[Koda Kumi] The 188th Thread - NEW DOUBLE ALBUM ► W FACE inside/outside

[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by thinkingoutloud89

^you can't compare older music to newer...not necessarily because of the sound but because of the surrounding factor like: age, taste, nostalgic, friends and related memories.

It's rather unfair for the songs to have to keep up with that, but I get what you say. The whole thing is different for each generation fan. My go back to album is second session, if I remember correctly Corvinas is secret or before? and there are other whose is kingdom or even Japonesque.

I certainly can and will, especially if it's her last two albums. For me, it's hard to nail a go-back album for Koda. I've never considered any of her albums to be particularly strong from start to finish, but they've mostly been dotted with really memorable songs:

Black Cherry had JUICY, Cherry Girl, and tracks like Puppy.

Kingdom had Under, BUT, and FREAKY.

TRICK probably took the cake with TABOO, stay with me, This is not a love song, Driving, and That Ain't Cool.

UNIVERSE again with No way, Stay, ECSTACY, UNIVERSE, Physical thing, and my favorite Kuu ballad of all time -- Alive.

Dejavu had Lollipop, Passing by (even with that faux Michael Jackson nuisance), Anata Dake ga, and of course what is now Koda's Gangnam Style -- BE MY BABY.

JAPONESQUE takes the cake again with So Nice, VIP, IN THE AIR, ESCALATE, No Man's Land, Love Me Back, Love Technique, and Lay Down.

Bon Voyage had SHOW ME YOUR HOLLA, LOADED, my second favorite ballad by Kuu -- Koishikute --, LALALALALA, LOL, Go to the top, and my favorite interludes from any of her albums.

WALK OF MY LIFE had its title track, House Party, HOTEL, MONEY IN MY BAG, PIECE IN THE PUZZLE, and Fake Tongue.

So far, W FACE has W FACE, Ultraviolet, Shh!, Kimi Omoi, and Promise you.

And trust me, I'm not saying W FACE is complete trash. I'm just saying that W FACE yielded at least seven worthy tracks out of twenty. That's too few songs worth holding onto for a full album, especially when those songs would have sounded on orders of magnitude more impressive if presented as one album.

I think the concept as a whole sold the albums out from under me.

But it's also similar with Namie Amuro. I just don't find anything on _genic memorable because they were all the same song with a TLC Unpretty ripoff attached to the end of the album. Nowhere near the quality of PAST < FUTURE. But so worth comparing to recent projects because you just can't understand how an artist is evolving without those comparisons.

Originally Posted by EndOfTheWorld

I can't with W Face. It's enjoyable until she starts with the, yas bitch yas bitch slay.

So, you made it to the 0:01 mark and started puking? lol

Originally Posted by pedronekoi

I guess thru the years a lot of fans will be disappointed with her new songs... As someone said, its reminded him to Rihanna. In fact, Kuu is the Japanese Rihanna (if we could say that). She's going with the flow and trying new sounds and it seems that she is really enjoying that urban/trap/hip hop vibe (that she always followed and get stronger with WOML). I really like this direction and I think that's what will make her go further with her career. The songs does sound a lot like Western/K-Pop productions but for me they have soul! It's not just random lyrics wrote by another person and Kuu just singing it... Well, that was something I was thinking about for the last days and wanted to share here haha

I don't hate the direction. I hate that it's packaged in a boring way. If Koda wants to do twerk-your-vagina-in-hooker-boots music, I'm all for it. Just mix it up a little. Do some bangers, do some EDM, do some rock-influenced stuff. It's just hard to love any song when they all sound like they were built from the same template.

Originally Posted by a❤martian

I agree with this 100%. I really like Western music and K-Pop, so I like it from Kuu. J-Pop has been uninspiring to me for a while, so I'm happy Kuu isn't following it.

I'm glad she isn't following it either. I just think she needs to diversify the Western / K-Pop sound a bit more. BoA's HURRICANE VENUS and Kiss My Lips are probably the most boring records she's done, but they still have a lot of diversity in the style from start to finish. W FACE is really just like a template over and over and over. And then you go to ~inside~ and get a lot of songs that don't sound like they were intended to be on an album at all.

[AyuHamasaki01]

Originally Posted by Corvina

@AyuHamasaki01:
Don't force yourself. If you don't like them, you don't like them.
To quote Kuu herself in Ultraviolet: " Don't let them tell you what you should like".

Thanks. The Kuu quote really helps

[thinkingoutloud89]

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

I certainly can and will, especially if it's her last two albums. For me, it's hard to nail a go-back album for Koda. I've never considered any of her albums to be particularly strong from start to finish, but they've mostly been dotted with really memorable songs:

Black Cherry had JUICY, Cherry Girl, and tracks like Puppy.

Kingdom had Under, BUT, and FREAKY.

TRICK probably took the cake with TABOO, stay with me, This is not a love song, Driving, and That Ain't Cool.

UNIVERSE again with No way, Stay, ECSTACY, UNIVERSE, Physical thing, and my favorite Kuu ballad of all time -- Alive.

Dejavu had Lollipop, Passing by (even with that faux Michael Jackson nuisance), Anata Dake ga, and of course what is now Koda's Gangnam Style -- BE MY BABY.

JAPONESQUE takes the cake again with So Nice, VIP, IN THE AIR, ESCALATE, No Man's Land, Love Me Back, Love Technique, and Lay Down.

Bon Voyage had SHOW ME YOUR HOLLA, LOADED, my second favorite ballad by Kuu -- Koishikute --, LALALALALA, LOL, Go to the top, and my favorite interludes from any of her albums.

WALK OF MY LIFE had its title track, House Party, HOTEL, MONEY IN MY BAG, PIECE IN THE PUZZLE, and Fake Tongue.

So far, W FACE has W FACE, Ultraviolet, Shh!, Kimi Omoi, and Promise you.

I never said you can't, I just said it is unfair for the songs to live up to that a few days after the release - more over, most of the songs you named were longtime promo-songs with videos she performed live a dozen of times. You just have a different feeling to those tracks and I think that this will probably change for some tracks on this album too over the years.

For myself I also noticed that it is harder for me to like individual songs when I get a full album instead of me knowing 1/2 of the album already through singles - but it usually also makes me listen the whole album more rather than stand alone songs.

[KarenPang]

2nd day sales/position

#1 - Outside ; 4,475
#2 - Inside ; 4,430

[ahtka-chan]

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

But it's also similar with Namie Amuro. I just don't find anything on _genic memorable because they were all the same song with a TLC Unpretty ripoff attached to the end of the album. Nowhere near the quality of PAST < FUTURE. But so worth comparing to recent projects because you just can't understand how an artist is evolving without those comparisons.

It's funny how opinions can be different. I think _genic is one of Namie's best albums ever. It doesn't take itself too seriously and the only purpose of it is to make people have fun jamming to it. I love some tracks from that album and I don't think the songs sound alike AT ALL, but when it comes to EDM people usually use that argument so...

[S4MU3L]

Insane is sooooooo good, my favorite song of both albums hands down


One by one, they all fall down, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
One by one, they hit the ground, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

[kotora]

Originally Posted by S4MU3L

Insane is sooooooo good, my favorite song of both albums hands down


One by one, they all fall down, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
One by one, they hit the ground, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

*screams*

[melissalove]

Originally Posted by S4MU3L

Insane is sooooooo good, my favorite song of both albums hands down


One by one, they all fall down, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
One by one, they hit the ground, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Mine too.

[Earth_maiden]

I hope they release the taiwan/OS versions soon, I'm too poor to buy the Japanese press at the moment.

[Corvina]

Originally Posted by Earth_maiden

I hope they release the taiwan/OS versions soon, I'm too poor to buy the Japanese press at the moment.

The taiwan press will be released 03/22.

[salina]

thanks so much for posting the other mvs i will download them later

[EndOfTheWorld]

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

So you made it to the 0:01 mark and started puking? lol

Not exactly.
But it did cause cringe for me.
I'm only a casual Koda Kumi fan. I always felt like her albums had too much filler. The outside of W Face is the side of her I never liked that much. I always preferred her softer side like I'll be there for you, faraway, Moon, Ai o Tomenaide. Also cutie honey, real emotion, take back, lalalala, twinkle. Her few rock songs are pretty good too.