CD Review :: Domoto Koichi - BPM
CD Only
CD + DVD Type A
CD + DVD Type B
1) Bad Desire
2) IN & OUT
3) Ayakashi (Something's Strange/Suspicious)
4) Akatsuki (Dawn)
5) Slave of love
6) absolute love
7) VANISH
8) Bounce up
9) Love Shines
10) Bad Desire -remix-
11) SOLITARY
12) Ayakashi (Something's Strange/Suspicious) -2010- (CD Only Track)
13) No more -ver.DK- (CD Only Track)
BPM is KinKi Kids's Domoto Koichi's 2nd solo album . It was released on 1st Sept & it has been close to 4 years since the release of Koichi's debut solo album mirror .
Only 1 single is included in BPM , which debuted at #2 with 1st week sales of 140,040 .
Bad Desire is the 1st song that kicks things off & it's also the only album track which gets a music video but the clip is something that you're not able to find in both CD + DVD's of BPM .
Well , I can understand as to why Bad Desire has the honour of so , as it's a really solid & catchy hot if not seductive opening no. .
In fact , if you have watched the ads online promoting BPM , Bad Desire is the song that's being played in the background so yeah .
IN & OUT follows after Bad Desire . Both songs are dance pop but for IN & OUT , it has a much more aggressive & harder sound attached , in which Koichi mixed it up with synths that're thrown in for good measures .
Ayakashi (Something's Strange/Suspicious) is Koichi's 2nd single . It was released last year on 29th Sept & it's the only single being included in BPM .
Even though it has been almost close to a year since Ayakashi was released , it's a song that I'm still not bored with .
Just like Bad Desire and IN & OUT , Ayakashi follows in the same music vein , except the song is being accompanied by rather strong guitar riffs .
Akatsuki (Dawn) is the album's 1st ballad . It's a nice change after 3 upbeat thumping tracks back to back so hearing Akatsuki is quite a breath of fresh air .
On 1st listen , Akatsuki sounds like the successor to mirror's Kagen no Tsuki (Month Of Last Quarter) & needless to say , both songs are really solid ballads in their own right .
Akatsuki has a really lovely captivating melody which kept me entertained from the start to the end & this somehow distract me from the duration of the song which clocks in at close to almost 6 mins + .
Slave of love follows after Akatsuki . This song I feel borrows traits of Ayakashi & also , mirror's Spica as I think all the songs inclusive of Slave of love can be classified under the same music umbrella .
absolute love is track #6 & it's BPM's 2nd album ballad .
Unlike Akatsuki which has a rather grand sounding melody , in the case of absolute case , it's somewhat more softer & subdued , with it being quite piano driven to a certain extent .
I do admit that I found absolute love boring on 1st listen but in due time , I came to appericate the song , in that it's quite simplistic , sound wise .
The opening of the next song VANISH is a bit eh as I was being greeted by a rather mysterious futuristic instrumental piece .
But after that's out of the way , VANISH morphed itself into a rather standardised dance pop track . In fact , I feel that VANISH sounded a bit similar to Ayakashi's B-side Awaken Yourself , except the only difference is that VANISH has quite strong electric guitar riffs .
Bounce up follows after VANISH . For this , I kind of like Bounce up as the introduction had rather cool trumpet beats blaring for starters & also I thought it's only the opening that's like so .
Instead , it continues on until the end while being accompanied by subtle flute sounds .
And if that's not enough , I feel that Bounce up is quite Jazz driven which I frankly find it really nice , seeing that it's 1 of the few tracks in BPM that's not stereotyped in the dance pop music wagon .
Love Shines is 1 interesting song . The beginning of the song has a rather slow driven melody & then it transformed itself into a mid tempo dance pop no. .
I rather Love Shines stayed as a ballad because I feel that the song itself has lost its X factor in the 2nd 1/2 of the song & I almost lost interest in Love Shines soon after that .
The remix of Bad Desire follows after Love Shines .
I said many times before that I'm not really a remix person but I have to say I kind of enjoy the remix of Bad Desire .
Both takes of the song are still the same music vein ie. dance pop , except the remix of Bad Desire has a more urban club sound attached , which's perfect if you want to plug this remix loud & proud in a club to keep the crowd pumping .
The live version of SOLITARY was 1st revealed at the 2010 edition of Koichi's stageplay ENDLESS SHOCK & in here , it has been given the album treatment .
Ah , I really like SOLITARY on 1st listen simply because I feel it has traces of mirror's Ai no Jujika (Cross Of Love) ~Promise 2U~ to a certain extent , especially the bridge in both no.s which sound quite similar .
Not to mention , I also like the brief acoustic guitar riffs in SOLITARY too which gives the song a much needed edge it deserves .
The next 2 songs are only found in the CD only edition of BPM .
Way back in track #3 when I reviewed Koichi's 2nd single Ayakashi in which that song was released last year , for track #12 , the song has been spiffed up & modernised with an updated melody .
I have to say that I like Ayakashi -2010- . Compared to the original , the updated version of Ayakashi emphasised a greater deal on the Enka factor & has a much harder club sound attached to it .
I know it sounds like a music recipe for disaster but it frankly works in Koichi's favour & with that , I find it really cool .
The final track to wrap things off is No more -ver.DK- . This song is an updated version of No more , which was released as a single , 2 years ago on 30th April .
No more was used as the theme song for the movie version of the drama Sushi Ouji ! which starred Koichi himself .
The single was however not released under Koichi's name . Instead , No more was released under the name Maizu Tsukasa which's the name of his role in Sushi Ouji ! .
Since I never heard how the original take of No more sound like , I basically will treat No more -ver.DK- as a new song .
I think it's a great track to conclude things in BPM . No more -ver.DK- is downright bad ass & angsty driven , which's accompanied by strong electric guitar riffs .
I'm glad No more -ver.DK- is already fantastic in its own right , in the sense that it has a distinct identity to set itself apart from the other tracks in BPM & it's the perfect song to wrap things in the album .
After a long 4 years wait since the release of mirror , Domoto Koichi returned back in solo mode with this latest album offering BPM .
I honestly never expect Koichi releasing another solo album but I'm glad that he has done so , as I do respect & like his solo works .
On the other hand , 1 problem I find with regards to BPM is that most of the album tracks do not seem have an unique identity unlike for what happened in the case of mirror .
As such , at times I feel as though BPM seems to concentrate a lot more in the upbeat dance pop factor which's a pity as I think this kind of restrict/limit things .
That's not to say BPM is a bad album as in general , I do enjoy listening to it but that's the only major grouse I have towards the album .
With that said , I'm not sure whether will Koichi be releasing solo singles & let alone albums in the near future .
If somehow or another he's not going to do that anymore (for whatever reasons that I can't think of) , then I guess it's best to savour his solo works in mirror & also in his latest album offering in the form of BPM .
