Review Summary: This album is a great listen.....hence why i rated it a 3.5.....whats the point of this summary box again?
Hey, thanks for looking onto this review, this is my first review ever by the way. With that out of the way I decided to review a J- pop band, I have yet to see one on this site, I guess you can say it is for obvious reasons. So what I am going to do is just show a little bit of Kat-tun’s history but if you don’t want to see it then you can skip the paragraphs and just jump into the track by track I am going to do.
Kat-tun is made up of six members:
Kame and Jin make up the lead vocals, Koki is the rapper, Nakumaru is the beatboxer( he only beatbox on a track for 10 seconds at max other than that he is just a vocalist) Ueda is the one who composed the guitar on the tracks (he rarely does the guitar live), and Junno is just a vocalist. Kat-tun had been performing five years prior to the making of this CD. All of them, except Ueda, have been in a drama (which is a big thing in Japan). So it is only natural that their acting career has helped them be one of the biggest, if not the Idol groups in Japan.
Now on to the track by track:
Track 1, She said: Let me get this out of the way, Koki’s rapping is…either hate it or love it in this song, he sounds like Daffy Duck, anyways besides the rapping, this song starts off with a orchestral Disney like opening and goes into a punkish guitar riff, the song is filled with a catchy chorus, the song breakdowns down near the middle with Daffy duck rapping then it goes into a guitar solo, with great background music. The song ends with the catchy chorus with a guitar build up, I would love this track but Koki’s rapping killed it here for me. 3/5
Track 2, Never Again: This song has got a lot of groove, the instrumental in this song is excellent, the voices all song great, I can’t really describe this song, I can only describe it as jazzy besides that, this track is awesome. 5/5
Track 3, I Like it: This is your basic slow poppy, song, It has semi dirty lyrics (“The way you touch me, kiss me, tease me, I like it) I personally think of this as their filler song, It has nothing special with it, the instrumentals are okay, but I’m just not into a lot of soft music. Although I admit the build up at the end is pretty nice add on. 2.5/5
Track 4, Miracle: This is a very happy go lucky song; it takes you to a happy place with its groove. When I listen to this song I feel like I have been drifted into a forest with care bears with a rainbow over my head…..anyways its got groove and it’s poppy the vocals don’t sound just “right” in my opinion and I don’t like the way the song ends, it makes it feel unfinished ( the fading out effect). Besides that it gets a 3.5/5
Track 5, Blue Tuesday: Soft piano Ballad with a good melody…..what else is there to say? Very forgettable. 2.5/5
Track 6, Rhodesia: There are only two people from Kat-tun on this track, Koki and Ueda. This song starts off with a metal guitar riff, Ueda has a very good voice and it is great synced with Koki’s voice. This track is haunting if you get what I mean, from Koki’s raping to Ueda’s melodic voice. The chorus is great, comprised with simple guitar riffs, the downfall of this track is the fact that the song ends with the normal chorus, they didn’t add anything to it but it has Koki rapping at least. 4/5
Track 7, Gold: This song is not in my liking, nothing popped out and hit me on the head for this track, ya the chorus is catchy, with Kat-tun saying (all or nothing, now or never, we can make it happen we can make it alright, time is coming, everlasting, don’t you want to see it when we make it worldwide). I just don’t like this track enough to praise it that’s all. 2/5
Track 8, Wilds of my heart: Track starts out with Jin start chanting “wilds of my heart”, just forget them saying “wilds” This song is full of melodic group singing by Kat-tun. This track was produced very nicely. Bass guitar is heard throughout the song and an electric guitar makes entrances and exits in the track. Koki is constantly landing out of nowhere dropping mini verses throughout the track. Bottom line this song is nicely composed. 4/5
Track 9, Special Happiness: This song is composed of Junno and Kame only, it is a really nice and soothing acoustic ballad song, Like earlier I am not a keen to slow ballads but I can make an exception to this. Their voices sync to make a very nice soothing, uplifting voice. You can also snap to this song very nice. The ending comes out of nowhere, which is the only fault in the song in my opinion. 3.5/5
Track 10, One on One: this is a duo of Koki and Nakamaru, Maru makes his beatboxing skills in the beginning, it’s kind of pointless but hey….got to make a name of yourself somehow…the beatboxing is kind of nice if I may say so myself. Koki’s rapping is nice and goes with the R&B style beat, and Maru’s voice just lays down the chorus down excellent. Hearing this song will make you wonder why Maru is’nt one of the main vocalist of Kat-tun. The ending of the song is very nice with Maru chanting something and Koki laying down underlaying raps, then Koki starts rapping again then it ends. Very nice duo here 4/5
Track 11, Butterfly: This is a duo song by Ueda and Jin. This song is doesn’t sound like it should be in the album in the first place. The guitar is present throughout the whole song since the guitar is Ueda’s specialty in the group, Jin starts rapping in the beginning very nice, Then, shortly after Jin stops Ueda lets his voice take over the chorus which is very unique. Jin is constantly telling people to lean back in the track and rapping. This song could classify as alternate rock easily, good track nonetheless and great ending. 4.5/5
Track 12, Rush of Light: This is your basic Pop Ballad song. Nothing worth noting here. 2/5
Track 13, Harukana Yakusoku: This is a nice song, Group singing throughout the song with a nice poppy chorus, has a nice 9 second long guitar solo, a good build up after the mini solo, Basically this tracks makes me wants to jump up and down. 4/5
Track 14, Precious One: This is a slow uplifting ballad, It has a sad- like atmosphere and a violin and keyboard accompanies it. Catchy at times, its an above average track in my book. 3/5
Track 15, Real Face: This is the song that smacked me in the face and got me listening to J-pop/rock music. It starts off with Jin and Kame laying down vox then the guitar comes in with Maru’s Beatboxing/counting down then Koki just come out of no where and smacks you in the face with his rapping, Then Jin sings, probably at his best in my opinion. Koki is laying down raps throughout the entire song. The instrumental is undoubtedly nicely composed. The only bad thing I have to say is that the shredding that Ueda does on this song sounds hideous. Besides that this is a great track and the ending is nicely done. 4.5/5
So that’s the first review I have done I know it is lackluster and I always sucked at writing conclusion paragraphs…well I sucked at writing paragraphs in general so I am not going to try to write one.
Must listens: Real face, Rhodesia, Butterfly, Never Again, One on One
http://www.channel-ai.com/blog/2006/05/26/best-of-kat-tun/
is the only place i can find a full stream of the CD
