Uncontrolled. This album title and the album art concept is interesting because it signifies much of what this album is about. Uncontrolled has Namie come full circle with pop and wholly embrace it for the first time for the majority of an album in a long while. Much of this is probably to do with the current state of R&B and what many now consider ‘urban’. A sound-scape which has become near indistinguishable from pop; and it's had a direct effect of Namie's music, naturally. The great thing about what we get here is that the results do not sound like bastardisations of Namie's music in the way it does Ayu's, Usher or Nicki Minaj's. As many artists do, they deviate from what they started out doing for credibility, only to revert back to what made them big in the first place. It's a journey many artists have made, and Namie makes it here. The transition isn't seamless however, and it's wonkily made across this album.
Uncontrolled feels like two albums smashed together. One half of the album sounds wholly superior to the other, and there are so few songs which sit in between this that it really does feel as though you are listening to two different albums. Or at the very least the fruits of two sets of songs recorded at entirely different times; which is more than likely what happened here given the space of time between "Break it", the release of "Go round / Yeah-oh" and the looks of the production credits for the songs.
The production of the album is split between the Nervo twins and Korean producer T-SK, with contributions from Norwegian producers Christian Fast, and long term Namie collaborator Nao'ymt. Shinichi Osawa, Verbal of M-Flo and a long term Namie collaborators Giant Swing help fill in the gaps. Namie always works with a select few producers on her albums whom she knows well, which is why her albums sound consistent. But Uncontrolled has stark divides throughout, causing the album to sound patchy in places, and ruining its flow. The track listing is as good as it could be. But revising it and recording a few extra songs to help gel the whole album together would not have gone amiss here.
The songs which come from the Western posse are the most polished sounding songs in terms of production and mixing. They sound exceptionally clean, current, and are in fact the albums' strongest songs. Where-as Nao'ymt's productions sound slightly dated and feature muddy mixing which causes the music, Namie's vocals and everything to just bleed into a monotonous drone. Shinichi Osawa and the Giant swing duo do a great job of tethering the two sides of the album. Whether it were intentional is anybody's guess. But they do a solid job of marrying the Namie who wishes she were an American pop act, and the Namie who solidified her pop to urban crossover 7 years ago.
The Western posse bring the hotness with every song and drag Namie through the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s harder than Avex and Patricia Field did with a ho 4 years ago. "In the spotlight (Tokyo)" does rave. "Go round ('n round 'n round)" and "Sit! Stay! Wait! Down!" do 80s electro pop. "Hot girls" titters on a Rick James flavour of funk. And album stand out "Singing 'Yeah-oh'" takes dance and runs with it in knee high stiletto boots. Namie started out doing pop and then abandoned is spectacularly for R&B. So for her to come full circle with it again is a welcomed return. You almost forget she went through an urban phase for 5 albums, with this being the only album in years not to feature heavy amounts of R&B. In fact, it features only one song you could class as such, and it's as dry as melba toast.
Nao'ymt's contributions in comparison to the rest of Uncontrolled sound like Play leftovers. "Fight together" is a nice song, but it comes 3 albums too late. This would have fit perfectly on Queen of hip-pop. But here it feels out of place. The cuteness of the verses and chorus goes against every other song on the album and the contrast is not a positive one. "Break it" was never that strong a song to begin with, but it truly suffers here. For the album version he gives the song a re-working by dialling back on the rock elements, hamming up the generic dance beats and ruins it in the process. The original version of "Break it" was much, much better.
Shinichi and Verbal's contribution "Naked" is brilliant. It's cold, hot and filthy. This is the one song which tries for dear life to hold the 2 sides of the album together. It buckles. Not by fault of the song, but because it's the only song on the album which tries as hard as it does. "Naked" is the song where Namie truly sings. She gives sass, a couple of notes here and there and also da Engrish. There's also that bad ass music video where Namie snatched Beyoncé's flag from "Run the world (Girls)". "Sit! Stay! Wait! Down!" (aka the dog song) was a song I hated at first. But after having it drilled into my skull after watching Watashi ga renai dekinai riyuu I began to like it. And much like "Naked", it sits nicely in between Nao'ymt's outdated contributions and what the Western team brought to the table.
A strong subject for address is Namie's decision to sing over 50% of the album in Engrish. Namie has always been the trailblazer when it comes to bringing Western sounds into the world of J-Pop. She wasn't always given a great deal of credit for it, as it seemed like a fad, and some of her hood attempts on Genius 2000 and Break the rules were borderline ridiculous. But she's found a niche now, something which was solidified with Queen of Hip-Pop and truly honed with Play. Namie continues to push these boundaries by going one better and not only abandoning R&B (as every R&B artist pretty much has) but recording over half of her album in Engrish. YOUR FAVE COULD NEVER. I make fun of Namie's Engrish, but I really like how she sounds in it. She sounds more like herself singing in Engrish than Hikaru Utada did on Exodus and BoA did for her auto tuned English flop. For Namie to do such a thing is incredibly ambitious and shows bravery. Not only is English not her first language, but she's releasing this album as a Japanese studio recording and will have to perform these songs live on tour. And it's not like she's had much practice running through them on live television. (Lazy bitch).
Uncontrolled turned out to be a much better album than the earlier singles led me to believe it would be. But there is such a disparity between the earlier material and the later releases, that there is no escaping that Uncontrolled sounds divided. This said, Uncontrolled is still a more consistent album than Kumi Koda or Ayumi Hamasaki have managed to pull together over the past 2 years. Namie also manages to show a level of growth and evolution in her sound that few of her Avex peers have managed to show, and this is where the album really comes through. But there is a lack of warmth with this album. Namie has never been the most engaging of performers on the mic, and her delivery has always been cold. But the flecks of playfulness we got treated to on Play and the wholesomeness of Past < Future, they're just not here. And despite the bravery of Namie embracing pop once again, singing in Engrish and giving what is still a wholly decent release, a part of me wonders if she still truly cares any more.
Album highlights:
■ In the spotlight (Tokyo)
■ Naked 🔥
■ Let's go 🏆 J's fave
■ Singing 'Yeah-oh'
■ Only you
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