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Written: Aug 21 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Arashiro has a rather-nice voice. THE POWER is cheesy, but good.
Cons: Generic. Pedestrian. Bland. Pick your adjective, most of the material here fits.
The Bottom Line: Bland and Boring, meet Beni. She's your new mistress.
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| shimatani87's Full Review: Hikari No Kazu Dake Glamorous [Single] by Beni Ara... |
There are some artists that, when given a chance at a music career, do well due to having well-written, memorable material that is both catchy and compatible with that singer's voice.
Then there are artists who try to do well but are saddled with bland, generic-sounding material that is ill-fitting to that particular singer's voice and sounds like stuff that the artists who are higher-up on the label's food-chain took one listen to and said, "No way!".
That's the career of twenty-year old Beni Arashiro in a nutshell. The child of an Okinawan mother and an American father, Arashiro was born in Japan and lived part of her life in America, resulting in Arashiro's fluency in both English and Japanese. In addition to being a solo artist (debuting in summer 2004 with the single Harmony), Arashiro is also a member of Bishoujo Club 31, a rather-large "Morning Musume"-esque troupe of young women who sing and dance while attempting not to knock each other over on stage.
hikari no kazudake GLAMOROUS is Arashiro's fifth solo single, released in June 2005, approximately four months after her moderately-successful debut album Beni. In the tradition of all her singles both past and present, the single contains three tracks: an A-side, a B-side, and a cover song, with only the first two having accompanying instrumental tracks.
Instead of starting with the A-side and working my way down, I figured I'd change things up a bit and go in a somewhat-random order. The cover track here is one that may be (and probably is) familiar to many readers -- an "exclusive version" (whatever that means) of Disney Channel's Kim Possible themesong, Call Me, Beep Me! (If You Want to Reach Me) (originally performed by Christina Milian) although it's lost the subtitle and has, for some reason, been retitled in all capital letters. Whatever. For all intensive purposes, this is the same song as the original -- little has been changed in the way of instrumentation (an upbeat techno-pop track that makes heavy use of synthesizers and the little "Kimmunicator" sound from the show), and the song's still completely in English -- except the vocalist has been changed, and it's obvious. While Arashiro does improve in some ways on the original (infusing more emotion into certain lines than Milian did), her rather monotone take on the majority of the song's lines makes for an incredibly dull two-and-a-half minutes.
hikari no kazudake GLAMOROUS itself is a prime example of the scenario I outlined above. A rather tropical-sounding dance track (which, I admit, is rather catchy instrumentally) that incorporates everything from bongo drums and shakers to lounge-y sounding synths and a rather light horn section, all over a rather pedestrian dance-lite beat, the track takes a turn for the worse when Arashiro's vocal enters. While I usually praise artists for staying in their "comfortable range", Arashiro really could have done a lot more with her performance here; instead, she chooses to plod through the verses on almost the exact same note and in an incredibly unremarkable vocal tone, hardly changing things up for the chorus. Kind of pretty, but incredibly bland in the end.
THE POWER, in my opinion, really should have been this single's A-side. Sure, the track is little more than an incredibly mediocre, run-of-the-mill "stadium" rock song -- containing all the clichés from crunchy-sounding guitars and a repetitive bass line to a stomp-stomp-handclap rhythm section and slightly-operatic male backup singers in the chorus -- but it's so much better than the first track. Not only is the chorus actually catchy and somewhat memorable, but Arashiro turns in quite a fine performance here -- she never once backs down, flinging out her lines in a forceful, commanding vocal tone during the verses and an encouraging-yet-relentless one in the chorus. Sure, it's a bit repetitive and generic, but hey, she does her best -- which, here, is incredibly pleasing.
In the end, Arashiro's first post-album effort is a mixed bag: there's one track that's decent, one that's entirely forgettable once the instrumentation's halfway-uniqueness runs out, and one that just exists for the sake of existing. It's not just one person's fault, either -- everyone involved had a hand in making this the rather typical throwaway pop disc that it is. I just hope that when Beni has the chance, she finds someone who can really work with her voice, because it's hardly bad.
Beni Arashiro: "hikari no kazudake GLAMOROUS"
[ CDS | AVCD-30731 | ¥1,050 | 2005.06.01 ]
01. hikari no kazudake GLAMOROUS [ 4:20 ]
02. THE POWER [ 4:57 ]
03. CALL ME, BEEP ME! (Exclusive Version) [ 2:44 ]
04. hikari no kazudake GLAMOROUS (Instrumental) [ 4:20 ]
05. THE POWER (Instrumental) [ 4:55 ]
[ http://www.avexnet.or.jp/beni/ ]
Recommended:
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Epinions.com ID:
shimatani87
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Member: Zach Jones
Location: Urbana, IL
Reviews written: 117
Trusted by: 17 members
About Me:
St. Louis-bound graduate student with a passion for pop.
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