Beyond the Sea

SINGLE REVIEW
Ami Suzuki - ONE

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. This single reached #17 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and it has 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

ALBUM REVIEW
Ami Suzuki - DOLCE

1. FREE FREE *
2. feel the beat (album version)
3. Potential Breakup Song *
4. Bitter…
5. SWEET DANCE
6. THe WeekeND
7. SUPER MUSIC MAKER (radio edit) *
8. MUSIC
9. Stereo Love
10. Ai no Uta
11. Futari wa POP
12. Atarashii Hibi
13. if

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Note: Songs with a (*) at the end of their titles have already been reviewed. Look at the single reviews for more information.
Songs in bold are new tracks and will be reviewed.

♦ ♦ ♦

This is Ami Suzuki’s 3rd studio album with avex trax (6th overall) and it was released on February 6, 2008. It’s also her 2nd collaboration album. It reached #26 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and it has sold 10,835 copies

Opening the album is none other than FREE FREE, Ami Suzuki’s insanely hot and infectious electro pop dance track produced by Yasutaka Nakata of capsule. It’s the perfect way to start the album and I still love this song to death. It’s definitely the song that made me appreciate this genre of music a lot more.

Thank goodness that a shorter, more tolerable version of feel the beat is on the album. The original 8 minute long version that was the B-side on the Potential Breakup Song single was just way too boring. About 3 minutes was chopped from the original version so it’s a lot better. This song was a collaboration with Suguirumn.

Next up is Potential Breakup Song, Suzuki’s Japanese version of the popular Aly & AJ song. With a stronger electronic influence, this version features more synthesizers and faster dance beats. If you listen closely, you can hear Aly & AJ singing during the English parts.

The album slows down a bit for this gorgeous track. Bitter… is a collaboration with STUDIO APARTMENT and he has created an interesting song that combines a depressing string arrangement with a relaxing lounge club beat. When these two elements come together, it sounds quite unique. Suzuki’s calm vocals are great and they blend with the music very well too. This song was also the album’s main promotional track.

2 of the album’s new tracks are collaborations with RAM RIDER and they are also covers of his songs. The first one is his 2005 single SWEET DANCE, a song that begins quietly and slowly builds up to a pleasant mid tempo dance track. Since RAM RIDER produced this cover, Suzuki’s version is quite similar except for some changes in key on some of the instruments.

The next track is the upbeat party song THe WeekeND, a collaboration with CAPTAIN FUNK. The song is heavy on synth and frequent on the beats so I thought the music was pretty catchy. The overall atmosphere of the song felt very 1970s disco to me and Suzuki’s vocals sounded very good on this track.

I was also glad to see the radio edit of SUPER MUSIC MAKER on the album, since the original was too long for me. The more and more I listened to it, I began to grow a liking to the fun and catchy dance club vibe of the music. Just like FREE FREE, this song was produced by Yasutaka Nakata of capsule and features computerized vocals.

I loved the next track because it sounds so funky. The 2nd collaboration with RAM RIDER is a cover of his 2001 single MUSIC. The bass is so infectious and my favorite aspect of the song. I absolutely loved the vocal manipulations of Suzuki’s voice too. The biggest difference from the original is the major change of key of the music so it could accompany Suzuki’s lower pitched vocals better.

The collaboration with Tomoe Shinohara, titled Stereo Love, definitely sounds cuter than the rest of the album’s electro pop tracks, but it’s still quite upbeat. The music has a very “girly” sound to it, especially during the chorus. The song even ends with the sound of Suzuki giggling.

We know reach a low point in the album with Ai no Uta, a collaboration with ROCKETMAN and YOU THE ROCK★. The music itself is very fun but it also marks a complete change in the album’s musical direction as it deviates from the electronic sound of the first 9 tracks. I honestly couldn’t stand the rapping by YOU THE ROCK★ either. He even performs more lines that Suzuki does, who only sings the chorus and one extra verse. It gets especially annoying when he starts yelling Say love and peace! and Clap your hands everybody!. It’s the worst song on the album, sorry to say.

The next track sounds so…outdated, but in a sort of good way. Suzuki collaborates with Hoff Dylan for Futari wa POP, an overly cute song that reminded me of those old fashioned songs from the 50s and 60s. The verses are creepy when Hoff Dylan sings with Suzuki because their voices sound horrible together, but I found the chorus to be oddly catchy.

Perhaps the most out of place song on the album is Atarashii Hibi, a collaboration with YO-KING. It’s your average pop / rock track and it just left me thinking, “What’s it doing on here?”. It’s a nice song with surprisingly good vocals from Suzuki, but still. It sounded like a song from her first collaboration album CONNETTA where it would’ve definitely fit better.

The first pressing bonus track is the only song on the album that’s not a collaboration. if is solely performed by just Suzuki and the music really reflects that. It’s a nice listen and song is quite charming with its overall pop sound. Even thought it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the album, I’ll cut this song some slack since it’s not a collaboration.

DOLCE is a great album and it far exceeds her first collaboration album CONNETTA in nearly every department. The overall electro pop theme of the album is amazing, with the exception of those last couple tracks which are completely deviant and out of place. Those songs would have fit better on CONNETTA! Anyways, Suzuki chose way better collaborators this time around and every song has something different to offer. Yes, even “those songs”. I really think that she has found the genre of music that suits her best and I hope she sticks with it in the future.

Overall Rating

4 stars

SINGLE REVIEW
Ami Suzuki joins Aly & AJ -
Potential Breakup Song

1. Potential Breakup Song
2. feel the beat
3. Potential Breakup Song (Sugiurumn Remix)
4. Potential Breakup Song (Instrumental)

This is Ami Suzuki’s 27th single and it was released on November 28, 2007. This single reached #34 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and it has sold 5,315 copies. The title track was used to promote the film XX - Makyou Densetsu.

I was pleasantly surprised with Ami Suzuki’s Japanese language cover of Potential Breakup Song, the popular song originally performed by the American pop duo Aly & AJ. Suzuki’s cover features a more electronic dance sound as it includes synthesizers and frequent beats. This version seems to have more going on than Aly & AJ’s when it comes to the music. Aly & AJ provide background vocals during the English parts, as several phrases from the original are mixed in with the Japanese lyrics. Believe it or not, I thought the original was pretty good and Suzuki has made a worthy cover.

The B-side is the 8 minute electronic snoozefest feel the beat. This track wasn’t really my thing because I still haven’t completely warmed up to electronic club music yet. The song is just like SUPER MUSIC MAKER, but nowhere near as good because of boring instrumentals and the lack of any real singing. Maybe if the song was shorter, I would have liked it more.

Included on the single is an 8 minute remix of Potential Breakup Song produced by Sugiurumn. Some of the extra instruments he adds in the remix are nice, but it sounds just like all his other remixes (it reminded me a lot of what he did to Mika Nakashima’s Sunao na Mama). The slowed down vocals along with the elongated instrumentals just scream Sugiurumn. However, it is a little more unique thanks to some additional vocals by Aly & AJ, which were borrowed from the original of course.

Overall Rating 

3½ stars

SINGLE REVIEW
Ami Suzuki joins Yasutaka Nakata (capsule) -
     FREE FREE / SUPER MUSIC MAKER

1. FREE FREE
2. SUPER MUSIC MAKER
3. FREE FREE (extended mix)
4. SUPER MUSIC MAKER (radio edit)

This is Ami Suzuki’s 26th single and it was released on August 22, 2007. This single reached #32 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and it has sold 8,384 copies.

When I first listened to FREE FREE, I was instantly pulled in by the catchy synth and thumping dance beats. The producer and composer of this single, Yasutaka Nakata (from the 2 member group capsule), does a fantastic job with this song’s overall production value. Those who are familiar with Ami Suzuki’s more recent works under the avex trax label will be very surprised with the heavily distorted and electronic enhancements in her voice. It doesn’t sound like her at all since her actual singing voice is quite deep. Anyways, the electronic vocals go extremely well with the song, so I didn’t really mind them. The chorus is entirely in English and definitely my favorite part of the song because it flows so well.

The next track is the more dance club friendly SUPER MUSIC MAKER. This song has a faster pace and rhythm compared to FREE FREE but I didn’t like it as much. Once again, Suzuki’s voice is electronically distorted but not in the same degree as FREE FREE either. The song can be a little too long-winded at times since it’s over 7 minutes long.

The extended mix of FREE FREE opens a little differently as if it continues from where SUPER MUSIC MAKER left off (which I thought was kind of cool). The instrumental segments of the song have been lengthed while the parts that feature the main vocals have been left alone.

For those who thought that SUPER MUSIC MAKER was a little too long for their liking, the radio edit condenses the song into 5 minutes. You get the best parts of the song and not the extended instrumentals that separate them. I really liked how this single included the long and short versions of each song, so both sides can be happy if song length is something that a person considers.

Overall Rating

5 stars