Van.
December 10, 2008
1. Flower
2. Utopia
3.manacles
4. Brave
5. Yumeji
6. carry out
7. Senkou
8. message.
9. Tokyo Biyori
10. Refrain
11. Van.

Flower – 10/10

Flower is how a Jpop singer wants to handle rock. It’s fun, upbeat, inspirational, and has its own unique style to it. I love how the synth sounds are used, and their particular tone. The song also relies a lot on sound effects during the verses along with acoustic guitar. The electric guitar picks up towards the chorus. Then a fun guitar solo is added in the bridge and more climax is added by stopping the main instrumentals for a few lines. I don’t personally love the song but I’m having a hard time finding any major flaws! Tomiko’s voice sounds great.

 

Utopia – 9/10
Utopia is the most B-side sounding song on the album in my opinion. It reminds me of Kou Shibasaki’s songs, with this particular singing style, sound effects, and percussion/movement. Tomiko’s voice doesn’t sound as great here and she doesn’t get to show off much strength. I don’t like the chorus, which takes a very “cute” turn with the sparkly sounds. Fortunately, it’s able to hold my attention for quite a while (It has a fun bridge) and is probably better than most B-sides out there.

 

 

manacles – 10/10
I love the tone to which this song starts out. It sounds sort of like a secret agent song with the bass guitar. The verses continue with a similar melody, adding in a piano and synths. The song is able to build a lot of momentum, and the chorus is very well harmonized with all the instruments and sounds. Everything sounds great mixed togther, which is how a good song should sound. Tomiko’s voice sounds much stronger here than in Utopia. This song is very addicting and fun, and I really enjoy the whole instrumental.

 

 

Brave – 10/10
Brave is as epic inspirational as you can get. It begins with a flute, guitar, and piano playing in the background as Tomiko sings. The chorus gets much louder and electric guitars are added. I love the melody that she sings to and her vocals sound great especially when hitting some hard notes. Like manacles, the instruments and sounds blend together so well. After the first chorus, a drumbeat is added. I would call the bridge an interlude instead, because it is quite long and without any singing. Although the transitions aren’t as smooth as they could have been, Brave is still an amazing song and very unique.

 

 

Yumeji – 9.5/10
Yumeji is the only real ballad on the album. It begins slow, holding an electric guitar note vibrating in the background as piano enters. I think the mix of instrumentals are very interesting. There are synths with guitars with piano/violin. My first impression of the chorus is that I don’t love how Tomiko sings it, and I don’t love the melody either. She sounds very nasaly on the high notes. The second verse sounds much more unified instrumentally than the first. Yumeji for me is one of those rare songs where I enjoy the verses more than the chorus. For me, her voice sort of ruins it which is a shame because the instrumentals are gorgeous as the song goes on. I also see somewhat of an organization problem like I said before — I can’t really tell what sort of genre the song is supposed to be or what sort of ’sound’ she’s trying to get at here.

 

 

carry out – 9/10
Carry out opens with some really awesome Indian instruments which unfortunately don’t appear much in the song afterwards, and when they do, it sounds a little awkward. After this opening, a whole bunch of loud synths are added going back and forth over and over from a low to high note. The verse begins and Tomiko’s voice is very digitalized. The chorus doesn’t really fit the original tone of the song — starting sort of dark and exotic and becoming very upbeat and cute like a normal rock song. It switches back and forth between personas. Because of confusion problems like this, the song is down by .5, but it is still a good song.

 

 

Senkou – 10/10
Senkou is a very dark rock song starting out loud with electric guitars and adding in a piano melody that reminds me of “farewell” from her first album. The verse is relatively short, and opens up into the chorus which sounds very much like the opening. This is a well done rock song like Flower, though sad instead of happy. It gets a lot more serious in the second verse with some loud drums beating. The bridge adds a lot of synths and violins in the background which sound great. The ending of the song is very dramatic with a lot of noise from the electric guitar. I don’t love this but it’s just a part of many rock songs.

 

 

message. – 8.5/10
“This song was written by Tomiko herself but it’s similar to Tokyo Biyori and not very interesting. Just another typical pop rock song. I really liked the beginning with the acoustic guitars, but unfortunately the chorus wasn’t very exciting.”

 

 

Tokyo Biyori. – 9.5/10
“Tokyo Biyori is a mid-tempo and upbeat pop-rock song. The chorus is probably the only exciting part of the song. The verses are a little bland. The song to me really isn’t too interesting, but it’s not a bad song and it’s actually well done. The guitar solo is great and makes the song seem a lot more summery. I like the ending too.”

 

 

Refrain – 9.5/10
Refrain is an inspirational rock song much like Brave. I love the opening and use of the cello. The melody makes me want to rock back and forth in my seat and hold someone’s hand =P The chorus adds in the full instrumental and Tomiko’s vocals sound very nice, especially on the longer notes. However, like always I have to point out when someone can’t speak English well. For me, I can’t stand the opening “are you ready to fly” where she can’t say two of the words (guess which?). This isn’t the only reason why the song’s not a 10. It just feels like something’s missing.. some excitement or climax. But anyways it’s pretty amazing for a B-side!

 

 

Van is a purely instrumental track and a nice way to end the album. It sounds very in tune with nature and contains instrumentals similar to Brave and Refrain.

 

 

Quality of A-sides: A

Quality of B-sides: A

Album Flow: A

Singing: A

 

 

Final Score – 95% A
Van. is an extremely strong release by Tomiko Van, especially after her debut album which was a lot of slow songs and pretty boring. Van is very upbeat and has a very interesting blend of rock and pop. All of the songs are great by themselves, though there are a few that could have been improved as always. What I’m worried about is why she chose to put a period on the album’s title… does that mean she’s not going to release anything else in the future? I think DAI is getting back together