If someone would have told me a year ago that I would buy a Nami Tamaki album and like it, I would have probably
laughed. However, after hearing “DreamerS” playing on a local radio station, I couldn’t help but
wonder if I’d made a mistake when I wrote Nami off as just “another J-Pop singer”. So after hearing
the song I decided to buy the “Fortune” single, and later on I bought the Limited Edition version of her
second album “Make Progress”.
Though I was rather disappointed with “Fortune”, I quickly became addicted to “DreamerS”, and soon after, I found myself listening to more and more of Nami’s older music. Though he voice is somewhat mediocre, the sheer energy and enthusiasm that Nami puts in her songs stands out very clearly. When “Heroine” came out in April, I could not resist buying it, and although at first I thought it was a rather basic Euro-Beat song, it started to grow on me, and now it is one of my favorite songs on “Make Progress”.
Other songs that are definitely worth listening to are “Daybreak”, “Truth”, “Daitan Ikimashou
‘Heart and Soul’”, “Kurayami Monogatari” and “Distance”. The rest of the songs
are alright, and the Flash-Forward remix of “Reason” is not bad at all, but they all lack a certain appeal.
“Daitan Ikimashou” will probably come across as extremely happy-go-lucky, to a point where it gets on your
nerves, but if you give it a try, you’ll find yourself singing along with the simple lyrics and happy rhythm.
I thought it was rather funny how Nami Tamaki ended up covering a song originally performed by the A-Teens (a group
of European teens that have had some success with rehashing old ‘ABBA’ hits), seeing as how there’s
absolutely no comparison between Nami’s type of music and that of the A-Teens (well, before this song anyways).
“Kurayami Monogatari” (Story of Darkness) is the only song that has a certain J-Rock feel about it, which
makes it rather interesting since Nami has never really done a song like it. My only complaints with the song are
Nami’s pronunciation of “darkness” and the way she tries to twist her voice to hit higher notes.
Apart from that, it’s a solid song and definitely has the best music after “Heroine”.
“Truth”, the fifth track on this album, is a slow paced song that fits Nami’s voice very nicely. “You” is another slow song, but a bit too slow, and doesn’t fit on this album at all. I’m impressed with the fact that Nami wrote the lyrics herself, but there are just too many better J-Pop ballads, and Nami should stay away from this genre for now. “Daybreak” and “Distance” are pretty similar, fast-paced Pop songs, and although they won’t win any awards, they still complement the album nicely. “Future Step” and “-Fly Away-” both have the “futuristic” musical theme, but neither of these songs really worked out for me.
The Limited Edition of this album came with a nice DVD featuring all 4 “Make Progress” PVs, which is a great deal for $4 extra. The PV for “Reason” is rather dull (I hated Nami’s outfit in it), but the other three are great, and Nami looks especially hot in “Daitan Ikimashou”. Though this album is far from perfect, I can highly recommend it, even to those that didn’t like her first album “Greeting”. The packaging for this album is top notch. The discs themselves look very futuristic and the pictures of Nami are a great, it really adds to the overall feel of the album. Nami has made a lot of Progress, and I look forward to her future singles and albums.
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