Koda Kumi Trick Review

Koda Kumi is a famous j-pop singer whose style is primarily danceable tunes and ballads with an occassional pop or rock thrown in. Her voice is one of the best in Japan. It has a depth and feeling which most j-pop singers lack.

Trick is Koda Kumi's 7th studio album. It reached #1 on the Oricon charts and to date has sold 3,91,000 copies. Sales, aside, personally, I felt that TRICK was one of Koda Kumi's weakest albums. Compared to UNIVERSE, it is much better, but we have seen Kumi do better things. The sound is mainly a mixture of rock and dance tunes with many ballads and pop tracks.

1. INTRODUCTION TO TRICK is the first track and is supposed to be an instrumental intro but Koda kumi sings a bit. Very frankly, it was a whole lot better than any album tack. She should have made it into as track and made one of teh mediocre tracks into an intro.
Rating- 4.3

2.TABOO- WOO! Tabooo is certainly, undoubtedly, the best track on TRICK. It is a great song with a great beat and Koda Kumi's voice just make the song shine. Her voice is really suited for such edgy and aggressive songs. It is a pity that these days, with the release of UNIVERSE and Gossip Candy, she is totally foregtting to sing such great songs and instead substituting it with terrible cutesy pop songs which don't suit her vocal style at all.
Rating- 4.7

3.Show girl- It is supposed to be a cute song but I really liked it because of the edgy way in which Koda kumi sang it. It has irregulat beats but still manages to sound above average.
Rating-3.9

4.Your Love- This is a complete filler track. Koda Kumi has done literally thousands of these kinds of songs and Your Love is the worst. It is a R&B ballad but the chorus is realy weak. The verses aren't that great, either.
Rating-3

5.Stay with me- This was a single and pretty much a standard, average, winter ballad.Could have been much better.
Rating-3

6.This is not a love song- I can't stand this song.She just keeps on singing teh same line through and through. The instrumental is totally discordant. This tack was best left out of the album.
Rating-2 (I wanted to give it one, but since Kods seems to have tried hard...)

7.Driving- This is an edgy track. I found it too noisy for my liking but I know many people who liked it. It wasn't so bad. The chorus was nice.
Rating-3

8. Bling! Bling! Bling!- I realy liked this one. It is catchy and the sound of money in the background is nice.I don;t know why people seem to complain so much about this song.
Rating-4

9.That ain't cool- Why is Koda Kumi so fond of this song? She had a video made for it, included it on her album and even included it on her best! Sure, Fergie is famous, but this is Koda Kumi's album and she really has a small part in the song which she doesn't sing all that well.
Rating- 2

10.Hurry Up- This starts with an aggressive guitar intro and sounds like a rock song in the beginning. Later, it turns into an edgy Koda Kumi like dance song. Not bad. But not good either.
Rating-2.5

11.Moon Crying- A beautiful ballad. Koda Kumi sings this song with much emotion but her voice sounds overpowering at some parts where it would have sounded better if it had been mellower.One of the better tracks on this album.
Rating- 4

12.JUST THE WAY YOU ARE- I liked the catchy instrumental intro and the song is pretty decent. The only album track except Bling Bling Bling which is okay.
Rating-2.9

13.Joyful- It is a really joyful song. Listening to it makes me feel happy. It is a standard pop tune but hearing Koda Kumi sing it, I can picture her smiling.
Rating-3.2

14. Ai no Kotoba- A beautifuul ballad and the best way to end this . Looks liek Koda Kumi saved the best for last.This is the best album track on TRICK.
rATING-4.2

Well, looking at my ratings, you must be wondering whether TRICK is worth buying or not. That is for you to decide, but I suggest that you just buy the Tabooo and Moon Crying single. Those are the only two outstanding songs on the album. I bought this album at a sale and still regret buying it. The album was a huge disappointment, especially coming from Koda Kumi, who has delivered such high quality material in the past.

Her management and composers are to blame for composing such mediocre songs for her. She is a great singer and needs better songs. TRICK is an album to skip, though.