This review is part one of two in my series "How Not To Avoid The Sophomore Slump".
Back in 2004, when Miz -- a twenty-five year-old singer who first made a little-known and unsuccessful debut under her real name of Mizuki Watanabe before re-debuting as Miz -- released her first album, I said she demonstrated excellent potential and that her debut was "solid and promising of things to come".
I take that back. Miz certainly has potential and heaps of talent, but her post-debut hasn't displayed that spark of ingenuity and fun that made her likable in the first place. An English album (released in Sweden and re-released in Japan with a slightly re-arranged tracklist) and three singles later, Miz returns to make fans' eardrums bleed with her second album Mizrock.
I'll start with this: while this album is in no way my favorite release of Miz's, it's certainly not a bad album for those who enjoy rock music, as that's what the majority of the music here consists of (as the title suggests). The happy-go-lucky Swedish-styled pop/rock of her first album (and, subsequently, her English album) is all but a memory, relegated to the background so that a new, "edgier" Miz can take the stage. Unfortunately, that Miz is but a shadow of her former self.
Fortunately, though, while the album certainly has its faults (to be addressed later), it doesn't completely lack entertainment and enjoyability. A lot of the guitar work here is darn good, even though the songs on which it appears may not be the greatest (the acoustics on An Ordinary Day, the whole instrumental part of Give It All Away being some of the more memorable instrumentals) and several songs are actually quite well-done when compared with the rest of the album:
Bittersweet, for being a rather typical-sounding rock track with all the requisite crunchy, grinding electric guitars, fast-paced crashing drums and cymbals, and rather cliché lost-love lyrics (although the line "So many enemies to kill...but I just love the thrill" is slightly amusing coming from Miz) still manages to make itself enjoyable: maybe it's Miz's performance, which is quietly restrained, seething, during the verses and emotive, loud and forceful during the chorus -- when this girl screams, she does it well; or maybe it's the way the song seems to swell, gathering emotion from the moment it starts, which is all released during the last chorus, when the whole song comes together in an emotion-filled climax. Well done, Miz.
Dreamer, however, is my pick for best track on the album. It, like Bittersweet is an all-English affair with slightly cheesy lyrics about following one's dreams and never giving up, even when life gets you down. However, the way the song frames itself around these lyrics, bringing together some airy-sounding acoustics/keyboards and combining them with some grittier, harder-edged electric guitars and drums makes it work -- and is reminiscent of Miz's first-album material, complete with backing vocals from her producer, Tord Backstrom. Miz's vocal ties the whole thing together in a neat package: while her English seemed to have decreased in skill on some of her earlier post-album English songs, this song doesn't suffer from that, and Miz puts her all into the performance -- it's fun-filled and well-done.
Part Of My Balance is also worthy of mention as far as good tracks are concerned. A light, keyboard-and-acoustic driven (with the occasional electric guitar in the background) piece, it's probably the most unabashedly "pop" of the new songs. Miz does a fine job on a song that sounds like it could've come straight off her first album.
However, the good songs on the album are buried in the muck of the rest, which, as a whole, just doesn't work. Instead of individual songs being so bad they drag the album down, the majority of Mizrock's problems come from a degree of factors:
Vocals: Miz's vocal, while not being one of the strongest in the Japanese pop/rock world, is definitely above-average, and was used to great effect on her first album. Unfortunately, with a shift in style, her voice seems to have taken a hit as well. While her lower register is still much intact (and is used to great effect on many of the album's tracks), her higher voice seems to have significantly weakened in the interim. Passages in Eyes Don't Lie that use her higher register sound off-key; An Ordinary Day, as pretty as it is, uses Miz's middle/upper-register for its entire duration, and she seems to have trouble staying there; In The Rain, an epic, orchestrated rock ballad, is lessened in impact by the fact that Miz's vocal is harsh and sharp on the ears when she's wailing.
Backing Vocals: This particular facet ruins a lot of the album's songs for me. Miz's producer, who does most of her backing vocals, usually does a commendable job, but on many of the album's tracks he seems incredibly off-key and out-of-place when Miz herself commands the song with her oft-growl-induced rock vocal. Eyes Don't Lie is a track where this is easily and most readily apparent, although it also rears its ugly head on Give It All Away.
Quantity and Quality of New Songs: Really kills the album. Of the fifteen tracks here, eight are either A-and-B-sides from her singles (two of which were Japanese remakes of her Swedish-album songs) or English-language versions of those songs. That leaves seven new songs, which seems like a lot, but given the rather lackluster impression most of these songs give, they really don't live up to the potential. Eyes Don't Lie, An Ordinary Day, and In The Rain, in particular, don't make that much of an impression -- the first is a standard rock track with off-key backing vocals, the second is a rather pretty but incredibly one-note acoustic-guitar ballad, and the third, a sweeping orchestral ballad with incredibly ear-bleed-inducing main vocals, as mentioned above.
So, in the end, I have extremely mixed feelings about Miz's second Japanese album. Rather than expanding her horizons and taking advantage of the exquisite production and songwriting abilities of her Swedish staff, she seems to be limiting herself to one scope of music and, unfortunately, comes across as a bit stale in that regard. While the album has several decent and well-done tracks, they're mired in a swamp of bland, repetitive rock songs (with a couple non-stellar ballads thrown in for good measure) that just leave me cold. I appreciate Miz's vision, but Mizrock just doesn't live up to the standard set two years ago. Possibly recommended, but with caution.
Miz: "Mizrock"
[ CDA | VICL-61880 | ¥3,045 | 2006.02.22 ]
01. Bittersweet [ 3:44 ]
02. Eyes Don't Lie [ 3:17 ]
03. In The Sky [ 3:04 ]
04. Backseat Baby [ 3:16 ]
05. An Ordinary Day [ 3:41 ]
06. What Difference [ 4:36 ]
07. Dreamer [ 3:15 ]
08. Give It All Away [ 3:55 ]
09. In The Rain [ 4:09 ]
10. Yesterday [ 3:44 ]
11. Part Of My Balance [ 3:26 ]
12. Welcome to our party [ 3:11 ]
13. In My Life [ 4:05 ]
14. New Day - English Version [ 4:01 ]
15. In The Sky - English Version [ 3:04 ]
[ http://www.mizrock.com ]
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