Akanishi Jin takes the edge off of what shold have been a banner event at my house, the arrival of Meisa Kuroki’s second album proper, UNLOCKED!
Tracks:
Hit the Road 3:49
Shake it Off 4:13
Wired Life 4:41
One More Drama 4:00
Take Me Away 4:28
Flash Light 4:05
Woman's Worth 4:18
Breeze Out 4:04
LAST CODE 4:48
Happy to be Me 4:47
PARADE 4:14
S.O.S - -Watashi Sagasanai de Kudasai- 4:08
UPGRADE U! 3:42
Aimai de Zeitaku na Yokubou 4:46
Well. after listening to the album a few times, it’s clear that Meisa is (or at least, was) going in a very different direction than what her debut EP suggested, moving farther and farther away from those hip-hop/R&B beginnings and spiraling more into that techno “Perfume” style, several of these, and in fact, some of the tracks like “Parade” and “Woman’s Worth” sound like they could have been written for that synth-fused trio. Luckily, songs like “SOS -Watashi Sagasanai de Kudasai-”, “Upgrade You”, and “Flashlight”, have catchy and peppy vibes that I really love, and the album closer “Aimai de Zeitaku na Yokubou “ is a sweet, rare ballad!
The CD comes with a bonus DVD featuring the videos for her four songs with additional “Making Of” vids for each. Initially, out of the four singles that came off of the album, I really liked “One More Drama” and “Wired Life”, but didn’t take to “Woman’s Worth/Breeze Out” so much, but MAN, after watching the videos, I REALLY like ‘em! Nothing like Meisa slithering around in leather to really get you INTO a song, and in “Woman’s Worth”, we get to see her in possibly the most girlishly cutesy-cutesy outfits ever, she looked so darn CUTE!
Wrapping up this nice first pressing CD package is a glossy 20 page booklet chock full of the scans you see featured on this blog entry. Drooling over how frickin’ fine Meisa’s looking here has me getting irritated all over again at Akanishi, not only has his “intervening” cancelled any possible events and promotions she’d had planned for Unlocked, there’s also that underlying jealousy one must have knowing that Jin is tapping that fine-ass beauty, besides! Grrr….
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| Promotional Poster |
Like all my latest CD Japan new releases, my Meisa Kuroki CD came with a beautiful promotional poster of the album, a promotional item that in light of her recent events Meisa may end up using to wallpaper her nursery! I keed, I keed, but really, why O why, on the eve of such an important step for her career, couldn’t Akanishi just keep “the mouse in the house”? LOL
Ah well, who knows how long (if ever) it'll be before we see Meisa get back on track with her singing and recording career after taking this unexpected "time out" to be with the former A in KAT-TUN...We'll have to just wait and see!
