Hello: Hello X3

Amuro Namie: Hello

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Hyde: Hello

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SHINee : Hello

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Lucky me! Three songs that hit the Japanese airwaves all have the English title "Hello". Lucky you, too, 'cuz I'm gonna share them.

The first is by R&B/pop singer Amuro Namie from her 2007 album, Play. Her career reads a lot like Britney Spears': a teen pop idol from the age of 14, she faded a bit after motherhood and divorce, only to rebound strongly by moving to a more mature sound that she calls hip-pop. Like Spears, she isn't afraid to flaunt her naughty sexuality either: the album covers for Play (there are several) all feature Namie brandishing a whip. Yeah, that kind of play, I'm guessing.

The second is straight-up J-rock by L'Arc~en~Ciel vocalist Hyde, from his second solo album, 666. Its lyrics emphasize the urgency he feels at rushing to return to a loved one. To be honest, I always have to check whether any of Hyde's songs are with Laruku or solo since his style doesn't vary much between the two.

The third version highlights one of my latest addictions (I just read yesterday that there are "no guilty pleasures, just pleasures"). SHINee is a Korean pop group that is scratching my itch for well-crafted boy-band pop. I've got this album on repeat in my SUV, which is probably odd, but there you go. I find it's just really addictive. They've just released this song in Japanese for their primary market, but I think I like the Korean sound better.

Weather Report: The Cape of Storms

Hyde: The Cape of Storms

Hyde: The Cape of Storms (Last Quarter Mix)

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So where do I sail?
A ship losing control,
My cries swallowed up, lost in the raging sea.

So where has love gone?
Will I ever reach it?
The Cape of Storms echoes the pain I feel inside.

You can't really call this J-rock; it's really a power ballad (and quite angsty, to boot) and it's sung in English. Still, it's a solo effort by Hyde, the vocalist of L'Arc~en~ciel, definitely a J-rock band. It's from his 2002 album Roentgen, released in both Japanese and English. Both versions, however, have this song available only in its original English.

To me, what really makes this song is its arrangement: Sometimes, nothing beats a full chorus of strings swelling under a heartfelt lyric to get across strong emotion. And whoever arranged this tune had a real knack for cutting back and then rebuilding the tension. For contrast, I've tucked in the piano-backed remix. It's nice, showcasing the raw vocals the way it does, but it's not nearly as powerful as the full arrangement. Hey, I guess that's why it's called a power ballad.

Mononymic Artists: Gackt and Hyde

Hyde (left) and Gackt bask in their hotness...ah, of the Orange Sun, I mean.

Gackt & Hyde: Orenji no Taiyou (The Orange Sun)

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Gackt: Freesia ~op.1~

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At dusk, I beheld the orange sun with you.
With a tear-streaked face, you bid an eternal farewell.

I can’t love you any more than I do, and just by that, I feel complete.
So don’t cry, we can always meet again whenever we close our eyes...

Could you hear me squee when boyhowdy announced this week's theme? 'Cuz guess what, SMM fans? J-rockers, bless their hearts, rival western rap/hip-hop musicians in that nearly all of them go by single names. That means either you're gonna get an earful of new j-rock music this week, or your finger's gonna get some fruitful exercise looking for that scroll key. Win-win, right?

Gackt, aka Gakuto Kamui, is one of the most successful J-Pop/Rock singers in Japan. Hyde, born Hideto Takarai, is the vocalist for the hugely popular band L'Arc~en~Ciel. Together they wrote and starred in a pretty strange 2003 film, Moon Child (that I actually own), in which all of the cast but one ends up dead or, well, undead. Orenji no Taiyou is the film's theme song.

And you know what? I think it's utterly gorgeous. It's unusual in any genre to have two guys sing a stunning ballad like this. Check out how well matched their voices are, especially at the climax around the 5-minute mark. I know both of their tones pretty well, and even then I have a hard time working out who's who (Gackt takes the high part). You can hear his beautiful baritone strutting its stuff in the second song, from his 2000 album, Mars.