Customer Reviews

Love Jam

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No Western pop singing female artist would or could ever release an album like this. For starters, it covers too many bases - from songs accompanied by an orchestra and grand piano to outright Punk rock à la Shonen Knife/The Ramones and then onto modern Electronica (which is the style I prefer).

Ai Otsuka has a sweet clear voice and she does sing with quite a lot of style and a very agreeable sense of phrasing. Otsuka-san does NOT go in for the irritating, pointless and aimless vocalisations of the current crop of American pop stars (like Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Christine Aguilera) and she contents herself to sing her songs simply and with expression.

Perhaps if Ai Otsuka sang in English or was an American she'd be a major star? Maybe not. She isn't caught up in the dreary pop clichés tediously exhibited the current crop of musically jejune Western female pop artists.

This is her second album and the second one I have (I also have LOVE COOK... still looking for LOVE PUNCH). If you like J-pop, you'll probably like her, but the previous reviwer is sort of right. Her voice was on the border line between cute and annoying for me for the first songs I heard from her. But now I just think it's cute. If you want mature and calming you shouldn't buy the album (well, if that's ALL you want, that is.) but track 04 [Daisuki da yo], 05 [Sensu], 08 [futatsu boshi kinenbi], 09 [Kingyo Hanabi] and 11 [Furenzu] are quite calming... I suppose it depends on what your tastes are... and your level of hearing... kinda like that girl on cowboy bebop who thought Heavy Metal was very calming, but no I wasn't being sarcastic. If you don't like J-Pop though, she probably won't change your mind.

I believe Ai Otsuka is a very talented singer. This only her second album, but she has already gained great fame in Japan. If you like J-Pop, I highly recommend you listen to Ai Otsuka. I also recommend her first album Love Punch.

If you are here and reading this, you obviously haven't stumbled on Ai Otsuka (or Otsuka Ai!) by accident, so let me first say: Get yourselves over to eBay and buy Ai's "Love Is Born: 3rd Anniversary" DVD. Seriously. Buy it. Buy it before you even think about her CD's.

I should perhaps explain where I'm coming from in regards to Ai and all her releases. Ai is peerless and utterly untouchable in modern music. There is no one, anywhere in the music business, with such a winning way with a lyrical melody. I know it's perfectly feasible to be enchanted by a melody in a foreign language but I find myself not just humming the melodies but wanting to sing along as well to, probably, 90% of Ai's stuff and my Japanese is zero!

She's signed to Avex Trax, one of the biggest pop labels in Japan, the same label as Ayumi Hamasaki, and from what I can gather they've been grooming her to be the next Ayu. This is a long shot I know, but if any reps from that label are reading this: ARE YOU MAD??!?? Ayu dreams of being this talented! Ai has more in a single lyric than Hamasaki has in her entire career!

Ai is a classically trained pianist, fully qualified nursery teacher and designer, creator and cartoonist of her bunny rabbit mascot Love Chan, pop-star and merchandising cash cow in its own right. She wrote her first hit, and most of her first album, while still at school. And, although painfully stage shy, she is a charismatic and captivating stage performer; capturing and holding a crowd through ballads and bouncing pop punk sing-a-longs.

Love Jam is her second album, originally rush released in 2004 following the success of her debut Love Punch also released that year. It features several Ai classics and staples of her live show. The crowd pleasing, up-tempo, ridiculously catchy 'Happy Days' is still my favourite but lush ballads 'Goldfish Fireworks' (Kingyo Hanabi) and 'I Really Love You' (Daisuki da yo) are also catchy so it's hard to choose.

The music over all is classy pop played with a zest, joie de vivre and almost childish sense of wonder; and there's a lot of Ai's independent spirit shining through. Ai is no JPop puppet nor an artist easily boxed by genres, other than being endlessly cheerful and catchy, she touches on punk and metal as well as glorious soaring love ballads. Her voice and vocal style also display a healthy disregard for normal 'Pop' conventions. Her vocals are soft and comforting: warm rather than the strident, diva-esque warblings of a Beyonce or Leona Lewis; she's a very easy-on-the-ear listen is Ai.

It is pleasing to note, also, that Ai is very easy on the eye. Eschewing the standard JPop lolita complex, Ai happily keeps to her own hippy/geek chic style placing comfort above any ideas of image marketing. In the desperate cut-throat shark pool that is JMusic, that alone is to be applauded!

As of 2009 Ai has five albums to her name Love Punch, Love Jam, Love Cook, Love Piece and Love Letter as well as a best of released after Love Piece called Ai Am Best. They're all wonderful.

Love Jam - Romanji tracklisting:

1. Superman
2. Happy Days
3. Strawberry Jam
4. Daisuki Dayo.
5. Sensu
6. Mousou Chop
7. Pon pon
8. Futatsu Hoshi Kinenbi
9. Kingyo Hanabi
10. Kuroge Wagyuu Joushio Tanyaki 735 Yen
11. Friends