Billy Mays is dead! At the age of 50! I'm going to miss that annoying OxiClean sales pitch guy (Not really, but out of respect for the dead, I'm writing this anyway)! The Kira-killing-famous-50-year-olds-conspiracy continues!

Late, I know, but I was busy with life. -Slapped anyway-

News articles say that he had cardio problems and that he probably died of a heart attack.

Yup. What other really famous person is fifty years old right now? Madonna? Huh, now that I think about it, she's not fifty-one yet - her birthday is in August.

Seriously, if Madonna dies of a heart attack, I'm REALLY going to start finding me an L.

K-ON! is over, so I'm getting a new wallpaper for my laptop. I haven't decided yet, so I'm using one of the default Windows pictures as a placeholder. I know, I'm weird.

I think my drawing skills got worse. I was doodling in class, and I finally looked at what I had made and said, "Wow, I suck much more than I thought I did."

Okay, so on to the main subject - the reviews of the soundtracks I promised! It's Tuesday night, after all. Sue me for procrastination.

K-ON! Character song: Hirasawa Yui
1. Guitar ni Kubittake (Head over Heels with my Guitar)
2. Sunday Siesta
3. "Let's Go" (Yui ver.)

K-ON! Character song: Akiyama Mio
1. Heart Goes Boom!!
2. Hello Little Girl
3. "Let's Go" (Mio Ver.)

Honestly, I'm going to have a headache doing this. It seems that translations of the songs are not out yet, so I'm probably going to end up re-reviewing these when they DO come out. But then again, you never know. A lot of ToraDora! songs never got translated.

The "Let's Go" tracks will be reviewed at the end, since it's pretty much the equivalent of the different "Hare Hare Yukai" versions for the Haruhi characters.

I honestly love Yui's first image song. From what little Japanese I do know, I know the words "song", "ouch", "dream", "heart", "promise", "don't forget", and the Engrish phrase "let's play" are in it. In other words, I have no idea in hell what she's saying. If I had free time, since I have the Japanese and romaji lyrics, I could attempt to BS a translation from online dictionaries, but alas, I have SAT prep and summer school. Anyways, the song is upbeat and the guitar parts are really nice. The voice actually fits for once - I generally don't like voices like Yui's (I'm fine with the OP, but Yui's version of Fuwa Fuwa Time pissed me off), but the vocals were pulled off well in the first song. Overall, a score of 8/10.

Now, the second song is much different. Immediately, the opening beat reminded me of a mix of Miyuki's and Yutaka's (Lucky Star) character songs: it's slow and meant to be "sweet/cute". I'm guessing that "Sunday Siesta" refers to her desire to laze around all day. Also, I got the word "tasty" and "dream", so that fits Yui's sleepy side. Honestly, I hate the parts where her voice gets all whispery. It's boring, it's slow, and I didn't even bother listening to all of it for fear of falling asleep. 4/10.

"Heart Goes Boom!!" is not as epic as "Don't Say Lazy", but is a great song nevertheless. It's techno-ish with a pretty prominent drum and bass sound, which probably adds to the "boom boom boom" repetition in the song. Again, I have no idea what she is saying, so I have to go purely by aesthetics here. I'm loving the theme of having the character's specific instrument have a prominent sound in the first songs - "Guitar ni Kubittake" had lots of great guitar riffs, and "Heart Goes Boom!!" has a great bass opening part. It's pretty addicting, though - Hisaka Youko has a unique voice with a certain flair to it. You can hear it clearly in "Don't Say Lazy" and "Heart Goes Boom!!". There's a certain...how should I put it...spice? Stylishness? Whatever it is, Youko is awesome at it and should HONESTLY HAVE USED MORE OF THAT VOICE FOR MIO. MIO SOUNDS LIKE A STEREOTYPICAL KAGAMI-LIKE TSUNDERE CHARACTER AFTER HEARING THIS SONG. It's awesome. 10/10.

Ahem. Next song is "Hello Little Girl". The beginning sounds very bluesy and R&B, which caught me off guard. Youko's voice also surprised me - I never knew she could sing in such a soft and high pitch. Now I fervently wish I could understand Japanese, because it just screams "I'M SAD AND BURSTING WITH AS MUCH MEANING AS A NAGATO YUKI IMAGE SONG". I'm supposing there's a theme of 1st song = upbeat, 2nd song = slow here. I don't exactly believe that this song fits Mio, seeing as around 3:14 a supernatural flute sounding piece starts playing. Still, I must be a big sucker, since I like this song. I think it's the background music - while the vocals don't agree with me (I prefer the finesse of her first song), the chime and light quality of the track reminds of certain anime OPs and EDs - you know, those melancholic ones with every other one having feathers and shots of serious looking characters. I'll give it a 8/10.

"Let's Go", I'm assuming, is probably going to appear on Youtube a couple of months from now with all four versions mixed together. It's another upbeat song, with the phrase "let's go" repeating mainly in English and appearing in Japanese ("Iku yo") in what I think is the chorus. Honestly, it gets annoying after the first time.

Yui, who fits nicely with upbeat songs, pulls it off nicely. While Yui's voice isn't fit for heavier songs, light and fun songs like "Let's Go" can sound great. I'll give her a 9/10 for her energy in this song.

On the other hand, Mio doesn't sound all that great. Sure, she can hit the notes, but the spirit from her other songs isn't present. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she's singing in a slightly lower pitch than usual? The quality is just pretty low compared to what I was expecting. For once, Yui beats Mio. I'm not saying it's bad - it has a considerably different tone when Mio sings it compared to Yui. Actually, I was about to give this a pretty low score, but Mio redeemed herself at 3:36, where she does her little yell. It's pulled off much better than Yui's, plus "let's go" is repeatedly only about a third as much at the end of Mio's as it is in Yui's. For that, it's a 7/10.

I'm looking forward to Ritsu's and Tsumugi's albums. After hearing "Tsubusa wo Kudasai", I fell in love with their voices. I want to hear more! I first thought that Mio was singing at the beginning of the song, but when I listened closer (and visited some lyrics sites to confirm it), it was in fact Tsumugi's voice! She's good! Yui and Ritsu are pretty distinctive, so no questions there. I actually had to take "Hello Little Girl" and compare it to Mio and Tsumugi's parts of the song to absolutely make sure. Upon reading a lot of blog comments, it seems as though a lot of Intarw3b nubs make the mistake of thinking that Mio is the first singer.

-Goes off and cries in a corner-

Well, at least I was able to tell later on. Continuing with my speculations, I'm hoping that Tsumugi gets some real first-tier character love and doesn't have stupid songs like the ones Miyuki's. I also love piano pieces, so that's another reason to look forward to it.

With Ritsu, I'm hoping for REALLY upbeat and fast-paced music. I want some hard rock for once! Enough with the fluffy pop stuff! Of course, I'm not actually expecting this - KyoAni is too attached to making moelicious songs. Ritsu's voice appeals to me, though, and I hope she gets songs as good as Tsuruya's (Incidentally, I love her entire album. Yes, all of it. That's unique. Go Fang-tan!).

Now, I shall review the Haruhi album.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou (The Illusions of Haruhi Suzumiya) is basically a list of Haruhi songs performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra - a must for fans. Take a look-see:
1. Koi no Mikuru Densetsu (The Legend of the Love of Mikuru)
2. Itsumo no Fuukei ~ Gekiretsu de Kareinaru Hibi (The Usual Scenery ~ The Days Are Becoming Fervently Splendorous)
3. Saikyou Pare Parade (The Strongest Para Parade)
4. Higeki no Heroine ~Hi Nichijou he no Sasoi~ Beach Vacation (Tragic Heroine ~Invitation to the Unexpected~ Beach Vacation)
5. Kouchou Kouchou ~Mikuru no Kokoro~ Chiisakute mo Shiawase ~Oi Oi~ Comical Hustle (Very favorably ~Mikuru's heart~ Even just a little bit of happiness ~Hey hey!~ Comical Hustle)
6. Bouken Desho Desho? (It's an Adventure, Right, Right?)
7. Koukyou Kyoku Dai 7 Ban C Chouchou Sakuhin 60 "Leningrad" Dai Ichi Gakushou Yori (Symphony #7 in C Major "Raining Land" from the 1st Movement)
8. Sunao na Kimochi ~Aru Ame no Hi~ Haruhi no Omoi (Obedient Feeling ~That Rainy Day~ Haruhi's Thoughts)
9. The Mysterious ~Asakura Ryouko no Shinjitsu~ Fuyu no Ashioto (The Mysterious ~The Truth of Asakura Ryoko~ Winter Footsteps)
10. Lost my music
11. SOS Dan Shidou! ~ Nanika ga Okashii (Activate the SOS-dan! ~ Something's strange here)
12. Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite. (Snow, Silence, By The Window)
13. Nodoka na Shoutengai ~Yuki Toujou~ Pinchppoi! ~Mikuru Henshin! Soshite Sentou!~ Daidanen (Tranquil Shopping District ~Yuki's Appearance~ Looks like a pinch! ~Mikuru's Transformation! And Battle!~ Finale)
14. Hare Hare Yukai (Sunny Sunny Happiness)
15. God knows...

Koi no Mikuru Densetsu's first few seconds just seems really unnecessary, but whatever. I love the rest of it, with its dramatic sounding winds and such.

Saikyou Pare Parade sounds like a Disney marching tune. It sounds much better as a techno thing, really.

Now, I haven't downloaded the Haruhi soundtrack yet (and I don't particularly plan to - it's much too large), so some of the other tracks were either long forgotten BGMs from the anime that I had to fish out of my cluttered memory, or just unrecognizable enough that I had to cheat and search for the track on Youtube.

Honestly, the tracks were already mostly instrumental to begin with, so I don't see much of a big whoop in reprising the BGMs. Sure, it sounds slightly better, but meh. I would've liked to see more character songs reproduced. The majority of them are forgettable, with the exception of a few. I love Higeki no Heroine - I'm a sucker for violin music, and hearing the orchestral version of the track made my day.

What ruined it right afterwards was Aya. Oh, Miss Hirano, what the hell is up with you and your theatrics? "First Good Bye" was bad enough, but then you had to re-kill "Bouken Desho Desho?". Too much vibrato. Again. The song would've sounded better without your voice.

The BGM "Aru Ame no Hi" gave me reason to love the album again. It somehow reminds me of Hayao Miyazaki. That's always a good sign.

"Lost my music" was relatively okay. It sounded rather majestic. Aya's voice still bothered me a little, but not as much as it did in "Bouken Desho Deshou?".

"Nanika ga Okashii" was great in the opening, but the trumpets failed. God. And it could've been one of the better tracks, too.

Ah, and "Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite". The most anticipated track for me (after all, the album cover is Yuki playing a violin. Seriously, download Gensou - the picture is epic). Although I love the song, I just have to laugh at some parts of it. The beginning lines by Yuki sound like Minori, not Nagato. Actually, the entire song sounds like Minori. Goodness. Oh, and I think I know why I'm hating the vocal songs so far. At around 00:54, when Chihara says "fushigi no hito-tachi", it sounds like "fssshigi no hito-tachi". I'm not joking: I laughed out loud for an entire minute, went back and listened to it, laughed hysterically for another good minute, showed it to my brother, and laughed idiotically for an additional minute. In other words, whatever the heck microphone that was used to record the songs failed. Either that, or it's the editing team. Either way, the voices are way too whispery and quiet. Also, I think a lot of dramatic moments in the song were ruined, like the lines of dialogue before the four minute mark. Needless to say, I'm severely disappointed.

Track 13 is also love starting from "Pinchppoi!". I think it's safe to say that I enjoy pretty much all of the Koi no Mikuru Densetsu tracks. The dramatic tones are accentuated even more so by using an actual orchestra. It sounds great.

Like the first track, Hare Hare Yukai has a few random first few seconds, and then goes into the standard tune. But after that, it goes into a weird slow version of the song with some random pieces mixed in and doesn't go back to normal until about 1:50. No good! You've ruined it! Plus, those last two minutes don't do the song justice - there's no energy! You need BIG CYMBALS! HUGE TUBAS! FAST DRUMS! It sounds a little airy-fairy in my opinion.

I wish KyoAni would stop trying to make the songs sound all harp-like and soft in the beginning. Couldn't they have a song start off with big drums and trumpets right at the start? I thought they would at least do that for the last song, "God knows...", since it holds such power. Guess not. Plus, the vocals and the music totally don't match. Play it starting at about 1:10, and it's just filled with discord. The yelling part (You know, the part where Haruhi is spraying spit everywhere and goes before the "Dakara -Dramatic pause- watashi" part) was also botched terribly. God-awful, that's what it is.

Overall, not as good as I thought it would be. I bet the live version would've sounded more impressive, but still - can't we have some Tsuruya love? Maybe some Asakura or Kyon? I'd even settle for Maggare at this point! Well, maybe not. Just saying. It fell short of my expections by a long shot.

My favorite part is honestly the violinist Yuki picture. It was almost (ALMOST) worth sitting through the ear torture for that winsome image.

/reviews

The Mesmerized mood is my randomly chosen mood of the day. It reminds me of one of my friends, who used to be a pyromaniac of a sort. While playing with fire, she accidentally burned an object enough to create a few drops of acid. Most of them hit her carpet (she hides the stains with the couch), while one unfortunately got her cellphone. Luckily enough, it was not a very strong acid and only chipped off the paint from the edge of the phone.

Long anecdote and invasion of privacy over.

Anyways, how is everyone? I want to sleep.