The Klassic Note Review 2014.04 Issue 1: The April Klassic Note Review Special

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Yahoo~ I’m here, means that… yesh.

It’s here! Both at the same time! SCANDAL and Mina-chan’s new single! Let’s start with the reviews shall we? *satisfied smile*
This segment shall be more specific than usual, as I’ll dive into two main points:

1) The Review (of course, with everything in the format you’re familiar with) (or not)
2) The Packaging (how it came to me, and what are inside!)

First…

音楽 The Klassic Note Review

SCANDAL – Departure [Single]

Limited Edition Type A

Limited Edition Type B

Regular Edition

(Honestly, all the covers are very intriguing and interesting to look at…)

Origin: We all should not be unfamiliar with SCANDAL – the girls’ rock band which took the world down from where they started, in Japan just a few years ago. Now they are standing strong, removing all the composers who have helped them on their way to write songs by themselves! All the more I should support them, and yes their first self-composed single (I did not say ‘first composition’ here) does not disappoint, bearing their style and is very nice a listen.

1) Departure
Hmm I thought it would be an emotional song, but it somehow wasn’t. First impressions from their PV does not make me go right into it, but listening to the lyrics and a few more times make me feel for the song itself, as it talks about something simple – Farewell. And MAMI-chan, who is the composer AND lyricist of this very song, has done quite a good job conveying the song. From past experiences of her compositions (that Dobon song, and their previous album “STANDARD”) I didn’t believe she could do this well. Also, backed up by great producers, I guess this song is a nice one to listen. And I love it when I say that they “took the world down”, because an advantage of being renowned worldwide means…

… You don’t have to wait any longer! Their MV is legitimately online! ONLINE!!
Rating: 4 stars (More Than Just Average)

2) Rainy
Truly the band’s production after I found out when I was listening to the CD and reading the booklet (hehe), the band came together to bring us a lively yet simple song, about rain, which I guess many have talked about too. RINA-chan’s in charge of lyrics here this time, and her honest style of writing also makes this song catchy to listen to. When I heard the preview I felt it had a very similar style to garage rock song “LOVE SURVIVE” they sang years ago, but this has its own unique style too. Good job! And definitely worth a listen!
Rating: 4 stars (Average)

Conclusion: Overall, this single is actually rather impressive. Coming a long way for them, this time is truly their works in the making, and I’m here to support them by listening to them, and also grabbing a copy. Looking forward to their own album already…

AND NOT FORGETTING….

音楽 The Klassic Note Review

Kotobuki Minako – Believe x [Single]

Limited Edition

Regular Edition

(I love the Limited Edition the first time I saw it. Why is it such a big difference between the two versions anyway??)

Origin: Months after they mentioned about the new style Mina-chan is taking to be dance rock, they reverted (or her, probably) back to the good old rock Mina-chan sounds nice with, and this is impressive, like the others. At first hesitant as I hear the previews, but foreseeing it to be a good single I still had the urge to support her by grabbing a copy of the wonderful single.

1) Believe x
(*the ‘x’ here is read as ‘cross’, according to Mina-chan herself, and that is a reference to her first single, ‘Shiny+’ with the ‘plus’)
I tell you, if she needs another song to show how lively and wonderful she is singing songs, this is it. Lively, active, yet not forgetting that she likes to look back at life and anticipate the future ahead. The lyrics say so, and from her the topic this time round is “Back to Origins”, even though mentioning that she ‘doesn’t have a glorious past’ to look back at. And yes, this song proves pretty much everything. If you liked her songs till now, this is not one to be missed. PV-wise… got confused with the shoes at first, then looking at the lyrics made me understand the intention. Well, I guess this kind of PV with Mina-chan anything goes huh…
Rating: 4 stars (Above Average)


2) Kousaten
Hesitant at Yesh this is the one that (almost) stopped me from getting her single. But I gave in in the end, apparently. It wasn’t disappointing, maybe because I’m in the mood for it? Simple, yet emotional. And yeah, the lyrics central around the fact about seeing crossroads in life, as Mina-chan would like, and I would feel for it with. Yet again, such an emotional song is created by none other than Hoshimura Mai, who you of course would remember where she contributed lyrics for Mina-chan’s album song “Tsuki no Hikari”, this time comes down to write a whole song for her. I liked it so much that so much so I spent a night to research on the current artist status of Hoshimura-san, who is still active and about singing her own songs. Back to Mina-chan, I guess this suits her best, but singing it can be quite a task, I suppose. Coupled with the light piano instrumentals in the intro and ending, this is going to be another song I’d like to see in her live someday.
Rating: 4 stars (Above Average)

Overall: In conclusion, I guess Mina-chan has yet another great single to treasure again. Thrown off by previous releases of the same company (sorry Tomacchan I had to mention you here) this (and Aki-chan’s) is a release to admire. Sh*t I’m tearing up again… If you’re a fan, do give a listen. Nothing’s more compared to a great song from Mina-chan. She and rock make a great combination. (It maybe just my opinion after all. Besides, anyone goes well with rock… right?)


THE PACKAGE
Okay, now that I’ve done the reviews, let’s talk about what is inside. I don’t buy Limited Editions for those idiots who still think that I do buy all like those other idiots out there, but I do know what they contain. SCANDAL first. With every first press of any edition of the single comes with a B3-size poster, with specific shops to specific members of the band as cover:

Unless you buy from anywhere else which only give a B2-size advertising poster (which I got last year for Awanai… that single), this time round comes with specific gifts. But then, it took me some time to get to listen to both songs before deciding on getting it, so that leaves me without TOMOMI.

“Since TOMOMI is out of stock, I went for RINA.” –Kaineng

Also included is a sticker set of all the members, which I think is rather good. Even better than the poster. Haha.

Let's see if you remember all of them again!
(From top-left, clockwise) That's MAMI, HARUNA, TOMOMI and RINA-chan~

For Mina-chan, every purchase of first press Regular Edition gets you a digipak, and for those who do not know how it looks like or what is inside, it basically ditches the usual jewel case style (please go Wiki if you still don’t understand ok?) for a simpler and cleaner way of keeping a disc. Really. I’ve seen what happens if you miss the first press release.

Of course, with all of the releases of Mina-chan, every purchase of first press of any edition comes with a bromide photo of her. Of course, who doesn’t want her anyway, isn’t it? And for me I kindly offered my cash to Sony Music Shop, by far the most direct and official way I buy something from a store online.
 
I definitely enjoyed the fun inside. Thanks Sony Music Shop. Also the reason why I got so far to get the single is because it’s the only one I’ve liked so far, amongst the others. The gift. Hehe.
(Not showing real one for copyright purposes??) (Wait, did I post this before??) (Oh I didn’t. Must be at Twitter)


I guess that’s all the fun I will get this month. Next month brings sphere’s new single, and quite a few Anime songs, so we’ll see about sphere. You should also know that I do not buy Anime songs due to many reasons (which I will not bore you with), so… we shall see. Next time guys! Until then… don’t start stealing the images here. They are taken just purely in the name of interest, ok?