Japan

MUSIC REVIEW . Puffy’s Honeycreeper, Hitomi Yaida’s Single Collection, Chara’s Caramel Milk

I haven’t had much time to watch films these past couple weeks, what with a hectic work schedule and a pile of animation sent to me for review (I’m currently on the third disc of an eight disc set), but I’ve been listening to quite a bit of music at work. Given the fact I haven’t turned out a music review in quite some time, I figured it’s high-time to put out another batch.

First a bit of background. As an early birthday present this past Christmas Break, Kris got me a number of Japanese CDs, including Hitomi Yaida’s Single Collection, Ringo Shiina’s Innocence Moratorium, Puffy’s Honeycreeper, Ego Wrappin’s merry merry, Dragon Ash’s Mustang!, Chara’s Caramel Milk and The Best - Baby Baby Baby xxx, and Rip Slyme’s Time to Go.I know what you’re thinking, “Holy wow, that’s a boatload of expensive cd’s!,” but all save for Puffy were purchased for under $14.00 at Hawaii’s Shirokiya store. For now I’ll review three of these titles, as I’ve not listened to all of them enough to have a strong opinion. Suffice it to say that this was one of the best hauls I’ve ever received, and I’m definitely digging these presents (Thanks hun!). On to the reviews.

Puffy . Honeycreeper . Straight up, this is not as good as Splurge. But, in all honesty, that’s a hard act to follow. Honeycreeper is still a good CD though, and there’s sizable selection of catchy tracks,including “Oriental Diamond”, “You and the Motorbike”, “Boom Boom Beat”, “Closet Full of Love” (this one’s really cool) and “So Long Summer.” Track 8, “Ghost Puffy”, is a 7 minute track with a three minute ghost story intro featuring Ami, Yumi, and a spooky spectre. I don’t understand much of it, but I’d imagine it’s pretty funny. The song itself is decent, though not really a standout track for anything other than its length. The final two tracks, “Oh Edo Rocket IV” and “Island” are pretty interesting as well. Edo Rocket is infectiously bubbly and even features Ami and Yumi doing some enka style singing toward the end. Island seems Scotch/Irish in influence, and seems a good choice for soundtracking the end of a film. All in all, Honeycreeper is a quality CD that won’t disappoint Puffy Fans.

Hitomi Yaida . Single Collection . I have three of her CD’s now (iflancy and here today), and this one’s rapidly becoming my favorite. Sure, it’s probably because the cd is merely a greatest hits collection, but this provides a great listen from start to finish. For those not familiar with Yaida, she’s a J-Folk/”Heart Rock” singer the likes of Ringo Shiina, only without the screaming. Unlike many pop stars she can actually play an instrument (a completely rocking acoustic guitar), and she does so exceedingly well. It might take a while to get used to her high pitched voice, but the songs are compelling enough that you’ll soon look past that. Standout tracks include “How?”, “B’coz I love You”, “My Sweet Darlin’”, “Look Back Again”, “I’m here saying nothing”, “Ring My Bell”, “Mikansei no Melody”, “ANDANTE”, and “Hitori Jenga”. To give you an idea of how much I like this CD, Media Player (yes, Media Player. iTunes is too much a resource hog to allow any legitimate work to get done on the machine running it) increases the star ranking for a given song the more you listen to it. Every track on Single Collection is ranked a maxed-out five stars. A great CD and totally worth a pickup.

Chara . Caramel Milk . Chara lied. The Best is not the best. Caramel Milk is the best. Seriously, this album rocks. I’ve mentioned before that Chara’s vocals are something akin to the murmurings of an asthmatic baby, but overlaid on her 90’s era musical sensibilities it’s totally appealing. The album opens with the incredibly infectious carnival/festival style song “Yasashii Kimochi”, folowed on to the ever-so-sweet “Taisetsu wo Kizukumono”, and it just gets better from there. “Tsuki to Amai Namida” sounds like something the Eels would have done before they started their era of repetition. “Time Machine”, with its lazy harmonica ans spacy synth is pretty nice as well. 70%–Yuugure no Uta should be in a film, if it hasn’t already. The final track, “Swallowtail Butterfly”, already has been, and film fans will recognize from Shunji Iwai’s film of the same name (which also starred Chara). Caramel Milk is just an all around great CD. Sure, The Best does have the added bonus of Tadanobu Asano (her husband) in the liner notes, but Caramel Milk beats it hands down.

Bonus Music Videos:

Puffy . Oriental Diamond

Hitomi Yaida . My Sweet Darlin’ (sporting an electric)

Chara . Time Machine (featuring Tadanobu Asano)

About the Author:

Chris Nelson has a appetite for the offbeat. By far J-Pop/Rock remains his music of choice when programming. It provides a nice beat with little-to-no English distractions, while drowning out the protestations and shouts of anger from co-workers dealing with their own mysterious code.