sentiment: frustrated
harmony: "I pray to stop my cry -little sea style-" by Mami Kawada
Today was a very cursed day... I will never forget this day as well because it's so bad... so bad that I want to scream to the top of my lungs and cry! -___-
First, I went to school to finish some works before I'll meet Jen in the Paseo de Magallanes for the Sagashi Ateru 2 discussions at 1pm. But I wasn't able to finish it quickly because my classmate (which is my groupmate) arrived late! And my prof was nowhere to be found and we'll have to find her or else we're doomed!
It took me at least 2 ½ hours to went out and went straight to go to Magallanes. Second, my biggest mistake! I shouldn't have taken the jeep that goes in the West Service Road! That road can be so very f**kin' shit unreliable. It was kinda under repair in some parts and it was uber traffic! There was even a little mishap/accident in the way that the jeep I rode went stroke for more or less 30 minutes. =___=
I got out at school before 12:30 and I arrived at Paseo de Magallanes at 2:50 PM!!! O___O;; it took me at least 2 hrs to go there when it's not that far away from my location... Ahh the hell with that West Service Road! I'm not going to take another ride from that goes there again! I've learned my lesson!
I am kinda expecting that Jen has departed already since I was out for the next 1 5/6 hrs of our supposed to be meeting time but I still tried. Oh so many fortuitous events these days... I have to be careful next time.
Third, when I rode the jeep to go back to Alabang, it suddenly rained! O_o it's a good thing, I was already inside the jeep so I didn't get wet thank goodness. But when I was already in Bicutan part, the rain stopped and the sun suddenly shone! Ughh, weather can be moody like people too, I guess.
Next, I went to Festival Supermall to pay for our broadband bill. When I was already in line to pay in the "ATM-like touch-screened machine" it went bizarre! And I have to line up to the cashier with a long-line ahead. At that time, I said to myself, "This is going to be a very long day".
And now, I'm having trouble with my Last.fm account. It scrobbles some songs that I don't listen to!! I'm hacked!!!? But how!? T_T I didn't even have Last.fm in other computers except here in my house!? I was just listening to pure J-music then suddenly I saw in my profile page in Last.fm, "Who the f**k is this 'Van Halen'?! And what's this!? 'dream theater? O_o" I didn't even listen to their songs then why the heck are they scrobbled into my widgets!? WTF is this?! I searched in the support forum and did the password-change thingy but it didn't stop that hacker to keep scrobbling songs in my account that I'm not listening! UUURRRGGGHHH!!!! Whoever is that person scrobbling in my account, I'm telling you I'm not happy with what you are doing!! You could've just registered since it's free!!!!
*kyaah* *headdesks* I need to calm down... Or else I'll explode in the next few minutes... -___- I hope the problem with the Last.fm will be fixed in the next few days or else, I'll be forced to delete my account and create another one.
sentiment: LSS'd
harmony: "Chasse (TV size)" by Kaori Utatsuki
Ahh at last, a higher resolution of Kaori Utatsuki's Chasse single cover is now available. Thanks to amazon! If you look at the cover, you'd say "Wow, so vintage!" since it looks very classic and I'm hunching the font used for "Chasse" text was Impact. xD And as I see it, they took the meaning of the word literally which means "drive out". I can see a vehicle! o_O And what's this?! A couple of drinks and is that a bottle of wine? Hmmm... whatever.
Okay, to give you a hint of the song, it's a very slow-paced song much appreciated when you're in meditation or relaxation. And you'll get LSS'd when you hear this song just like I did. The "Lunlunlun lala lunlun lulu" fever will attack you and will make you sing wherever you'll go! It'll even haunt you in your dreams. X3 It is used as the 3rd ending theme for Hayate no Gotoku! or Hayate the Combat Butler. Well, it's better this way because I like the melody more than her debut single Shining stars bless.
It's B-side song Change of heart will most likely be a fluffy cutey-cute song again. That's just an assumption since most of her songs are really like that. Most likely same with her Senecio. But I would be delighted if there will be a cute denpa song (just like her JET SMASH!) in one of her singles in the future. I'm not that delighted but I got LSS'd with those cute lines of Jet Smash... xD *fuwa~fuwa... ecchi ni koshite!* hahaha!
Well I hope this will work since her debut single was a letdown not just on the single itself but with its total sales and Oricon weekly position. I'm excited to have the long version next week, November 21! Can't stop the "lunlunlun lala lunlun lulu" fever... x,X so bad yet so good. xD
sentiment: happy
harmony: "Lipstick" by Sachi Tainaka
Now what do we have here? It'll be the first time I'll be making a review for Sachi Tainaka's single... haha! Well, I wasn't able to do some reviewing with her Itoshii Hito e single because I don't know what to say about the single. It was extremely good even if it didn't do a good job in the Oricon. If you must know, it only reached #67 with only approximately 2,000 copies sold. Oh such a letdown but I still like the single. The cover was hot and superb and I don't know why it didn't touched the hearts of the listeners. Or maybe because it was a very sad song... but it's B-side Begin was pretty good! A sort of rock and roll with the combination of her oh-so-powerful vocals.
And now moving into the review proper, Lipstick/Ichiban Boshi is Sachi Tainaka's 6th maxi single under Sistus Records (a subsidiary of Geneon Entertainment). Songs and lyrics are all produced by Sachi Tainaka herself (which is a great thing because she really never fails to amaze with her music writing and composing skills). Ichiban Boshi was used as the theme song for the J-movie entitled Persona. Here's the tracklisting for the single:
Lipstick (4:45)
Ichiban Boshi (4:50)
Lipstick -instrumental- (4:43)
Ichiban Boshi -instrumental- (4:48)
Lipstick is I think one of Sachi Tainaka's upbeat songs that has a really nice tune. And another point, I think this is one of her singles in which the A-side song is not a ballad compared to her last singles Saikou no Kataomoi, Aitai yo./Kimi to no Ashita, and Itoshii Hito e which are all ballad but the corresponding B-side songs are upbeat (except for Aitai yo./Kimi to no Ashita since this is a double-A single) and most likely perky. This song has the mixture of ska (because of the trumpets) and rock which is a good combination, IMO. It's kind of similar to Hitomi Shimatani's summer-ish single Neva Eva and it's a little perky as well. The song starts with a very dramatic matter but after a couple of seconds, it changes your mood into a very different and complex way. Then the next few lines, it will be slow and a bit dull but before the chorus starts, it will give you a thrill because Sachi's voice will be powerful again and will give a supreme feeling overall.
Ichiban Boshi, on the other hand, is actually what I have been expecting -- B-A-L-L-A-D. Of course, it'll have a ballad song because IMO, this is where Sachi is good at. And with her high-pitched and powerful voice, it blends well with any ballad but I still prefer Lipstick over this. With the usual blend of power ballad, it has a natural sad tone and an "almost-crying" voice of Sachi similar to her Aitai yo. song but I like the latter more. Not that very special, I should say but still a good performance, I should say. Tis just making my day, a little dull and emo so I'd still go for Lipstick!
Overall, I can rate this single a 4/5 score because I really like Lipstick very much and a bit let down with Ichiban Boshi.
sentiment: raging with happiness
harmony: "Naraku no Hana" by Eiko Shimamiya
Ah-hahaha! I must say I'm a night early again from the original release of this single. I just love the cover of this single... don't you think it's attractive? I don't have much taste for aesthetical objects/pictures but it's really artistic. Simple yet it covers all. I don't have my copy of my single yet but I already have the long version of Naraku no Hana and the B-side FLOW.
I don't get why most of the people translate the song as Hell's Flower or the Flower of Hell. I'd say it should be the Flower of Hades or Hades's Flower. Why? I based it on the kanji. Take a look here:
地獄 - "jigoku" which means hell
奈落 - "naraku" which means underworld
(Note: Hell and Underworld may have the same usage but they are completely different term)
I'd consider it if they will use Pluto since Hades & Pluto are the same person, right? And take another look, according to Wiki, here's the definition for both:
Hell - is an afterlife of suffering where the wicked or unrighteous dead are punished.
Underworld - underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly dead souls go.
So why Hades? Well simply because he is the king of underworld right? Nuff said.
Alright let's go to the critic proper... Naraku no Hana is probably one of the darkest song that Eiko Shimamiya performed. It has one weird and eery start and end. Although it's dark, it's still upbeat that's why I like the song. Upbeat that I can say it is really an appropriate opening theme for the rated-M visual novel game & anime Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. And with the usage of electric guitars, it'll give you a crack for 5:01. I give it a 5/5 even if the finishing touch was kind of unsatisfying like in the case of Mami Kawada's Beehive.
The B-side FLOW has a fairly upbeat tune featuring a different tune of Eiko Shimamiya. It's much lighter than Naraku no Hana but I like the first song better. I can't say much on this song as it didn't really caught much of my attention.
Overall, the single's not half bad and I think I will like FLOW when I listen to it more. I hope this will help her to be more famous because her voice is not that bad. I like most of her songs and I'd say it's not really bad. And after a year, at last, she will have her 2nd maxi single.
If you want to listen to these two songs, click here or here.
