1) zero 2) rose 3) NO WAY 4) Lovin' you 5) Under My Mask 6) True Colors 7) Give me Kiss & Kiss 8) Forever 9) Interlude 10) Change your life (Album Version) 11) ecstasy 12) Jane 13) Grooving beating 14) knock down 15) SLAP THAT NAUGHTY BODY
strip me ? is the debut album released by Anna Tsuchiya . The album was released in Japan 2 years on 2nd Aug & just recently , it was released & manufactured locally by Warner Music S'pore .
3 singles & a B side are included in strip me ? in which 1/2 of Anna's 2nd single was excluded which was MY FATE .
An interesting fact on strip me ? is that Anna didn't include Taste My Skin which was found on her Taste My Beat EP although the PV for the song was included in the DVD tracklisting of strip me ? & also only 3 songs on the album contains Japanese lyrics according to the Chinese lyrics translation sheet that's found in the OS press of strip me ? so it's quite possible to say that this's an album in which's 90% of the material are English songs .
The 1st 2 songs on strip me ? were songs that Anna did for the NANA anime series . I start 1st with zero which was used as an insert song in the anime as one of the songs that the band BLACK STONES performed live .
The guitar riffs being used for zero's great & so's the next song which's Anna's 3rd & most successful single to date in terms of sales & chart ranking wise , rose . rose's the 1st song on the album to feature Japanese lyrics & it was used as the opening theme song for the NANA anime .
I always have liked her angsty rock no.s & it's evident in rose .
An interesting fact for both rose & zero is that subsequently both songs are available in her 2nd album ANNA TSUCHIYA inspi' NANA (BLACK STONES) & the NANA BEST compilation album .
Track 3's titled NO WAY . Just like rose , it's another angsty guitar driven no. except it incorporated a much harder & gritter sound as compared to the latter . Anna has control on her vocals on NO WAY .
Track 4's titled Lovin' you & it was initially found as the B side in the rose single . This song was used as the theme song to the Japanese dub version of the movie Silent Hill .
The next track's Under My Mask which I think is 1 of the somewhat borderline filler tracks on strip me ? because I don't find the song memorable on 1st listen & not to mention it doesn't help that there's absence of the song title in the song but having said that after extensive listens , the song begins to grow on me .
Track 6's the only cover found on strip me ? . Titled True Colors , it's a cover of Cyndi Lauper's which was arranged by ACIDMAN . It's quite interesting for Anna to do a rock inspired cover of True Colors & she sounded like she had a lot of fun singing in here .
Up next's a song titled Give me kiss & kiss . I like this song as it's a mid tempo & carefree song coming from Anna .
Track 8's 1 of the star tracks on strip me ? & it's also the only ballad on the album . Titled Forever , it's a sweeping & deep power ballad which showcases Anna's vocals at its finest form . It definitely bear similarities to her other fantastic ballads like Kuroi Namida (Black Tears) & Take me out which's plain awesome .
After a short Interlude which flows nicely to the next track which's Anna's debut single Change your life . The version found on strip me ? is a bit different as compared to the single version .
The album version starts off with Interlude . The instrumental from this track builds up and continues into the start of Change Your Life , which is otherwise unchanged .
At 1st I did not listened to Change your life as the 1st song I heard from Anna proper was SLAP THAT NAUGHTY BODY but Change your life's a mid tempo & nice tune which's accompanied by a graphics driven PV .
The next 2 tracks are 2 of the songs that Anna did not had a hand in writing . 1st in line's ecstasy which's a pretty catchy rock song & after that's done in the way , track 12's titled Jane .
Jane's the 2nd song that incorporates Japanese lyrics after rose . I really like the melody that's going on in Jane & the acoustic guitar that's being used in this song's lovely too .
Track 13's 1 of my fave songs on strip me ? . Titled Grooving beating , it was featured in an ad campaign for Whiteen & as the song title suggests , it's a great groovy catchy rock no. & it's very enjoyable on 1st listen .
The 2nd last track on strip me ? is called knock down . The song was similarly used as the Kosé Cosmetics Visée range commercial . It borderlines on the mid angsty range which's cool .
Last & definitely not least , 1 1/2 of Anna's 2nd / 1st double A side single SLAP THAT NAUGHTY BODY . This was the 1st proper song & PV that I heard/seen of Anna & you can't help but like the title .
It was used as the Hart CM theme song & it's the last song on strip me ? to feature Japanese lyrics alongside with Eng ones . The lyrics are quite funny to boot courtesy of Anna although the chorus gets repetitive subsequently but still this's 1 really fun track to tune the volume up on .
Not sure why the other A side MY FATE is excluded on strip me ? as it's a great mid tempo song .
Just like Taste My Beat EP , strip me ? is strictly a rock album with the majority of the songs are sung by Anna in Eng with a few Japanese lyrics thrown in the mix .
strip me ? has its own share of strengths & weakness in which 1 of the flaws I realised is the lack of ballads since there's only 1 ballad (Forever) that's being included on the album . It would have been better to include MY FATE & the B side of SLAP THAT NAUGHTY BODY / MY FATE , the awesome BLUE MOON .
It's quite a risk to pull off such an album considering that Eng's by right not Anna's 1st language but she did it pretty well for a debut album & also she has written some great Eng lyrics in the songs found on strip me ? .
I'm sure in her subsequent & upcoming 3rd album , she probably might incorporate more genres & different styles in her music as evident in BUBBLE TRIP & Crazy World feat AI which I totally adore .
Go do yourself a favor & get strip me ? alongside with Taste My Beat to get a taste of Anna's brand of English meets Japanese style of rock music .
Blog Personnel
Karen Pang
# 10th Jan
# #1 BREAKERZ fan in Singapore since 2008 debut single ♥
# My music blog consists of JPop/Rock singles & albums reviews that I put my heart , efforts & soul into writing them as I'm disgusted with the way that JPop/Rock music is being treated/written/reviewed in Singapore so to the local media (yes you TEENS , Teenage Magazine & The Strait Times) , screw you all . I basically can write better JPop/Rock reviews , period
