Featured Review #53: MAAKIII - 兎に角、ジェネシス!!!!!

[beni 2149]

Artist: MAAKIII Album: 兎に角、ジェネシス!!!!! (Tonikaku, Genesis!!!!!) 1. TONIKAKU. JENESIS!!!!! -KAIMAKU- (兎に角、ジェネシス!!!!! -開幕-) 2. ×××× 3. TRICK STAR 4. KOKONI OIDEYO (ココニオイデヨ) 5. CHO KANKAKUTEKI CHIKAKU -ZERO MIX-(超感覚的知覚 ーZERO mixー ) 6. kIRA◯kIRA 7. DASH!DASSHUTSU!DASSHU! (DASH!脱出!奪取!) 8. IIJAN! (いーじゃんっ! ) 9. SPAAAAAAAAAARK!!! 10. SNOWBALL EARTH (スノーボールアース) 11. TONIKAKU. JENESIS!!!!! -HEIMAKU- (兎に角、ジェネシス!!!!! -閉幕- )

Rating: | HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR's ex-vocalist isn't so high and mighty anymore

 

Mākii was the female vocalist of popular rock band HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, famous for hit songs such as '一輪の花 (Ichirin no Hana)', 'RUN☆RUN☆RUN' and 'OVER'. They disbanded in 2008, citing "musical differences" and "future opportunities" as their reasons. With Mākii returning as solo artist 'MAAKIII' after five years, this must've been a foreshadowing as to what we'd be getting from her once she came back. An SE with the same name opens 兎に角、ジェネシス!!!!! with a bang. Marching footsteps, clapping and glass breaking against an electro beat do sound random, and even more so with MAAKIII's 'do, do, do, do's,' shrieks, and repeated lyrics. For how much of a hot mess it is, it does its job in getting you fired up. You can hear what direction MAAKIII was going for from just this. The closing track is titled almost exactly like the opening: '兎に角、ジェネシス!!!!! −開幕−.' I was hoping it would be different since it was twelve seconds longer but alas, the closing song is pretty much the same SE. So much for creativity! It's a neat loop if you ever want to put this record on repeat, or just the sentiment alone is pretty interesting, but still, it can't be helped how cheap of a move that comes off as.

The songs are hit and miss and the track placements come under the microscope for its ups and downs. Three out of four of the singles hit a wall, sounding like the ‘been there, done that’ J-pop jam. The first culprit is ‘ﾗﾗﾗﾗ.’ MAAKIII does well in carrying the cute charm from the opening, and while it’s fitting and engaging with a climatic build up to the chorus, it’s the chorus which turns it all mediocre. Equipped with the most generic sound thanks to its typical Engrish lyrics and straightforward structure, it fails to give the song that necessary shine. However, it’s still enjoyable without suffering unlike ‘SPAAAAAAAAAARK!!!’, which is an embarrassment. This attempts to sound like a summer break hit, and is slaughtered to death by the party goers instead. The beat is obnoxiously loud with overused autotune and goes absolutely nowhere but continuously grates on your bleeding ears. 'スノーボールアース' is the saving grace. It's got that KOKIA sound in the verses thanks to its spacey sound, and its chorus finally packs the punches most of the tracks needed. While her vocals may need work in some places, the music is exactly what MAAKIII needs to stick to. 'ココニオイデヨ' can almost beat ‘SPAAAAAAAAAARK!!!’ with how much it’s in your face. I'm one for autotune, but when it's too much even I admit it wasn't a good move. I appreciate how well this track would do live because of its high energy, but the chorus is far too tiresome.  It had a promising start, but with so much autotune, it comes off as lazy and not as exciting as it tries to sound. Even a whistle can be heard in it, literally calling for a time out.

The songs that exhibit her new sound best are ‘トリックスター’ , ‘いーじゃんっ!’ and ‘kIRA◯kIRA’. The latter is the strongest and hardest track on the album, with a band playing much like how the best all-girl bands sound. The effect over MAAKIII's vocals exaggerates this all-girl group sound more so to give it a rough edge, and then synths come back in to greet the most melodic and fluid chorus. MAAKIII even treats us with a badass shout at the end, something we can all die happy for. ‘いーじゃんっ!’ acts as a compliment to it. This one can be known as the poppy 'kIRA◯kIRA’, and while it sounds like a downgrade of it, it’s still a very successful pop track. The diamond is the rough is definitely ‘トリックスター’. The progression of the track is gorgeous. It sounds epic, with fairy-tale like imagery. Piano dominates throughout, a feature non-existent for the most part in this album, and it really stands out for this. MAAKIII's vocals here are light and fluffy, and overall, it's memorable without trying too hard.

The worst of the batch are '超感覚的知覚 ーZERO mixー’ and 'DASH!脱出!奪取!': All filler and dead weight. '超感覚的知覚 ーZERO mixー' might as well not have been included. It's exactly what I feared the album would be. The chorus lacks so much enthusiasm it flatlines. A more valid attempt at the dancefloor sound, but it's one that'll get me moving to evacuate the room ASAP. 'DASH!脱出!奪取!' is the EDM number which is hungry for the listener to get their groove on, and surprisingly, this autotuned, electro filled track manages to get some taps. It’s definitely the most repetitive song but it's the only electronic filled one which isn’t unpleasant. Sure, autotune is poured all over the track but this time it works. MAAKIII sounds like a cyborg here, and clearly the autotune is even more overused since it's so heavy, but the music and the voice finally have a balance which just collided together in others. It’s a more admirable attempt, albeit it's still not enough and becomes dead weight by the end.

I really was expecting a miserable failure of an album. As only a few songs lived up to my expectation of how bad this was going to be, - and let's not forget the rather lame excuse to have the opening and closing track almost exactly mirror one another! - I'm pretty happy with the result. There's a lot of improvement needed, but surely this is the kind of music Mākii wanted to do from the beginning, so good on her.

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[Zeus 7997]

I wasn't expecting much but still found room for disappointment. I'm a fan of HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR but I won't say that she should have necessarily stuck with them. By the time she left, the band was a sinking ship and everyone on board was in denial.

This is no better though. I listened to SPAAAAAAAAAARK!!! and 'スノーボールアース' and was not pleased. Unimpressive pop music all the way around that's starting to fade from my memory and the video isn't even done yet. SPAAAAAAAAAARK!!! lacks focus and the autotune is completely unnecessary since MAAKIII is naturally talented at singing. All the autotune does is remove the one good thing from the music. You praised 'スノーボールアース' for being the kind of sound MAAKIII needs to stick to but the PV failed to impress me. If this is the "saving grace", I don't think her new album is for me. I also feel like she's restraining herself a bit while singing but on the upside she also sounds way more natural. I wonder how often she was forcing herself in H&MC to fit with the aggressive music they played.

 

tl;dr pop music can be interesting without being incredibly boring. Since she's married to a pretty famous producer, the two of them should put their heads together and come up with something better than this. Studying HOT LIMIT is a good place to start. This alone is better than anything on that album by a country mile.

 

Anyway, great review beni!

[CAT5 9075]

I am kind of the opposite of Zeus. I've never liked HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR and while I feel indifferent towards this kind of pop music, this style seems to be fitting for her.

[Ito 2438]

HaMC never really was my thing, it always fell on the "too poppy" side of pop rock. While Mākii's new music doesn't really light a fire under me, I am with Cat where I think it feels a bit more fitting. 'スノーボールアース' was pretty bland and I don't enjoy the sound of autotune, so SPAAAAAAAAAARK!!! is out for me, but I still manage to find this stuff more interesting than what HaMC was doing. All of that said, I doubt I would ever spin either of those tracks again.