 | PUFFY – amiyumi (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review) |
August 19, 1996 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment
“The debut album of the female duo PUFFY produced by Unicorn’s Tamio Okuda. Overall, a decent mini-album featuring their big hit ‘Asia no Junshin’.”
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GROUP: PUFFY
ALBUM: amiyumi
LABEL: Epic/Sony Records
CATALOG #: ESCB-1722
DURATION: 30:57
RELEASE DATE: July 22, 1996
- とくするからだ
- ウサギチャンネル
- サクラサク
- Simple
- アジアの純真
- パフィーのHey!Mountain
I can remember when I first saw Puffy members Yumi Yoshimura and Ami Onuki performing on a Japanese music show and what caught my attention was that they were not of the norm in terms of female Japanese performers.
These girls sported sneakers, t-shirts and jeans and also puffy hair. Needless to say, they easily distinguished themselves from other Japanese music groups.
So, I had to make a call to a friend in Japan and get the lowdown on Puffy and their music and several days later, I have the duo’s first (mini) album in my hands. “amiyumi” contains seven songs and one of those songs is their big hit and debut single “Asia no Junshin”.
The album kicks off with the Okuda-esque track “Tokusurukarada”. A song that translates into “advantage body” which is a fun, enjoyable rock track.
The second track is titled “Usagi Channel” and features a song written and sung by Ami. A slow-tempo, acoustic and electric guitar driven track. Pretty cool song.
The third track “Sakurasaku” which means “Blossom Blue” and a song with a country music kind of sound. While the fourth track “Simple” is a rock-driven track along the same lines as “Tokusurkarada”.
The fifth track “Naga iki Shite ne” is a song written and sung by Yumi. A slower tempo track which is bass guitar driven.
The sixth track “Asia no Junshin” is the duo’s first CD single and literally a very popular, catchy song. Some may call it Okuda genius but for the most part, the song is pretty cool and really doesn’t make any sense if you are listening into the lyrics.
The final track “Puffy no Hey! Mountain!” has a classic 80’s rock flavor. Slower tempo but a pretty cool track.
The CD booklet features photos of Puffy and contains the lyrics to the songs on the album.
For the most part, I would imagine that “amiyumi” was an album created in order to showcase the various musical styles that we can expect from Puffy. Rock, country, pop…
Overall, the album is OK, not the greatest if you are expecting tracks to be similar to “Asia no Junshin”. But I do think that perhaps that these women have more to give musically but with only one single in their belt for now, I definitely look forward to their second single and hearing more from this group.
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