Mini album review: Meisa Kuroki - Attitude

As soon as you gain a little bit of popularity and release a photobook in Japan, you're eligible for J-drama TV stardom and a record deal. Enter, the musically talentless Meisa Kuroki. Beautiful? Yes. Bankable? Yes. Singer? F**k no. Stupid? Not at all. Meisa herself knows that she's a mess vocally. So she teamed up with a producer who could make her sound half decent, and drown her vocals in beats so hot that you actually forget she can't sing. And she made sure to do it with a mini-album, so that the music stops before you latch onto her lack of vocal ability. Meisa failed though. Because the cat was out of the bag regarding her 'singing ability' before the chorus came in on Attitude's first song. And chances are that cat sounds better on the beats than she does.

Attitude lead single "Are ya ready?" has a hot beat on it. But the song doesn't really go anywhere. You feel like you're waiting for a beat drop or a switch to occur, and it never comes. The production is solid, but the song as a whole is just stoic.

"#1" is hotness. It's impossible to listen to this song and not want bust a shape like a Tetris block. It features a hook which is instantly catchy. Even with my so-limited-it-shouldn't-qualify level of Japanese, I could make out the ♪ Anata no ichiban. Ja nakute, yadda yadda. I will be your number oooooooooooooone! ♪ Great song. This should have been the single instead of "Are you ready?" U-Key has his Darkchild 2000, digital, blippy, club production in absolute lock.

Meisa gets dark 'n mid-tempo sexy for "Late show" - which is pretty much a 4 and a half minute invitation for you to just put both hands on the top of your head and just grind. Meisa does herself no favours silencing naysayers she can sing here, as her vocals are affected to the maximum: sounding like home girls' vocal takes got run through an Xbox 360. It matters not too much, as "Late show" is still a hot joint regardless.

"Awakening" is the jam. But the track is wasted on Meisa though. Credit to the her. She sounds nice on the song and the effects and wizardry on her vocals is kept in check without sounding overdone. But a vocalist with more range (just any range) and soul such as Crystal Kay or some vocal texture such as Kumi Koda would have shut this song down completely. Meisa doesn't ruin the song, but she doesn't make it neither.

Maybe there's something in the water in Okinawa, but Meisa just comes off like a Namie Amuro clone from start to finish. And no songs quite emphasis this point like "Kind of guy" and "Stand up!" - both of which sound like leftovers from Namie's Queen of hip pop and Past < Future albums respectively.

Meisa Kuroki is pretty young lady. But vocally she's doo-doo, and there's nothing distinct about her. Her vocals are layered, reverbed, filtered and intertwined with so many of U-Key zone's instrumentations that the songs could have been sung by anybody, or some text to speech freeware downloaded from some miscellaneous forum. Attitude features a couple of hot tracks (literally, two to three). But as a whole, the mini album is nothing special.

Attitude is worth checking out for "#1" and "Awakening", both of which are amazing songs. But other than that there's nothing here to make you want to buy into Meisa. She needs to keep away from the recording studio unless she's recording a voice over for a commercial and just look pretty in magazines.

RATING: 3 / 10

Album highlights:
■ Attitude (Intro)
■ #1
■ Late show
■ Awakening ★ J's fave