Album Review
Title:  THIS IZ THE JAPANESE KABUKI ROCK
Artist:  Miyavi
Release date:  February 20, 2007
www.o-re-sa-ma.com/    

      Once you get past the ridiculous title, Miyavi's new album with the Kavki boys is not half bad.  It's also not half good.  All of Miyavi's power, passion and craziness is lost in this melding of watery rap and pseudo rock.  Where Aerosmith and Run DMC succeeded, Miyavi fails. 

     "JPN PRIDE" and "21st Century Tokyo Blues" gives you the basic idea of what you're getting into.  It's alot of record scratching and yah yah's in ye olde hip hop fashion.  It's  got a really boring drum track that's too prominent and some interesting wailing guitar stuff that isn't prominent enough.  "hi no hikari sae todokanai basho" gives you the barest taste of how much this album could have rocked and you wonder if it was mostly because of Sugizo's featured appearance.  Halfway into what you think is a sappy ballad Miyavi lets loose and cuts through the crap, nixing the hip hop and just rockin' out.  It's just a tease though, because he falls right back into the hip hop yo's and yah's for the rest of the album. 

     The spotty English and thrown together feel of this album undermines the casual elegance of previous releases.  THIS IZ THE JAPANESE KABUKI ROCK is not rockin'.

Track List

 1. JPN PRIDE

 2. 21st Century Tokyo Blues

 3. kabuki danshi - KAVKI BOIZ -

 4. BOOM-HAH-BOOM-HAH-HAH

 5. Memories of Bushido

 6. NOWHEREGOD

 7. hi no hikari sae todokanai kono basho de (featuring SUGIZO)

 8. sakihokoru hana no you ni - Neo

 9. Subarashiki kana, kono sekai

10. Tsurezure naru hibi naredo

11. Thankx Givin' Day