LOVE COOK - a review

In 2005 Ai Otsuka released her third studio album – “LOVE COOK”. Its release, on December 14, 2005, was preceded by three singles featured on the LP: “SMILY / Biidama”, “Neko ni Fuusen” and “Planetarium”. The album was available in four versions: regular CD only and regular CD+DVD (the same cover) and two limited editions: CD + illustration book and CD + Photobook.

I’m a happy owner of the edition with the illustration book :) The book is about an adventure of LOVE-chan which Ai drew and wrote herself. You can see the pages photographed by me here.

“LOVE COOK” is Otsuka's best-selling album (835,333 copies sold) and one of the most popular ones (around a year on Oricon Top 300), but... is it really deserved? Let's have a closer look :)

I was kind of confused after listening to this album for the first time. Literally: I didn't know whether I liked it or not. In terms of individual songs, I was generally impressed, but when it comes to the whole... not really. Unlike “LOVE JAM” or even “LOVE PUNCH”, “LOVE COOK” doesn't seem to be cohesive at all. It starts flawlessly, but the rest is generally quite forgettable (as for Ai-chin), excluding some randomly placed brilliant songs. This album is simply uneven: some songs could be tagged as "epic", others as "anything but epic", the rest as "generic". If I was to say which album contains Ai's the least successful songs, I would say "LOVE COOK". However, since it features also several perfect wins, it is by no means a bad album.

Let's rate the songs now, as I said earlier that individual approach works better for “LOVE COOK” :) Rating will be done in frying pans, because of that:

Each song can score max. 5 frying pans. Let's go!

5:09am

Ai should do intros, if they are to sound like “5:09am”. Definitely it is one of her best songs in terms of vocal performance. Her powerful, loud and emotional voice here gives me goosebumps every time I listen to this. Ai needs to do more rock (but not in the cutesy rendition like in “Happy Days” or “Do Positive”).

Five frying pans out of five for a great opening to the album.

Haneari Tamago

After a strong rock intro, Ai sings a beautiful ballad which belongs to my best favourites (along with “Kumuriuta”). The melody is simply breathtaking and Ai's delicate, crystal clear voice fits it perfectly. It's a shame that it didn't become a single. I'm sure it could have been a success comparable to ”Ren'ai Shashin” and another #1 on Oricon...

Six frying pans out of... oh, wait. OK, so five it is... :)

Biidama

This track and the subsequent one are two main songs from the double A-side single "SMILY / Biidama". It's one of Ai's biggest successes, as the songs topped the Oricon charts and sold very well. “Biidama” is a cute mid-tempo song with nasal vocal (which seems to be extremely popular in Japan). What I particularly like in it is Ai's funny dancing in the PV and the carefree happiness which takes you over while listening to this song :) Moreover, the jazz arrangement used in Ai am BEST Tour is pure love :3

Four decent frying pans out of five.

SMILY

I hate to say that, but I really dislike this song. Even though I'm a loyal and dedicated fan of Ai-chin, I can't stand it. I'm not saying that it's bad, because it reached #1 for a reason, but the level of cutesy and upbeatness in it is over the top... even for me :P

Three frying pans for the number one. If it wasn't for that, only two pans would be granted.

U-Boat

This is one of the few forgettable and generic songs that Ai has ever made. It's similar to “SMILY”, but more moderate. However, the two songs are so close to each other (in sound and in placement), so you can only remember the exaggerate” SMILY”, so “U-Boat” goes on unnoticed... The PV, even though it's happy and full of summer energy, is also nothing very special.

Three and a half, because of the moderation and because the summery happiness is good.

Neko ni Fuusen

Strange as it sounds, this song, being fairly average, became a single and sold quite well, moreover, I like it very much :) Is it because of the feline theme? The song is dominated by acoustic guitar and Ai's sweet nasal vocal (so that she even sounds like a cat). What I don't like in it is the PV, which features digitally created cats. The cats are stiff as if they had advanced rigor mortis, so a hint for the animation director: work harder! :P

Four frying pans, because of my personal bias :)

Cherish

After a slight drop in quality of music, we're reaching the brilliance again. “Cherish” was featured on a tribute album “LOVE for NANA" and due to its huge popularity, also on “AI am BEST” compilation, even though it never was a single. This is a little dark rock song with a painful message that love is more about suffering than happiness. The lyrics are so different in comparison to other Otsuka's texts, that they really deserve some attention. The song is so good that it's a shame that Ai doesn't seem to follow this musical path anymore. As I said before, a little bit more of serious rock in Ai's discography would be awesome.

Five out of five, because it's a widely recognised pinnacle of this album and I share this opinion.

Ramen Sanpun Cooking

Yeah, a typical Ai-chan's prank - when the emotions are high, she suddenly brings us down to earth with something like “Ramen Sanpun Cooking”... Although Ai's fans prefer “SMILY” over this one, I like it better for a reason I can’t explain :P This song is weird and basically about nothing lyrical (cooking a soup?) which makes it a song which you react to with a confused grin and... rarely come back to. At least this is what I do. Generally, from all these jolly prank songs (e.g. “Katorisenkou”, “Mousou Chop”, “Babashi”, etc.) this one is the weakest.

Three frying pans. Enough to do some cooking :)

Tokyo Midnight

Ai-chan decided to do some jazz and appeal to the more mature audience with new classy sound... The effect is quite good, however, it’s evident that these were Ai’s first steps in this kind of music. Luckily, Ai is a good musical learner, so the next steps were far more successful which is best expressed in her fifth album “LOVE LETTER” :)

However, I give only three and a half, because we demand more from jazz than from pop.

Planetarium

This song is probably the fans’ favourite of all time. Most listeners admit that it’s one of the most beautiful ballads that Ai has ever sung, equally with” Daisuki dayo”. I agree that it’s a great song, but “Planetarium” isn’t my personal favourite (because it’s “Haneari Tamago” which blows my mind, of course). I love the imagery of this song, the PV and the starry cover of the single :)

Five frying pans are truly deserved.

Birthday Song

A song that all Ai-chan’s fans know from LOVE is BORN concerts :) I don’t listen to it very often, but it is one of the most adorable songs from Ai and I love every performance of it (especially the birthday cake part :D).

Four and a half for the unforgettable sentimental pleasure :)

LOVE MUSiC

Even if the content of “LOVE COOK” isn’t always very impressive, at least it is properly framed: both the opening and ending sound great. The flawless start demands an appropriate ending :) Luckily, it was achieved, because ”LOVE MUSiC” gently wraps up the album, settling the listener down. “LOVE MUSiC” is a sweet ballad – simple in melody, but rich in meaning. The PV for this song reflect the message of the lyrics. No words needed.

Five neat frying pans for a perfect ending!

We have reviewed the album thoroughly, so let’s now summarise what has been said:

It seems that “LOVE COOK” is a pretty nice album after all. Definitely it isn’t her best, but still it’s quite enjoyable. I think that it sold so well because of catchy singles and various tie-ins, not because of the extraordinary quality of the whole material. It’s a pity that all B-sides from the singles from 2005 are better than some album tracks (brilliant “Natsuzora” or “drop.”). Nevertheless, LOVE COOK is a nice title to have in the library for every J-pop fan. It contains a few tracks like “Planetarium”, ”Cherish”, “LOVE MUSiC” or “5:09am” which are always good to come back to.

Support Ai by buying this album:

YesAsia | CDJapan | Amazon.jp

LOVE PiECE TOUR 2008 - a review

A couple of days ago I watched my favourite Ai Otsuka’s concert: LOVE PiECE Tour 2008. I can’t tell how many times I’ve watched this show, seriously. I’ve seen all Ai’s DVDs and all of them are my favourite, but LOVE PiECE takes a special place on my list, not simply the first one – it’s much better than merely a number one :) It’s really hard to explain why it is so. While watching, I was wondering why I like this concert so much, so I decided to have a closer, even analytical, look at this, trying to figure it out. Now I realize that this review (or analysis) is going to be quite extensive, so I’m getting ready :)

Before I begin, I have to highlight one thing – forget about all those low quality DVD-rips which can be relatively easily found on the net. They don’t allow you to discover and truly appreciate the real quality of what you watch, no matter if it’s a movie or a music show. When you own a DVD or a Blu-Ray of the title you wish to see and you play it on your home cinema, the sensations and the experience is amazing. It’s impossible to have such an effect by playing an avi file on your computer. Yeah, it’s absolutely true that original DVDs usually are horribly expensive, but the quality of what you get is totally worth this price. I don’t mention that by buying a DVD you support your favourite artist, because it’s obvious :) OK, enough off-topic.

Before releasing her fifth studio album called “LOVE PiECE”, Ai Otsuka announced a new tour to promote the album. The tour commenced on February 2nd, 2008 in Hitomi Memorial Hall and it ended on May 6th, 2008 in Grand Cube Osaka. Meanwhile, there was one show recorded to be later released as a DVD. As the title of the DVD says, the recording took place on 1st of May 2008, at Pacifico National Convention Hall of Yokohama. The concert was released on July 30th, 2008. It charted #2 on the Oricon Weekly, which was a pretty decent result taking into account that this title turned out to be more expensive than any previous Ai-chan’s DVD.

The cover of the release

What about the tour itself? It was planned and prepared very carefully by Ai and her staff which was visible in any detail. This time, the concerts were meant to amaze the viewers by showing them something they had never seen before, so there were 3D visualizations included in the intro and the interludes, laser shows and Ai who dressed herself in unusual outfits and wigs... Generally, LOVE PiECE Tour brought something very fresh and modern to Otsuka’s tours. Before 2008, they looked quite simple – they were based on singing, playing piano and having fun. Since LOVE PiECE Tour, Ai has been creating her tours in such a way that they resemble more of the theatrical performances than ordinary concerts. This way, she has a broad field to showcase her creativity which is definitely an exciting thing for her fans, because one of the three gifts that Ai was profusely blessed with is her creativity (the other things are her talent and beauty, of course).

I’m going now to present you the content of the concert, including screenshots, some animations, my descriptions of what was going on and some random thoughts which appeared while watching it. You can treat it as an incentive to watch it too, and to get yourselves your own copy. Are you ready?

INTRODUCTION

In the introduction to the show, we can see a 3D animation whose general message is “the miracle of life” (at least this is how I interpreted it). There is a dynamic slideshow depicting different life forms found on Earth, then we are taken into space where we travel across the Solar System. Eventually we can see Ai singing samples from “Mirai Taxi”. The silhouette of the singer transforms from a beautiful green-eyed girl to a metallic humanoid which gives a sci-fi feeling to the show. At the end, the humanoid disappears, the lights go out and...

MIRAI TAXI

... the show finally begins! The opening song starts, the laser beams lighten up the scene and there Ai-chin appears, with a blonde wig on her head, pink lip-shaped sunglasses on her nose, a big colourful flounced dress and black heavy boots... I love the way she moves in this dress – the flounces flow like a sea waves :) Have a look:

Looking closely, her dress might appear ridiculous, but in fact, it’s perfect for such a show, because Ai needs to be well visible from the stage as she sings from its upper part and doesn’t come closer to the audience.

It looks amazing when she waves her hands like this and the viewers wave the colourful flashlights (or whatever it is) along with her :)

HANIKAMI JANE

The stage gets lighter and Ai descends from the upper stage to approach the audience. She sings this song with light heart and moves smoothly, letting her big dress flow and wave. The screens behind her show a slim lady passing a town and a park; possibly it’s this “shy Jane” the song is about. Ai sometimes marches just like the person on the screen which looks amusing :)

MACKEREL’S CANNED FOOD

It’s another song from the new album which was featured in “Tokyo Friends: The Movie” (a movie starring Ai-chin I will write about someday). The performance is edited to look like an old amateur recording or a documentary. I kind of like this stylization: the noisy picture and slow motion add to the song’s rock feeling. However, I find it somewhat funny: Ai’s happy jumping is shot in slow motion and simultaneously she’s screaming loudly “Genki, Yokohama?” ;) In this song, Ai took off her kissy glasses, so we can admire her pretty face. At the end of the song, when the lights go out, she unnoticeably gets rid of the big dress, appearing in a stylish flowery dress which accentuates her great S-line. Otsuka greets the audience and goes on to the next song...

YUMEKUI

... which is the second single promoting her new album. In almost complete darkness Ai begins singing about her journey toward her dream, and then when the light comes back, we can see the hippo-like creature from the PV flying behind Ai-chin. While the guitarist is playing solo, the camera shows Ai’s baby face smiling adorably. This smile always melts my heart... (even though I’m a girl! :D)

HEART

Right after “Yumekui” Ai goes on to singing “HEART” which had been released as a double A-side single five days before the show was recorded. I love the way she begins this number. While she’s singing “Ima sugu aitai, ima aitai...” the camera shows her tiny silhouette emerging from the dark, focusing on her gentle and smooth hand movements which perfectly fit the song’s flow. As the song continues, the mood becomes more and more emotional and romantic... Ai-chin knows best how to do that, doesn’t she?

HOSHI NO TANGO

Passionate feelings are still on, when Ai begins “Hoshi no Tango” – another new song from “LOVE PiECE”. The picture goes monochromatic and noisy, the instruments play quietly and everything is just peaceful and nostalgic (I mean: it’s supposed to be this way, but I can’t really feel it, because I hate the accordion :P) Ai involves herself fully in this performance, singing expressively with closed eyes. At the end of this song, Otsuka disappears in the dark letting her band play a longer instrumental part.

INTERLUDE 1

The viewers are shown another three-dimensional interlude. Once again the audience is flying in the space, but this time they find themselves in the abyss of time, a strange world, as if in a dream (or some drug-induced vision... :P). At some point the audience is eaten by a scary bug (I feel sorry for the poor things in 3D glasses, they must have been terribly frightened :D) and travels down its oesophagus to eventually land in an African forest. Then there are also other things, like exploding hearts and stuff. OK., the interlude is very psychedelic and I really hope that it was conceived by a person who didn’t have to resolve to some strange substances to see all that... Ahh, whatever :P The last image the screens present is a piano which is a sign that Ai is going to do this part of her concert where she showcases all her true talents: singing to self-accompaniment of piano...

MOMO NO HANABIRA / TEARS

There she appears: focused, emotional, beautiful... A single beam of purple light brightens the piano and the tiny girl feeling the instrument, playing some gentle notes as if she wanted to stroke it like a kitten... The song she’s performing is “Momo no Hanabira” in the acoustic version. Ai sings it slower than in the original version which makes it sadder and more nostalgic. The song is intertwined with another one: “Tears”. At some point, a violinist joins Ai and together they play a poignant piece of music which definitely touches everybody’s heart.

Once Ai-chin finishes the song, she thanks the audience for the applause and she talks for a moment. Unfortunately, my Japanese isn’t good enough for me to understand what she’s speaking, but I believe that it’s some kind of a message from the bottom of her heart or simply a few random thoughts before her next song :)

PLANETARIUM

One of the most popular and cherished Ai-chan’s songs – “Planetarium” in an acoustic version. The arena changes from a modern concert hall into a quiet temple of a peaceful night where the song seems to reach the starry sky. Ai sits on the stairs between two guitarists who provide a quiet accompaniment to her singing. This is one of the best performances of this song I’ve ever seen and I like this acoustic arrangement much better than the original one (but it isn’t bad at all :)).

KUMURIUTA

The emotional part of the concert isn’t over yet. The next song on the setlist is “Kumuriuta” which is a completely new ballad from “LOVE PiECE” (one of the absolute best in Ai’s career). This performance features original arrangement and additional strings which make it even more lyrical. The beginning has a great lighting – the colours seem to be so juicy and warm here. It looks like it’s just before the sunrise :) However, unlike the previous songs, this one has a more dramatic expression which is clearly visible after the second chorus. For me, the level of emotions at this point becomes almost unbearable (which results in a tear or two...). There are many reasons why I love Ai-chin – one of them are these moments.

KIMI NI KAERU

Ahh, it’s been a tender time! Now it’s time to calm yourselves down a bit. Another pretty ballad, “Kimi ni Kaeru” comes from the “CHU-LIP” single and it’s just a nice song (nothing more really). The performance was OK., but wasn’t anything special (except for the artificial snow made of lightbulbs :)).

REN’AI SHASHIN –HARU-

One of the best performances of this song I’ve ever heard. The piano-dominated, acoustic version of 13th single with Ai’s voice clear as crystal and simple yet meaningful words “Tada kimi wo aishiteru” make this part of the concert really memorable. I simply love it so much that being wordy about it would be just unnecessary.

INTERLUDE 2

...means that the romantic part is over. The beginning of one of the most WTF Ai’s songs, “Babashi no Theme”, destroys the mood in a split second... I can’t stand this creepy song, but whatever :P Let’s now skip to the upbeat part which starts with...

PEACH

Ai jumps on the scene in short bright blond wig and a shiny dress, inviting the audience to have fun. She dances and claps her hands happily during the instrumental part, infecting everybody with her irresistible enthusiasm :) I must admit that I love her hairstyle and even though blond hair doesn’t always look good on her, here her appearance is gorgeous!

FRIENGER

Fun is still on! During this song, Ai runs across the stage, pulls faces and obviously likes that :) The audience enthusiastically screams “FIGHT!” along with her which is a clear evidence that Ai’s upbeat singles are what the Japanese fans love!

KATORISENKOU

Ai loves surprising her fans in every possible way. Every album she releases contains at least one “unusual” song (e.g. “Mousou Chop”, “Pon Pon” on “LOVE JAM”; “Ramen Sanpun Kukkingu” on “LOVE COOK”, “Babashi no Theme” on “AI am BEST”, “Shachihata” on LOVE LETTER”). On "LOVE PiECE” it is “Katorisenkou” – a weird song about chasing and probably killing a blood-starved mosquito... Of course, Ai being a very creative and thorough person, made sure that the performance fitted the imagery of the song, so she came out with... a giant fan or whatever it was (probably a tool for killing the damn insect). Yes, Ai is sometimes (positively) wild which is simply another reason why she’s so lovely!!!

There are performers who like smashing guitars, but there are also ones who like smashing mosquitoes better. Simple as that.

PON PON

“Mainichi anata to ponponponponponponpon!” – on hearing that and the guitar riff at the beginning, the audience goes crazy! So does Ai... But unlike other artists who let themselves run and jump insanely on the stage, she doesn’t miss a single note, so her singing still sounds crystal and correct. How is she able to do that?

CHU-LIP

So we have reached the climax of the concert! Since releasing this song as her 14th single, Ai likes putting it in the setlist at the end of the performances, so I guess it has become a kind of tradition. This is such a twisted song that anything can happen while Ai is singing it. However, there is always a constant element in CHU-LIP – insane dancers called CHU-LIPPAS with incredible MONDO as the leader. After a short warm-up, Ai joins them and dances a funny dance which, with the addition of bursting confetti, showcases Ai’s best abilities to entertain the audience. I can’t imagine how it’s like to be there and experience it live – I guess it’s simply impossible to describe.

I love the way Ai involves the audience in having fun together. This time, before the song started, she divided the people into two groups (left: Mommas, right: Pappas), made sure that the people know where they belong, practised singing in turns and then, when the time came, she invited them to sing along with her and it all worked just fine. This is where teaching skills which she’d acquired before starting musical career come in handy :)

As this is the last song, Ai thanks everybody who came to see her concert (by running around and screaming “Arigatou, arigatou!”) and rushes out behind the scenes. The audience doesn’t stop shouting, so Ai-chan has no other options, but only to come out again...

ENCORE

In this part, Ai looks like a girl next door – natural and sporty. Dressed in a casual T-shirt, loose jeans and trainers, she performs immortal “Sakuranbo”, then “Rocket Sneaker”, “LIFE-LOVE CiRCLE” (and this is when she mentions about all the people who created this show: her band, dancers, staff, also the audience and her herself), “Ticket” and “Pocket”.

Between the songs, Ai interacts with the audience, talks a lot and smiles which is a clear evidence that she loves giving concerts and these moments are very important in her life. At the end, with teary eyes and unbelievable modesty, she thanks the audience, bows for a longer moment and in a very graceful manner expresses her gratefulness for all those people who came to see her spectacle. Strange as it may sound, the very ending of each Ai’s concert is probably the most emotional part of the entire show, because we can sense her deep sincerity and modesty. I love it when she bows several times in different places on the stage, as if she wanted to thank everybody individually and then she shouts “LOVE & PEACE” without her mic, so that everybody can hear her voice... She’s gorgeous and that’s about it.

So, to conclude... Why is LOVE PiECE Tour my favourite? Honestly, I still don’t know. Every Ai’s concert is perfect in terms of quality of sound, vocal performance, visual effects, amounts of emotions and fun. But I guess this one is special, because of the setlist (all my favourite songs are here), modern 3D effects and interludes, Ai being at her prime... There is a charm, magic, nostalgia, amusement, surprise, happiness, sadness – everything which is needed to make a great concert. Perhaps the balance of all these elements is the key? I wasn’t bored in any moment of watching the show, because no part lasted too long, too short or was overdone. Moreover (a random thought) I think that it takes a lot of skill to prepare such a show which absorbs totally the viewer without resorting to vulgarity, scantily clad dancers / performers, nasty lyrics etc. I’m very happy that artist who can impress the audience only with their musical skills still exist and that Ai-chan is one of them. This fact makes me even a bigger fan. Ai-chan, you’re great.

You can buy this DVD at:

YesAsia | CDJapan

Thanks for reading. May LOVE be with you. Always.

LOVE LETTER review

‘LOVE LETTER’ was released in 2008 and up to now it’s the last studio album of Ai Otsuka. ‘LOVE LETTER’ topped the Oricon Daily Chart on 17th December 2008 – the day of its debut. At the end of the first week it sold 104,232 copies which resulted in the 3rd place on the Oricon Weekly. The album stayed on charts for 16 weeks, selling 179,670 copies in total. It was a relatively low result comparing to previous albums, as ‘愛 am BEST’ sold 727,192 copies altogether, ‘LOVE COOK’ – 835,333. Nevertheless, some say that this album might be one of the best Ai-chin’s works ever and I strongly agree with them.

Definitely this album sounds different than any of the earlier albums: in ‘LOVE LETTER’, Ai-chin left her typical youthful image and cute mood of music, heading into a more mature style: more piano-dominated ballads, a small flirtation with jazz, also, which is interesting, a brand new dimension of upbeatness. Apparently, Ai felt that it was time she had grown up and this is it – as she said in the interview for Excite: “I feel I have matured a lot in this album”. It could have been this definite change which caused the sales to decrease. In fact, such songs as ‘Sakuranbo’ or ‘SMILY’ always sold better than ballads, even as good as ‘Kingyo Hanabi’ or ‘Daisuki da yo’.

The booklet also reflects the growing maturity – no more Ai-chin throwing fruits, pulling faces or staring at you with a frying pan in her hand... Instead, we have an exquisite collection of photos of a pretty young woman, delightful in her delicacy and feminine charm. There is Ai dressed in a too big blue sweater revealing her neck and thighs in a seductive yet tasteful manner... Ai-chin with meaningful eye expressions: either full of nostalgia or filled with curiosity... And finally Ai with her pretty face lightened with joy of love... She shines! However, there is one big BUT: the technique used to take these photos spoils some of their charm - most of them are unsharp, blurred and generally out of focus. Maybe there was a reason why those photos look like they had been taken by some amateur (sorry, Mr. Photographer), but it doesn’t appeal to me at all... At the beginning of the booklet there is a fabulous panoramic photo with great light and sharpness – why couldn’t all the pictures be like this one? I believe that a traditional school of photography would unveil the natural beauty of Ai-chin better than some sort of artistic experiments...

What about the music? The whole impression about the album could have been better if the songs flew smoothly from one to another – instead we have a set of songs which seem to be just piled up without any thoughtful arrangement. Three ballads, then two faster songs, then ballads again, then an ‘experiment’ and then a ballad once again. This messed up order of songs doesn’t allow you to truly appreciate their value, which sucks! As far as my experience is concerned, I often skip “Creamy & Spicy” and “Do Positive” simply because they spoil this precious nostalgic feeling aroused by having just listened to “Kurage Nagareboshi” and “Ningyo” before... Those two skipped songs are fine as well, but I can’t really see it as I find them disturbing in that particular place.

The album consists of songs which could be classified into 3 groups: ballads, “neo-upbeatness” and experiments. I didn’t want to describe the songs one by one, because that would be too long. Moreover, as I mentioned above, there’s no point as the order spoils the impression... Thus, let’s stick to my classification. Here we go:

The album includes 7 ballads. It’s more than a half of the album and the first time Ai has included so many of them in one album. All the ballads here feature piano, soothing voice and deep love message. The new thing about them is that two of these ballads (“LOVE LETTER” and “Ningyo”) go without almost any decorations – we can say that they are almost raw. There is also Ai singing a cappella at one moment, which is definitely a new idea. In my opinion, in this album Ai-chin has shown us the real mastery in touching the listener’s emotion using only soft voice, self accompaniment of piano and a little bit of strings. She doesn’t offer any majestic sophisticated ballads such as BoA’s “Winter Love”, but still she reaches the very bottom of our hearts with her simple melodies – it’s truly fantastic. Of course, not each ballad is like that. “Pocket” starts relatively softly, but then it evolves into a magnificent piece of music with piano, strings and startlingly strong Ai-chan’s voice. It’s the same with (unfortunately underrated) “Kurage, Nagareboshi”. It’s pure perfection.

I’d like to say also some things about “Kimi Fechi” and “One x Time”. Well, these two have revealed the new, up to now unknown, nature of our sweet singer... Ai singing about love with implicit but still recognisable sexual undertones? Yes... “Kimi Fechi’ lyrics seem to be the most sensual ones in her discography. Nevertheless, even while referring to the close relationships between a man and a woman, Ai leaves a wide margin for our imagination and chooses the words carefully, so that her text stays away from any nasty explicitness. Some say that “One x Time” is also a kind of “erotic” song, but more because of the music than the lyrics. I can agree to some extent with that claim, but I don’t think I can precisely determine the nature of this sensual music :P “One x Time” is such a good song that I don’t usually think much about it, only immerse in delight...

(Note: neo-upbeatness is a term in otsukalogy invented by me, so don’t claim as your own xD)

What does it mean that Ai-chan has become neo-upbeat? Well, simply that there are less upbeat songs in the album and they are much different than previous happy songs. Let’s take “Rocket Sneaker” as an example. Ai has never done anything like this before – a hyper song whose main instrument is... piano? That sounds incredible, but in fact the song itself is incredible. I love this song mostly for the freshness of idea and the way Ai and Ikoman showed the piano’s power of expression. No more thinking that piano is reserved only for ballads, Skywalker, no more... I hope Ai-chan will create more songs like “Rocket Sneaker” ^^ She has to use all potential of such an idea, definitely!

The rest of neo-upbeat zone isn’t that impressive. Of course, the songs are great, but they are simply not as innovative as “Rocket Sneaker”. I like “Bye Bye”, because it’s a catchy and sweet pop-rock song. What’s interesting is that it was written by Ai in the “LOVE PUNCH” era. I wonder why Ai waited so long to release it on her 5th album...

As I mentioned above, “Creamy & Spicy” and “Do Positive” lose some of their value only because they were poorly placed. It’s a pity, because such a funny nasal singing should be more appreciated...

Experiments are those songs which are so peculiar that they don’t belong to any of those groups above or even come close. Ai has always liked a little bit weird ideas for songs and realised them on her CDs (for example: “Mousou Chop” called by me as “The R2-D2 song” or “Babashi”). This time however, the outcomes of Ai’s crazy drives please me much better than any of the previous “jokes”. But I have to warn you – these ones don’t have anything in common with anything created by Ai before. “Shachihata” is interesting for sure. At the beginning it puzzles everyone, especially because the singer seems to be someone else than the expected person :P I can assure you that it is Ai who sings :P She only uses a very low voice, completely different than her usual high-pitched tone. This attempt in creating a pure jazz song turned out to be fairly successful, at least in my opinion. Ai always knows what to do to astonish her listeners :)

What is left is “360’”. I can’t describe this song. I can only say that it’s addictive. And the PV is scary. I’m confused every time I see it. I can’t say anything more :P

OK., so what can I say about ‘LOVE LETTER’ after a pretty thorough analysis? I still claim that it’s the best Otsuka’s album. I like that Ai still doesn’t stick to one pattern and follow it just because it sells well. She wanted to grow up, show us her maturing soul and she did it, even though after such an album as “LOVE PiECE” she could have re-used the ol’ good recipes for hits and wait for the money to flow. Fortunately, Ai has proved that she’s a great artist who creates music to express herself, not to rule the charts at any cost. Generally, I don’t see much faults in this album – I guess the biggest of them is the bad order of songs. The rest is almost flawless. If Ai-chan decides to continue recording albums like this one, I will definitely be one of those people who buy the CD. I really hope that when Ai comes back to music with her pretty head filled with joy of love and maternity, she will delight us with more “love letters” :)

BUY THIS ALBUM: YesAsia | CDJapan | Amazon.jp 

Wow, Ai! Do you read my blog?

As you probably know, our dear Ai-chin has recently presented her new song called ‘I love xxx’. This is the theme song for this year’s NHK School Choir Contest. You can find the performance and read a discussion about it here.

Now that you have seen it, let me explain the title of the post. If you read my previous review on ‘Zokkondition / Lucky Star’, then you should know that I criticised Ai for many things and some of her faults I found unforgivable. I expressed a small hope for a little improvement in the future, but really... I didn’t expect so much. Especially in the instant mode! However, my little distaste caused by the recent Otsuka’s artistic deeds disappeared and made me stare at the screen at a loss – once I have listened to her newest song! Ai, this is totally brilliant!

First of all – after a reasonably agreeable single as ‘Zokkondition / Lucky Star’ I wanted the next release to be something like ‘Kurage, Nagareboshi’ (generally I meant a sweet, perfectly sung ballad). You want it, you get it? It seems so... ‘I love xxx’ is a lovely piece of music with a beautiful tune, showing the entire excellence of Ai’s voice. I love the arrangement and the choir! It sounds magnificent... Already while listening to ‘Ai’ on ‘Love Letter’ I thought that choirs went well with Otsuka and I wondered if she was going to do this again. It seems that our dear singer knows what’s good for her :) Everybody is happy like the SMILY face for this ballad, Ai-chin!

Another praise – for the lyrics. You know that I’m rather against mixing up languages in one piece of text, but this time I will make an exception. My dislike to English-Japanese songs originates rather from the way that the song is sung. Japanese people tend to convert English into Engrish and there’s no point in complaining about it; it’s just the way it is. However, I strongly believe that if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing it well, which means that if you want to sing in English, work hard on your pronunciation. I wasn’t impressed by Ai-chin’s miserable attempts in English; she got scolded for it from me, as you know. And now... Something’s changed! It looks as if my desperate message for Ai to make her rethink the careless use of English finally hit home... (OK., I’m not serious; Ai doesn’t waste her time on reading thousands of blogs about her... :P) Nevertheless, the outcome is what is taken into account: Ai’s pronunciation improved a lot that she’s fully understandable and her English sounds very soft and nice – just like it should.

The last thing – Ai-chin’s hair... I know that hair is maybe the least important thing here, but I’m glad that she got rid of this awful blonde wig from ‘Zokkondition’ :D Brown, shiny and natural hair is best on Ai’s pretty head.

Yes... Dreams come true. When it comes to my dream connected with Ai, it was fulfilled exactly as I wished. OK., maybe I would like the song to be released as a single so that I could buy it, but all in all, I'm perfectly satisfied with life.

Here is the performance, enjoy!



May the Love be with you!

20th Single: 'Zokkondition / Lucky Star'

At last! The newest, 20th single ‘Zokkondition / Lucky Star’ is out, awaiting you in your favourite music store. Fortunately, the single wasn’t released only as a mp3, as many fans feared, but it has got a CD, a cover and a plastic case, which is the set that many of us like ;) Not only because we still like CDs which are tangible and together they really create a collection, but also because of the lossless quality of sound and, last but not least, the availability. As many of you know, Japanese digital releases are accessible only in Japan, so, dear non-Japanese, even if you really cared for Ai’s position on Oricon chart, you couldn’t help her, if she published her new song as a mp3 only. Luckily for her and for us, she didn’t do it, so feel free to buy the 20th single here or here. Once you have done it, enjoy the brilliant sound, bless Ai-chin for still caring for her fans-audiophiles and feel proud of yourself for increasing her chances in reaching the top :)

What about the single itself? I must admit that ‘Lucky Star’ which was a song dedicated for Japanese sportspeople taking part in the Olympic Games didn’t impress me, really. Surely the song is positive, so all the people for whom this piece of music was composed had their morale elevated. However, ‘Lucky Star’ hasn’t got this magical something that would make it noticeable. I would say that it is rather... average. Except of the mildly catchy chorus, the song doesn’t have much to offer. What I particularly hate about ‘Lucky Star’ is English which shouldn’t be there! Ai has always had quite poor English pronunciation; whenever I listen to her speaking / singing in English, I barely understand anything. It’s too bad, since only a half of the chorus is in Japanese... What is even more annoying is the lack of sense in this catchy chorus. The random mixture of Japanese and English words is... well, an eyesore. (Sorry, Ai, you deserved it this time...) ‘Love, so family, sea, 空, 夢に見たstar, つかんだ 今 CHANCE! / Love, so family, sea, 空、心にLUCKY STARはこかむ今日Sunny day’ – it doesn’t make any sense! What is she singing about? I’m constantly asking myself this question whenever this song gets stuck in my head. Anyway, if I was to assess ‘Lucky Star’, I would give it 3,5/5.

The second track on the single is a completely new song which has leaked to the net quite recently: ‘Zokkondition’. Now this is something that I call a BANG! Somebody on Ai Otsuka’s shoutbox on last.fm moaned that Ai doesn’t write crazy songs anymore... This person must have discovered their mistake by now ;) When it comes to my feelings, I definitely love this song, even though my love had to mellow – it came after 4th listening (for me, as usual). I was delighted to learn that there was a PV planned. According to the fans writing on last.fm, ‘the preview is as random as “360º”’. I didn’t watch the preview, because 1) it’s only a preview, 2) everything might change, 3) it would spoil all the fun. It doesn’t mean that I wasn’t curious, of course I was. The alleged randomness attracted me like hell! When the PV finally appeared on YouTube, I clicked the Pause button and while waiting for the clip to buffer, I was fidgeting and biting my nails in excitement. A few moments later I made up my mind about the video...

My thoughts about ‘Zokkondition’ in a nutshell:

• It isn’t random at all! The video has got a scenario. The story is consistent with the song’s lyrics: a girl dreams about marrying her boyfriend but she’s afraid that the man won’t feel like it. She is sad and full of doubts, dreamy and absent-minded, busy doing simple domestic things such as picking up a paper or feeding a goldfish  (it looks like a reference to ‘Kingyo Hanabi’ - ‘goldfish swimming in my heart’). However, when she’s expressing strongly what she wants (‘With all my heart, I want to marry you, and have my HAPPY LIFE’), she becomes a seductive and beautiful star (see point 2 below), trying to convince her beloved one to decide... When he eventually appears, our cutie turns into a regular, somewhat blue, wannabe housewife. It turns out that he has finally made up his mind and Ai gets what she wants – an engagement ring. Well, without knowing what the song is about, we might assume that the video doesn’t make sense. That’s why many fans felt puzzled and disappointed after watching ‘Zokkondition’ for the first time. That’s why the video was proclaimed ‘random’ and ‘senseless’. It’s too bad, really, that you don’t read the lyrics, people! You can find the full text and the translation here. 

• I don’t like Ai-chin’s alter ego. The one with blonde hair. I can’t explain why, but in this video I can’t say that she’s pretty. I don’t know... It’s very hard to tell why, because I loved blonde Ai in CHU-LIP, A-Nation '09 and even in Aisu x Time. In ‘Zokkondition’ her fair hair look highly artificial, in addition the colour doesn’t go together with her complexion... I think that Ai’s stylists just overdid it. She was meant to look extremely glamorous and sexy, the effect is contrary. She looks much better as a normal girl than a celebrity, compare:

• Once again! I hate this blonde wig!

OK., enough my complaining. To sum it all up, I must admit that ‘Zokkondition / Lucky Star’ isn’t the best Ai’s single. It’s quite good, but I know that she can do better. I hope that her next release will be something like ‘Kurage, Nagareboshi’, which had a wonderful A-side, not less brilliant B-side (‘H2O’ was so good that it should have become a single...) and a beautiful PV with absolutely breathtaking Ai Otsuka. Good luck, Ai-chin! ;)

Don’t hesitate to share your opinions with me, dear readers! :)

LOVE PUNCH - Review

‘LOVE PUNCH’ was my first encounter with Ai Otsuka’s music. And, yes, it was a punch :) However, before I played this album, I learnt some things about the artist to know what to expect. I learned that Ai likes to mix various genres of music, but generally she creates very enthusiastic, positive and happy music. So, I expected ‘LOVE PUNCH’ to be something like the first album of Britney Spears (‘Baby One More Time’). If you, dear reader, think the same as I used to, then I have to warn you. If you think that ‘Soda Pop’ is an unlistenable, pink bubble gum pop song, then you do not know that there might be even more cute and extremely upbeat song. Moreover, not only one, but at least five of them. All included on one album. And far, far, farther than you imagine, better than any American pop, conceived and written by a professional think tank and performed (only!) by an adorable cutie ;)

First of all – a few words about the booklet. And the cover, of course, which is definitely sweet. Have a look and see by yourself – it is kawaii. It is just Ai being Ai – naturally pretty, flirtatious and absolutely girlish. She is a living proof that you don’t have to wear heavy make-up to look just fine... However, the cover itself isn’t much except of its cuteness. Much better things to see are inside the booklet... and there is Ai-chin playing various sports: basketball, volleyball, baseball, tennis... Nothing particularly strange, however, look at the ‘balls’ that she uses. It can be an onion, a cabbage, an orange, whatever. Moreover, she has such a serious face on these photos, like she really was convinced that it is possible to play with vegetables and there’s nothing odd about this! Well, at least it is original. Do you usually expect a CD booklet of a sweet debuting starlet to be something like cabbage bowling? No, you don’t. Does it draw your attention? Yes, it does. And that’s the point :)

Ai-chin playing volleyball with a watermelon... 

When it comes to music, I admit that the whole impression about ‘LOVE PUNCH’ is mostly created by the very first track – ‘pretty voice’ (no, I have no idea why the title is always in lower case). The song is extremely energetic, fast and hilarious – perfect as the alarm clock tune (when I get bored of ‘MAGIC’, I will switch to this one). Every time I start my day with ‘pretty voice’, it turns out to be somehow more successful, brighter, the weather is always nicer and the people smile wider... I love this song. I really do.

However, there are more songs more or less like this. We can mention ‘GIRLY’ (more moderate, but with repeatable catchy chorus), or ‘Ishigawa Osaka...’ (kinda funky, yet... well, irksome). There is also, of course, both famous and infamous, loved and hated, known and wish-not-to-know... 「さくらんぼ」(‘Sakuranbo’). Some say that this is Ai’s greatest success, when it comes to sales and other very commercial things. The truth is that almost every young person in Japan who was interested in J-pop music circa 2003/2004 knows the tune of this song and at least once tried to get it out of their head. This song, being nearly annoyingly catchy, funny and cosmically upbeat, may serve as Otsuka’s trademark. It was her first song in this characteristic for her style, then there are ‘Happy Days’ or ‘SMILY’ (more insane is only ‘Pon Pon’, but it never was a single, so not everyone knows it). Even though Ai has matured a lot since then and already in ‘Love Jam’ era she began writing touching and deep ballads, people still associate her with the image of big, dark, sweet, innocent eyes and small lips holding a pair of red cherries (above). Think whatever you want about ‘Sakuranbo’, but it’s good to remember that if it hadn’t been a single, Ai might have not fully developed her promising career. The fact is that Japan (and then a quite big part of the world) discovered Ai and fell in love with her just because of this song. Her previous single (‘Momo no Hanabira’) wasn’t regarded as a big success. Despite the fact that it survived (on low positions, but still) on charts for quite a couple of weeks, it was rather not popular. What’s curious, it’s what Ai herself thinks about her first musical break-out. Well, she once described ‘Sakuranbo’ and ‘Happy Days’ as her ‘schoolmates’. A lot of things and assumptions were made up after these words, because Ai didn’t really explain what she meant. According to the fans speculating on this matter on Channel-Ai, she could have had in mind that she kinda liked those songs, however, she treated them as a certain level in her career progress; something that must have been created and performed. Maybe Ai-chin didn’t expect those pieces to be so successful and she was confused that the songs which weren’t her best, became so easily recognisable? Well, any interpretation may be the right one. Read the discussion on Channel-Ai here.

As we mentioned ‘Momo no Hanabira’ earlier, it’s the moment to say some words about the ballads on ‘LOVE PUNCH’, because they play a very important role in Ai’s music career. Her first attempts in writing slower and more meaningful songs are especially interesting for us, because while listening to them chronologically, we can follow her artistic development and, sometimes, try to predict where she is going now. The first album includes 4 ballads, from which 2 of them were released as singles (‘Momo no Hanabira’ and ‘Amaenbo’). The rest are ‘Ame no Naka no Melody’ and ‘Shabondama’. I like all of them, but especially ‘Amaenbo’. For me, this song reveals Otsuka’s true talent and gives us a clue that she hasn’t shown the best of her yet. It’s easy to guess why Ai returned to this song while preparing the material for ‘LOVE IS BEST’ – this piece is simply beautiful, both music and lyrics. ‘I had always searched for this great loving feel, I'm surrounded by it, in your arms.I want you to hold me tighter and never let go’ – yes, every single girl dreams about it deep in her heart :)

To take it all over and summarize... hmm, it’s not as easy as it seems to be. In isolation, with no knowledge about Ai-chin and her next albums, ‘Love Punch’ is a light, cool and generally entertaining album which is perfect for a party or simple jumping in pure happiness on the bed. Or if you want to improve your mood, of course. However, when you are already familiar with Ai’s music, this album may not fully satisfy you. Yes, it is good and very Ai Otsuka, but there is something missing... There is too much immaturity and playing just for playing, no further message included. But as for a debut album, it couldn’t be better, either. It’s a common fact that the first release of any artist is only a foreword to their real artistic possibilities. Think about any artist you admire – even Michael Jackson’s first solo CD sucked at times ;) Since ‘Love Punch’ got generally good marks in reviews everywhere, it seems that Ai made a very good start. She created a solid base for her further artistic achievements. The very next album which includes such outstanding pieces as ‘Kingyo Hanabi’ or ‘Daisuki dayo’ is an ideal proof of this statement.

Happy-go-lucky Ai from 'LOVE PUNCH' era... :D