This review is part two of two in my series "How Not To Avoid The Sophomore Slump.
What made twenty-one year-old Rie fu's first album so good was that, while it offered little new in terms of innovative music (after all, how many young singer/songwriters can there be before someone starts sounding like someone else?), Rie fu managed to infuse most of the songs with something unique and fun that turned each song into something purely-Rie.
ROSE ALBUM, Rie fu's second album, sees the London-based singer both returning to familiar sounds and experimenting with, among other things, a slightly more rock-oriented style with help from British band The Pretenders. Unfortunately, the experimentation doesn't work out and the album, as a whole, suffers from uninspired, repetitive songwriting and performances.
...which is a shame, because while there are some poorly-executed concepts here, several of the album's tracks work and are quite creative. Funny Dream begins as a laid back piece led by lounge-y synths before adding in a drum beat, electric and acoustic guitars, and, strangely enough, Arabian-sounding strings. Rie fu's all-English performance is simple and straightforward during the verses, and only slightly more intense during the chorus. The lyrics are a bit confusing at times ("Very tempting matter, I say, 'Give me a drop of optimism' / You take it to a brighter sky / I'm waiting for the three-three-three / And not for any guy") but the song provides a quirky, interesting listen nonetheless.
The inclusion of They Always Talk About would normally irk me, because it's a B-side and those really should stay on singles, but putting it on the album helps to both alleviate the rather monotone sound set by the preceding tracks and it's a darn good pop/rock song as well. Slightly ethereal at the beginning, with a single fading note and soft keyboard line backing Rie fu's quiet, emotive vocal, the song soon turns into a faster-paced light-rock track with a driving guitar line, superbly-played drums, and raw, passionate performance from Rie fu, especially during the lyrically-catchy chorus and second verse. This is pop-rock done well and easily upstages the mediocre fare offered on the rest of the similarly-styled songs.
Soft-rock ballad ROSE (from whence the album takes its name?) begins unassumingly, with a simple acoustic guitar and drum line underscoring the verses, which Rie fu performs in a reserved, emotional manner. The chorus, while not intensifying the emotion too much, infuses it with a bit more passion (not that the beginning of the song is lacking) and adds an electric guitar to the mix in addition to a slightly stronger performance from Rie fu. One of the better ballads on the album.
Unfortunately, these three tracks are really the only highlights the album has to offer. While the other tracks here aren't necessarily bad by any means, to this particular listener, many of them sound repetitive, similar, and generally bland to the ears, something which Rie fu's first album managed to avoid. The three tracks co-written by The Pretenders (Realize, Conversation, and Kiss U Goodbye) are certainly decent tracks, but they all manage to take the same basic formula -- a slightly-gritty electric guitar line, faint hints of keyboard, and lots of drums -- and do almost nothing different with them aside from changing up the tempo and lyrics, which is a bit disappointing, because the influence of such a band had such promise. It's a shame it was squandered on less-than-impressive tracks.
Also less-than-stellar are the majority of the album's ballads and slower places. As I've stated before, it's not that they're inherently bad, but rather that they tend to go on and on without really changing anything about the song's structure -- take, for example, Vintage Denim, which barely changes its piano-and-string backing throughout the entire four-minute duration, even though Rie fu gives a very subtle, soft, understated performance. negaigoto, Rie fu's first all-Japanese single, also suffers from this particular fault: for the majority of the song, it's simply Rie fu with her piano, drifting from line to line without really going anywhere. Pretty, but rather boring.
Rie fu is a bit of a mystery -- her first album was great, and there are many who think that this particular album is a step in the right direction. I do not agree with these people. It's certainly not a bad album, but it truly fits the definition of "average" -- while there are some tracks that are really good, there are also some tracks that are really kind of depressingly-bland, which is sad, because Rie fu has more potential than what's displayed here. Pick up her first album and, if you like, this one, but don't go whining if you prick your finger.
Rie fu: "ROSE ALBUM"
[ CDA | QQCL-13 | ¥3,059 | 2006.03.24 ]
01. sono mama de [ 4:44 ]
02. 5 minutes [ 3:26 ]
03. Funny Dream [ 3:25 ]
04. I Wanna Go To A Place... [ 5:08 ]
05. Realize [ 4:46 ]
06. Tiny Tiny Melody [ 5:08 ]
07. Conversation [ 4:18 ]
08. They Always Talk About [ 5:50 ]
09. Kiss U Goodbye [ 4:54 ]
10. Vintage Denim [ 3:58 ]
11. ROSE [ 4:22 ]
12. Long Long Way (Album Version) [ 4:22 ]
13. negaigoto [ 4:44 ]
[ http://www.riefu.com ]
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