It was evident from MiChi's second major studio release Therapy and the culling of material she had left off of that album that her sound was pulling away from dance music into a more rock tinged and acoustic soundscape. Therefore I can't be shocked that MiChi fully embraces it with her third solo album Eyes wide open. Guitars and Ukulele's run rampant on this album and hard hitting dance beats are eschewed completely. The album is much more easier on the ears than her amazing debut Up to you was, but it comes as the risk of leaving absolutely no imprint and being completely forgettable.
"Saturday night" acts as a nice introduction to MiChi for those who hadn't heard anything of hers before. Embracing the return of disco which is littering the charts worldwide and also being sung entirely in English. It is a solid representation of her in general. My take out from the song and also this album is that MiChi wants people to see her in a brand new light and forget everything she had done prior. But the problem is with this new MiChi and her latest material is that it's making me look back and want to stay looking back to play what she had delivered back then, because boy did this woman deliver.
Eyes wide open is a much more sonically consistent album than Therapy. Where-as Therapy felt like a tug-of-war between the free spirited girl of angst she once was and the poised ambassador of love she was becoming, Eyes wide open has MiChi settle on a sound throughout the album and find her feet. Eyes wide open definitely makes me see Therapy in a new light and makes it more clear to me as to why MiChi decided to keep the likes of "Perfect world", "Sound of love" and "All about the girls ~Iijyanka party people~" off of it. She just doesn't want to be seen as the party girl. She wants to cycle around and feel the wind in her face, run through flowers. Pretty much do all that stuff Mariah did in the "Always be my baby" video. Swings on lakes, horses and all that shit.
Eyes wide open doesn't have a single terrible song on it, but it doesn't feature any particularly amazing songs neither. This is a problem for me when her major label debut was track-to-track wig snatching and her first new single of 2011 which was one of the best pop singles ever. Every single song on Up to you was a winner. Therapy retread some of these elements, but gave them unique twists which fit in with the new sound MiChi was going for, as evidenced on tracks such as "One" and "Light up". But Eyes wide open feels like MiChi's sound has been completely diluted to the point where her entire album sounds like 12 tracks of songs anybody else could have done. Some of the songs on this album also feel like subdue re-works of which fit in with her musical aesthetic as she sees it now, which to me appears to be 'boring'. "Saturday night" feels like like a classier and safer version of the club heavy "Jump on it". "Heartbeat" feels like a dialled down version of "Promise". "Journey" is a sunset road trip version of "One". Eyes wide open doesn't act as a great introduction to MiChi, because the excitement, the freshness and genre bending quality of her music she was so well known for is not evident here at all. This album is nice. There's nothing here to offend anybody or make them take a dislike to her. But there's nothing here to form a particularly strong opinion on her or become intrigued.
MiChi is going through an evolution in her sound and is trying to strip things away, which is admirable. I'm glad that she isn't just pumping out Up to you part 2's and part 3's and regurgitating the same old thing, which we know happens a lot in J-Pop. If a weak album here and there is the price to pay, then we just have to support her as fans and let her work it out. But at the same time I feel as though MiChi is peeling too far away from her signature sound to the point where some of her songs are sounding dangerously close to the Dr. Luke and Max Martin tripe radio pumps out every few months. A complete shame given that MiChi's sound was once incomparable and was heads, shoulders and siz air balloons above everything other hoes in pop were putting out. MiChi's Up to you wasn't just one of the best J-releases of 2009, it was one of the best Pop albums to drop PERIOD. As someone who was advocating the shit out of MiChi early on, it saddens me that there is no sign on this album of the girl who was breaking all of the musical rules and giving us sounds which would go on to be trends 2 years later. There is a glimpse of her in the album intro and "Saturday night", but that's all you get. When you listen to the output of producer Tomokazu Matsuzawa outside of his work with MiChi, it's so vividly varied that it makes you want to throw a cup of coffee in her face for pinning him down and having him do nothing but these strummy-ass songs.
Eyes wide open is a nice album. But it feels far too pedestrian for a girl like MiChi who is capable of so much more. My issue with this album isn't that it doesn't feature enough dance cuts. My issue is that MiChi as an artist who expressed herself so colourfully on her previous releases bleeds into shades of grey on this album and becomes an anybody. As a result of this, Eyes wide open becomes completely forgettable.
Album highlights:
■ Madness vol. 4
■ Just because
■ Hello
■ Journey ★ J's fave
■ Your life
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