BONNIE PINK – Kane wo Narashite + Ring A Bell

Kane wo Narashite was BONNIE PINK’s 24th single. It was released August 6, 2008. It sold 13,447 copies in it’s first week, 32,087 overall and reached #9 on the charts. The title track was used as the XBOX 360 game “Tales of Vesperia” Japanese theme song.

Ring A Bell was BONNIE PINK’s 1st digital single. It was released April 16, 2008. It was used as the XBOX 360 “Tales of Vespira” Western version theme song.

Tracklist

1. Kane wo Narashite
2. Pump It Up!
3. A Perfect Sky (Björn Remix)
4. Kane wo Narashite (Instrumental)
5. Pump It Up! (Instrumental)

I don’t think I can express my love for this amazing song. Kaori’s amazing vocals aside, I think it was the rock inspired instrumental that really drew me into this song. The very first second, the song never lets up with it’s loud rock song. It’s very drum heavy in the beginning but it must be the guitar chorus in the verses that really get to me. It’s almost a mellow sounding kind of song with some hopeful sounding English lyrics. Kane wo Narashite sports an AMAZING chorus that are sure to suck you up and spit you out wanting more(what? XD). Really though, this song is a MUST LISTEN, it’s really amazing.

What a relief to know that the b-side is up to par with the a-side in terms of quality. Pump It Up! is a dance-y based pop song with lots of beats, interesting background vocals and synth and a memorable chorus. There’s no way I enjoyed this song as much as the a-side but it’s a really high quality track that proves to be quite catchy and seems more like a-side material. Recommended listening.

Well, it can’t be all perfect, right? A Perfect Sky (Björn Remix) is a remix that appeared on the Swedish release of her “Thinking Out Loud” album. I would of preferred to not have had it in this single, or to listen to it at all. My main problems with this remix are the children chorus that was added. It was totally unnecessary and just made the song even stranger than it already is. The other thing is this really annoying, blaring sound that plays after each chorus, which was just the icing on the cake to me not enjoying this song. If it weren’t for those two things, this song would have actually been listenable.

Tracklist

1. Ring A Bell

Ring A Bell is actually the English version of Kane wo Narashite. There’s absolutely no other differences other than the language. I was very skeptical as to how BONNIE PINK’s English was, but I was glad to find out that it is in fact very good and understandable. I actually enjoyed this version even more as I was able to relate the lyrics with the PV and the song itself.

You can’t go wrong with Kane wo narashite from BONNIE PINK. It’s truly one of the most amazing and attractive songs I’ve heard in a long time. The perfect combination between her vocals and the instrumentals make this single perfect, no matter how bad the third track was.

♠Single Rating♠

BONNIE PINK – Thinking Out Loud

Thinking Out Loud was BONNIE PINK’s 9th album. It was released July 25, 2007. It sold 53,605 copies in it’s first week, 97,918 overall and reached #5 on the charts.

Tracklist

1. Gimme A Beat
2. Broken hearts, citylights and me just thinking out loud
3. Burning Inside
4. Nagusami Blue
5. Imagination
6. A Perfect Sky (Philharmonic Flava)
7. lullaby
8. Sakamichi
9. Water Me
10. Catch The Sun
11. Chances Are
12. Anything For You

I’m always a little skeptical when an album begins with a song that was released earlier, especially when I saw that it was Gimme A Beat. I must say, however, that I’ve really grown to respect this song a lot more now that it starts off the album. I don’t think it was the best opener though.

The first new track is Broken hearts, citylights and me just thinking out loud, which begins with the sound of a random city. The song begins and it’s kinda… plain. The instruments are pretty minimal, drums a bit electric guitar and bass, that’s it. This song kinda sounded disorganized to me and wasn’t really memorable, not to prove boring. It sounded as if it was unsure which genre of music to be.

Beginning with some brass, Burning Inside already sounds a lot better than the last track. It seems the album is trying to focus on more natural instruments, which I’m not really enjoying yet. The chorus doesn’t sound too different from the verse and the song itself is an average listen though it does have a nice hook after the chorus.

Nagusami Blue begins with some basic instrumentals and a very strange arrangement. The song isn’t really good until the chorus comes in, I really liked the melody and this song manages to be a relaxing listen, even though I didn’t enjoy some of the instruments used.

Imagination is one of the more rockier songs on the album, it even includes English vocals from Kaori, which are layered. This song was awkward to me and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

A Perfect Sky (Philharmonic Flava) is actually an interesting twist to the original. It begins with an orchestra arrangement along with the same vocals from the original, giving the song a ballad feel. I really liked the instrumental but I just thought they didn’t fit the vocals, as their the same from the original, they don’t sync in together. About half way through the song, theirs a nice transition from the ballad to the original mix of the song which I thought was pretty cool.

The last song only managed to disappoint me in my search for a ballad and lullaby seems to be my only hope. There’s only light drums and an acoustic guitar at first but than the song takes a bad turn and we get the same awkward instruments from all the other songs, totally ruining my hope for a ballad. Another plain song that just passes by…

Now this is actually one of the tracks I kinda liked. Sakamichi features a pretty interesting instrumental, staying within the pop/rock zone but never drifting to either too far. It’s pretty average really, but the fact that the instrumentals manage to sound good here gives me some chance to enjoy a song, for once.

Water Me comes in just in time to save this album! Although the singles for this era weren’t particularly strong, this track manages to stand out as Kaori’s best ballad(and really the only one).

Things continue to look up with the happy, upbeat song Catch The Sun. Crappy instrumentals don’t allow me to enjoy the song as much as I wanted to but it’s a fresh sounding track within all these disasters.

OMG! It’s slow! Chances Are is actually a ballad! And it’s completely in English! Okay well, I’m getting a bit excited about this song. I’ve been really anxious for another good Kaori ballad and this song manages just that. It’s an acoustic guitar driven song that gets better during the second verse when an acoustic orchestra is added in the background.

I was glad to see something familiar to me in the album. Anything For You, as much as I didn’t enjoy it as a single, fits a lot more in this album and makes for a really nostalgic track. I’ve grown to like this song a lot better also, it’s just too bad that the album actually gets good when it already finishes.

I’m not sure what it was about Thinking Out Loud that I disliked so much. The singles in the era weren’t the strongest but I did enjoy them and they’re the strongest part of the album but it could also have been the strange instruments throughout the album, all sounding TOO natural and awkward. Or it could of been the album’s lack of genre as it seemed to be indecisive between rock and pop. Some of the new tracks were enjoyable but most of them stunk. Probably not the best album to get you into BONNIE PINK…

♥Album Rating♥

~review dedicated to Selyram~

BONNIE PINK – Water Me

Water Me was BONNIE PINK’s 23rd single. It was released June 6, 2007. It sold 15,125 copies in it’s first week, 31,269 overall and reached #8 on the charts. Water Me is the theme for the Fuji TV drama “Watashi-tachi no Kyoukasho”, Gimme A Beat was used as the “Nissan Moco” CM song and MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR was used as the NHK TV show “Eigo de Shabera Night”.

Tracklist

1. Water Me

2. Gimme A Beat

3. MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

4. Water Me (instrumental)

5. Gimme A Beat (instrumental)

I’ve been anxious to hear a ballad from BONNIE PINK and I was finally granted my with with Water Me, the mystical and emotional piano driven ballad. Instruments are pretty minimal in this song, mostly piano throughout the song  and strings during the chorus. The song is pretty standard but it sounds pretty and atypical enough to make it enjoyable. There’s traces of rock during the instrumental break which added an eerie feeling to the song. I quite enjoyed this song and like Kaori’s voice as it is portrayed in a ballad.

The string and rock hybrid, Gimme A Beat serves as an almost summer sounding pop song with a tropical feel. This song can also be considered pretty relaxing but isn’t too noteworthy overall.

The second b-side, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR is actually a cover of The Beatles’ song of the same name. I’m guessing the original sounded a lot better than this as this sound just sounds out of synch, disorganized and just weird. Kaori’s vocals sound bored and ugly in this song which really threw me off, although the instrumental itself is quite interesting.

The title track proved to be my most enjoyable BONNIE PINK listen so far but the b-sides were also my least favorite listen from her. She’s yet to give off a noticeably good single and her album review is up next. It’ll be interesting which songs she decides to put into the album.

♣Single Rating♣

~review dedicated to Selyram~

BONNIE PINK – Anything For You

Anything For You was BONNIE PINK’s 22nd single. It was released March 28, 2007. It sold 12,765 copies in it’s first week, 19,900 overall and reached #9 on the charts.

Tracklist

1. Anything For You

2. Love Song (UC a.k.a DJ UPPERCUT REMIX) (m-flo loves BONNIE PINK)

3. Anything For You (Instrumental)

Anything For You begins with some interesting instrumentals to say the least. The acoustic guitar is most noticeable but so is this strange sounding synth… I still can’t decide if I like Kaori’s vocals in this. There a lot higher and squeakier than I’m used to hearing them but I guess they fit into the whole strange sound of the song. It’s technically a pop song with some rock sound to it and it just sounded out of synch the whole time, especially the chorus.

Love Song (UC a.k.a DJ UPPERCUT REMIX) isn’t that different than the original in terms of music and vocals but it does have a different arrangement in some parts. I hadn’t listened to the original before but I still didn’t enjoy the song that much. The rapping parts were annoying and too many in number. The song however did have a nice instrumental to it.

This was indeed a very strange single… I thought a lot more effort could have been put into the a-side as it sounded very awkward.A proper b-side would also have been nice along with the remix of Love Song.

♦Single Rating♦

~review dedicated to Selyram~

BONNIE PINK – A Perfect Sky

A Perfect Sky was BONNIE PINK’s 21st single. It was released June 28, 2006. It sold 38,440 copies in it’s first week, 133,315 overall and reached #5 on the charts. It is currently BONNIE PINK’s most successful single.

Tracklist

1. A Perfect Sky

2. Free

3. interlude -siesta-

4. A Perfect Sky (instrumental)

A Perfect Sky begins with the chorus featuring a limited instrumental and than makes its way into the first verse. The music is very summer-y which is the main theme of this single. I had never heard Kaori’s vocals before and upon hearing them I was quite impressed. There not too powerful and have just the right amount of vibrato to them. The verses weren’t really memorable but the chorus was fun to listen(and sing along) to. A nice summer themed song.

Beginning with some fast paced samba type sounds, Free is a lounge type song that proves to be a really easy to listen to song. I liked the piano in the background and thought that the chorus was really well put together. This song reminds me of some kind of hot summer night seated in a bar(no idea why though). I slightly enjoyed this song over the a-side but that’s just personal taste coming in, both songs are great.

interlude -siesta- serves as an interlude(duh) to the instrumental version of A Perfect Sky. All it is is the sound of a beach shore with random acoustic guitar chords here and there. It’s pretty relaxing and fits the theme of the single but it was kinda unnecessary none-the-less.

A Perfect Sky was a fun summer single with two different ways to present it. You have your typical summer pop song and a lounge sounding jazzy track. Being my first BONNIE PINK single, it was a nice single and I’m looking forward to listening to more of her music.

♥Single Rating♥

~review dedicated to Selyram~