Fakin' Pop

I like this album. My favourites song are "kimi wa suteki", "pop star", "fake star" and "upset". Very good album!!!!

Twelve of the album's 13 tracks were apperently commissioned as theme songs for movies, animes or TV commercials - this meant that the bulk of the financing and budget for the production and marketing of the album would largely have been taken care of way before its release. Such is the clout these days, of the Eurasian-looking Osaka-born Japanese R&B pop icon, who also produced it and wrote 11 of its tunes. Some naysayers have mistakenly, and unfairly, alleged that the 36-year-old has thrown R&B out of the window in favor of bubblegum pop. On the whole, Fakin' Pop is decidedly more playful (as evinced by acts like Pop Star and Twenty! Twenty! Twenty!) and banks on its swoonsome balladry (Canvas, Pain and Utsukushi Hito). But it's hardly of the bublegum variety. His erstwhile soulful vibe is still very much in evidence on tracks like Upset and Fake Star. What's more, Kimi Wa Su.Te.Ki hears him dabbling in Pharrell Williams' N.E.R.D.-esque funk, and while he may not quite come off as a Japanese Justin Timberlake, you have to hand it to Hirai for a pretty decent try. After six albums and a retrospective anthology, can you fault him for wanting and trying to change?