Maybe you can help me then, cause I'm still not too fond of the Bon Voyage album or honestly the whole Bon Voyage era. :laugh
The album has some gems, but overall I think it's quite bland, same with the singles and the tour. Also don't think that's going to change.
White as main colour actually quite fits... :P


The inkbox collabo was restocked last night!

^ Haha! I still think JAPONESQUE is her best overall album project, but musically Bon Voyage is a stronger album in terms of the music in some ways. The videography for the Bon Voyage album is very underrated.

I agree the album artwork was oddly lacking considering Kazuyoshi did the photographs. They usually have great creative chemistry, but not that time.

Idk, it probably didn't help that Bon Voyage was coming after JAPONESQUE and her pregnancy.
Because of that the whole era dragged out way too much - the first single Got to the top, as comeback single after her pregnancy, came out fall 2012 and the actual album then just followed late February 2014 with another half year for the tour after it.
In between in 2013 she toured JAPONESQUE, which I also attended as my first Kuu live ever, so Bon Voyage didn't have any advantage. Though it also didn't feel that bad back in 2013 because of that.

And while I like Go to the top and Dreaming Now!, Koishikute is the most bland ballad she ever put out as a single (together with stay with me) and the best song from Summer Trip she didn't even put on the album (and LALALALALA imo is her most annoying rock track ever probably).
I love the covers and overall shooting of Summer Trip, but as a whole it felt like a weaker 3 SPLASH (3 SPLASH with the covers of Summer Trip would be the perfect summer single for me).
Also SHOW ME YOUR HOLLA is nice, but also goes pretty much nowhere with its energy.
The PV is great though and I agree that the others were nice as well.

I agree the project dragged on a bit. I almost wish they had just released the album in 2013 with just GO TO THE TOP and Koishikute as the singles. I'm funny with Summer Trip to a certain degree. TOUCH DOWN was great and Is This Trap too. Yes, LALALALALA isn't all that good, but later came Dreaming now! which remains a great bop.

Koishikute is an odd one. I love the vocal arrangements and certain aspects of the production, but compared to her previous ballads it was a bit "flat".

Spotify has the option to listen to locally stored music, which I will then also transfer to my mobile device that I listen to when I'm out and about. Play count doesn't matter to me, and you can actually sync playlists from iTunes to Spotify through this free service called Soundiiz! So it doesn't change my listening behaviour on desktop and mobile. If anything, it has been more of a convenience than anything for me once I've fully migrated to Spotify.

I personally don't mind spoilers! I'm always actively looking at Kuu's IG stories as well.

Yeah, less singles would have been better maybe, but then we had HOTEL in 2014, which I didn't like that much as well apart from the shooting, it only got better with Dance In The Rain at the end of the year.

Well, you know, in a sense Bon Voyage was like making a blank page for Kuu, which is why I also understand her choice of the travel theme and the colour white.
It's also what she talked about in interviews back then, she said goodbye to her old life and started a reorientation where she wanna go with her career as well. Then she started to experiment more, leaving sappy love ballads, her overly cute image and her typical release schedule behind.

yeah, the problem is not that I cant download the songs, every service has that option. But if they lose the rights, the songs will get taken down (like final fantasy related songs fir example)and they will be gone. Moreover, some of my playlist rely on my playcount (Top 250, Top 500, etc.) so I can‘t do without it. I have to think about it and if I‘m willing to redo everything (Since most japanese songs are also tagged wrong too).

^still prefer to give artists coins via streams. If no one would stream those songs cause of "reasons", they will be taking down for sure. And you can still keep the original files on your computer.

+ you can still change the tags and covers via Apple Music. Spotify has been pretty shitty with that, that’s why I’ll never go back to that.
sure it takes time, but tbh it’s not THAT much... Namie took about 30 minutes so that’s not really an argument.

So, if nobody is against spoiler.

UG is back!

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/cw1afF.png

Wonder if he's only choreographing or also dancing?
He was one of her dancers for both tours back then.
She simply says here that it's been a while.

But with recharging the playcount by single clicking every play Namie alone will take me several hours.

First of all Livin’ La Vida Loca made my month. I used to be obsessed with the song when it first came out & now my all time favourite artist covered it. That’s beyond awesome. I played the MV on YouTube at least 30 times. It’s too bad they didn’t release it as a digital single. I’m very confused by their marketing strategy when it comes to this.

I actually used to like Bon Voyage more when it first came out but as time went by it went down in my KK album ranking, and I agree & disagree with Corvina about it. I love Go to the top & 恋しくて, Koishikute is actually one of my all time favourite ballads from Kumi. I still listen to it a lot. stay with me has become my official #1 winter song, as soon as I see first snow it instantly starts playing in my head, just like LALALALALA in summer. lol While every time she performs IS THIS TRAP? I wish she performed something else like LOADED instead. It’s amazing how diverse Kuueen’s discography is cause anyone could find something they like.

I also have similar feelings about UNIVERSE as an album as about Bon Voyage. Singles & the title track were awesome yet the album itself felt like a watered down version of TRICK. Also, ballads on UNIVERSE felt too different and didn’t have as much impact on me as ballads from TRICK.

The difference in tastes is always amazing! :)

The guy in the Livin' La Vida Loca PV btw. is Filippo Citerni, an Italian model based in Tokyo.
He posted about the job here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0OCO9bn...d=qu6tcdvy1cbz

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/ez3o9O.png

(thanks to mright on JPC for pointing him out)

And thinking about setlists of re(LIVE) I can see her replacing all the old cover songs from back then with new ones from a new cover album for JAPONESQUE.

the cover songs is just great! but i'm not sure about the PV,
that driving-but-not driving car scene looks very silly.
and having that attractive italian model just for mocking poses but in the end doing the final dance scene with a random (regular look) japanese dancer it makes no sense to me

The club and the car scene are separated tho, it's not a story line. I do agree that the scene with them driving the car is very silly, but that's a small problem.

this PV has many little easter eggs about her career and I think it was just hinting at her Butterfly single cover with the red car and that one pose with the model she does to "recreate" it. could be silly for you, but for long-time fans its a pretty good video to enjoy with all those easter eggs

The PV is also a nod to the original video by Ricky Martin.
And the woman she portrays fits the lyrics.

The video now is a little over 100k views. :)

The description has been edit with info for the re(CORD) album:

1999年に郷ひろみが日本語カバーした、リッキー・マーティンの大ヒット曲「Livin' La Vida Loca」を倖田來未が大胆カバー！
9月14日からは「KODA KUMI LIVE TOUR 2019 ～re(LIVE)」（川崎・福岡・大阪・仙台）を開催。
今秋にはオリジナルアルバム「re(CORD)」をリリース予定。
詳細は倖田來未オフィシャルサイトをチェック！

The ASEAN music festival is tomorrow!
According to her stories, Kuu just arrived in Vietnam not too long ago.
Last time she was there was in 2011.

As VTV is a public channel there's a live stream available:
https://vtv.vn/truyen-hinh-truc-tuyen/vtv1.htm

The festival starts 8 pm Vietnamese time (from Kuu's official site).
But Idk if they're going to live broadcast or at a later time/date.
The current information just says it's going to be broadcasted (before the site stated live broadcast).

EDIT:
Ok, the official facebook page of the event says it starts 7:30 pm.
And goes till 10:30 pm.
Guess that's the correct information.

The festival is fully booked.
As I understand it is free, but you had to apply beforehand and when you were drawn you got an inviation (a ticket) for the show, for Japanese visitors as well as Vietnamese.

Someone from Vietnam who follows me on Twitter had no idea about ASEAN-Japan Music Festival 2019 in VIETNAM -prayer for peace- until I told her about it

The Vietnam Twitter user said that ASEAN-Japan Music Festival 2019 in VIETNAM -prayer for peace- will take place tomorrow in Hanoi , which's the capital of Vietnam

Not sure if she'll be watching ASEAN-Japan Music Festival 2019 in VIETNAM -prayer for peace- at home cos she resides in Ho Chi Minh City and if she were to attend she has to take a domestic flight to Hanoi

Somemore I don't know if she supports any of the Japanese artistes who will be performing at the even tomorrow x)

ASEAN-Japan Music Festival 2019 in VIETNAM won't be broadcast live, only next month:

The music festival will be aired by VTV at 20:10 on August 11. https://english.vov.vn/culture/asean...nam-400733.vov

---

Edit:

It seems like she performed already: https://twitter.com/Haru277/status/1155472579055853568

Two more pics from the performance: https://baomoi.com/dai-nhac-hoi-asea...c/31631489.epi

It looks like a ballad + Eh Yo. So I guess it was Ai no Uta + Eh Yo.