing, of playing them in a sequence even if it's on random or shuffle. Sometimes to the point where I can predict what song it will jump to next.

Stupid Windows Media Player.

Buy "Ultra Blue" at:

Yesasia

CDJapan

Amazon US

ArtistDirect

Long time no post!! (^o^;)

Finally got my computer up and running without any problems...only took a few months. I still have to install all of my software and favorite programmes though. I simply can't breathe without Adobe photoshop and a well stocked music folder!!
I haven't been able to update much since my computer was down though so I have a lot of work to do, although I did manage to get all of my pics from Japan up onto my Flickr account, and I plan to switch it to a pro account for when I go back in November, for both convenience and more space. I suppose I may get cracking...I bought ALOT of cd's in Japan and have so so many entries to make with reviews so.... (^-^)0

Oh! I dunno if this is gonna work, I haven't had time to try it using a computer other than my own but here is the link anyway:

ftp://192.168.1.67/

I can't find some of my favorite songs on youtube.com, so if you would like to hear the song that I might have wrote about in a post, feel free to have a listen. Or alternatively download it. But do please keep in mind, that if you like the artist you should do the honorable thing of actually supporting them by buying their albums/singles.

Orange Range "Hana"

"Ahh!! Yuji's so adorable!!!"


This is a great song, and the soundtrack to one of my favorite movies, "Ima, ai ni yukimasu" which if you haven't seen, I would highly recommend purchasing! Great song and the music video has the usual clips from the movie as soundtracks do, so it's also a pleasure to watch (unlike some I've posted about before heh!)



Download: "Hana"
Watch: "Hana"
Lyrics: "Hana"

Watch the "Ima, ai ni yukimasu" Movie trailer.

Utada Hikaru "Final Distance"

Okay, this song makes me sad, the video makes me cry. Most people would avoid it then, like the plague. But it's strangely a beautiful song. Only from what I've been told, one of Hikki's fans won an essay competition in school in which she wrote about how she admired Utada and how she wanted to be just like her some day. Just before the release of Utada's song "Distance" the young girl was killed in a shooting in her school (RIP). So Utada changed the lyrics and also the song title to "Final Distance" and dedicated the song to her. If you haven't heard it, I would definetly recommend it, it's another one of my Hikki favs! Plus the video is awe-inspiring!

Download: "Final Distance"

Watch: "Final Distance"

Lyrics: "Final Distance"

Ayumi Hamasaki "Game"

Wow, the last video of Ayumi's I saw was "Jewel" and she was singing with a cute little fur coat on and big sparkly nails and makeup. All of a sudden she's dressed head to toe in black PVC and headbanging!!?? Too right! Woo! By the way this is not a recent song or anything, I just thought I'd post about it since I mentioned it before. Okay for a real POP artist this video freaked me out more than Gazette's "Filth in the beauty"! Great song though. Still unsure about the video, I think watching it once was enough. Ayumi's not one of my top favorite artists but she does do some real awesome songs, this being one of them. Another album to buy soon.

Download: "Game"
Watch: "Game"

Lyrics: "Game"

Ito Yuna "Losin"

"You're gonna catch yerself a cold love..."


Anyone that knows me will wonder why on earth I'm listening to THIS type of music. It's not me at all. But it's so damn catchy! Especially when she starts rapping the Japanese parts in the verses. This has more english than I'm used to in songs too. Really great tune though. The video... well it's one for the guys really. Same for Ayumi Hamasaki's "Game" these gals obviously aren't worried about drawing in a female crowd. Oh yeh and is it just me or does the mirror part remind you of YUI's "CHE.R.RY" video?



Download: "Losin"
Watch: "Losin"
Lyrics: "Losin"

YUI "Understand [Movie version]"

I don't need to say much about YUI, I think everyone knows by now she's my favorite artist which obviously makes my opinion biased. But I will be completely honest, I actually listened to this song once and then left it for ages. Mostly because it was released on the net at the same time as "My Generation" which is really addictive. But I got listening to it recently and actually think it's a really pretty song. Now it's played more than My Generation. Strange how that happens...

Download: "Understand"

Watch: "Understand"
Lyrics: "Understand"

My Generation is the soundtrack for the drama "Seito Shokun"
Understand is the ending soundtrack for the new movie "Sidecar ni inu"

My Generation/Understand will be released on June 13th.