Kamiki Aya - Communication Break

By hideki

Release Date: 03/15/2006
Price: 1200 yen
Type: Single

My Rating

Artwork: 7/10
Length: 7/10
Music: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10

Review

Communication Break was the only one of Kamiki Aya’s recent singles I hadn’t heard. The other’s were quite good, at least decent in my opinion. But what I wanted to know is if her debut single would be the best of the three. So this led me to really strive to listen to it and wait until I really could here the whole song.

Unfortunately, I accidently heard a few seconds of the chorus before I got to listen to the entire song and these few seconds might have just made the difference.

The first track is Communication Break and I really thought that ever since I heard the few seconds of it that it wouldn’t be as high as my expectations for it were. Hearing the whole song was defintely true. I thought the chorus was almost horrible, and that the use of the words "Communication Break" was pretty bad. Perhaps if she had sung it differently or used words that were alot shorter and fit better with the song, I might have liked it. I thought the chorus was really the most untolerable part. My immediate hype for this single took a huge dive to not even caring too much about the next trakcs...

To my suprise the next song started very lively, with a guitar line and a good drum fill and led up to this similarly awesome intro that made me check if I was actually still listening to Kamiki Aya. The instrumentals were a bit of punk I think, and fit very nice when her vocals came. She sings at a higher pitch in this song with vocals not being so powerful as in Communication Break. I think this made all the difference. The song, "HAPPY GO LUCKY" retained much of the title, being a very happy song and used the lyrics, "don’t worry, don’t give up, don’t worry, don’t stop!" as well as some other Englihs bits in the chorus. The song is really lively and I think the instruments were played really well and in a style that I can really get to liking.

The next song was sort of one I was looking foward to, since I always like hearing a band/singer/musicain live to see if they have the same energy as on a CD. The song done was "Crazy" and pulled off one of her earlier Indies mini-albums. At first I was wondering how live this was, because it sounded very darn good for a live track. Perhaps this was because when you are a J-Pop singer you don’t play in venues like Live Houses, so the sound quality may be different. The song itself was really good though, lip synced or not, and I thought that the audiences cheers and singing added some excitement and cool points to the song itself. What I thought brought the song together the most though, was the use of a strong piano/keyboard line. You can really heard it in the song and in the bridge the keyboardist is given a proper solo for a few seconds. For a Live track, this really was a good. The overall quality of the recording, the use of good instruments that never drowned each other out(in solo’s of course, but not in anything beyond that), and the audience participation make this a pretty great track.

There is also an instrumental karaoke version of Communication Break, but I don’t feel much need to talk about that. Perhaps it’s better to listen to this then the one with the vocal track in it...

I usually write up on album art for most singles I review, but I think this one can’t really qualify since it’s a J-Pop Idol type single. Still, the pictures on it weren’t bad, so it deserves at least average credit in that area. While I do appreciate Kamiki Aya being so pretty, sometimes I realize why I like listening to bands much more is that the CD’s have much more cool art and such. Still, that’s something of an opinion.

If Kamiki Aya had paired these B-Sides with another of her singles I think it could have made one almost perfect CD. The B-sides here are the obvious buying points of this single, and I think could have been actual singles themselves. The title track is usually what most people might come for, but I think the B-sides on here really have potential. Anyone new to Kamiki Aya can enjoy this single, whether the title track is good or not. Until "Secret Code" is released, her fans can have a great time with this one.

Track Listing

1. Communication Break
2. Happy Go Lucky
3. Crazy - Live Version-
4. Communication Break -Instrumental-

Where Can You Buy the CD?

YesAsia

CD Japan

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