Namie Amuro "_genic" Album discussion thread

[Mandilinn]

 

Seeing as _genic has leaked early, I'm setting up the discussion thread for it now. 

 

Tracklist

 

1. Photogenic

2. Time Has Come

3. Golden Touch

4. Birthday

5. It

6. Scream

7. Fashionista

8. Fly

9. B Who I Want 2 B (feat. Hatsune Miku)

(Note: U hum sneak it was the original name, but it was revealed to be Hatsune Miku)

10. Stranger

11. Every Woman

12. Space Invader

13. Anything

14. What I Did For Love (David Guetta feat. Namie Amuro) -Bonus Track-

 

Music Videos

 

Birthday

 

 

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Namie-Amuro---Birthday-%2528Full-ver%2529/349c342c9761bff5e6ea211b9628c5b3

 

 

Fashionista (New Edit)

 

 

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Namie-Amuro---Fashionista/f9773923d46c7ace51a72c44fd864977

 

 

Anything (Youtube Ver.)

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWkq4FYOdME

 

 

Anything (Google Chrome Ver.)

 

 

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Namie-Amuro---Anything-%2528Google-Chrome-Ver%2529/74c67f32d75cb92c456e15e466cb01b2

 

 

Stranger (Short Ver.)

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YstGStmbo0o

 

 

Golden Touch

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_UhKcAy6xc

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Just a few rules before you post in here. Please make sure to read them.

 

 

-The words "generic" and "_gen(er)ic" are banned. The joke was never really all that funny, and if you genuinely dislike the album, it shouldn't be hard to find more intelligent words to describe how you feel.

 

-This is not a thread for bashing Namie herself or her career. If you really want to trash her, you go right ahead, but don't do it in this topic. The proper thread for you is here.. This is a discussion about _genic.

 

-Both criticism and praise is encouraged. However, please remember that people have different tastes and certain people liking a song or video (or the album as a whole) more than you does not make them delusional. Let's keep this civil and respectful on both sides. If the discussion starts to get personal or out of hand, I will ask a mod to lock the thread.

 

 

Lastly, make sure to support Namie and purchase the album if you like it! A special app for Golden Touch will be available on Tuesday, and it will be added to the music video list.

Have fun! 

[Hyun.]

I'll have to listen a few more times to know concretely my fave songs, and least faves from the album; so far I'm loving most of them tbh. Anything is a perfect album closer.

[miss_bangtan]

Sorry, I'm a little ignorant but when does it come out officially on iTunes? I been thirsty for it since Hyunnie had me listening to some leaked tracks on tumblr.

[QueenElizabeth]

LOVE LOVE "Time Has Come", "Golden Touch", "Fly", "B Who I Want 2 B" & "Stanger"

 

Liking "Photogenic", "It", "Scream", "Fashionista", "Anything" & "What I Did For Love"

 

Meh about "Birthday", "Every Woman" & "Space Invader"

 

MAJOR step up from "FEEL" and "Uncontrolled" and near or at the level of "P<F" and "PLAY"

 

8/10

[Hyun.]

Sorry, I'm a little ignorant but when does it come out officially on iTunes? I been thirsty for it since Hyunnie had me listening to some leaked tracks on tumblr.

June 10th ~

[Moon Jellyfish]

So far, I just skimmed the album atm, but I'm liking B who I want 2 b, Golden Touch,Anything, It, Space Invader. Seems like a pretty solid album.

[miss_bangtan]

June 10th ~

Thank you! 

[Delincious]

My opinion on this will probably change as I listen to it more but so far

 

Holy grail: Stranger

+++ Fly, Time has come

++ Golden touch, It, Photogenic

+ Every Woman, Anything

I honestly dont remember what space invader and Scream sound like :/

B who I want 2 b and Birthday are my least favourite. B who i want 2 b is honestly bad. I don't know what happened with this. I don't know about Fashionista yet. I don't really like it but it's not bad  I guess. Generic is the right word for it I think. I mean I have listened to it twice and I'm already sorta sick of it. Maybe it'll change overtime.
I'm pleasantly surprised by the featuring with DG. I thought it'd be bad but I actually like it!

Overall, I'd say it's a good album! I'll only give it 6.5 because I know I'll rate it higher in a week or two like ... 8. It's not my favourite though. It's one of those rare occurences I find a namie song 'bad', actually bad, so thats probably why.
The album doesn't feel very consistent. I mean in, for example, FEEL had a clear sound to it. This one has many, different songs. It's not necessarily a bad thing though.  And I guess it makes sense considering how she chose the songs and the hints she dropped on the album. 

 

tldr I'm not slayed but it's good!

[Hades]

_genic is a great album. It truly showcases her evolution and independence. I love how sassy, and even aggressive she sounds on this album.

 

The only song I strongly dislike is Every Woman. Out of 20+ demos, how was there not one that's better than this? >.> That song leaves such a bad taste.

 

The Hatsune Miku song is random af, but it's cool. I would like to know why she decided to do a song with Hitsune, hopefully she'll elaborate on that in a future interview. 

Space Invader is definitly a stand out song, it's so good. 

 

(long time namie fan, but just registered here, lolz.)

[Unnie-Oppa-Senpai-Chan]

This album's existence is justified by "Golden Touch".

[Capo Horn]

I'm in love with the album right now! It's not summerish and with a particulary theme like  FEEL,but the song quality is actually superior then FEEL. song like Time Has Come and Fly have a great production,there are a lot of jams like Stranger,Scream or Fashionista and songs like photogenic and Golden touch have the plus to be tracks with a retro vibes but that doesn't sound old.

Bad thing of the album is maybe the english,She has still problem with the diction,but at least there isn't a Hands on me or Heaven case,you can understand a lot better her engrish in the songs.

Will see in future,but this could be my favorite third album by Namie after Queen of Hip-pop and Past<Future.

[WasteOfLife]

I'm SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR THIS ALBUM.

 

I've been trying to avoid listening to it too much before it really drops after hearing the first samples last month. It's been hard haha. Especially since the videos are so good you just want to watch over and over. The whole era has been amazing so far. The videos are great, she looks great, the music is great... I'm going crazy

[Hyun.]

My Top 3 as of now, is

1. Fashionista
2. Scream
3. B Who I Want 2 B (feat. HATSUNE MIKU)

 

[nanasemaru]

i love it. solid pop album thatll be on repeat for the summer. the only songs i didnt immediately love were fashionista and every woman, but im blown away by the rest of it. stranger is legendary.

 

and only namie could get me to listen to vocaloid

[Jam]

it's great i give it 9/10

 

the only track that screamed filler to me was every woman

[Kuu-sus]

literally 3/4 is horrible EDM 

 

Anything, photogenic,Every Woman,It are great....compared to her older material, it not very good 

[KiyoKo]

only here for Golden touch tbh

[DocumentaLy]

I listened to the album....

 

I was already interested in "Photogenic" from the trailer when the album was first announced. That funk guitar got me. I was interested in this album because of the direction it was supposed to take. It was supposed to be more urban. The "Photogenic" clip made me think that Namie was ditching EDM and going for a more current, funkier dance sound, as a number of acts in Japan are doing right now. I was sadly mistaken. "_genic" is full of the same soulless EDM of her past few albums (speaking of soulless, I had a hard time telling who was who on that song with Hatsune Miku). This album could easily fit into the Top 40 of the US charts right now. Some may see that as a good thing, but that's not what I'm here for. If I wanted Top 40, I'd just listen to the radio. "Golden Touch" is another good song on the album. It's definitely a more urban song. If the album was full of songs like "Photogenic" and "Golden Touch", I would be praising it as a creative evolution. I can't do that with this album I've heard though. I expected to like more songs on this album than I normally do with Namie albums and again I was proven wrong. I would like to see her progress with her next album. Do something more unique instead of just chasing tired Western trends. In music scenes, trends filter up as opposed to filtering down. She has something of a clue about where music currently is by including a song like "Photogenic" on the album. Build on that more. Stop doing EDM. It's making your albums blend into balls of indistinguishable sound. It's passe and you're making your music extremely dated by making songs like this. You're not creating songs that can stand the test of time.

[MMC]

I've only listened to it a couple of times, so it's way to early to come up with final thoughts about this.

Yes. The EDM is still there, but it doesn't sound dated for me. Stranger, for example, has those hip-hop influenced beats at the end that gives it something more unique. But I agree that she should ditch EDM after this album.

I can see her bringing back a lot of songs from Past < Future for her next tour because songs like Photogenic and Golden Touch totally fit with them. These more organic sounding tracks may not be as instant as Scream (or the aforementioned Stranger), but they're probably the ones which will stand the test of time.  
 

The production quality is overall really high (it's on par with some western pop blockbuster albums).
I like how polished and rich the sound is (it's more 'full' compared to FEEL).
The song selection is also very good. Every Woman, Space Invader and that David Guetta's cover could have all easily been left out. They're not bad per se, just not necessary.

 
B Who I Want 2 B is VERY different from what I was expecting it to be after the preview. It's quite entertaining, but I haven't figured out yet if I like or not.  

 

In conclusion. It's a solid pop record. Time will tell if it's better or worse than her previous efforts.

[ctothekay]

I give it a 6.5-7/10. It's not better than FEEL although difficult to compare because the sound is slightly different from FEEL. I find many of the songs to be too repetitive and some of them just feel like demos she picked, even songs like Photogenic, Golden Touch, Birthday, Fashionista sound that way. For the first time, her pronunciation bothered me, it kind of ruined some of the highlight songs on the album like Space Invader, Every Woman.

 

My favorites are:

Time Has Come (it's grown on me the more I listen to it. Definitely one of the highlights on the album. Pronunciation could have been more clear)

 

Golden Touch (never intrigued me much but was always good. What made me love the song was the music video)

 

Fly (Reminds me of a Madonna track like "Jump" really great listen and flows really well. Once again I wish her pronunciation was better but it's still good)

 

B Who I Want 2 B (very quirky of her to do this and with Hatsune Miku no less. This is where her pronunciation didn't bother me because it's quirky and different. I would have liked to hear the album go more in this direction where it's a little more underground and progressive.)

 

Stranger (great dance track and a step forward away from "Heaven")

 

Every Woman (her pronunciation is awful but I think compared to Fashionista and Scream, I feel it perfectly embodies what she was going for with the album the 80's motifs and retro but modern, fun sound. Her attitude also matches the song but her pronunciation doesn't make it as great as it could have been)

 

Space Invader (I love the sound intro and Namie saying, "space space invader". It sounds very thought out and finished compared to some of the other songs. It has elements of alternative and along with B Who I Want, is a different track for her. Once again, would have liked to hear more progressive direction. Her pronunciation kills it at times though)

 

What I Did For Love (ridiculously short it felt rushed but the first part of the song before the beat is full of drama. The rest is good but not as impactful)

 

Overall, I think this album is heavily uneven it's all over the place and not really in a good way. Kind of like she chose the demos she liked but it didn't match up very well and is just here there and everywhere. And unlike FEEL, nothing stood out on first listen and isn't as effortless as FEEL which really is a classic and will be considered her top 5. I don't think _genic will be considered to be her best later on especially if she decides to release 2 or 3 more albums.

 

I also think if she were to have done more retro r&b on this album, it would have felt too dated so I thinks it's a great thing she didn't go that direction. Off topic (but not really) Kylie Minogue's album, "Body Language" is full of retro throwback and although really great songs and production, there's no balance as a whole for the album. "Chocolate" is still one of the best slow jam songs though and it would've been cool to hear Namie do a sultry slow jam like that for this album. But the point remains, no retro throwbacks. I give the album a C+.

[NATURAL NI KOISHITE]

I like most of the songs tbh

 

But Anything really sounds like TLC's Unpretty

[Midnight~Circus]

Myself being someone who tends to be highly critical of Namie, actually found the album to be enjoyable. "_genic" is the first and only album in her entire discography that I can listen to without immediately deleting 90% of the songs from my hard drive.

 

Out of the 14 tracks, there are only 5 songs that I don't fancy.(Birthday, Golden Touch, B who I want 2 B, Every Woman, and Anything) The remaning 9 outshine the poor tracks and range from "favorite" to simply "good" songs.

 

The album isn't groundbreaking and sounds like a typical "Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 30" top 40 compilation album. But If you look past that and take the album for what it is, it's not a bad album. A bit monontonous yes, but not terrible. This album is comprised of the usual fanfare that Namie is known for so I didn't have high expectations. Namie is a trend chaser and has a tendency to jump on the bandwagon after the wagon has already left, if you know what I mean. Songs like "Scream" and "Anything" are prime examples of this. I still enjoy "Scream" though.

 

One of my pet peeve's was the vocal production for "B who I want 2 B". Is sounds like a disaster and their voices were not mixed well during the mixing and layering process. Aside from that, the rest of the album was mixed very well.

 

I was a little disappointed that the R&B genre didn't have more of a presence on the album but I can find other artists to easily fill that void. Namie was never a forerunner in the R&B genre so I wouldn't look to her to deliver the goods anyway. "_genic" isn't an album that will go down in the history books and I'm fine with that. It's a highly produced glossy mainstream album that I can listen to during my morning workouts.

 

I don't regret buying a copy but it will definitely stand out amongst the other jazz, acoustic, r&b, and hip-hop albums I own.

 

 

Overall I give the album a score of 7/10 or a C+.

[WasteOfLife]

Myself being someone who tends to be highly critical of Namie, actually found the album to be enjoyable. "_genic" is the first and only album in her entire discography that I can listen to without immediately deleting 90% of the songs from my hard drive.

 

Out of the 14 tracks, there are only 5 songs that I don't fancy.(Birthday, Golden Touch, B who I want 2 B, Every Woman, and Anything) The remaning 9 outshine the poor tracks and range from "favorite" to simply "good" songs.

 

The album isn't groundbreaking and sounds like a typical "Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 30" top 40 compilation album. But If you look past that and take the album for what it is, it's not a bad album. A bit monontonous yes, but not terrible. This album is comprised of the usual fanfare that Namie is known for so I didn't have high expectations. Namie is a trend chaser and has a tendency to jump on the bandwagon after the wagon has already left, if you know what I mean. Songs like "Scream" and "Anything" are prime examples of this. I still enjoy "Scream" though.

 

One of my pet peeve's was the vocal production for "B who I want 2 B". Is sounds like a disaster and their voices were not mixed well during the mixing and layering process. Aside from that, the rest of the album was mixed very well.

 

I was a little disappointed that the R&B genre didn't have more of a presence on the album but I can find other artists to easily fill that void. Namie was never a forerunner in the R&B genre so I wouldn't look to her to deliver the goods anyway. "_genic" isn't an album that will go down in the history books and I'm fine with that. It's a highly produced glossy mainstream album that I can listen to during my morning workouts.

 

I don't regret buying a copy but it will definitely stand out amongst the other jazz, acoustic, r&b, and hip-hop albums I own.

 

 

Overall I give the album a score of 7/10 or a C+.

ugh I know we're all entitled to our opinions, but giving her a C+ with a smile like you're so generous is totally condescending. Your opinion is just as unimportant to her as anyone else's. I'm really excited about this album and your basically saying it sucks totally ruins the mood. Let those of us who actually like Namie - if you usually delete most of her songs then you obviously don't - enjoy it in peace without your negativity ruining it.

[Capo Horn]

ugh I know we're all entitled to our opinions, but giving her a C+ with a smile like you're so generous is totally condescending. Your opinion is just as unimportant to her as anyone else's. I'm really excited about this album and your basically saying it sucks totally ruins the mood. Let those of us who actually like Namie - if you usually delete most of her songs then you obviously don't - enjoy it in peace without your negativity ruining it.

I don't really see the problem, is not like He Said "This album sucks Beacuse yes" He said that isn't a masterpiece but a nice album to listen when you want to have fun or something that itns't impegnative(is also one of the motivation why i appreceate Namie recent works )

And everyone has their opinion, let's not make a drama is someone has a different one.

[Midnight~Circus]

ugh I know we're all entitled to our opinions, but giving her a C+ with a smile like you're so generous is totally condescending. Your opinion is just as unimportant to her as anyone else's. I'm really excited about this album and your basically saying it sucks totally ruins the mood. Let those of us who actually like Namie - if you usually delete most of her songs then you obviously don't - enjoy it in peace without your negativity ruining it.

 

*long sigh*

 

Did you even bother to read what I posted? If you had any comprehension skills you woud know that I actually liked the album and actually pre-ordered a damn copy of it. I can't wait to get my copy in the mail this week. This is my favorite album she's ever released and like I stated before I liked most of the album. But my liking of it doesn't come without my criticisms. It's called giving a review. Namie isn't someone that I usually find appealing music wise but she delivered a solid album that I enjoyed this time. And in what way was I being condescending?

 

Don't take people's opinions seriously sweetheart. If you let the opinions of others ruin your enjoyment of something, then you have bigger issues you need to sort out or you're just simply weak minded. Just because certain people are not praisng it to high heavens doesn't mean their opinions aren't valid like yours or anyone else's. Someone could easily label you a delusional stan that has paltry taste in music for liking the album making your opinion seem "unimportant" as well. So please do yourself a favor and grow up. It's not that serious.

 

And I've seen people give unfair and downright one-sided reviews of the album that made me question their logic but I didn't question their stance because I don't care enough about what they think to start a debate. I'll enjoy the album while others will not. Life goes on.

 

Seeing how some of you fans get defensive over petty and insigifianct things is hysterical. I can't imagine how you handle these kind of situations in the real world.