Doing it yourself

Thank you once again.

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.

Ugly old quiche

So what's up lately? Definitely not the Sugababes' career, as Keisha Buchanan digs deeper into the grave of the Sugababes with an angrily bitchy comment on her Twitter.

"Oh we just wanted to give a BIG 2 fingers and a Kiss our Ass to the sad prat who made that YouTube video about Us against GA. Get the **** over it. We like what they do. We Love what we do. We are a completely different band. Who gives a **** if we've had 2 line up changes... Even more reason to show us support & respect because we are still surviving!!!

WE have had Nearly TEN yrs In this industry with with 7 albums 5 number ones HUGE sales across EUROPE not only in the UK. We write. Sing live. We have never Sold our selves out to the media. Who we thank for all their support so far but its never been about that. We're about the music.

Love and support to all the up and coming girl bands. BUT their will only ever be ONE sugababes and even though the last album wasnt A huge hit (lol) Who gives a sh!t. We are not giving up. And we STILL remain (According to OVER ALL SALES) THE BIGGEST GIRLBAND FROM THE UK! Thanks to all our real fans and supporters we love you xxxx "

I don't think any explaining needs to be done. It's just appalling how she reacted to a fanmade Youtube video. Just because you sell more doesn't mean you're not shit, honey. Perhaps it's time Keisha stepped aside, as she's done enough damage to the Suga's reputation, image and discography.

Perhaps it's time to reinstate Siobhan.

Colliding cultural catastrophe

The Eurovision contest came and went this year and we had no idea the finals were over until 3 days after. What could have contributed to this? Perhaps the dramatic reduction in terms of hype and news coverage. Though the contest is no short of controversies this year, it's still considerably less mentioned or covered by media compared to the years before.

Now if you're from the UK then perhaps the opposite might be true. How the fuck "It's My Time" got fourth is anyone's guess, it's about as exciting as television static. The only worthy part was when Jade Ewen accidentally bumped into the violinist onstage. Scooch was definitely more deserving.

In any case, Norway's Alexander Rybak is clearly worthy of the win, and he could give David Archuleta a run for his money if promoted right, don't you think? A decent voice, impressive violining skills, evidently good songwriting, a winning smile, and a bone structure stolen from Annie. What more could a guy possibly have? Debut album out in a few weeks as well. If we weren't so smitten we'd be sending hate mail.

Also worth mentioning is the Estonian entry, "Rändajad", which is clearly amazing, more amazing than all the songs combined (minus "Fairytale") multiplied by 8293. It came in sixth place.

What's sad about all this is that there's an 85% chance that anyone who has anything to do with the competition will fade away into obscurity in about 12 months. :(

The video we've been waiting for is out

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen.



And what a shocker it turned out to be.

Basically someone somewhere decided to chop the song and remove the amazing transition bits so as to "retain audience attention" or whatever they call it. This unbelievably foolish thing to do has resulted in a very bad edit of the song, as featured in the video. How stupid can record companies get? This is an example. It's either idiocy or plain sabotage.

Besides that, the video is really pretty. Some interesting and questionable dance routine, a sprinkling of dramatic acting, and a floating coffin in the beautiful spring sunshine. Perfect, really.

Intense outrage...

...channeled into more toying around.



Shocking how well the two tracks go together. Now if only someone would be commissioned to make an official version somewhere. :(