This "music business"

We were feeling pretty down for the past two Mika Nakashima singles and lost interest in writing about her for a while. Behaviour of this sort was caused by the less-than-stellar quality of "Orion" (which became one of her bigger hits) and her latest effort "Over Load". "Orion" was a predictable and uplifting ballad with a kind of a pleasant twangy sound while "Over Load" sounded like a rework of Life minus the brilliant piano intro.

However now that the full single is out, it's obvious the fault is Mika's. She isn't talentless, she's just presented with substandard people to arrange her music. This is a fact, made evident by the Kenmochi Hidefumi remix of the track, which layers her vocals with laidback and more pleasant instruments, giving it a more jazzy and relaxed feel. In other words, it is fucking brilliant.

Then on the B-sides frontier we have the absolutely amazing "No Answer". It has near-perfect arrangements and some very sweet melodies, and hence this possibly made the instrumental more enjoyable than the track itself. Such a strong song, and it's not even mentioned on the single cover nor has it received any advertising.

It's all a major fuck-up if you ask us. The Kenmochi Hidefumi mix should have been the single version, backed up with a second A-side in the form of "No Answer", coupled with two music videos as well, instead of just one pretty low budgeted one done for "Over Load". The woman's last album went platinum for heaven's sake. Give her more.

Digressing for a bit though, it's amazing when you consider that in about slightly more than a year Mika Nakashima will be selling more copies of future albums than Ayumi will.