After 2 years of releasing singles, JASMINE has finally released her debut album filled with hits like sad to say, L.I.P.S,Jealous,This is Not A Game,No More, and Dreamin’. What attracted me to her music was that it had a R&B feel with emotion; that and the fact that she always had on these colorful wigs and different concepts for every single.
PRIDE starts the album off with a strong beat and vocally aggressive. I liked how it had R&B infused with a hip hop beat that makes it so catchy along with I WAS BORN IN THE HEISEI, IN THE HEISEI/FIRST YEAR OF THE HEISEI, OF THE HEISEI . The overlapping of her counting and ‘my pride’ and heartbeat was a nice ending to the track. I wasn’t able to experience JASMINE’s debut track until her second single and it’s sad to say that I really think her second single was better than this. Besides her pink wig; what really made me like this song was how much emotion she had without it sounding like a love song and still had some fierceness.
What I like about L.I.P.S. is that it infuses all these different cultures: India with the curry, Korea with the kimchi. This is a new step for her with a more electro feel; it’s a fun track. As soon as you hear the ‘Yea~ yea~’ and falsetto it draws you in. Jealous was definitely an Utada track, it reminded me of the First Distance,but what really made me like the track was ’90’s beat; a stand out track for me, but not as catchy as No More.
Bad Girl is more rock than R&B. As soon as I heard even though they call me a bad girl I knew I was going to fall in love with this track and I did. dear my friend is a track that makes me feel that JASMINE is a great best friend. I do love this track it’s so gungho about friendship, refreshing from talking about heartbreak and love all the time.
stage ~interlude~ nothing special; waste of time. This Is Not A Game is a step up from her second single with a more in your face attitude. I think I liked the concept of the song and the catchy-ness of it, but the song itself is just alright. This is mine.This is my stage
CLUBBIN is an okay track for me. I do like the blend of electric guitars and R&B, but she should’ve just made another new track. When I think of her No More single æ‹(Love) definitely doesn’t pop into my head; this track isn’t bad , but it’s pretty bland compared to the others and it could probably fare well on it’s own, it’s not very interesting. When I listened to the a-side what you want? was what stood out. Something about this track makes me listen to it numerous times, it has to be the laid back vibe paired with bass guitar and it’s just chill.
No More is the track that started it all. The sad R&B love song was so catchy and even though it was over used at the time, something about it stood out and made me fall in love with Japanese R&B. When Dreamin’ came out, I wasn’t a fan, but after a few listens it grew on me. This song just feels so inspirational and the PV is very believable; I could see her on a stage singing her heart out, it’s a beautiful power-ballad. I can’t really put my finger on it but the instrumental intro to Why reminds me of a Korean Pop song. Anyways, this song is pretty standard R&B track, but nothing really stands out and that falsetto is super annoying.
Overall Review:
Finally JASMINE released her much anticipated debut album GOLD. I was a little disappointed with the lack of newer tracks, but the album was better than what I expected and JASMINE better release a good second album, because this only built by hopes up for a killer single.
Recommended Tracks: PRIDE,L.I.P.S., Jealous , dear my friend ,This Is Not A Game ,No More, what you want?
Rating: 4.5/5