Category Archive

Artist: melody.
Album/Single: Sincerely
Release Date: January 21, 2004

1. All Night Long
melody.’s first album begins with a subpar opening track. It’s a decent album track (though it doesn’t do much staring off the album), sung completely in English (probably to have fans take notice of her American heritage). I’m not liking the flow of this song very much. It sounds to me that each section of the song was just shoved together. It starts off seemingly with a heavy R&B sound to it, and when it moves into the chorus it sounds like it should be more of a dance tune, making the choruses sound slower and laboured than they need to be.

2. Dreamin’ Away -English Version-
We have yet to hear melody. get into some Japanese material, as this obviously is sung in English once again. The Japanese version was used as one of her A-sides, but I find that she sings better in this version, and she also sounds much more comfortable singing this in English. This contrasts her previous track as her singles always carried more of a pop trait. I remember thinking her sound was going to be namely R&B-influenced pop when I heard her collaboration with m-flo, so initially I was scared off. However, if you like bubblegum pop, this song really does the trick.

3. Angel Angel Angel
I don’t really understand the point of having a conversation right at the beginning. I think it adds on 30 seconds I could have done without, which actually usually prompts me to skip right over it. While we’ve all been patiently waiting to hear her sing in Japanese, we’re graced with that now. This is a nice laidback song, but it can get kind of boring. Her singing here is actually really weak and shaky. It’s quite obvious that her vocals were cleaned up in this song, and even then you can hear some moments where her singing was rough. I really like the guitar accompaniment, but other than that, there isn’t anything in this song that is interesting.

4. Crystal Love
I really like how the beginning of this sounds. The acoustic guitar balances the heavy programming well. The verses aren’t bad either. It really sets itself up to be a catchy song. I don’t like the choruses as much, but it’s probably because melody.’s singing is evidently weak there and it shows. She’s not particularly in tune either. I like her light, pure voice, but there’s a fine line between pure and toneless. That being said, this is still a solid pop song, and really catchy and the bridge is just great.

5. Don’t Let Go
The first ballad of the album starts off well, and the melody is lovely. melody. doesn’t have much tone once again, and if she had sung with more tone it would have turned out much nicer. I don’t really like the generic programmed beat that kicks in after she sings one round of the verse. I think the melody line of this song was nice and strong enough to carry it, but the accompaniment just doesn’t seem to have the same quality to it. The minute the beat came in, I just tuned out, which is kind of unfortunate because it really is a nice ballad.

6. flower bed
Once again, I am annoyed with the conversation at the beginning, plus, this time it’s actually making her sound incredibly ditzy. Again, it’s 30 seconds too long, and I usually do skip right over it. The song isn’t all that great either, so having to wait for a subpar song isn’t worth it. melody. has no power singing this song, and it obviously requires a lot more energy than she’s putting into it.

7. Simple As That
Yes, I recognize that melody.’s vocals here are as shaky as ever, but this song is just awesome. It’s similar to “flower bed”, but infinitely better. Although it isn’t groundbreaking, it’s light, fun, cute, the melody is much more catchy and the programming was done much better. For a generic song, this is pretty good. I especially like how there was more emphasis on the harmonies during the verses.

8. Just Be A Man
Something a little edgier for anybody looking to stray from the bubblegum pop for a bit. I feel that melody. lacks the attitude for this song. She’s singing this song way too sweetly. She’s a little more aggressive during the second verse, but ironically, the lyrics are asking for something a little nicer. Vocally, melody. is doing a better job with this song than the previous tracks, with the exception of the end of the song. The song is amusing, but it gets tiring quite easily.

9. Over the Rainbow
I really don’t like melody.’s take on this song. If you’re wondering, this is the same song you’re thinking of. Anyway, this is more of a dance remix of the original song, and I really don’t ever want to hear this song as a dance remix. It’s takes away from the beauty it carried as a ballad. On the bright side, melody. is singing with more energy and a lot more musically than her own songs, but the dance beat was enough for me to cast this version off.

10. Soon You’ll Be Alone
I hate the opening and choruses to this song. Honestly, the song is fit for a 14 year-old wannabe diva to sing. melody. was 22 when she debuted. I’m sure she could have come up with something better to record. It’s just another song with a lot of attitude, and though she has more attitude with this song than “Just Be A Man”, the former was musically, much better. The melody for this song is really awkward, and like “Just Be A Man”, it easily becomes boring to listening to.

11. Sincerely
This is the song that brings dignity to this album. It’s a gorgeous ballad, and melody. is singing with more tone than she usually has and despite her not always being in tune, she has a very musical approach on this song. I adore the piano accompaniment of this song. It does have light programming to it, but it works well with the song and doesn’t draw attention from the highlights of the song. The choruses make you want to sing along as well. Simply beautiful.

12. You Want This~24seven~
After “Sincerely”, there is nothing she could do to top that album in this album. This isn’t anything she hasn’t covered so far. A song with attitude, and she’s being a sweetheart again. It gets tiring and boring to listen to, with dry, boring programming for the accompaniment. There is one good thing about this song, it’s better than “Soon You’ll Be Alone”.

13. Precious Baby
The latter half of melody.’s album has more R&B influenced sounds to it, and this is no different. It does take her out of the aggressive-style songs though and it’s more lyrical. Unfortunately, it’s not very exciting, and her singing is weak again, particularly when she’s singing the lower notes that’s completely out of her range during the verses.

14. Once Again
What better way to end off this album than with a generic ballad? I would have preferred it if she ended with “Sincerely” instead. This ballad does have a nice melody line to it, and it really isn’t all that bad, but it’s not the best choice for closing the album. A song like this would do well somewhere in the middle of the album, but tempts me to end the album sooner when it’s the last track.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Sincerely
With half of the songs on this album sung completely in English, this could have easily become a US debut. For melody. being fluent in English, it wouldn’t be hard to record the Japanese tracks in full English anyway. It really does set her apart from a lot of other artists at the time, and it’s good for her to start off with ground she’s more familiar with. Majority of the songs on this debut album are completely bland, generic and/or boring, some are just terrible, with the occassional spectacular song. I won’t say that it was a terrible debut album, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. If you really like bubblegum pop, I say, go for it, otherwise, steer clear of this album.

Artist: Paris Hilton
Album: Paris
Released: August 22, 2006

1. Turn it Up
While I like the little string stuff (sounds like something a cartoon would use for a fluttering butterfly), the rest of the song is barely listenable. It consists of Paris Hilton grunting, talking, moaning, making weird noises…. yeah. Very twitch worthy. Paris gets points for actually getting me to listen to the whole song though; it does have elements of catchiness, just the rest of the elements are slightly hurl-worthy.

2. Fighting Over Me
The piano stuff is cute :O! Oh Paris, please stop talking. I don’t want to hear you talking about people fightin’ over you. The piano stuff is cute though. And the string. Aside from the cute piano bits, the song itself is very dull especially with the rap bit.

3. Stars are Blind
Oh Paris, what is a key for you? :O Anyways, this is a cute song (ignoring Paris). I like the reggae sound in this song. It’s a bit monotone as well in terms of her umm “singing” but the accompaniment is definitely cute. Boring song though.

4. I Want You
There’s no connection here between the verses and chorus. I don’t even know what key this is supposed to be in. And it’s boring.

5. Jealousy
Dull song. Nice string stuff in the background. My general thoughts when I was listening to this song: … when will this end?

6. Heartbeat
This isn’t that bad of a song of a song; there’s actually a feasible melody on this song. It’s a bit lacking in terms of the accompaniment though, but what it has isn’t bad at all.

7. Nothing in this World
Again, not a bad song either. A bit of a typical pop song, and Paris’ vocals are still very monotone. The song itself again has a melody working through this song that flows.

8. Screwed
I like the guitar stuff in this. Again, lacking a lot of energy in the vocals, but the guitar adds a nice pulse to the overall sound of this song.

9. Not Leaving Without You
Paris’ attempt at an upbeat dance-pop song fails. She doesn’t have the energy for these songs (you can be bad at singing but still pull off the energy needed for dance songs). Her delivery is still very bored and emotionless.

10. Turn You On
… snore. Next.

11. Do you think I’m Sexy
snore part 2. (I’m not repeating myself with all the details I said already previously.)

Overall-
Favourite track: Heartbeat?
I remember the first time I listened to this album, I stopped at the fifth track because I couldn’t stand listening to the rest of the album (I had a headache at that point, and I felt nauseous just listening to the album). Well… great, they put all the horrid songs near the beginning, and the okay songs in the middle. In general, Paris’ emotionless vocals just suck out any energy the instruments might have put into the songs. This whole album was just snore worthy, and at some point cringe worthy. Not worth my time.