01. tobira ~OVERTURE
A cool instrumental piece...
02. garnet
An mid-speed and jazzy first *real* track to this album. The synth tone chosen is a tad questionable, but I enjoy the speed of this one.
03. Trust Me ~all espanola
Hey now. Trust Me has a weird story... I'll probably talk more about it when we get to this album's hidden track. This, however, is a remix of it. A good one. It has a really good Latin sound versus the more pop sound of the regular version.
04. Pretend
This song is kinda mid-speed. It isn't bad. I wouldn't say it's as good as garnet, but it does the job well. I like Nakamori's sweet voice. It's nice whenever it makes an appearance.
05. Arashi no nakade ~misterioso "A"
A mid-speed remix of the song of the same name from SPOON. Quite the improvement. It works really well at the speed.
06. Genwaku ~amabile "A"
Same thing here--this is a faster and better remix of Genwaku from SPOON. I liked that song on SPOON, but this one definitely has some really good additions to it.
07. Kisei ~Never Forget~ Taste "A" Version
This is almost shaping up to be a remix album, eh? Between the two previous tracks and the Trust Me remix, you'd really think so. These remixes really do bring these songs to life. This one, however, I kinda prefer the slick and mysterious tone of the original. This is fun, but maybe it didn't need fixing all that much. It was a single, after all.
08. Kon'nanimo...
Now back to the regular album...
A nice song on the jazzier side. Mid-speed, naturally. I like this one, though it sounds a little bit generic.
09. Tsukino hohoemi ~Acoustic Version
This song is actually from a video game soundtrack. The game in question is called Wizardry ~DIMGUIL~ for the Song Playstation. There are actually three other versions of this song, but they only ever existed on the game soundtrack. Maybe I'll hunt it down someday...it's pretty rare...but I like a challenge.
Given that this is an acoustic version, it's pretty straightforward on what it's going to sound like. Nakamori does her usual great job.
10. will
Brief little acoustic instrumental piece. Unless you're paying attention you'll just think it was part of the previous song.
11. Tomadoi
More of a light-rock ballad type song. It's really, really good though. Nakamori does some nice little jumps with lyrics during the chorus. Plus it has that killer guitar solo. Thumbs up from me!
12. Ophelia
Technically the final track of the album and also a single track. This one has an inescapably slick beat coupled with a catchy chorus. Definitely a worthy track of single status...and a good track to go out with.
13. -Trust Me (Hidden Track)-
As I mentioned previously, Trust Me is a weird story. This song is a single and a FRIGGIN RARE ONE. When I was working on my collection of Akina Nakamori singles, this one eluded me for the longest time. It was released in a plain sleeve and peaked at fifty-seven on the Oricon chart. The odd thing is that I have other singles from different artists from Tokuma that have this generic/blank cover art. Was this single only released to DJs and Rental stores? It had *some* kind of release for it to chart, but it really just died...
The song itself it really good. It sounds a little bit like MOONLIGHT SHADOW, but it good on it's own as well. As I mentioned during the remix, this is the more polished version of the song. It features some guitars where the remix has more of a Latin groove.
It's a shame this song really went nowhere for whatever reason. I actually really dig it. In my years of collecting I've usually dreaded rare CD/items. There is usually a reason for rarity (the reason being...it sucks). This one kinda miffed me. It's a great song...
OVERALL: The short-lived GAUSS/Tokuma era of Nakamori's career has already come to an end. Two albums and a handful of singles. Based on the drop in sales, I don't think Tokuma was taking her very seriously. It's a shame for this album in particular since it's actually quite good. The awful album cover coupled with the murky story behind the singles kinda sealed it's fate.
I'll recommend it, though. Check this album out for a good time and chance to hear some better versions of some songs from the previous album.
PREVIOUS: SPOON
NEXT: Resonancia
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