[WORLD GROOVE] Currently listening to Kayo Aiko - “POP”

ARTIST: Kayo Aiko

ALBUM: POP

LABEL: avex trax

CATALOG #: AVCD-23297/B, Released on June 8, 2007

DURATION: 57:37

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

1. *HOME MADE STAR*~Aiko Kayo no Theme~
2. Yuki no Chikara
3. solitude
4. Orange road
5. cosmic cosmetics
6. Eyes
7. 肩越しの恋をつないで
8. Runaway girl
9. Destiny ~Mirai to iu na no Monogatari~
10. Monday morning blue
11. Callin’
12. 約束の樹の下で…

DVD TRACK LISTING: 16 minutes, Region 2, 4:3

1. Yuki no Chikara [Music Clip]
2. Aiko no Chikara [Special Movie]
3. [POP] TV-SPOT
4. [Dolce] TV-SPOT

avex trax idol and Girl’s Box senpai Kayo Aiko returns with her sophomore album “POP”.

For those not familiar with Kayo Aiko, Kayo was a singer who auditioned for a position on Morning Musume’s “Love Audition 21″ back in 2003. Although she did well, Kayo did not win but was quickly picked up by Avex and trained at Avex Artists Academy and later had her big break with anime related soundtracks. Her first being the voice of “Reira” for “Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito”.

From there on, Kayo Aiko has been one of the faces for Avex’s idol music show “Girl’s Box” which she and Nagasawa Nao and members of DRM (formerly known as “dream”) have become the senpai for the younger idol singers.

While Nagasawa Nao is known for sexiness, Kayo Aiko is known for her cuteness, high pitch voice and her overly saccharine sweet bubbliness. In a way, sometimes I feel as if she’s like an anime character that has come to life.

In July 2007, she joined fellow Girl’s Box members Nagasawa Nao and DRM’s Hasebe Yu to become a trio group known as Kingyo but before the release of “Lover’s High” with Kingyo, a month before that, Kayo’s second album “POP” was released which features her tenth CD single “HOME*MADE STAR”, eleventh CD single “cosmic cosmetics” and her latest CD single “Yuki no Chikara”.

The album compared to the first is actually for me, much more entertaining in terms of the music quality and songs such as “*HOME MADE STAR*” shows Kayo Aiko as a pop star whereas “Dolce” featured many of her CD singles which were more idol pop in quality and showcased three or so years of music and evolving as a singer.

“POP” tends to showcase Kayo Aiko’s vocals and because the last album featured a lot of Kayo Aiko’s upbeat dance songs, “POP” is interesting because her CD single releases are the faster songs and a lot of the songs featured on this album are slower ballads to a much slower tempo style of music. Outside of her CD singles, there are not many fast songs on this album.

So, as I found this album much more entertaining for production values and the quality of the music is very good compared to the first, I enjoyed the first because it was more upbeat and consistent. But in a way, it helped that most of her music on her last album were CD single releases and its coupling songs.

But where “POP” is different from “Dolce” is in consistency, where “*HOME MADE STAR*” and “cosmic cosmetics” showed me promises in Kayo Aiko’s music and utilizing more of a dance beat, songs such as “Orange Road” is a mid-tempo song that has a beat but very laid back, “Runaway Girl” sounds more like an opening theme song for an anime but you have some really cool songs that standout like “solitude” and “Monday morning blue” (which has that shibuya-kei like vibe).

So, you do get a bit of everything on this album from Kayo Aiko. I wish there were more songs like “*HOME MADE STAR*” and even “Yuki no Chikara” but all in all, Kayo Aiko’s second album is fun and entertaining although not as idol-ish sweet and poppy like her earlier music which is featured on the first album “Dolce”.

The CD insert features the lyrics and variety of photos of Kayo Aiko and a reference to her popular “Ai Beam” is on one of the photos.

The DVD portion features the music video for “Yuki no Chikara”, another cutesy PV but compared to past music videos, actually much better in quality and instead of the basic scenery, much more to look at and better camera work.

Also included is “Aiko no Chikara” which shows the behind-the-scenes of Aiko’s photo shoot but most importantly to see the quirkiness and the sweet bubbliness that makes Kayo Aiko so entertaining with her fans.

Rounding out the DVD are the TV commercials promoting her new album “POP” and her first album “Dolce”. If anything, watching these commercials come off as Kayo really showing off how her voice can be used as an anime character with her repeating “na” in different tones, while the commercial for “Dolce” features Kayo wearing a frog costume.

Kayo Aiko’s second album is fun and her latest music compared to her previous earlier CD singles is different in terms of music production and quality.

The sweet quirkiness she brought for the first album and earlier CD singles still exists but her second album also shows a sign of maturity.

I know that many are attracted to Kayo’s music because its uber-sweet and she’s cute to watch but like many idols, there has to be a point where the 20-something idol singer starts the transition to a mature young woman and it definitely shows in this album.

But for those who worry that the cuteness and quirky vibe is gone, no need to worry. Watching the “Aiko no Chikara” video on the DVD shows you that she still has it. Even the commercial for “POP” shows you that her quirky bubbliness still exists.

With the release of “POP”, there are three versions available. A regular version, a version with the DVD and a version with the photo book. The photo book is the limited edition version and a bit more pricey.

Overall, a good balance of music on this album that features various musical styles that Kayo Aiko fans should enjoy.