Album Review: Kumi Koda - Heart

Heart is Kumi Koda’s 18th studio album (I’m counting angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...] as an album, I don’t give a fuck) following a string of what have been doo-doo doggy bags. I had no expectations for this album, as I choose not to for any Kumi Koda album. Because, well…*Gestures* Look at the material. But Heart has managed to buck a trend in the Devil’s year of 2022.

A massive problem (amongst others) with Kumi Koda’s music, is that she had no real sound, or suite of sounds. She had a whole bunch of sounds. A repertoire of which got bigger, with nothing ever being let go, consolidated or refined. Heart manages to do what I thought was unthinkable for Kumi at this point in her career, and that is condense her gaggle of sounds down. Heart may not feature all of the songs of the styles and sounds that you’d expect from a Kumi Koda album, but it does take a couple of them and refine them, which makes for far more quality listening experience than what can be said for many of Kumi’s over the past 10 years.

A bitch finally got rid of the kitchen sink.

Heart as it stands isn’t a big departure for Kumi. It touches on a couple of the sounds which have featured on every album that Kumi has released since Bon Voyage. The results on said album and those which came after were messy. But Kumi tidies her shit up on Heart, and finally takes her sound a bit more seriously. Kumi is still taking other people’s songs and sounds and recreating them to an extent. But it feels less obvious and egregious than it did earlier on in her career. So many other acts right now around the world are doing the sounds you will hear on this album, versus the early 2000s, when the reference pools seemed smaller, music wasn’t being looked at on the global scale it is now, and thereby who was copying who’s song felt far more specific once upon a time. Also, the Internet. This is not to say that listeners won’t draw comparisons to what they hear on Heart. Especially if the listener also has their ear bent to K-pop.

The influence of K-pop was clear and in abundance on Kumi’s 2018 albums AND and DNA, and Kumi’s never let it gs “Bow Wow” and “Sure Shot” which are just damn K-pop songs. And other times in short bursts, such as during the switch at the end of “Atlas” where Kumi sounds like she’s auditioning to be a member of 2NE1. But also in subtle ways, such as the Tropipop vibes of “Good Time”, where Kumi and AI actually sound really good together, and nowhere near as aggravating as the 3 minute foghorns that I was expecting. And the slinky R&B sounds of “4 More”, which has been a go to sound for the likes of SM Entertainment since around 2014. What Heart gets right with its K-pop-isms that the likes of AND, DNA, re(CORD) and also angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...] got wrong, is that it folds K-pop trends into sounds Kumi has already done before, as opposed to the songs sounding like K-pop pastiches. In true Kumi fashion it took her longer than it should have to get her shit right, despite Namie Amuro doing it hella right back in 2013 with “Supernatural Love”. K-pop vibes actually suits Kumi. And I say that if she loves that so much, she should just go full hog with it, fly to Seoul and pop her pussy on Music Bank. She has the look and the energy to keep up with the K-pop girls. It is somewhat weird that Kumi has chosen to ride the K-pop bandwagon though, when the K-pop bandwagon is just every dance, pop, R&B and UK radio bandwagon thrown into a skip. But it is what it is. And it’s on brand for Kumi. Her thing has always been just trying to do what everybody else seems to be doing, and not doing it all that well. But she actually comes up smelling roses this time.

Kumi Koda | Heart

Kumi approaching Heart almost like a K-pop lite project reveals why Heart as an album actually works more than half of the albums in Kumi’s discography. And that’s that it feels like a capsule project of sorts. Kumi always does good when there are parameters and some form of concept; which is why her cover albums to this day are her best albums. Whether it was a conscious or subconscious decision, Heart sounds like a capsule project and is pretty good as a result. If Kumi approaches all of her albums in this manner, then maybe her music will get better, and her albums will start to stand far better as bodies of work.

‘But what about AND, DNA, W Face and angeL + monsteR? Were they not concept albums tho?’ I hear some of you ask. Kumi thought those were concept albums, but they weren’t. All she and Avex were doing was trying to play games by having two albums go into the charts simultaneously. And musically, all Kumi did was take her foolishness and spread it across two discs. There was nothing truly conceptual about any of these albums, despite the branding insinuating that there was. And putting all of the uptempos on one album, and ballads on another is not a concept, unless there is a clear theme which goes across each.

Kumi having a thing for K-pop is not a surprise, given her track record with responding to trends. And whilst it was easy to shit on her previously when she was trying to live her Inkigayo fantasy with K-pop knock-offs, she actually delivers goods this time around. It’s a shame that she didn’t have guest features from a K-pop act who’s debuted in Japan. It wouldn’t even seem weird or like Kumi Koda is just trying to hitch her wig and wine bottle onto a bandwagon, because she had already done songs with BoA and TVXQ long before K-pop went global. And Kumi can say she has the honour of having TVXQ on a song, back when it had all of the original members, before Jaejoong, Micky and Junsu served Lee Soo-man his papers.

Kumi Koda | Heart

It’s somewhat of a relief to have a Kumi Koda album where her voice sounds consistently good. Kumi Koda has a far better voice than a lot of her music would have you believe. To get a real sense of her vocal and delivery capability, listen to Eternity ~Love & Songs~, and watch a lot of the live performances she did around that time. Kumi has such a great tone, which is pretty similar to Akina Nakamori. It’s pretty low set, is different and unorthodox compared to where many J-pop singers' voices tend to sit. But over the years, Kumi has sounded like feet. Her thing seemed to be ‘Well, the song is loud and banging, so lemme just screech and holler’. Bitch, no. Thankfully Kumi Koda has seen the light and the error of her ways. At least for now. Kumi’s always been great when it comes to bringing the right energy to songs. It’s the one thing which has always been consistent with her, and this is what really shows on Heart. Heart doesn’t do much in the way of showcasing Kumi’s vocal range, but it does show off the range of her delivery, and how she’s able to really embody each song. Whether she’s being boisterous on “Sure Shot”, in a state of pleading on “Anemone”, or seductive on “Red” - Kumi sells each song. BUT. There is one song where Kumi fucks up, and the wine bottle breaks. And it’s “100 no Kodoku-tachi e”. Kumi was trying to go for emotion. It sounds like she was crying as she was recording the song, and chose to keep all of those takes, which I get creatively if you’re trying to sell the emotion of a song. But the whole thing just sounds too rough and too ham-fisted, which takes me out of the emotion of the song. The whole time I’m listening to “100 no Kodoku-tachi e”, I’m wishing that Kumi had just sung the song nicely, with composure and clarity. I get what Kumi was going for, but it just doesn’t work here. Ballads are usually the songs on Kumi albums where you can be rest assured that she’s going to sound good. Not here bitch. Also, “100 no Kodoku-tachi e” creates a very…VERY notable dip in the album.

Heart is a pretty consistent and levelled affair, if a little front loaded. But once not “1000 Words” hits, the energy just plummets. “100 no Kodoku-tachi e” effectively cuts the album in half. Not “1000 Words” is not an awful song. But Heart would have been better off without it. Ballads were once the backbone of Japanese pop music for a very long time. If you wanted a top 10 Oricon chart hit, or you wanted that J-drama or J-movie money, you’d put on your fur coat, go out into that snow with your DoCoMo flip phone, and you would release a ballad. But the J-ballad currency isn’t what it was. A ballad will not make or break an album. Heart shoulda left “100 no Kodoku-tachi e” off. The likes of “To Be Free” would have sufficed as the albums’ slow, heartfelt song, which manages to still sonically tie into the other songs, without sacrificing the energy.

The album cuts on Heart are really strong, and are far better representations of the album itself than any of the singles. I am absolutely floored at “Red” not being a single. Kumi coulda put on a red jíbaro dress and given us West Side Pussy in a music video. “Good Time” with AI also would have made a cute single, and given us camaraderie between two women. Something we don’t see enough of in J-pop music collaborations in front of the boards and camera on songs these days.

Kumi Koda | Heart

Heart is a decent album. In fact, it's one of Kumi Koda’s best albums in quite some time. It’s generally consistent and flows well. Even “Doo-Bee-Doo-Bop” manages to be less of an offense here as part of the album than it was as a single, although I would have sequenced it at the top of the album as opposed to the end. But it’s difficult to look at this album in isolation and not ask why it took Kumi Koda this long to deliver something of this quality. I get that Kumi was chasing Ayu’s level of stardom and sizable discography from the start. But she went all the way off a cliff with Ayu like a bitch was named Thelma. Ayu’s music suffered as a result of releasing so much of it in such quick succession, and it’s bonkers that Kumi didn’t see this, or did see it, and chose not to care. Had Kumi Koda actually slowed her ass down and taken her time, she woulda been able to have worked on her craft and her sound. And even within Kumi’s constant release schedule, had she simply held off releasing angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...], she could have used songs from those recording sessions to have made Heart better. Because as good as this album is, there are still a couple of songs that it could have done without, which “Run” and “No One” could have replaced to have made the album even better.

I’m not going to go into the branding of this album, because it doesn’t impact the music in any way. But visuals are a big part of Kumi Koda’s identity. And I do think the whole black and white, I Am… Sasha Fierce look of the album cover doesn’t match with the sound. Heart is a wholly uptempo, cute, fun album. But the cover would have you believe it’s going to be something ballad heavy. Kumi looks gorgeous on the album cover and in the inlay. But tonally none of it matches the music. Even when Kumi Koda gets something right, she manages to find a way to create a disconnect.

Kumi Koda | Heart

Heart is a good album. And not just because the bar is so low with Kumi. It’s actually good. And the production is incredibly slick and tight throughout. However. (Because, of course there would be a ‘however’). As good as Heart is, it isn’t memorable as a package, and neither are any of the songs. There’s nothing on Heart which really jumps out as something which could stand alongside, or even in the vicinity, of some of the songs that Kumi is best known for. Matching the impact of earlier songs as an artist who has released so much music and been around so long is difficult. And I know I could say this about anybody. But even so, there are artists who manage to release quality music a decade or even two decades into their career, which manages to feel fresh and redefining in a sense. And whilst some of these songs may not be comparable to their biggest hits, they are still memorable and represent a new standard for the artist. Nothing on Heart really gives that. It’s a pleasant album, and it’s something that Kumi and her fans should be pleased with. But both Kumi and her fans should still be hungry for more. Kumi is far more talented than her music as of late would have you believe. And as good as Heart is, Kumi is also far more talented than what she gives here. Heart isn’t just a reminder that Kumi can still put out good songs. It’s a reminder that she could put out great songs if she just tried a little harder, gave a little more, and had a better team around her who cared about making good songs, and what they mean as part of her discography and her legacy - because this is the stage of her career that Kumi is at now.

Kumi needs to get better at editing herself, and learning to let certain things go. Because had Kumi done as such with Heart, it would have been a much better album. And if she had done this earlier in her career, then we would have got an album as good as Heart far sooner. I guess it’s better late than never. But the test will be seeing if Kumi Koda actually learns from Heart and uses this album to build a section of her discography which feels less forgettable and disposable than what it’s been for the past decade.

Verdict: Crack open a bottle of wine

Highlights:
▪ Atlas 🔥
▪ Good Time
▪ Anemone 🏆
▪ Red 🔥
▪ 4 More