J-Pop KAMPAI! – Now on Instagram

I am now on Instagram!

@jpopkampai

As you guys may or may not know, being in the army (mandatory for Singaporean males to undergo two years) have left me very limited time to blog and everything, and since everyone is starting to have lower attention spans and be more social media-savvy, I've created an extension of J-Pop KAMPAI! on Instagram so you can access my shitass content more conveniently :)

Follow if you wanna see random shit I'll be posting, pre-thoughts to albums I will (hopefully) eventually review on the blog itself in detail, bite-sized reviews of music I don't wish to review in detail on the blog, or general thoughts that I don't deem major enough to be made into a post.

I would recommend it for people with similar musical tastes as me to discover more new music to listen to. I'll probably also share my jams of the week and stuff like that too, and Instagram video is a great platform for preview listening. I would love to see recommendations you guys have via the comments too. I win, you win, we all win!

This helps this poor conscripted boy churn out content more conveniently, and with that said, I will definitely post more there than on this blog, until I have more freedom on my end, at least. So don't miss out and follow @jpopkampai! Woo!

LISA returns with a... kids album... and it's strangely good.

After falling off the face of Earth for four years, LISA decided it would be a good idea to make a comeback by singing kids songs. Colour me surprised when the tracks turn out to be actually pretty nicely-produced. I can't believe I'm saying this, but my personal favourites are ABC Song, Grandfather's Clock and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Hear them for yourself.

[Album Review] Kato Miliyah - LIBERTY

This album cover is just waiting to be vandalised with bukkake shots.

Eleven years into the business, it's ironic that Kato Miserableface's album is titled so when she's clearly not liberated from shitty album covers. You can try to distract us with the glitter all over your eyes, bitch. You can try.

[Album Review] ayumi hamasaki - A ONE

When you can't sell records, titties are always a solution! ;)

"While I was living overseas, I guess I realised that I really craved the subtleties and detail of the Japanese language. That feeling of 'I want to express it in Japanese' built up inside me and I started to write lyric after lyric. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't that I purposely sought out to make an album that sounded like the old me. It just happened."

ayumi hotmesssaki has somewhat admitted that she really is some kind of a mess. Secondly, I think we all wish Namie Amuro would "crave the subtleties and detail of the Japanese language" too, no?

A ONE is more or less yet another safe, #throwback #throwahoetotheback album as per her pattern since 2010's Love songs, followed by 2013's horrendous LOVE again. But thank god the use of the word "love" isn't in the pattern.

It's like ayumi hotmesssaki stirs a little shit up (Party Queen, Colours) before cowering back into her little corner to create something more subdued, more classic J-Pop. And this is why to many fans, A ONE comes across as a familiar record with little surprises.

What is a DREAMS COME TRUE?

The world, or maybe only Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai, is on fire. Because at a time when ayumi hotmesssaki would be able to finally scrape a #1 and not let shit hit the fan, duo DREAMS COME TRUE "robbed" her of that position literally on the last day of the Oricon week, earning their best album a 4th week at #1. Oh well! Shit happens, can't please everyone.

So while everyone is cursing and swearing at DCT over in the hellhole that is AHS, in which someone even thought they were a boyband, I thought I could take this as an opportune moment to introduce to you guys about this awesome group. Might as well, right?

I'm not exactly sure why DREAMS COME TRUE isn't so popular outside of Japan, because I personally find the vocalist, Miwa Yoshida, so charismatic and can still put on a killer show even after 26 years, and being 50 years old. That bitch doesn't even look her age. Damn these Japanese genes.

Unfortunately for me I was born too late because I've always wanted to catch them live since I first discovered them in 2007. I especially have always wanted to watch their WONDERLAND tour in person, because it's a dome / stadium tour that they only put up once every 4 years!!! Dude, they arrived sitting on horses at the 1995 one. I wasn't even a year old yet?!?!?1

Anyways, I've handpicked one song from each of their 17 studio albums (which may or may not be in their latest best album) so you can take a listen if you've not heard of them. You can pretty much hear how much they've evolved their sound from the '80s till now. They're pretty damn impressive. And I'll stick a live performance of the same song beside it cos I think they're pretty fun to watch live. Woosh!

[Album Review] Koda Kumi - WALK OF MY LIFE

"Fuck me now."

A new ramen restaurant just opened in town. There is massive hype for it, because it's been around in Japan for the past 10 years and is still going strong. There are long queues almost every day. Naturally, you try it for yourself one day in your hometown. Unfortunately, the soup was awfully bland. The pork slices were tough and overcooked. The noodles tasted rubbery. The bottom of the bowl didn't seem remotely near in sight even though it felt like you spent an hour trying to painfully finish it.

Now let's change the setting.

It's Koda Kumi's 15th anniversary. An autobiographical-titled album, WALK OF MY LIFE, is released. Pussies will be popped. Weaves will be snatched. Confetti will be scattered around Tokyo. The ramen will, however, still suck. But the ramen's not alone in this, because the album also sucked.

Alas, life isn't always fair like this.

All you need to know about Namie Slaymuro's _genic

I think that day in the early, second week of April was a pretty good day, because I had finally taken a thorough listen to ayumi hotmesssaki's A ONE and was quite impressed.

Of course, unbeknownst to me, it was but one of Namie Slaymuro's sly tactics to drop this bomb on us, completely shading the attention on Ayu. Well-played, Namie. If this is the kind of strategic team you've gotten over at whatever Stella88 place you're at now, you have my FULL SUPPORT.