Mai Kuraki

If I Believe (GIZA, Japan) is the fourth album by Japan’s increasingly popular Mai Kuraki. I really wanted to like it, but even after a dozen listens, it’s just not growing on me. I think it’s fantastic that she writes her own lyrics and doesn’t overdo the choruses-in-English thing that’s becoming all-too-popular in J-pop, but the songs simply aren’t all that catchy or even interesting. (The word boring comes to mind.) Although well-produced, the music still fails to suck me in. Could be that most of the songs just reek of R&B, a genre I’m not hugely fond of, but I’ve appreciated R&B tracks by Ayumi Hamasaki and S.E.S. – and Mai’s voice is very soothing – so I tend to think that the songwriting here simply needed to be stronger. Note: You’ll want to install the Japanese language pack on your computer first, if you haven’t already, otherwise your computer will go crazy and instruct you to until you’ve done so or clicked cancel a dozen or more times.
(http://mai-kuraki.com)