Ken Hirai is without a doubt Japan’s most popular male solo artist, and his album SENTIMENTALovers was
another huge hit. His single “Hitomi wo Tojite” was the best selling single of 2004, all of his other singles dominated the
charts as well. So does SENTIMENTALovers live up to the hype? Well, let’s take a look.
Although Ken is definitely famous for his ballads, I really prefer his upbeat songs. This is probably because I’m a guy, and
listening to other guys singing about emotional topics goes against my nature. First non-ballad song on the album is
“jealousy”, a great medium tempo R&B song that reminds me of my favorite Ken song, “Why?”. Right after this
great song comes the best song of the album, “Iwa nai kankei”. It’s one of those songs that just makes you feel so
good, even if you don’t understand the lyrics; the happy melody and Ken’s awesome voice do the work just fine. “Kimi
ga Boku ni Hyouishita!”, is another mid-temp R&B song with a great chorus. Track six, “Seishun Days” always cracks
me up because every time I would play this song my brother would mimic Ken’s messed up English chorus of “I miss you
baaabyyy”. “style” is another great song, the rhythm is so addictive, the lyrics meaningful and Ken’s voice
perfect.
The rest of the album is pretty much ballads and slow music. There’s no doubt that “Omoi ga kasanaru sono mae ni” and “HItomi wo Tojite” are extremely popular songs, but I think the best ballad is the last song, “Sentimental”. The reason I prefer that song is because first of all, the other two were played to death on the radio and even at my home, and I can honestly say I don’t really listen to them anymore because the repetition ruined it for me. “Sentimental” is a great song because it doesn’t use a poppy background theme and Ken is just brilliant in it. The last song that I’d like to mention is “Kimi wa Tomodachi”. Although it’s not one of my favorite songs, it’s pretty cool to listen to just because of the fact that the music is almost completely done without instrumentals but just voices. It’s really a treat just to listen to the guys that make the music.
Out of all the Ken albums I have, this is the one I play the most often and I think it’s something every J-Pop fan should own. I know a lot of people think Ken Hirai is overrated, and his style of singing doesn’t appeal to everyone, but to those people I’d just like to say that they’re missing out on one of the best albums of 2004.
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