The J-R&B Divas Rate! - #55 - another artist exits!

I've also wanted to say how unreal it feels talking about these songs that are so near and dear to my heart, even if some scores are... questionable. It's like letting everyone see for the first time a part of me that I rarely showed to anyone because very few people cared. Love the lively conversation and hope it continues this way until the end of the rate.

 

Girrrl when your faves start leaving right after the other you might regret this..

 

An 11 going out first? This rate sounds like it’s going to be a wild ride dd.

 

What @RUNAWAY said.

 

A Miliyah song being the first one out does sting a bit, but it's also my lowest score for her on this rate so I'm not too mad. I cackled at @Trinu 3.0 already being on the lowest raters list, you monster.

 

As much as I'm not happy with this going already, the fact that we got 79 songs with 7+ average is somewhat comforting.

 

Next Door got one of my lowest scores for a few reasons. The production and synths were a bit too tinny and empty to me—it was giving Crash Bandicoot demo. I also found the song structure and pacing to take a while to get going, but the progression doesn’t pay off. I also feel like there is something happening in the harmonies that sounds off to me.

This is one of those songs that I could imagine liking as an album track in 2002, but compared to the other songs in this rate it doesn’t stack up.

 

I actually like CHOZEN on this. They work well together (unlike with other features in the rate). It's the production I can't agree with. The percussion is front and center for every second of the track and it's so grating nn

 

@RUNAWAY, how do you come about liking these posts? Disguhsteng!

 

There is something about those girls in the background dancing for their lives that got to me ffffff

 

Is this... is this thing on?
























I gotta see your face, I want you everyday



















melody. / Lovin' U

average: 7.125

highest scorers:
9.00 @soratami
8.75 @RUNAWAY
8.00 @evilsin

lowest scorers:
5.00 @odyism
5.50 @Trinu 3.0
6.25 @Macsun

highest placement: #20 [TIE]
lowest placement: #78


Lovin' U is melody.'s eighth single overall and the first for her third studio album READY TO GO!, released in November 2006. The lyrics for the song were written by melody. herself and H.U.B (a lot of amazing JPop songs) and composed by Chikara"Ricky"Hazama (BoA's Nanairo no Shita~Brand New Beat~) and Debbie Huang (sole credit). Lyrically the song delivers a message of unconditional love for the loved one and highlights the desire to be near them all the time. It was an experience to see this plummet into #70s and not getting out of there right until the last voter. Elsewhere, the song peaked at #16 on Oricon charts and charted for 4 weeks, selling 15,434 copies, which is not too shabby. Guess the light hearted nature of the track was to the Japanese public's taste.


evilsin's score: 8.00

evilsin's butthurt corner: It's really weird to see such a lovely song so low in the ranking, truly. Looks like the minimalistic instrumental and an easy going melody (hehe) wasn't enough to capture the hearts of our voters. What baffles me the most though is that apparently you lot weren't that into melody.'s vocals? Fucking how? She sounds like a literal angel, so clean and effortless, it's astounding. This song definitely doesn't call for something big and grand and melody. expresses herself accordingly. The song is so lulling in its nature it's almost like an upbeat lullaby. The half-key change in the last chorus is definitely a wake-up call though. Sidenote: I will stop saying that this song or that song shouldn't be so low or something like that when it comes to my lower scores and leave this for more fervent ramblings for my 10s... of which I have a lot.


RUNAWAY's score: 8.75

RUNAWAY's thoughts: Okay now this one ranking so low just doesn't make sense to me. Miss melody's voice is pleasant, there's no rappers or #mensvocals in sight, and the song is great, the chorus is breezy and melodic, and I guess I'm just confused as to why everyone voted this song so low.


Y'all didn't even have anything to say about this during the voting period, so y'all better make up for it now.

evilsin's recommendation:

RUNAWAY's recommendation:

Now which of our lovely extra divas will be the first to lose two songs in a row?​

 

Melody's voice can be very hit or miss for me.
When she is in the pocket and produced well, she provides a pleasant warm brightness.
Her voice can be the stabilizer and it works really well on a song like m-flo's Miss You, where things could easily be TOO chaotic. But it all gels perfectly.

Whereas a lot of her solo material, especially lovin U, is just too much of the same energy in the vocals, in the production, in the arrangement, that it just becomes very plain. And then the emotional resonance simply isn't there--the delivery is very one note. So when a key change happens, it feels more like they didn't know where else to take the song.

Ultimately, it's a 5 because it's an average and listenable song.
I wouldn't choose it to listen to but it certainly isn't terrible.
This song specifically is very background music for a first date montage.

 

Horrible take.

 

I gave this a 7 originally, while nothing groundbreaking, it’s pleasant and breezy; there’s of course better (and worse dd) but I wasn’t offended by it or the vocals. Wonder who the next eliminated entries are from…

 

I think if I dig even further, Melody can be really jarring and undercooked when we are reviewing it in the context of Japanese R&B Divas. Specifically because she is just so breezy bubblegum pop.
With R&B as a genre, especially when you invoke the word Diva, there is a very specific connotation and there are fundamental pieces to the genre that Melody simply doesn't have in her skillset. I was actually surprised to see a song like Lovin U (or Believe Me) included on a rate that centers r&b.