Namie Amuro - Uncontrolled (CD+DVD)

"I feel alive and tonight's my night. I've got nothing to hide, I'm dancing in the spotlight..."

- Namie Amuro "In The Spotlight (TOKYO)"

What a fantastic way to open to open a 20th anniversary album, Miss Amuro! This song has been stuck in my mind ever since I've listened to it for the very first time when I watched the DVD that came along with this album because it's so catchy.

And, this song, like 4 other songs on this album, is done fully in English!

"Uncontrolled" is her 9th studio album, following her previous album released more than 2 years back "Past < Future", released in Japan in June 27, 2012 and what can I say, it's fantastic!

Here's the cover of her latest creation (the Taiwan press) which was pieced at the beginning of the year after releasing 4 singles prior to this major release. Isn't she extremely gorgeous even without or with minimal make up on? Who would believe this Queen of Hip Hop is already a mom?

Here's the close up of the sticker pasted on the transparent plastic cover of the digipak album. I realized that her recent releases, the albums at least, are all in digipaks, making her the Queen of Digipaks as well but who can blame the production team? The digipaks are always so pretty!

Anyway, the sticker basically describes the album and the big "20" tells the world how she is celebrating her 20th year in the Japanese music industry - with this marvelous album packed with 13 great songs as well as a DVD featuring 11 music videos. That's as good as saying almost every song has a promotional video for it~!

The back of the digipak is also as stunning as well. Pardon the ugly PG sticker because I got it from Singapore's hmv for a chance to meet Namie Amuro in person but unfortunately, I didn't get it *sigh*. Maybe next time, I shall fly to Japan to find her personally! I'll continue dreaming...

Back to this dreamy-looking back of the digipak. Other than the unsightly sticker from Singapore's Board of Censorship (which I seriously find redundant), we have the sticker with the track list of the album stuck onto the plastic cover.

A close up of the track list. Basically, this album features all the songs from her previous four singles plus 4 brand new songs recorded specially for this album. For more information on the tracks, you can visit CDJapan or YesAsia for more details or her official site (link on the side of this blog) because I'm too lazy to type the obvious out here.

I wouldn't be doing this album justice without taking photos of it without the ugly plastic covering on, yes? Here it is! I say, after watching the DVD and listening to the entire album on the train today, I have to say that this is by far the best album I've listened to this year. Yes, I think it does win me over a little bit more than Queen of J-Pop, ayumi hamasaki's "Party Queen".

The rationale is simple - this album is coherent and sounds like a whole album. "Party Queen", on the other hand, explored different themes but got kinda stuck in the middle with the okay-okay ballads which I love but didn't tell a full story with the rest of the upbeat and sudden jazzy songs in the rest of the album. Nevertheless, it's by ayumi hamasaki so I love it anyway!!

What Namie did different to both Koda Kumi and ayumi hamasaki this time round is that out of 13 tracks, 5 were performed either fully in English or 80% in English and that makes a lot more sense to me because even though I understand a bit of Japanese, English still relates to me fully.

And can I say, Miss Amuro's English is actually good! At least we don't hear things like "Come on Twinkle why won't you crap your hands" by Miss Kumi...

The gorgeous back without the track list but that isn't a huge issue because they have the track list inside the digipak (more about it later!). The sticker on the plastic is merely for telling customers who have no clue (shame on them!) of the track list inside this amazing masterpiece.

"Uncontrolled" is definitely an apt name, considering that she went all out with her English songs, unafraid of how people may judge her because we all know, Japanese people aren't the best English speaking people because of the way they pronounce but honestly, I think their pronunciation is really adorable!

Even though she did say that she did not do the songs to reach to her international fans, I think she still did it well! Her real motive of doing them in English is simply because the songs are better done in that language. A creative choice maybe?

The spine of the album. I simply adore the font they used for this album! It's so pretty and classy, just like how she portrayed her almost "naked" self on the album. The "no make up" look really showing off her natural beauty and showing how she can still rock the world with her looks and music.

When you open up the digipak, you see the track list on the left - both for the CD and the DVD so you do not have to worry about losing the track list if you throw the plastic cover away. If it wasn't for the two songs without promotional videos, I think they could have just do with a single track list. It's a pity Namie didn't do what Koda Kumi did - have a promotional video for every single track. Come on! It's just 2 more videos~~

A close up of the track list. Want to know what some of my favorite tracks are so far? Here they are...~~

• In The Spotlight (TOKYO)
  A fantastic upbeat song to open the album! The song is catchy and the lyrics are pretty inspirational. Even though it's only addressed to Tokyo, I bet her "Tokyo" is just a metaphor (and a word that actually fits the song anyway). My favorite song on the album so far~ So much so that it's actually my ringtone right now!!
  
• NAKED
  Just like how she portrayed herself on the album. She may be in this industry for 20 years but she still look fresh! NAKED is very "Namie Amuro" - I can't imagine anyone else who can do this hip hop genre better than the Queen herself. This song makes you want to sing "Naked~ Naked~" like a pervert, but in a good way for sure.
  
• Hot Girls
  "Hot girls make the world go round!!" One of the new songs that's done in English and I love the PV! She appears on stage, strutting down the runway in her long hair with those bangs, singing her heart out and dancing so fiercely!  It's also extremely catchy and "hip hop"py. "Namie Amuro makes the world go round!!"
  
• Break It
  The first single of this album and even though it's been out for so long, I never actually went to listen to it because I don't have an original copy of the song. Yes, I rather not listen to something than to pirate it. But I do watch their PVs online but not this time. Another classic "Namie Amuro" song~ If I can summarize this album in one word, I would say "Catchy" because every other song gets stuck in your mind like chicken in between your teeth. It's extremely hard to get over them excellent songs, like this one!!
  
• Fight Together
  One of the first few songs that I listened to before I got the album because it was the theme song for the anime "One Piece". I'm not an anime fan but when I know one of the big threes (ayu, Koda Kumi and Namie) does a theme song, I would go find it out and listen to it. "Fight Together" is a motivational song with a very summer feel. Not one of her classic styles but really inspiring nevertheless~
  
• Tempest
  What can I say? She opened the album with such energy and closed it with a fierce ballad in the form of this storm. "Tempest" was release as a single prior to the album bur I've never heard it too until I listened to the album and boy is it good! She sings so effortlessly and soothingly that even though the title seem chaotic and windy, she brings such inner peace to you. Excellent way to close the album!

These are some of the songs that really grabbed me but they are definitely not the only ones. Other honorable mentions are "Get Myself Back" and "Sit! Stay! Wait! Down!" but if I go on and on, this post will be extremely lengthy. Now for the next photo~ 

Unlike her previous two albums, "Past < Future" and "Checkmate!", this album is simpler in terms of the creative and looks but still packs a lot of strong content. Here's how the digipak look like when you open it up fully. The gold disc stores the platinum-worthy songs inside while the silver disc is where you get the gorgeous promotional videos. No frills - just simple, straight to the point but still slammin'!

A closer look on the really minimalistic CD design. Less is more~ Less is more~ Even though you get really simple and clean designs on the discs, you get more behind the discs themselves!

The gorgeous Queen herself! I'm adoring the creative of the photo shoot because it's so simple but angelic and pretty. But if there's something that I don't like about this one, it's probably for the fact that the exposure on her face was a little on the under side, making her look darker than usual and playing down on her beautiful features. Perhaps more light in her face would make the album even prettier, don't you think?

If you've been wondering where the lyric booklet disappeared to, don't worry. It's safely tucked in a pocket on the track list side of the digipak. Here, we see her fair skin which we didn't managed to on the album cover. Another simple and classy look~ She should totally be a model, yes? :D

Like "Checkmate!", there aren't many photos inside the lyric booklet and I really think that it's a real pity because she is so photogenic and yet, they don't take enough photos of her to show the world. Maybe she should release like photo books along with her album like what Koda Kumi and ayu are doing to promote even more, yes? This is the first page of the lyric booklet. She sure can rock this minimal make up look without looking like she just woke up~

The lyrics are laid vertically (portrait) instead of the typical landscape and I find that interesting. Well, it definitely doesn't make reading difficult but it does make it slightly more challenging to shoot. But again, not many people enjoy taking photos of their album from even single angle like me... Nothing really special with the lyrics - just white text on a black background.

The only other photo of Namie other than the one on the first pages of the lyric booklet. Well, at least they didn't recycle photos again and again like in her latest compilation album. 

Last but not least, here's the poster that I got from hmv for pre-ordering my copy with them! Normally, I would wait for YesAsia to bring in the Hong Kong version of the album but considering that hmv is doing the pre-order for only $21.90, I decided that I might as well get it from them because the price is right! Plus, it's rare that they give posters out so I might as well make use of this opportunity.

Come to think of it, it's been awhile since I've gotten a poster. The recent Koda Kumi and ayu releases either come in slightly better packagings or gave me free plastic folders instead of posters (which I seriously don't mind) but having a poster again made me happy even though they hardly make it onto the wall because I don't have much wall to talk about anyway.

Nevertheless, the poster is gorgeous, no? I think what hmv did was to purchase the albums from CDJapan or YesAsia and got the posters from those online retailers to give out. How else would you explain why their Japan press is ridiculously priced in their store?

Anyway, to end this post (finally on a CD, yeah?) I say Namie Amuro really came back "uncontrolled" because even after 2 and a half years, she still packs such a punch and is able to churn out fantastic albums one after another without compromising on packaging quality and music quality. She is by far the most consistent one because she is always "there" and she definitely does not disappoint.

Can't wait for her to do the tour for this album because the songs are so promising and I would really love to see her perform live! Well, until then, yes? :D