Beyond the Sea ~ The Style. Edition

Tracklisting
1. ONE
2. A token of love
3. ONE (Instrumental)
4. A token of love (FM88 mix)

This is Ami Suzuki’s 28th single and it was released on July 2, 2008. The single reached #17 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and sold 6,683 copies.

Ami Suzuki celebrates her 10th anniversary in the music industry with a bang. She once again works with Yasutaka Nakata for ONE, an extremely infectious dance track. Since Nakata produced all the songs on this single, the familiar electronic vocal distortions are here. I really liked the constant and upbeat pace of the music and its use of various synth lines mixed with glimmering beats. The rhythm just never lets up and Suzuki’s quick vocals blend in very well for an extra dose of energy that help create the phenomenal chorus.

The B-side, A token of love, is a little slower paced but it still has a very strong, high octane sound. What struck me as the most interesting aspect about the song were all the elongated notes that Suzuki performed. With Nakata’s vocal distortions thrown into the mix, these parts sound very nice. This song easily tops her other recent B-sides by a huge amount.

After the instrumental of ONE, there is the FM88 mix of A token of love which was arranged by Nakata. The original version is 6 minutes long while this remix is 4 minutes. Besides the length, the remix only features a few additional synth lines. It’s pretty much the same song, but shorter.

Overall Rating

4½ stars