Cosmicolor Set To Impress
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April 28, 2007
M-Flo is a group which has quickly become a major force in guiding today’s Japanese pop. Once consisting of Verbal (rap), Lisa (vocals), and Taku (DJ), the group’s fresh mix of pop and hip-hop met with incredible success right from their debut with the Tripod E.P. After two successful albums (and their remix albums), Lisa left the group in pursuit of a solo career. However, instead of replacing her with a permanent member, Verbal and Taku have since been recording albums with a myriad of other artists, in their “m-flo loves” series. Beginning with the album Astromantic, this approach has been incredibly successful and helped to make m-flo one of the most popular names in J-pop today. Cosmicolor is the group’s third such album, bringing together new artists from outside labels, artists from within m-flo’s own RhythmZone label, and bringing back a few Astromantic artists. Just like their previous works, this album is a creative balance of pop, hip-hop, rap, techno, and house with a high production quality that is always set to impress. For those unfamiliar with M-flo, their albums always include story tracks which serve as openings, closing, and/or segues and intermissions. On Cosmicolor, these are tracks 1, 5, 9, and 16, and won’t be covered in the review below. 02 Love Don’t Cry/ m-flo loves Crystal Kay M-flo starts the album off with quite the party-ready track. Much of the track is an irresistible drum beat and lots of claps, a bit march-like, backing up the vocals. Crystal Kay provides a fairly strong performance on this track, ranging from high-pitched and playful to strong and long-winded. The song starts with a very catchy intro between verbal and Crystal, calling back and forth to one another. Verbal’s performance on the track is also one of the more creative ones that he’s delivered in recent releases, with rhymes and rhythms that are more clever and catchy than ordinary for him. Overall, the song has a great beat that doesn’t give up in its intensity except for key parts, mostly meant to feature Crystal’s smooth vocals. 03 Luvotomy/ m-flo loves Namie Amuro The pairing of Namie and m-flo is one that I’ve personally been looking forward to for a long time and was not disappointed with at all. Luvotomy is such a different and creative track, moving through so many moods. The song starts off with a heavy emotion, with Namie singing a bit sadly over an uncertain electronic beat and melody. Although the performance is beautiful and smooth, it gives way soon to a very attitude-heavy rap with both Verbal and Namie that has a quicker beat and a bit of a lighter feel. The chorus keeps in the lighter mood, with a sound and style that is very similar to Namie’s more popular dance hits. The back-and-forth between these three phases is really what makes the track awesome and works so well. Even though the track has a lot of electronic elements, it still stands well on its own as hip-hop/dance track. Which is actually quite a feat, considering that it is, after all, a break-up song. 04 STUCK IN YOUR LOVE/ m-flo loves melody. Although m-flo brings the tempo back a little bit on this track, there’s still quite the strong bassbeat present on STUCK IN YOUR LOVE. This track is pretty interesting since it’s all in English, especially given that melody.’s previous work with m-flo didn’t really have her singing only in English. The track is pretty simple and pretty much a straight-up R’n’B track with some trademark Taku touches overlaid. The performance by melody. isn’t particularly strong vocally, but is very smooth and works well for a quieter song in the playlist. The song does end a bit abruptly and with an overall length that’s a little on the short side, leaving the listener with a little bit of a sense of it being incomplete. It’s a good track, but probably not one of the ones that will be remembered by most after listening to the full album. 06 Summer Time Love/ m-flo loves Emi Hinouchi & Ryohei Ryohei and Emi Hinouchi return from after working with m-flo on separate songs on Astromantic, providing a pretty fun and light-hearted performance led by Verbal. The song has a really nice cabana feel with a simple samba rhythm that’s great for just grooving to. The song really isn’t a dance track; it’s meant more to put you at ease, placed well between all the other dance and beat heavy songs. The vocals from Ryohei and Emi don’t really stand out as special performances from either of them, but they definitely meld well with the song. Especially Ryohei’s whispery voice, which provides more of a relaxing atmosphere than a distinctive element. The song would be great to listen to in the summer, but at the end of winter, it’s a little early in the year for this mood of a song. 07 Simple & Lovely/ m-flo loves Koda Kumi Ever since KK signed with m-flo’s Rhythmzone label, it seemed like only a matter of time before the two started collaboration. Simple & Lovely may be the first release in what will become a string of collaborations, if m-flo’s past habits can be any indication. The song is definitely a bit of a cutesy hip-hop song, with a chipmunk-like altered vocal interspersed every now and then. To be honest, this vocal element was a bit distracting and took quite a while to get used to. It does provide a special emphasis to the beat, but it’s just a little too goofy for the track. Otherwise, the track is an enjoyable old-style hip-hop track. KK’s vocal are just as good her best solo performances, owing most likely to m-flo’s tendency for such high production quality. The song is fun to listen to, just beware the chipmunk. 08 Picture Perfect love/ m-flo loves MONKEY MAJIK This track mixes it up the flavor of the album bit as it features some great acoustic instrumental work paired with Taku’s DJing skills. A really catchy and impressive vocal performance and guitar rhythm lay over an exceptionally fast-paced rhythm. Even though there’s this contrast, the song doesn’t sound awkward at all, and the slower tempo of the vocals is a bit more prevalent, and provides the guide for the song. Most of the song seems like an acoustic indie song overlaid electronica, but as Verbal enters in, the song takes on a completely synthesized feel, providing a nice break in the song’s style. Elements of ska and a calm, soothing rhythm even sneak their way into the song at times. The song is very original, even by m-flo’s standards, and makes for one of their more interesting collaboration projects. This all-Engish track about loss and regret also features some particularly memorable and meaningful lyrics. 10 she loves the CREAM/ m-flo loves DOPING PANDA This track is all-out riot of a track. Much of the song is a fast-paced techno/rock track, with heavily synthed vocals, and hard, driving beats. By this track, it becomes apparent that one of the major themes on this album is the melding of two distinctly different musical styles into one cohesive unit. Although the track begins with the techno/rock, it gives when to a reggae rhythm and style towards the middle, providing a bit of a breather. Of course, the electronic techno/rock returns to close out the song, of course, though. The song doesn’t really have lyrics of note, but the overall feel of the track is very fun and easy to get into. The best and most memorable vocal contribution from Doping Panda is a background, repeating stanza during the reggae portion that actually seems to pull this interlude together. 11 Love Me After 12AM/ m-flo loves Alex (CLAZZIQUAI PROJECT) Love Me After 12AM is the second song in m-flo’s loves series to feature a Korean vocalist (the first being I’M DA 1 featuring Whee Sung on Beat Space Nine). With Alex Chu’s vocals, the song comes off as a very smooth track with a sweet, romantic feel. Of course, this would be familiar to any fan of Clazziquai Project and Alex’s personal vocal style. The track, about a slightly unrequited love, has just the right amount of groove to keep the meaning and emotion of the song intact while keeping the listener interested. The melding of Clazziquai and m-flo is actually a pretty natural one and it shows well in this track, as both Verbal and Alex seem very comfortable with the style since it’s so in-line with what each of them are already used to. Interestingly, towards the end, there is an interlude with a synth melody in the background that sounds very similar to a certain Daft Punk song a few years ago. The song is a very enjoyable one, but given the energy on some of the other songs on the album, it may not stand out as much as it could on its own. 12 Love Song/ m-flo loves BONNIE PINK The chipmunk returns on this particularly slow-tempo track. While the song is pretty cute overall, especially given the sound of Bonnie Pink’s vocals, and the rap provided by Verbal, the emotion seems a bit held back by the overall rhythm. It also seems a bit awkward that the background instrumentals are a bit psychedelic for a love song like this one. It’s certainly a different song and something that you might expect from m-flo, but the overall style doesn’t harmonize as well as some of their other works. 13 Love Long and Prosper/ m-flo loves STAR TREK This track is a mostly instrumental track, with a few interjections by Verbal, mostly in a single repeating line. Although it’s clear that the song is supposed to have a space-related theme and sound, the exact tie to STAR TREK isn’t very clear beyond that. Given the connection, the track is of course a very techno-heavy offering. It is a little surprising to here something quite so hardcore coming from Taku, who usually tends to stick with more of a house feel when he heads into techno styles. This allows for quite a refreshing track in the context of an m-flo album, even though it may be similar to other hardcore techno. 14 LOVE ME, HATE THE GAME/ m-flo loves Chan, Thaitanium, Edison Chen, Ryohei This track is a bit similar to Dispatch on Expo Expo in that it features the work of quite a number of outside rappers. However, this time, m-flo has decided to go international with the line-up. Of course, there’s quite a bit of attitude on this track, and even some language and themes that m-flo listeners may not be used to. It’s not quite a first for m-flo, but seems to be done to a larger degree than on previous tracks. There are some amusing portions of the track, and the all-rap content offers another stylistic break in the album. Ryohei accompanies the rappers on the chorus portions of the song, but his presence isn’t exactly upfront. The overall beat is pretty good as far as rap songs go, with a little less of an emphasis on just the bass and an attempt to augment with some synth rhythm that works pretty well. 15 Lotta Love/ m-flo loves MINMI This track is the house ballad of the album. The style is one that m-flo has certainly experimented with previously and has worked on for a while to perfect. This song is a great representative of this type of m-flo track, with an extremely catchy and memorable chorus and a rhythm that’s sure to keep you moving. The breaks and intermissions are particularly successful at providing a celebratory emotion and party atmosphere. Minmi’s voice is also perfect for this type of song as she has the right range with an emphasis on the higher notes, without straining too much, making the particularly strong portions of the song smooth and easy to listen to. This song is one of the better ones on the album and is sure to stick in your head after listening to it. 17 Love to Live By/ m-flo loves Chara M-flo closes the album with a bit of a different song. The style is jazz/big-band, which isn’t really a completely novel concept for m-flo, although it is one of their styles that hasn’t been explored as others. However, what makes this song different is Chara’s style of singing it. She attempts to sound like the classical jazz singers with a raspy voice and a bit of a strained effect. At times, she is able to pass it off reasonably well, but there are other times when it simply gets in the way of her pronunciation of the vocals and can actually become quite distracting. The song itself, however, is very good with an excellent chorus that m-flo rightfully capitalized on. If it weren’t for Chara’s sometime misplaced vocal emphasis, then it could possibly have been one of m-flo’s great songs. |
01 Issue No 5
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© 2007 AudioAsia
