Omg, BoA is joining a lot of other Asian superstars - like Jackie Chan, Rain - onto making the move to debuting in the U.S. She revealed this in a recent interview named with her initials BoA - Best of Asia, Bring on America. I dunno, I personally the old pop style BoA, and she used to be my favourite Japanese artist, when I first saw her perform Double. I guess as people mature more, their music changes as well.

After watching these two previews - I think I would buy her American album if it happens to be here when I'm still in the U.S. It's supposed to be out 7th October, and album coming out later in the year. I personally love her ballads though. :) But yeah, be the judge yourself, and see whether or not it's your style of music:





Videos, news and image source from:

• http://omgasians.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/boa-eat-you-up-preview-best-of-asia-bring-on-america/ and
  
• http://www.boajjang.com/

OMG! The PV to the next ayaka X Kobukuro collab is on youtube already. The single won't be released til end of Sept though.... =(

As you should have realised already, I am a huge ayaka fan. Within a month of her album release, ayaka has been working with Kobukuro to produce their second collaboration single, "あなたと” (anata to - I believe it means 'with you'). It is used for the latest Nissan Cube ad, like this one:



Some people find the deers cute, others reckon they're just plain scary. Either way, it's a nice tune, can't wait to here what the full release sounds like! You can listen to more of it here, but there are some commentary in the background:



The previous collaboration WINDING ROAD was also an ad for the Cube too. This song really popular, and was the highest selling single for ayaka! Here is a clip of the live performance:

For those of you who don't listen much to J-Pop or any other kind of Japanese music, you may not get the title of this post. But yeah, my copy of ayaka's latest album, "Sing to the Sky" arrived today. It was released in Japan last Thursday (26th of July). I was quietly surprised at how quick it did arrive - was expecting it to be for 2 weeks.

So why ayaka? Once you have heard this girl's voice, you know that she's good. Although her voice can be a bit deep for a girl, the power and emotion she uses to do so is empowering (I know such a bad word, but my vocab sucks atm xD). In my opinion, an artist's recordings of their songs don't do them justice; you only know how good they are depending on their live performance.

This song "I believe" was her debut song, and the first song I heard of hers:



As you can see, she's something really different, and should be pretty popular in the future! Without further ado, here are some pics of the new album I bought. Here's the cover of "Sing to the sky", unopened:


And the back of it unopened:
The inside of the cover itself - as I bought the limited special edition that comes with a Live DVD, its one of those 2 disc cases. Here is the first side:

And the second side where the DVD is located:

Which cover do you prefer?

I like the first cd art more - dunno why the new one seems a bit plain...

I'd have to say I'd prefer the first one again on this

In terms of the music itself, overall I'd have to say I like the variety of songs that are in the album, but the first album has more "great" songs. I guess I can't really say until I've played some more of it! Tracklist at the end of the post.

To finish this post on ayaka, I leave you with a live performance of my number one favourite song of her's - Mikazuki:



The Tracklist:

1. POWER OF MUSIC
2. Ai wo Utaou (愛を歌おう; Let's Sing Love)
3. SKY
4. Jewelry day
5. Good Night Baby (グンナイベイビー)
6. For today
7. Why
8. Gold Star (ゴールドスター)
9. Mahoutsukai no Shiwaza (魔法使いのしわざ; The Magician's Deeds)
10. Te wo Tsunagou (手をつなごう; Let's Hold Hands)
11. Ai mo Uso mo Shinjitsu (愛も嘘も真実; Love, Lies and Truth)
12. CLAP & LOVE
13. Kimi ga Iru Kara (君がいるから; Because I Have You)
14. Okaeri (おかえり; Welcome Home)
15. Kon'ya mo Hoshi ni Dakarete (今夜も星に抱かれて; Wrapped in the Stars Tonight)
16. WINDING ROAD (ayaka x Kobukuro (絢香×コブクロ)) (bonus track)
17. I Believe (English ver.) (bonus track)

Credits to Vox for the tracklist