Album review: Koda Kumi - Japonesque

Japonesque sounds like a Best release, featuring bad knock-off versions of the hits we remember from past albums. Don't try to make sense of it. There's no point. The bottom line here is that this is an album void of any real direction. Koda Kumi's consistency has always been her inconsistency. Her albums never flow well. Regardless of whether you get good material or a disc of shit, the track ordering is always a mess. But what separates this release from what Kumi has delivered before, is that there is a lack of any true soul. A lack of heart. The production is good. Kumi's vocals are decent enough. But everything feels by numbers. It's as if she doesn't care any more. The Avex syndrome has struck Kumi. It's struck her bad.

Japonesque falls into the same trap Kumi's albums have been sliding in to for the past four years, which is that it lacks consistency. And Kumi is still chasing what worked five years ago with no intent to strive for better to deliver an album full of decent songs. Kumi is not completely lost on how to deliver a good song. "In the air" shows that she can serve up a pop record with a classic sound which has international appeal. "Ko-so-ko-so" feels like an evolution of Kumi's skank anthems, switching out R&B club knock-offs for a dark 'n' dirty 80s electro slink you can grind in a corner to. And "Everyday" is a nice Stargate-esque R&B tinged jam which is sweet on the ears without being sickly (i.e "Bambi" and "Melting"). But then you have "V.I.P" and "Slow". Both of which sound like the club joints Kumi has delivered on every album and seems to think are more hip and contemporary than they actually are. She deludes herself into thinking that adding T-Pain and Omarion to the mix will add some credibility. It seems Kumi is completely out of touch of who's hot in R&B in the States, because these two dudes fell off the Billboard charts years ago. She would have been better off reaching out to Jason Derulo. The dude's music is rubbish, but at least music listeners of today kinda know who he is...for now. And he's honestly a better match for her than T-Pain or Omarion.

Not every song on this album is bad. "So nice" is like 2006's "Candy"...only actually good. "Escalate" and "Lay down" are cut from the same cloth as "Universe"; knocking nicely through the speakers. "Boom boom boys" feels out of place and is a tad contrived, but it will get the heads banging. And the ballads "Brave" and "Ai wo tomenaide" sound like rejects from a straight to VHS Disney film, but they aren't terrible songs, despite being completely and utterly forgettable. And they are flanked by garbage like "Poppin' love cocktail" which I can't even call as music and "No man's land" which would have sufficed as a mid-tempo jam, is shat on by lectric guitars.

Kumi's refusal to embrace a new sound, or attempt to refine one for a whole album is frustrating, because on each album she's given us, there are a couple of tracks' worth of proof that she can. But by constantly releasing albums which sound the same with only the most marginal of differences between each one, Kumi is running the risk of damaging any form of musical legacy she's attempting to build. Kumi really needs to start kicking her music into a new gear and grasp the concept of growth and evolution, because these seem to be utterly lost on her.

As much as I dislike a large chunk of Koda Kumi's discography, at least her earlier albums had some form of impact. They featured songs which hit you with a bang and really caught your attention (long before the video hit which featured her with her legs akimbo). Japonesque on the other hand is mute. It's boring. It features a couple of good songs, but as a whole it's a boring and forgettable album.

Kumi has taken to working with American and European songwriters for many of her songs. It's difficult to pin point if this could be having an affect on her music, as her sound is largely unwavering for the most part. But I do question whether it's necessary. The one thing I can draw out of this is that Kumi needs to streamline her roster of songwriters and producers, as Japonesque features too many cooks. Some artists are able to work with a plethora of writers and producers and still deliver a consistent, coherent album. But these are artists who know their own sound and have an A&R person who knows it too. Kumi still can't pin her sound to make for an album which flows and her A&R person is clearly clueless.

Koda Kumi does have a type of sound, but it filters into about five different types of songs. We've got club banger Kumi. Grunge rock Kumi. Cutesy pop Kumi. Thrashy pop Kumi. And R&B Kumi. Good ballad Kumi is pretty much dead now. I can't remember the last album she delivered which featured a good ballad, and these were the songs you could guarantee she would NEVER fall off with. Guess that ship sailed and hit an iceberg. Because Japonesque's main ballad is a boring mess. Dejavu's main ballad was a hot mess. And you guys remember "Alive" from Universe right!? Nope, me neither. Kumi seems completely unable to converge these styles or scrap them outright to try something new across a whole album. She clings to these types of songs for dear life and seems to believe that an album can't work without them, when the truth is that she needs to see if it can, as it's the only way her music will be able to evolve and she'll be able to see what works and what doesn't.

Kumi needs to start looking back on what she's done before and open her ears. Ten years in the game and she sounds pretty much the same now as she did back in 2000. Kumi needs to start making bold decisions concerning her music and where she needs to go with it. Because right now, Kumi is as stale as week old onigiri. And there are girls in Japan and South Korea who are up on their shit and will show her how to handle that business. She needs to spend less time on music videos, nails and wigs and focus on her music. Because the days of masking her nonsense music with pussy popping, weave thrashing and dry humping white men on chairs are long gone. We want to hear good music first and see a good music video second.

Japonesque is not a good album. It's not even a decent one. Universe and Deja vu were much better albums. They were not perfect, but they featured better singles and saw Kumi moving in a better direction musically, which saw her embracing new styles and genres. Where as Japonesque feels like a completely regressive step. Kumi has the voice and songwriting talents to deliver decent music, which is why it's continually frustrating that she seems content with putting out these lacklustre albums. She needs to put down her parasol and go scrub a floor with this mess.

RATING: 3 / 10

Album highlights:
■ Introduction ~Japonesque~
■ So nice
■ Everyday
■ In the air ★ J's fave
■ Ko-so-ko-so
■ Lay down