Hi, welcoming myself back! This 2nd post is quite recent from my 1st post but nevertheless, here am I again! I need some time to complete Dragon Age : Origins, Uncharted 2 and some other console games, so in the meantime, might as well vary my post a LITTLE!

Today I wanna discuss a bit about some J-Pop musics which I am very hooked to for the past 1 month and would sincerely love to recommend/share them with u guys! Do note, music is a very subjective issue, what I feel is good MIGHT NOT necessary apply to everyone, feel free to also express your personal opinions or recommendations!

November 2009 Personal Oricon Chart : (J-Pop/J-Rock only!)
4.) 届けたい feat. KEN THE 390 - Aoyama Thelma
5.) Physical Thing - Koda Kumi
6.) 流れ星 - Mika Nakashima
7.) Crying Rain -  Girugamesh
8.) X - Onitsuka Chihiro
9.) My Girl - Arashi
10.) Happiness - Aoyama Thelma

All right! Lets get the ball rolling!
As a site-note, tracks in red are my personal HOT favorites!

Album 1:

01 Intro

02 忘れないよ (映画「HACHI 約束の犬」日本語版主

03 Happiness

04 二人の約束の日

05 I'm Sorry

06 KEEP ON

07 素直になれなくて

08 届けたい… feat. KEN THE 390

09 Baby, I love you

10 LOOK

11 WANNA COME AGAIN feat. VERBAL(m-flo)

12 Cinderella Story (ブルボン「クラッシュルマンドシリーズ」CMソング)

01 忘れないよ

This 1st picture is Aoyama Thelma's most recent album entitled 'Emotions' which was released on 2009.09.09, while the 2nd picture is her most recent singles entitled '忘れないよ' released on 2009.08.05.

Aoyama Thelma's 'Emotions' album was what inspired me to write this post! It practically killed me, out of the 11 tracks, excluding 'Intro', I could easily pick ANY OUT and I bet u will <3 it! Ok, that sounds exaggerated but I really couldn't find any tracks that I personally don't enjoy!

 This are some of her tracks which I am extremely hooked to.

 11 WANNA COME AGAIN feat. VERBAL(m-flo)

Oh my god! This is a masterpiece of Aoyama Thelma and Verbal, from the playful and EXTREMELY CATCHY feel, this song kept me captivated from start to end and simply left me craving for more! This is part of the starting lyrics:


You will be pleasantly surprised when her playful voice transits into a very sweet voice when she reach the line 'OOH … konya wa futari de celebrate'! However to me, the best part is when Verbal starts his rap!

This my house you better take you shoes OFF

think I’m uchuujin, like I’m KYUTON

ONE-MAN-ARMY,V,it’s ME

I could rap FAST, sometimes I slowlyyyyyy… STEP

It’s my time to SHINE… to get my FEET WET

HIMITSU wa oshienai, datte SECRET

can’t STOP NOW… tsukame

till I have 10 ”O’s”… to the LEFT

of my decimals, DEWEY, that’s how we DO IT

when we DROP it zujou chuui

…m-flo

Shiranai nara juushou

Dakara act like you know

so let me walk away from it all

…let’s go

Mou wasureru yo

Hoka no dareka to

Deau chance wa arushi

This rap may not really make much sense but it FLOWS so well with the song. I love the part when Verbal stops his rap and Thelma continues it from 'so let me walk away from it all'! The gritty synth and the thumping beats are fun and as always, VERBAL provides a fun rap and everything just freaking sync so well! This part is SHEER HIP! Verbal + Thelma FTW!

Another praise-worthy song from Aoyama Thelma's 'Emotions' album. This time, Thelma (main vocal) worked with Ken who rapped in some parts of the track. I adsolutely loves the starting and it proved to be extremely catchy especially with the repetition of 'so baby tell me, cause I need you in my heart.'. I like the ups and downs of her voice from the bittersweet starting to the higher pitched chorus, meanwhile, Ken's long rap appeared about midway of the track, he has a light voice but it is VERY fitting in this song. The song was ended very well too at:

todoketai kono omoi wo dakedo kimi ha kiitekurenai deshou? nee doushite? aishiteru yo kono omoi ha mou todokanai kana?

while Thelma's ethereal 'so baby tell me, cause I need you in my heart' repeated in the background to the very end! Awesome!




Aww! I swear I would have bought her album if she had included all her music PVs :((

Singles 2:

01 流れ星

02 Memory(feat.DAISHI DANCE)

Arguably one of the better singles for Mika this year! A fairly famous artiste in Japan, Mika costarred with Aoi Miyazaki in the famous live-action movie Nana, based on the manga of the same name. The sequel was so successful that Nana 2 was released subsequently in late 2006. Many of her singles toppled the Oricon charts, this one would be no exception!

01 流れ星

Mika's killer song in this single.  流れ星 features a very sad melody where she sang about love/dream with reference to a Shooting Star! I like Mika's gentle voice and the overall feel of this song, it brings out an indescribable melancholy within me, just like a scene where 2 lovers walked away from each other, both in tears! I especially loved the part when she sang :

YOU STAY FOREVER
Nagareboshi ima kimi wa nani wo iou to shiteitano? Miageta sora tsunaida te onaji mirai wo mitsumeteitai

At some parts, her voice go low and there were barely any background music, however, when the chorus comes up, her voice goes up along with all the piano and club beats which really caught my attention. Overall, the melodramatic piano beats in the background along with Mika's vocals was what made this song unique and touching!

 02 Memory(feat.DAISHI DANCE)
The acostic version of this song was actually by DAISHI DANCE themselves, however, Mika beefed it up greatly with her vocals in this version and converted it into a J-Pop! I personally liked the mixture of piano and light drum beats in the background  which is truly upbeat and hip! Mika's impactful vocal in this song was perfect and it really gave me the feel as if the song itself was a memory of the past, which was the title itself!

I chanced onto another great singles by Mika Nakashima, this album was not particularly recent (12 Nov 2008) but it does have 2 solid and great songs! Moreover, ORION was also the theme song for a famous J-Drama 'Ryusei no Kizuna' which Mika herself played a minor role too.

01 ORION
A fairly slow and emotional song, ORION took me quite a well to like and appreciate it because there are not much highs and lows in it, remaining fairly monotonous throughout the whole song. But, this allowed Mika Nakashima to put a lot of emotions into her singing, furthermore, since the music itself isn’t all that sad, it does create a warm winter feeling. This song was indeed very suitable for 'Ryusei no Kizuna'!

02 FOCUS
I did not give ORION a very good review but why do I included this single into my post? Well, because FOCUS was the epic song that captivated me in this single and it is currently the number 1 song in my personal November 2009 'Oricon' chart! Please show more hype and FOCUS more on this song! FOCUS started off with a funky synth-based arrangement which is kinda retro and techno and soon transcended into a full-fledged J-Pop! This is one song which I loved from the start to the end, most songs have poor connectors who made the song sounded awful at a particularly part, FOCUS had none of it. The best part of this song is probably the epic chorus itself :


Frankly speaking, there were not much highs and lows in this song but the ethereal and futuristic feel of her vocal made up for it and I seriously like it! FOCUS is the kind of song that made me wanna sing along with it whenever I listen to it, songs that can make me sing along with it UNKNOWINGLY truly deserves a thumbs up from me. Up till now, I still couldn't comprehend why FOCUS wasn't the theme song for this single but nevertheless MY FOCUS IS ON YOU, Mika Nakashima!