ORICON ROUNDUP

CHARTS:

Singles:

01 Hakanaku mo Towa no GALAXY UVERworld 118,852
02 Dream Fighter Perfume 70,873
03 Jyonetsu no Daisho / ESCAPE GIRL NEXT DOOR 22,117
04 Beautiful Days ARASHI 16,102
05 ”ShoukuGyou: Idol” Idoling!!! 14,670
06 Tsuretette Tsuretette DREAMS COME TRUE 14,419
07 17 Sai Ginkgo BOYZ 13,819
08 Ashita no Sora SPEED 12,926
09 Kitei no Tsurugi ALI PROJECT 12,054
10 ORION Mika Nakashima 11,787

Albums:

01 color NEWS 180,380
02 Unreal flumpool 110,832
03 Chinese Democracy Guns N' Roses 57,683
04 MY SHORT STORIES YUI 38,169
05 Personal Soundtracks Noriyuki Makihara 36,832

ORICON ROUNDUP

ALBUMS

Takeuchi Mariya's best album Expressions stormed to the top of the album's chart this week with incredible sales of over 350K. The popular singer who debuted back in the 70s as an idol, remained at the top of daily charts the whole week and was never threatened of being knocked off the top. Expressions, a 3CD+Karaoke CD compilation of Takeuchi's greatest hits, joins a number of other best of albums charting extremely well this year.

SINGLES



NEWS unsurprisingly debuted at no.1 on the Singles Chart this week, continuing their run of 10 straight no.1 singles since debut. The Johnnys' group scored just over 200K sales with Happy Birthday, their lowest first week yet, but still sold far in front of 2nd ranked Mizuki Nana.

HELLO! PROJECT / TNX



Morning Musume's Pepper Keibu stayed solid on the Singles Chart in their 2nd week, scoring a top 20 placing at no.19. Despite this relatively high rank, the single only managed to sell 4K, lower than a lot of their recent 2nd week sales. The single has now sold close to 43K in total.

CHARTS:

Singles:

01 Happy Birthday NEWS 201,304
02 Trickster Mizuki Nana 57,201
03 The Birthday ~Ti Amo~ EXILE 54,005
04 Aishuu no Mizuumi Hikawa Kiyoshi 51,063
05 Sai Ai KOH+ 43,217
06 Anata to ayaka x Kobukuro 27,428
07 Ashiato BAReeeeeeeeeeN 21,878
08 Natsu no Kakera Aqua Timez 18,286
09 Tegami ~Haikei Juugo no Kimi e~ Angela Aki 18,180
10 UNI-VERSE ASKA 16,009

19 Pepper Keibu Morning Musume 4,243

Albums:

01 Expressions Takeuchi Mariya 305,082
02 Dig Out Your Soul Oasis 69,696
03 12 Love Stories Dohzi-T 34,089
04 A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~ Hamasaki Ayumi 33,261
05 B'z The Best "ULTRA Treasure" B'z 27,733

REVIEWS: I've been a little under the weather the past few days so I'm not going to do reviews as long as usual unfortunately. What I will do though is give my usual little commentary and post audio of each song and you can make up your own minds. Feel free to leave a comment sharing your thoughts on the new releases this week :)

Happy Birthday NEWS

Happy Birthday is NEWS' 10th single and is an upbeatish style song. It sounds really similar to some other song I've heard before but I totally can't put my finger on it (it may be many songs). It's a nice track but nothing spectacular. I enjoy the rap style verses and the chorus is pretty decent. It's not really something that catches my interest though, I doubt I'll be returning for subsequent listens. I expect it to sell over 200K, those Johnnys' fangirls like anything :p

Rating: 6.5/10

Natsu no Kakera Aqua Timez

Aqua Timez FINALLY release their new single after the awesome Niji way back in May (oh wait, it only SEEMS like long ago). Either way this song kind of flips from the really upbeat Niji, to a more flowing, laid back style of song. Futoshi's vocals are an acquired taste I'm sure, though I quite enjoy their uniqueness. Unfortunately Natsu no Kakera stands in the shadow of Niji and isn't anywhere near a strong enough effort to live up to its predecessor. It's pretty forgettable.

Rating: 5.5/10

Trickster Mizuki Nana

Ok now this one has been a long wait. Nana-chan's first single since Febuary is the cool pop/rock track, Trickster. This song could have been all sorts of awesome but the chorus is nowhere near catchy or memorable enough for the style Mizuki is going for. The rest of the song is pretty much perfect, the verses are great, the bridge builds and is the high point of the song, but that chorus ... it doesn't have enough punch; The vocals seem to blend too much with the instrumental (as good as it is). I still like it but..

Rating: 7/10

Single of the Week

Sai Ai KOH+

The enchanting Shibasaki Kou teams up with Fukuyama Masaharu once again as the duo KOH+ for their Galileo franchise. The single is the theme for the upcoming film version of the popular drama, Yougisha X no Kenshin and is very different from their first collaboration KISS Shite.


Sai Ai goes back to Shibasaki's roots as she once again shows off why she is the Queen of ballads in Japan, her first since Prism. Fukuyama has arranged a really stripped back and beautiful song which showcases Shibasaki's unique vocals. The chorus is particularly nice and Kou sings with such raw emotion. The bridge was really unexpected for me and it changes the pace of the song quite well, helping it from being a bit bland. I'm not really a huge ballad fan but there is something about Shibasaki's voice that I just love so much. I pretty much adore anything she releases. Another album please Kou-chan! <3

Rating: 8.5/10