Beyond the Sea ~ The Style. Edition

So it’s been like a week since I’ve reviewed anything and I have a good reason…I’m getting bored! lol 

I’ve lost interest in doing “track-by-track” reviews lately and I feel like this blog needs to be revamped in some way. This relates to mostly ALBUM reviews and it gets tiring after doing it for so long. Anyway, I’m going to change the way I review things from now on. Definitely expect a new format or something. I don’t know exactly yet but I have some ideas floating around. In the end, I hope it will be easier for me as well as you guys because I know how monotonous my reviews can be. Once I post something, tell me what you think. Or you can do it right now by commenting here. ;D

- Lex

P.S. It looks like Teppei Koike’s Jack In The Box album will be my first victim. I’ve put it off for so long anyway.

EDIT: The review is up and I feel quite comfortable with this new format. <3 I hope you guys like it.

Here are 2 more artists that will be featured on the blog! If you’ve seen the Upcoming Reviews page and wondered who they were, I got your info. =D

HIMEKA was an artist that totally came out of nowhere and I was definitely surprised by her. Her real name is Catherine St-Onge and she’s French Canadian, hailing from the province of Quebec. She got her big break after winning the 2nd annual Animax Anison Grand Prix in 2008 and later getting a record deal with Sony Music Japan International. Think of Leah Dizon but with actual talent (I’m a Leah fan and that’s a fact LOLZ). I like her already, guys. ♥
Check out my review of her debut single Asu e no Kizuna in the near future!

May Jamileh Hashimoto, known professionally as May J., made her debut in 2006 under Sony’s Ki/oon Records sublabel. I found out about her through an interview on the show J-MELO and she is currently one of the hosts (her and another singer replaced melody. in late 2008). Anyway, she’s an R&B and pop singer and I thought her debut album Baby Girl was pretty good. She has recently switched labels and is now with Rhythm Zone (avex’s R&B sublabel).
I will start by reviewing FAMILY, her 2nd studio album and first release under Rhythm Zone.

RANDOM BLOG UPDATE~
Expect my review of Yuna Ito’s DREAM today or tomorrow. It depends on how I feel. A word of warning: IT’S AWESOME.

LET’S PARTY! GOOBI GOOBI!

If you’ve been looking at the Upcoming Reviews page, 2 new artists are going to be featured on the blog! One is a total J-pop newbie while the other is a seasoned veteran.

Tiana Xiao, who is ethnically Chinese, made her J-pop debut in January 2008 and I found out about this up and coming artist through an interview on the show J-MELO. Out of curiousity, I tried out her debut album desTiny and I was pretty intrigued. She has a LOT of potential and she has the vocal chops to prove it. Also, her music is a mix between R&B and pop. I know for a fact that she’s visited the blog before too! HAY GURL HAY!
I will be reviewing her latest single Kanashii Uso which was released last week.

I’ve been listening to hitomi for a while but never featured her on the blog because she’s been on hiatus for a couple of years. Well, she’s finally back with a new single and upcoming album! For those who are not familiar with her, she made her debut with avex trax way back in 1994. She was extremely popular in the 90s thanks to her provocative image and catchy pop tunes that were produced by Tetsuya Komuro (he also kick started the careers of other artists such as Namie Amuro and Ami Suzuki). Anyway, she has been in the J-pop industry for over 15 years and is still going strong.
I will start by reviewing WORLD! WIDE! LOVE!, her first single since the hiatus.

RANDOM BLOG UPDATE~
So I’m going to review Tommy heavenly6’s I KILL MY HEART, but I will definitely NOT do a track-by-track review of that god forsaken album. It’s just not worth it.

Here’s a .gif of Beyoncé that explains my feelings on the album.

“SHIT SUCKS. GONNA HEADBUTT IT.”

Beyond the Sea will be on definite hiatus due to the totally evil and mean and rude CONFICKER VIRUS. That ain’t cool, bbz. THAT AIN’T COOL. I deleted everything and such as!

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Okay, nothing happened. lol
But I sure was freaking out last night because the news blew it out of proportion.

Anyway, I got some updates!
So I want to add some new artists to the blog, but I am still not entirely sure because I’m swamped with older reviews at the moment. You never know though.
I’ve been thinking about adding…

CHEMISTRY
A popular R&B / pop duo consisting of two male vocalists: Yoshikuni Douchin and Kaname Kawabata.

MISIA
The super talented female artist who is best known for her amazing vocal range and unique look. Seriously, she is AMAZING.

DREAMS COME TRUE
This group has been around since 1988 and they are still one of Japan’s most popular performing acts. Originally a trio, there are 2 members now: Masato Nakamura (composition) and Miwa Yoshida (vocals and lyrics).

Thelma Aoyama
After gaining a lot of exposure after her hit 2008 single Soba ni Iru ne, she is one of Japan’s rising stars. Fluent in English, she is 3/4 Japanese and 1/4 Trinidian.

Hmm…you might see these guys around in the near future, but nothing is completely official yet. Keep your eyes peeled!

I hope you bitches like the new Perfume banner too. It took a good 15 minutes to make! XD

In closing…here’s an early review of alan’s Voice of EARTH:

It’s THAT good! Most appropriate .gif ever, right?  I’ll try to get on that later this week, after my core humanities exam though.

Expect my review of Hitomi Shimatani’s SMILES today too. See you later, guys! =D

- Lex

Sorry about the lack of reviews lately. I was taking a well deserved break! lol

Anyway, spring break is over and classes start tomorrow, which means I’ll start reviewing again too. First is misono’s Kyuukon / ?cm single followed by Angela Aki’s ANSWER. Good lawd, I am behind…AGAIN! XD A bunch of stuff came out last week too.

See you later, bbz.

- Lex

Wow, I just realized that I relaunched Beyond the Sea one year ago! I’m glad to say that the blog has made a good recovery since the relaunch and I’m really thankful for everyone that still visits and posts comments. Thanks guys! I really appreciate it and let’s hope for another great year without any ~misshaps~. ^^

STATS TIME ♥

Total views: 273,906 (OMG!)
Busiest day: 1,290
Total posts: 391
Total comments: 1,119 (and that’s after deleting a crapload of them too)

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Most visited page: Upcoming Reviews with 18,803 hits (I’m not surprised but WOOOOOW.)

Most popular album review: Utada Hikaru’s HEART STATION with 1,308 hits
Runner-up: KOKIA’s The VOICE with 1,275 hits

Most popular single review: Maki Goto’s Secret with 873 hits (WHAT?)
Runner-up: Namie Amuro’s 60s 70s 80s with 865 hits

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Top referrer: International Wota with 869 hits (Thanks for featuring me.)
Top clicked site: Gold Hikari with 2,381 clicks (Keep up the good work, Die!)

Coming soon!

This was quite unexpected actually! I’ve known about wyolica for a long time, but I will now feature this fantastic duo on the blog. wyolica consists of azumi on vocals and so-to on guitar and they first debuted way back in 1999 on the Epic Records label.  After almost 5 years of inactivity, they are finally back on a new label and with a new mini-album titled Balcony. What I like the most about wyolica is their unique blend of acoustic pop, jazz, and R&B so I’m really happy to see them making music again. Stay tuned for my review of their new mini-album Balcony.

Coming soon!

Yep, that’s right. It’s alan! She is the songstress from China that’s been getting a lot of attention lately. Her style of incorporating the folk music of her homeland Tibet is quite interesting and she also has a tremendous voice to back it up. In Japan, she is under the avex trax label and released her debut Japanese single Ashita e no Sanka in November 2007. Expect a review of it as well as reviews of her latest releases too.

Yep, I’m going on a little vacation starting tomorrow morning! My first stop will be at Las Vegas for a huge birthday party at the Mandalay Bay resort. I’ll be staying at the fancy hotel there too so I hope that I can get a good wireless signal.

After that, I’ll be going down to Arizona to visit some old friends and then on to the Grand Canyon! I’ve never been there before so I’m really looking forward to it. I won’t be back until Sunday but I will definitely try if I can get any reviews posted before that. I can’t promise anything though. =x