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[Andrew]

Kaela’s forth album “+1” is set for release in Japan on April 2nd.  CD Japan lists it as a 13 song album.  Guess its jpop music ordering time again...

[Andrew]

I saw that as of Sunday Kaela’s new album “+1” was at #6 on the daily album charts.  So who all here bought it?  Haven’t got my copy from CD Japan yet.

[Jeff]

I haven't ordered it yet.  The songs I've heard from it so far have not been very impressive.  I'd like to hear the rest of the album, because even "Scratch" had 3 or 4 not too great songs on it and it's possible I've just heard all the bad ones from "+1", but it's tough to risk $40 including shipping when you're not sure you're gonna like something.

The fact that it's "only" at #6 ("Scratch" went to #1) isn't inspiring confidence.

[Andrew]

Jeff,

Japanese music is a bit expensive isn't it.

As for the ranking, as of April 8th +1 is at #3 on Oricon’s Weekly Chart ratings.  I just wish Puffy’s CDs did as well.

I finally got my copy of it yesterday along with the Sadistic “Mikaela” Band’s Narkissos that Kaela sings some songs on.  Have only listened to +1 twice.  So far there are four songs that stand out as very strong, at least to my tastes.

I’ll give it many more listens to before I do a full review for Kaela Kimura World.

[Andrew]

Well Kaela’s album +1 has since dropped down to #8 in the Oricon Weekly chart ratings.  Looks like no #1 for +1.

[ahuimanu]

It has a variety of styles on it, perhaps the average listener just can't stomach that?  There are light-hearted electronic numbers, good guitar rock songs and some weak filler songs on it.  I do like the record and feel that, as a 4th record, indicates that she has staying power.  Give it a few more spins and you'll become attached to about 3/4s of it.  That's not a terrible ratio.

[Jeff]

It has a variety of styles on it, perhaps the average listener just can't stomach that? 

Well, it's probably not about "stomaching" it, it's just that she is known as a rock star.  Most of her fans seem to know she started out in a punk band, and she still sings one old Animo song at her shows and the people at the shows, at least, seem to know it.  So to hear her sing electronic or straight pop stuff is jarring even for me as a pretty recent fan; I can imagine that people who have been with her from the beginning might be pretty turned off.

I still don't have the album, though... but to hear that it's got rock, electronic, pop and filler doesn't really make me want to buy it.  That describes most Ayumi Hamasaki or Kumi Koda albums and they are not among my favorite artists.

[ahuimanu]

Jeff,

I don't know the other bands you mention, which might explain my perspective.  I have absolutely NO history of background with J-rock, J-pop, J-whatever.  I very accidentially stumbled on to Kaela on youtube and became hooked.  I was in Yokohama and Tokyo in 2005, but I didn't really watch much TV or listen to the radio/buy music. 

My openness to Kaela's variety may have to do with the fact that I have no historical context for her.  I can't put my finger on why her songs/records do it for me as I had very discerning tastes in my teens and 20s (I worked for a major music distribution company and became accustomed to getting nearly any North American release I wanted in the 1990s).  Now that I've been away from music for so long, I can hear things like Kaela with fresh ears. 

I think +1 is a good buy if you liked Circle and Scratch as there ARE rockers on +1 (they are very well done actually).  However, there are more electronic sounds too.

Who am I kidding?  I might just be so hard-core crushing on her that my judgment is skewed.

In any case, she still has great songwriters and the band (drummer, bassist and guitarist) she always plays with is TIGHT.

Peace,

J-

[Jeff]

Well, my in-laws bought me the +1 special edition for my birthday (yay for Japanese in-laws), and I'm actually listening to it right now.  So far, it's not grabbing me like Scratch did.  I think it's about as good as Circle so far (I'm like 2/3 through), and that album wasn't as good as Scratch.  I don't really like the j-poppiness of it, which looking back is probably a side of her that did start on Scratch.  The more j-poppy songs on Scratch, though, sounded more like diversions than really core songs.  With this album, the j-pop is more front and center and the rock songs sound like the diversions.  It sounds like more care and detail went into the pop songs than the rock songs, and there's more straight pop than on any of her other albums.

The DVD that comes with it is pretty good, though.  I was expecting it to just have a few videos on it, like the Circle special edition (which I also have).  I'm not sure what the Scratch SE had; I have the regular version of it (bought it used, didn't have a choice).  But the +1 DVD's got three videos (Samantha, Yellow & Jasper), three live songs, and some sort of "experiment" program that I haven't watched yet because it's all in Japanese.  The live songs were taken from a show that I'd heard about before; it was at a small club, which is really unusual for her these days.  The songs themselves are all on the Live Scratch DVD as well, and they're probably better there, but it's cool to see her get back to her roots and play a stripped-down show again.  It's kind of a counterpoint to the CD!  They even included three separate "MC" segments at the end, all in a row, I guess just to show her interacting with the crowd.  It's literally like 10 minutes of her just talking.  I kinda wish they had just put a couple more songs on there instead, but it's overall more than I was expecting anyway.

I don't know the other bands you mention, which might explain my perspective.

If you mean Animo, who I mentioned, that's Kaela's old band.  Here's a video with a couple of their songs, you can hear her roots:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sPlck6C_y4

Here she is playing one of her Animo songs on her last tour; she hasn't forgotten:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66l4f1nB8Cs

[Jeff]

btw, one of my favorite tracks on the CD is "1115", which kept me thinking "this sounds just like Puffy". Lo and behold, I discovered today that it was written by Tamio Okuda.

Also, it doesn't really qualify as a review, but some random thoughts on +1 and Kaela:  http://badasscat.blogspot.com/2008/06/kimura-kaelas-1.html