Nanase Aikawa's Crimson Album

Hey again... I promised to myself that for my next post I would have something ready courtesy of the lovely Nanase Aikawa. After 10 years of successful career, this girl is still Japan's fiercest rock chick. The CD I'm posting today is one of her best albums, in my opinion. It's called "Crimson" and was her third release, right after her great debut "Red" in 1996 and sophomore album "Paradox". Her style fussions rock with europop and has a highly energetic sound that somehow blends with some of the most beautiful rock ballads you will hear around. Don't let her petite size fool you: she can be loud as hell, and with fetish producer Tetsuro Oda they have been rocking their way up to today. With six albums, three EP's and two greatest hits compilations, Nanase is one of the most prolific girls in the Jrock world.

Even if her popularity has diminished in recent years, her fanbase is still strong and keeps growing around the world thanks to her contributions to anime soundtracks. Her song "No future" was chosen as OP (opening song for a show) for the Zoids TV series, and her hit "Owarinai Yume" -for the Inu Yasha TV series- has introduced her to a new generation of music lovers. Her latest tracks to be featured in TV series were "Unlimited" -OP for the anime hit Samurai 7-, and "Everybody goes" -ED of the sentai series Madam Senki Ryukendo-, off of her last EP "R.U.O.K.?!".

Crimson was released on July 8 1998 and span her 8th, 9th and 10th hit singles: "Bad girls", "Kanojo to Watashi no Jijou" and "Nostalgia", respectively. The three of them are among my personal favorites from Nanase. I first got to know this artist's music through only three mp3 posted in a long gone Argentinian website. One of them was, precisely, "Nostalgia". Just the passion she puts in her voice while singing, those wicked guitar solos and the overall kick ass rhythm of her rock tracks was enough to make me an instant fan. Take a look at the music video for that track, courtesy of Drychan @ YouTube:

"Crimson" kick starts with "OOOO?", an ideal song for introducing you to the typical Nanase sound ^_^. "Nostalgia" is loud rock at its best... "Sayonara wo kakesete" slows down a bit and always has sounded to me like a great ED song; too bad it never got picked ! "Nemurenai Yoru" is a great ballad, in the tradition of other Nanase classics such as "Konnani Aishitemo". "Night wave" is just an interlude for the transition to "Bad girls", where all hell breaks loose ! Yeah, baby ! :-P "Fragile" is definitely a personal favorite in this album, while "Velvet Moon" is furious pop and not precisely my cup of tea... "Tammani Shunkan", with those distorted vocals and guitars is straightaway unnerving, but then comes "Kanojo to Watashi no Jijou" ! That's the song you should play to newcomers to Jpop. I still have to meet the Western guy/girl who doesn't shake it to the contagious beat of this song. Love it !!! ^_^ "Yasashii Uta" puts the final touch to the album on a slow note... All in all, a great album to listen to in loud volume...

Enjoy it and let me hear your comments: