[CD Packaging] JASMINE - Best Partner

Just got my copy of JASMINE's latest single today ohohohoho.

Don't know if you guys have seen the original cover before but I preferred that, although it's only a different colouring + without the text. I'm still fine with this though so it's all good. Plus it's probably one of JASMINE's best single covers because... you know, it's actually a medium close up for once.


Back cover + OBI





Overall pretty much the typical JASMINE packaging after her first album GOLD. If only they stuck with the first press digipak :(

I also realised that this is probably the first JASMINE release to not feature her first logo, which is that lame badge thing with her name in cursive text inside. Apparently the JASMINE thing with the special A is now the new one or something. New single cover pose, new logo and shit, did they sack her creative team or something? Cuz that's good news for everyone!

[CD Packaging] Angela Aki - BLUE (CD+DVD)

Here are pictures of the packaging for the CD+DVD limited edition of Angela Aki's latest album, BLUE which I received a few days ago!



Was quite pleasantly surprised to see that her record label invested more money in this by bringing back a slipcase for the CD+DVD editions, because they didn't for WHITE and that just looked like a mess that was done with poor effort.

Just like her past 2 studio albums, LIFE and WHITE, this album came with a postcard as well to the right.



Cover overload AHHHHHH



The back cover, which is the same as the slipcase one.



Le contents. I think the back cover of the booklet is the lamest thing ever. Horizontally flipped cover? Really? Oh well, I guess the fact that this album cover is coming from Angela Aki is probably enough for all of us to jizz in our pants already.

I'll try to review the album as soon as I can so you can look forward to that!!! I'm barely getting started on my VIVID review, shit.

[New Release] Mika Nakashima - Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Nara

CD+DVD | CD

After a year of absence busy being a zombie... oh wait she's a zombie all the time, but Mika is finally releasing a new single! I actually like the covers a lot and they look so much better than her previous single's covers. It kind of reminds me of the single cover to Hitori as well.

The photographer is, surprisingly, Leslie Kee. He's been missing on every single Ayu photoshoot he's done this year but he does one for Mika and NAILS IT. Conclusion: it's all Ayu's fault.

I haven't really heard any previews for this single yet but I'm hoping she doesn't disappoint. I liked LOVE IS ECSTASY although I don't know why I didn't buy that single. I think I was actually intending to stop buying Mika singles but after seeing the covers for this, it's getting very hard to resist. Damn.

Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Nara will be released on 9 September 2012.

CD Tracklist

1. Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Nara (明日世界が終わるなら)
2. SUPER WOMAN
3. Dear -DJ AMIGA REMIX-
4. Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Nara (Instrumental)

DVD Tracklist

1. Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Nara (MUSIC VIDEO)

[Cover Art] Superfly - Force

I thought the cover for her debut album was pretty shit, but since then her subsequent album covers have been looking pretty damn good! Loving the simplicity of this and for once, they're finally not gonna use Cooper Black for all the text. The idea of putting Superfly at her collarbone is pretty lame though, it could've been better without it. 

Nonetheless I'm looking forward to this album which will be released in September although it was announced in like, 1932 or something. From what I've been hearing from her Facebook videos the songs seem pretty amazing too! I liked Superfly and Box Emotions, but the album tracks on Mind Travel kinda fell flat for me, so hopefully Force will be better. Plus it's her 5th anniversary this year too! Time fliiiiies. 

[New Release] Perfume - Spending all my time

CD+DVD | CD

Perfume is busy spending all their time waiting for Nakata Yasutaka to give them some new songs, and they be hot as hell. I think the covers are pretty hilarious, but I don't know what the girls are up to because ever since they had their label switch I finally see greater hope in their music because Spring of Life was the shit.

I'm glad they're finally going back to having an edgier sound that was frowned upon by Tokuma (fuck you) so that label switch must have been a slap in the face for them. I'm personally excited to hear Hurly Burly because I heard its instrumental and it is SICK.



Spending all my time will be released on 15 August 2012.
First press copies come with a B2-sized poster, but by the time you read this it's probably sold out everywhere already. 

CD Tracklist

1. Spending all my time
2. Point (ポイント)
3. Hurly Burly
4. Spending all my time -Original Instrumental-
5. Point -Original Instrumental- 
6. Hurly Burly -Original Instrumental-

DVD Tracklist

1. Spending all my time -Video Clip-

BE MY BABY: Koda Kumi has (finally) given birth to a baby boy!

The moment has arrived , and so has the extremely bad pun in the title. Koda Kumi is now officially a MILF!

She posted a message in Japanese, English AND Korean on her Facebook page today announcing the birth of her baby b0i!

My dear husband and I had a healthy baby boy the other day.
He is tiny but means the world to us.
Again I've found one more thing in life I love with all my heart.
When I look at him, feelings I've never known before come to me and my love can't be described in words.

I plan to grow and learn as I continue on in life with my husband and son.

Now, I believe I can perform songs with more love to you at the concert in November.
I am looking forward to seeing all of you.

Kumi Koda

Congratulations Kuu! It's so emotional reading these words coming from a new mother ;_; 20 years down the road, she'll be telling her son, "When I was pregnant with you, I had to release this shit album called Beach Mix!" and shit will probably hit the wall.

I'm so excited to see what future plans Kuu has in store for us and her next tour better have her poppin' her pussy like her dear life depends on it!

Watch out, guys, as a new child prodigy may be coming our way...

ayumi hamasaki releases short edit of You & Me PV

Ano natsu no! Omoi de wa! Ima mo mada, azayaka na mama! whatever that means.

I am pleasantly surprised by the fact that Ayu actually looks younger than her age here! This is probably her best PV since the Rock'n'Roll Circus era, and let's not even start with the PVs from the Party Queen era. At least she's not trying to act all hip and shit hanging out with people half her age. 

Essentially, this PV is a cheap version of Rihanna's We Found Love without the drugs (even the cheap dance music sounds similar) + Madonna's Ray of Light, because we all know Madonna invented time lapse scenes. Closer to home, this PV is like the gyaru sequel to glitter except now she doesn't need a translator. 

I don't know why but I'm not particularly fond of how Maro looks like here. He looks like how he usually is but something just doesn't feel right. Maybe he's just getting old. I'd love to see 2NE1 and Ayu get down and have a lip syncing battle. Ayu is like on the other end of the spectrum from 2NE1, with the most exaggerated lip-syncing since Mirrorcle World. OH FRIDAY NITE

It's a pity that everything about this could be improved on, like the production of the song and everything. It would have helped make the PV itself look better in a way too. It's all your fault, TK. Either way, I'm still excited to see how the rest of the PV will look like. Not sure if it's just going to be Ayu and Maro frolicking around to show Mannie she ain't need no Austrian man, because I'm hoping for some other stuff that will put the PVs of fairyland and BLUE BIRD to shame. What is the mysterious scene at the end of the clip with an Ayu who seems to be delirious after seeing what could be Maro completely naked? Is someone going to die in the end? Jeng jeng jeng... 

[Album Review] Namie Amuro - Uncontrolled

"Yo baby waddup"

20 years into the industry, Queen of Hip-Pop Namie Amuro certainly isn't showing signs of slowing down. The fact that she's doing better than some of her peers even shows that she is slowly reaching her arms out, inching her way towards grabbing the crown off ayumi hamasaki's head. With the release of her 10th album, Uncontrolled, comprising 4 new songs and all of the 9 a-sides she's released (talk about actually taking a career risk), will it come off as a cohesive effort or an absolute mess? Or will she take this sound to the next level from where she left off at PAST < FUTURE back in 2009?

[New Song] ayumi hamasaki - You & Me

I was honestly quite excited when I heard there was going to be a new song on her upcoming redundant album, A SUMMER BEST. And then I found out that it was going to be composed by Tetsuya Komuro and I was like oh no. I think having him for Love songs was already enough even though the album actually turned out to be really good.

The song sounded fantastic! Until I heard the crappy synthesiser, and that came in at the 5-second mark. If that wasn't bad enough, later on after she sings the first few lines the song transitions into what seems like horribly cheap and badly produced dance music that Ayu does not deserve to have such quality of. My verdict for the song pretty much sealed itself by then, and I can't believe I read a comment that even said that it sounded "modern" for a TK song. I don't think so, buddy.

Generally, the entire song feels like a cheap TRF leftover track (especially with them wow wow wows) that TK happened to dig up while doing some spring cleaning in his basement that he left untouched since 1986, all dusty and shit, thinking it'd be a good idea to ruin the Queen of J-Pop's career (further). The fact that this is a "YouTube edit" sounds suspicious though, but I highly doubt avex is so free to specially edit the song to upload it exclusively on YouTube. We'll see, we'll see.

In conclusion, this song sounds badly produced, has a predictable and stale melody, belongs to the 90s and shows that Ayu needs to be taught the days of the week again. I am still holding out and hoping that it will eventually grow on me, but I think someone should give TK a reality check that he is a has-been and passé on all levels. Didn't Ayu tweet the lyrics to Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~ recently? Yep, Ayu, that's the song we all wanna hear.

[Cover Art] ayumi hamasaki - A SUMMER BEST

Wait no longer! High resolution cover arts for the album everyone in Japan and Uganda are anticipating so much, ayumi hamasaki's A SUMMER BEST, have been released!

There's good news and bad news. The good news is, Ayu is actually not doing any fish lips here. The bad news is, as a form of compensation, Ayu has decided to choose the 2CD cover to pay homage to the CD only cover of (miss)understood and CD+DVD cover of glitter / fated, except much worse.

I don't know if avex is trying to pull some irony stunt here because those covers are all antonyms of "best". Okay, maybe not the 2CD+DVD one on the left, but the 2CD one looks like it came straight from hell. Admittedly, compared to the mess that were the Party Queen covers, this is a huge improvement. The 2CD+DVD cover is actually the best cover she's released yet for 2012. But the abomination on the right just looks like shit. The fake tan made her look horrible there. Plus, her head looks so big that it looks like they photoshopped her head on someone else's. At least now I can look at the cover of Mika Nakashima's VOICE without cringing.

[Music Video] 2NE1 - I LOVE YOU

2NE1's music video for their latest single, I LOVE YOU recently got uploaded on their official YouTube channel.

I don't know what the hell is going on in the video, but I'm still very disturbed by how Minzy is only a year older than me and yet looks so mature here. She be all like YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH but I'm like WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH KEEP YOUR PANTS ON GURL

Anyway, I just posted this up because I'd like to tell the girls to get their shit together. What kind of shit lip syncing is this? Really? I used to think only Park Bom has this issue, but this video just proves that this problem is contagious. They should have spent the video's budget on lip syncing lessons instead of the Versace-fest in this video.

The award for the best lip-syncing goes to CL at the 2:42 mark. Can someone tell me what the hell she was thinking? I am so damn sure she probably forgot the lyrics and was just going with the lyrics on the spot, thus ending up with this mess.

The editors must have had a really hard time trying to fit the song with their horrible lip-syncing. At least on the positive side, this song is actually pretty darn catchy, but all is well until Park Bom opens her mouth. I shall now publicly show my dislike for Park Bom! Her voice doesn't even fit in with the rest, and I don't care what sort of weird medical throat condition she has that I may have read about 10 years ago. Stay pretty, Dara.

[Music Video] JASMINE - Best Partner

The music video for JASMINE's Best Partner has been uploaded by Sony on their YouTube channel and gurl be lookin' fiiiiiine!

This is easily not only the best music video ever done by JASMINE (finally something with more than a 1000 yen budget) but also her best song ever released. It's like your typical sad to say, ONLY YOU-esque R&B song except this is going to snatch some serious wigs and the song just sounds really heartwarming to me although I don't understand any of the lyrics except the words "Best Partner".

I think the music video touches on the theme of domestic violence, or at least that's what my low-IQ mind comprehends. I was mostly distracted by how pretty JASMINE looks and how the camera focused on the numerous tattoos each of the 3 people in the video had. Yeah, I get it, you love tattoos. Nonetheless, JASMINE, you have finally grasped the idea of a decent music video. Keep it up, gurl.

You can watch the video after the jump. The bad news, however, is that Sony is being a tightarse by only allowing the people in Japan to watch it. The good news is, you can always use a Japan proxy here. Or you can watch it on her official website gallery or Youku instead. You're welcome, everybody.

My Experience with Namie Amuro in Singapore

The first person to grace my first ever entry on J-Pop KAMPAI! is none other than our lovely Queen of Hip-Pop, Namie Amuro. After all, she was the reason why I started up this blog, but more on that later.

I won a preorder lucky draw organised by Universal Music Singapore as part of promotion for Namie's latest album, Uncontrolled, here and thus got to be one of the 20 lucky fans to attend the press conference held at the Marina Bay Sands.

J-Pop KAMPAI!: Introduction

Hey y'all.

Welcome to my blog, J-Pop KAMPAI!, which is obviously going to be focused entirely on Japanese pop music.

This blog is essentially a J-Pop review blog, but not really. I'll be honest - I don't take my shit seriously. Coming to this blog is to face the fact that ayumi hamasaki's career died since 2010, and Namie Amuro is going to take over the world.

Speaking of which, why did I choose to open this blog? First of all, I'm a huge J-Pop fan. Not all forms of J-Pop, but mainly female soloists. Although I will make fun of all the artists I mention here, I am secretly stanning for them like nobody's business. Second of all, I have a lot of things to say about J-Pop. For example, I can't imagine Kaela Kimura having sex. Are you sold on this blog yet?